I adjust the reins, trying to ignore my stinging eyes. “I’ll think about it. We should start to head back.”
She clicks her tongue to get her horse to pay attention to her, and we turn back toward the valley.
“What about you? Any eligible partners on the base?” I don’t want to push, but I can’t help but add, “You share a lot of meals with Luisa…”
Tana shrugs.
“What was that?” I tease.
Finally, she looks at me, sheepish. “I kissed her last night.”
I can’t hide my excitement. “Really? How was it?”
“Pretty amazing,” she admits. “Lu’s not my usual type, though. She’s quieter, hates attention. She’s not someone who’ll get boozed at a party and dance all night.”
“No, but she’s a good soul.”
“I think so. She’s more reserved than me, that’s all. Her family went through a lot. Anyway, please don’t make a big deal out of it. I like her, but…things never last.”
“Have you done more than kiss?”
Instantly, Tana tenses.
“Sorry,” I say hastily. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“No, it’s not that. It’s just…I haven’t been with anyone since what happened with the soldier.”
Anson. She never says his name, even though she knows it. I can’t fault her for trying to distance him in her mind.
“It’s hard to be intimate after something like that,” I say gently.
She nods. “Lu is patient.”
“Good. I’m glad. If it happens, it happens. And if it doesn’t, that’s also okay.”
We ride back to the small stable, where we spend the next hour unsaddling and brushing the horses before letting them out into the paddock.
Tana’s veins ripple through her arms as she links with Luisa. “Lu will meet us at the landing pad in ten.”
We’re heading in that direction when my gaze lands on a perplexing sight in the small front yard of a nearby cottage.
A dark-haired woman crouches beside a little boy, helping him fasten what appears to be a pair of wooden wings to his slim back. As we get closer, I’m startled to realize it’s Evlynne and Fisher.
Fisher is grinning broadly, his scrawny arms shooting out as if ready to take off. With a tender look I’ve never seen on Evlynne’s dour face, she straightens the wings, then cups Fisher’s cheeks. Her businesslike voice wafts in our direction.
“Ready for your checklist, ace?”
“Wings secure!” he shouts back.
“Goggles?” Evlynne prompts.
He pushes a pair of imaginary goggles onto the bridge of his nose. “Goggles on!”
“Altitude?”
“Twenty thousand feet!”
Evlynne gives a brisk nod. “Cleared for takeoff.”
