Page 5

I swallowed hard before croaking out the shameful lie. “Levi.”

Yes, that’s right. I’d broken under pressure. I was terrible at lying and so I’d grabbed the first name that came to mind. And wouldn’t you know it would be his.

Again, it wasn’t entirely my fault. An elaborately forged cup wasn’t the only thing I’d discovered on my Greek adventure. I’d also found out that Levi, who ran out of my life nearly a decade ago, was stationed in Northern Italy, less than hour from our dig site. Another big joke the universe had decided to play on me. Now, every time I looked up into the sky at a passing plane I wondered Is it him?

And so, it wasn’t surprising that his name had popped into my head when I improvised a fake fiancé. I’d immediately regretted it. How pathetic was I that after all these years of being cut out of his life, he still took up so much space in my mind? Even worse, every time I saw Helen Harris I gave her more details about my fake fiancé. All of it based in reality but enhanced. Fake fiancé Levi was perfect and he was crazy about me. He was dipped in chocolate and covered in gold leaf, to cover the hurt the real Levi had inflicted on me.

“I’m not sure he’ll be available. Another top-secret mission.” I always had to make excuses for him not showing up. At first, they were work excuses, and then occasionally I gave him embarrassing illnesses. I was ashamed to admit this brought me pleasure, but alas, it did.

“Well, I’m happy to hear he has recovered from his bout with the stomach flu. That can be nasty.” Harris rose and I took that as my cue to leave.

Back outside, I wandered numbly through the sun-drenched dig site where at least a dozen people—undergrads and volunteers—were shoveling dirt from the vestiges of the Etruscan necropolis.

“How’d your meeting with the narcissist-in-chief go?” I turned at the sound of Sabrina’s voice.

I shushed her and whispered, “Stop calling him that. He’s not that self-absorbed.”

She flicked her dark curls and gave me an incredulous look. “Do we work for the same person? His ego dwarfs those mountains over there.” She nodded toward the snow-capped peaks of the Dolomites and handed me my equipment, and we headed back to where we’d been digging. It had rained for the past two days, and we’d spent most of our time slipping in mud. However, the downpour had revealed a new area we’d missed. I couldn’t wait to get to it, to chase away my humiliation.

“Did he stare at your tetas the whole time he was talking to you? Because that’s what he does with me. I don’t think he’s ever looked me in the eyes,” Sabrina continued.

“To be fair, I’m sometimes distracted by your tetas too.” I laughed.

“God did not give me these babies so that I should hide them away.” Sabrina shimmied her chest at me. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m grateful to be here. My CV is golden now, but I’m not about to lick the dust off Harris’s boots. Oh wait, that’s right, I couldn’t even if I wanted to since he never actually gets his boots dirty.”

I rolled my eyes. “You know, if I ever get to his level in my career, I would probably delegate the field work to my lackeys as well.” This was a complete lie and we both knew it.

It was Sabrina’s turn to roll her eyes. “Yeah, right. Aren’t you like eighty percent limestone and Tuscan clay? You’re practically a terra-cotta statue at this point.”

I stuck my tongue out at her because she wasn’t wrong. I liked digging in the ground and probably always would even when my bones were more brittle than the fall leaves covering the excavation site. It’s what had always set me apart from my brother who wanted to get as far away from ground as possible, who’d always yearned for the sky.

We worked in silence for a while. Then Sabrina asked, “So, are you going to come out with us tonight? You’ve been collecting an excessive amount of dust in your lady parts.”

“Hey, I’ve had a lot on my mind!” Sabrina had been nagging me to go out with some of the army guys we’d met a couple weeks ago. They were stationed at the US Army base in Vincenza. The last thing I wanted was to get involved with a military man. I had my fill of those.

At that moment, a jet blasted out of the sky, and my eyes were immediately drawn to it. I swallowed against the lump in my throat. The anniversary of the day that everything had changed was coming. The day that we’d gotten the phone call from Josh’s commanding officer announcing that he and another pilot had been in a training accident. He was gone in an instant. Sometimes I still didn’t think it was true. Grief was so weird that way. It’s like I could still feel him. I talked to him still.

I took in a ragged breath. I was not going to think about that now. This day had already been shitty enough. I needed to have some fun, stat.

“Yes, I’ll go,” I said with more determination than I felt. “Will you stop nagging me now?”

“Woo-hoo, finally a girls’ night out!” Sabrina threw her arms around my neck and I inhaled her warm vanilla scent. “I can’t believe this is happening; someone call the New York Times!”

Chapter 3

Levi

All I’ve ever wanted to do was fly . . .

I reread the words that I’d written on the application for the hundredth time today. They were taunting me now, as was the information I’d filled in above it: my name and rank. Levi Jasinski, Captain, 510th Fighter Squadron.

With a defeated sigh, I heaved myself onto the hood of my car and popped open a can of lukewarm Italian beer and drank, grimacing at the sour taste on my tongue. It was a sunny day, although cool, and the hood was warm on the exposed skin between my T-shirt and my jeans. Rolling up the application into a makeshift telescope, I settled back and listened to the familiar roar of the F-16 engines behind the border of the chain-link fence.

Another jet went screeching down the runway and I pressed the telescope to my eye.

“Lucky motherfucker,” I mumbled, watching the afterburners fire as the bird lifted off, making a sharp upturn so it looked like it was ascending the mountains in the distance.

My first memories of planes were all like this. As a kid my mom would drive us out to the airfield in this very car and we’d lay out on the hood as the planes passed overhead, the air vibrating under the great white bellies, electric with sound and energy. I let the vibrations rumble through me, felt the thrill of it in my veins. And I’d imagine the day that I would be the one soaring over the cars.