The hand buried in Leo’s hair sped up even more as he scrubbed his scalp. “And you’ll pay me five thousand dollars too.”
“Yes. Same as Mattie.”
Leo stared off unseeingly in the direction of the cedars. Unlike him, Mattie didn’t need to mull over her decision any longer. She wouldn’t let his concerns—or anyone’s—hold her back.
“I’m in,” Mattie said.
“How about a ladies’ handshake? I find them ever so much more binding than a gentlemen’s.” Vera extended her hand. Mattie wiped hers on her trousers first. She never knew when she might have grease on them, and she didn’t want to spoil her new employer’s silk gloves.
With a sense of satisfied anticipation, Mattie closed her fingers around Vera’s. The exchange was as firm and confident as any man’s.
“If Mattie’s joining, then so am I,” Leo announced, holding out his palm.
To Mattie’s surprise, she didn’t experience a wave of frustration at Leo’s decision. Instead of feeling trapped, she found it rather exciting.
“I am going to thrash you, Mister.” Mattie kept her voice mostly light and teasing, but she made sure no one could miss her underlying conviction as she jabbed a finger in Leo’s direction.
He leaned toward her. “Not if I thrash you first.”
And for a moment, Mattie spotted a flash of her old partner in crime. She didn’t back up but instead jammed her face near Leo’s, her lips less than an inch away from his. “Challenge accepted.”
Chapter Three
Mattie heard the male footsteps in the hallway outside her room—Jake’s, judging by the heaviness of the tread. Her brothers weren’t always attuned to subtlety, but even they sensed something was awry after she’d retreated to her room for three hours. Mattie had made Leo promise that she’d be the one to break the news to her family.
Mattie, however, found herself stalling... something she never did. But she was still struggling to find the right words. It had always been her siblings and Leo going off. Now she was the one who had to tell Pa that she was leaving. Over the years, her father had become more than just a parent; he’d become a friend. When her brothers had all been deployed, she’d helped him run the flight school. They’d grown even closer when they’d comforted each other after they’d received news of Alfred’s death. Now he would be on his own.
And pains that they were, she’d miss her knuckleheaded brothers. They’d always cared for her in their own boisterous, overprotective, teasing manner. They showed it in little ways, like now as they took turns checking on her. None of them dared to knock. Her room with a big window overlooking the landing strip had always been her sanctuary. It wasn’t girlie or filled with frilly things, but it was hers all the same. She didn’t have many possessions—a toy plane her father had carved for her, the crazy quilt her mother had sewn before her death, a silver brush that had been her mother’s mother’s, a beat-up music box Alfred had boughtfor her on their tenth birthday, and a single dress for church, weddings, or other fancy occasions. Other than that, she had her brothers’ castoffs. It never bothered her, not having bric-a-brac lying about. She had engines to tinker with and planes to fly. That was what she loved, not motionless, functionless objects.
If she wanted her independence so badly, she needed to stop avoiding the hardest part about it. After throwing her shoulders back, she opened the door.
Jake popped his head out from the larger bunk room that he shared with the rest of the boys and Leo. “How are you feeling, Mattie?”
“Just fine,” she told him. “Where’s everyone?”
“Doing maintenance,” Jake said. “Leo insisted. Something about a dead magneto and needing to get ready for us all departing.”
An odd mix of annoyance and something akin to affection swirled inside Mattie. Leo was checking up on heragain, but he was also keeping another secret. If her brothers knew about her near crash, it would make the latest news all the harder to tell.
“So the whole family is outside the hangar, then?” Mattie asked as she moved forward and pushed open the door that led to the yard.
“Yup.” Jake slanted her a look. “Why? Are you planning to make a big announcement or something? Is that why you and Leo are acting all jumpy? Don’t tell me that you two are in cahoots like you used to be.”
Were she and Leo in cahoots? Her brother’s attempt at a joke was oddly searing. In some ways it was like old times, Leo covering for her again. But it wasn’t the same and maybe never would be.
“We’re not in cahoots. At least, not exactly.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” Jake stopped short.
Mattie ignored him and kept on walking. “You’re going to find out in two shakes.”
“Find out what?” Otto asked, lifting his head from the engine he was tinkering with. Even though he was perched on a ladder, he was the closest to Mattie and Jake.
“Mattie has some sort of announcement,” Jake hollered, causing all the male McAdamses to swivel in her direction like a group of marionettes on the same string.
“What is it?” Will asked.
“She won’t tell me.” Jake crossed his sizable arms over his barrel-shaped chest.
