Page 35 of Confessions of an Apache Pilot

With Brady awake and stumbling around with nothing better to do, he was bound to home in on Jen and start rambling about something that no one cared about, which would inevitably lead her to escape—right into my open arms.

As if on cue, I heard him spooling up and starting to rant about exercise. I looked over and laughed as Laura expertly side stepped behind Jen, leaving Brady completely focused on her. Jen, not knowing what to do, pasted on a fake smile and started nodding along. Laura made her way back to me and sat. We both sat watching Jen as she tried to disengage herself from Brady.

“That wasn’t very nice you know, leaving her like that,” I commented, shoving a cookie in my mouth.

“Right of passage,” she said with a shrug. “Besides, Jen deserves this for always trying to avoid real fun.” She winked at me.

It was perfect, Brady had his back turned to us, but Jen could see past him to us. She frowned as she saw us clearly laughing at her.

After a few minutes, I decided she’d suffered enough. I walked up to them and grabbed her by the arm. I could feel her body tense in my grip “Go sit down by us and get some food. Brady, make sure that Santos finished the morning inspection on the aircraft.” He grunted in agreement and shuffled off. I kept my eyes locked on her the whole time. When I saw her breathing get heavier with anticipation, I let go and followed her over to the table.

“Not funny guys,” she said it more to Laura, but I laughed anyway.

The look of bewilderment on her face while he’d droned on had made it worth it. Served her right for trying to avoid me. If she kept it up, I’d sic Brady on her each night until she gave in. It was a solid plan.

She sat opposite us, still trying to gather her wits after Brady’s verbal onslaught.

I could tell she was caught off guard by him because she hadn’t finished getting herself together. She was in uniform, but her hair was down. Not in a ponytail, but actually loose and flowing free over her shoulders. It was longer and thicker than I’d expected. It framed her face in a way that made her smile shine. Not that she was gracing me with that smile.

She hardly looked my way as she grinned at something Laura said. Her eyes were bright blue today, like the ocean after a storm, and it was all I could do not to stare. The only thing that could make her hotter right now would be for her to bend over and flip her hair back like in the music videos.

Trying not to get too thrown off by how stunningly gorgeous she was, I said, “He’s harmless. He can't read social cues at all and doesn’t understand personal space, but he’s harmless otherwise. Besides, you look like you need some humor in your life.”

“What I need is coffee and breakfast.” She looked down at my food and frowned. “Or just coffee.”

I laughed at her. “Welcome to Pamir, it's small and shitty, but at least the food sucks,” I joked.

She shook her head, hair moving over her face. She brushed it aside, and son of a bitch she did the hair flippy thing. My mouth must have dropped open, because while Jen was fixing her hair into a bun Laura kicked my foot. I glanced at her and scowled, but she just gave me that knowing, shit-eating grin and winked.

Dammit, she caught me ogling her friend. As if she didn’t already know I wanted Jen.

I shouldn't have been surprised, it’s not like I exactly hid my attraction for her. The guys have been steering clear of her except for business. Word had unofficially circled around that Jen was off limits. Hell, even the Beards steered clear and those guys hit on anything that moved and was gorgeous—man or woman.

Despite the fact that I wanted to tackle this woman right here and do unspeakable things to her, I knew I had to keep it restrained. I still had to watch my career, and it wouldn’t be fair to jeopardize hers when it was just starting. I would be forty this year, able to retire. She was barely thirty, with most of her career in front of her still. Getting in trouble for fraternizing could put my retirement in jeopardy, and stop her from ever getting promoted. Although, every time I looked into those blue eyes I couldn’t fight the feeling that she would be worth it, whatever the cost.

Jen finished getting her hair tied back before talking to us again. “Okay, seriously, where can I get some coffee and… What’s he doing?”

Laura and I turned around to where she was staring. Jim was out on the flightline, talking on a satellite phone. He was walking backward and cupping his hand around the mouth piece. We turned back around to face Jen.

Laura stood up and said, “I’ll let you explain that one. I’m off to find coffee.”

Laura ran off and Jen kept staring. “Seriously, what is he doing?”

“He’s talking to his wife. What's it look like?” I asked, as if this were normal behavior for a man to walk backward while on the phone.

She rolled her eyes at me and gave me a flat look. I gave in and explained, “In order to get a steady signal he needs to move away from all the radios. Since this is the desert, he needs to move around to maintain that signal. And just to make it more fun, the wind never stops out here, and is constantly blowing from different directions. So he walks backward, to make sure his wife can hear him okay and not lose the conversation due to the wind.”1

Her perplexed look softened into the sweetest smile I had seen on her yet. “That's so...adorable. Who does something like that?”

So there is a soft side to you. It's not all icicles and sharp edges.

I glanced over my shoulder at the man trying to perform miracles on the runway just so he could hear his wife’s voice. It was times like this that I was envious of those who had relationships like that. There didn’t seem to be many, but I was willing to bet every last dollar that it was worth it.

“He does.” I pointed to Jim’s silhouette. “When the signal gets really bad he’ll climb up the guard tower...sometimes carrying a pole to act as an antenna.” That made her smile again. “He absolutely worships her. If you met his wife you’d understand.”

“Understand that she makes him walk backward into the wind for a phone call?” she asked, still smiling with that soft look in her eyes.

“Oh, she has no idea what he goes through to get a call out. She’s just happy to hear from him. He wouldn’t tell her either; she would make him stop. No, he’s much happier going through the trouble.”2

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