Leo cleared his throat. It was time he fessed to his relationship with Mattie, and the mere thought of Walt’s reaction made his stomach start spluttering like a broken engine. “Sir, I...” He trailed off, still not sure how to broach the subject. “Mattie and I, well, we’re... well, we’re...”
“Sweethearts like the papers have been saying?” Walt raised one salt-and-pepper eyebrow.
Leo’s whole face heated like a radiator in need of water. “I made sure not to send those stories.”
“I noticed.” Walt chuckled softly and then sobered. “Leo, I didn’t need a news rag to tell me what I saw with my own eyes.”
“You knew?” Leo asked.
“Of course I knew. Mattie and the boys might have been too thickheaded to notice the looks you gave her, but I’ve been waiting years for you to finally make your intentions clear. I figured it was no use pushing either of you, even though it was plain as day that you two were meant for each other. Romance works on its own time schedule. That’s what my late wife always said, although I only took two years to get around to courting her, not more than half a decade.”
Leo shifted his weight to one crutch so he could shove his hand into his hair. He’d spent so many nights the past week trying to figure out how to convince Mattie’s father that he was worthy of his daughter. He’d imagined every scenario but this one... and it humbled him.
“You don’t mind, then?” Leo asked just to be sure.
“Of course I don’t mind. Why do you think I was so glad you were accompanying her on this adventure?”
Leo’s mind flashed back to the conversation that he’d had with Walt the day that he and Mattie had announced they were joining Vera’s circus. Walt had told him,“Don’t try to protect her too much. Be her partner, not her keeper.”
A slow smile spread over Leo’s face as he realized how incredibly wise Walt McAdams was. And it touched him to know that such a man thoughthim, Leo Ward, a good fit for his only daughter.
“Thank you, sir.”
“You’re a good, solid man, Leo. Don’t ever doubt that.”
Leo barked out a laugh. “Mattie said something very similar to me.”
The corners of Walt’s eyes crinkled, and his hazel eyes, so much like Mattie’s, turned golden. “She’s an astute one, my Swift.”
A companionable silence fell over Leo and Walt. After turning away from the canyon’s edge, they began walking back toward the center of activity.
“How has flying been treating you?” Walt asked, his voice gravelly with a hint of concern. “Are you feeling any joy when you’re in the air?”
Leo’s eyes fell on Mattie, who was laughing merrily at something one of the reporters had said. He realized he couldn’t wait until he could soar with her again and hear her whoop with joy as they spun in a barrel roll.
“It’s coming back. Thanks to your daughter.”
“Her excitement has always been infectious, even when she was just a wee sprout.”
They reentered the crowd, and it took a little longer for Leo to maneuver through the people with his crutches. Eventually, they reached the open swath of scrub where Mattie was being interviewed. A glowering Crenshaw stood on the edge of the throng. The man’s flint-gray eyes bored into Mattie, although she stood more than several yards away. Each question seemed to make him fidget a little more, his hands clenching and unclenching.
“Crenshaw’s going to be trouble,” Leo warned Walt. Mattie’s father followed Leo’s gaze and nodded somberly.
“I’ll gather up the boys in case he tries any funny business.” Walt tipped his hat and disappeared into the milling spectators. Leo began swinging his body in the direction of Mattie and their friends. It was best for him to be close in case Crenshaw decided to physically attack. Although the aviator was short tempered, he’d always been sneaky about his maliciousness. Leo hadn’t thought that Crenshaw would be so brash as to try to harm Mattie in front of reporters, but he looked like a man on the edge. Sweat slicked back Crenshaw’s hair instead of his normal brilliantine. Perhaps the desert heat could explain away the rivuletsrunning down his cheeks but not his eyes, which frenetically flicked back and forth with almost palpable hatred. The man’s lanky body appeared to twitch, vibrating with barely suppressed rage. Crenshaw hated being beaten by anyone, and he’d just been publicly trounced by a woman whom he’d sought to humiliate. Worse, the Flying Flappers had forced his hand, and the king of manipulation had become the manipulated.
Leo was almost to Mattie’s side when one of the younger reporters turned toward Crenshaw. The journalist cheekily asked, “Hey, Mr.Crenshaw, how does it feel losing to a doll?”
That was the spark needed to light Crenshaw’s considerable explosive reserves. Propelled now by sheer anger without any hint of restraining sense, he marched across the dusty landscape. Leo swung his body faster, hopping as quickly as he could manage on his good foot. He needed to get to Mattie. He had to reach her before Crenshaw did. He must intercept...
Leo thudded to a halt as he calculated Crenshaw’s trajectory, just as he’d predicted the enemy’s flight paths during the Great War. The irate aviator wasn’t headed toward Mattie but towardhim. The closer Leo moved to Mattie, the more danger he paradoxically placed her in.
Leo stopped his forward momentum, planting both ends of his crutches as far apart as possible. Normally, Leo would have no trouble handling Crenshaw’s forward assault. Although the bully was a few inches taller, Leo was more muscular, and more importantly, he was vastly calmer. The vain man’s volatile anger would inevitably cause him to make a mistake—a mistake Leo would normally take full advantage of. But hampered by his cast and crutches, Leo would have a hard time capitalizing on that opportunity.
“You!” Crenshaw shouted at him. “You’re nothing but a turncoat, a traitor to real men.”
Leo did not rise to Crenshaw’s taunts. He just tried to jam the ends of his crutches into the hard-packed soil to give him more leverage. Outof the corner of his eye, he could see the heads of the McAdams brothers as they wove their way through the crowd.
“You’re a chump, teaching a broad how to fly in the first place.” Crenshaw stalked toward him, his lean chest puffed out.
