Page 36 of Confessions of an Apache Pilot

“You sound jealous.” She was mocking me, or so she thought. She was spot on. I leaned forward and grinned at her. I wanted to keep her friendly and unguarded as long as I could. I enjoyed seeing this side of her.

“I am,” I admitted. She sat upright, shocked at my open honesty. I continued, “A little bit anyway. I certainly never went through that kind of effort for my ex. It probably contributed to why she’s my ex,” I said thoughtfully. “Although she wasn’t worth walking backward across the flightline for, so there’s that. But Jim’s wife is worth it.” Our eyes locked. “I’d like to know what it’s like to have a wife that's worth that kind of effort.”

Jen let her gaze stray off mine and settle on Jim. “Me too,” she said softly. She jumped when Karolyn dropped a can—some kind of packaged meat that was acting as breakfast—on the pallet next to her. Karolyn huffed out a sigh as she sat, unaware of what she was interrupting.

I wanted to bare my teeth and snarl at her to go away. Although the little freak would probably think I was flirting. The wariness and closed off look I’d seen in Jen’s eyes more often than not had returned. Gone was the wistful look and there wasn’t much I wouldn’t give to put it back in her eyes.

“The food here sucks,” Karolyn grumped and poked at the can in front of her.

“You were just bitching the other day that you’d gained weight,” Sarah said, dropping down onto the bench on the other side of Walker. “This will help you lose some.”

Karolyn glared at her friend, then sent me a megawatt smile. “‘Morning, Mark.”

Jen’s head snapped in her direction and Karolyn withered under her glare. She cleared her throat. “I mean, good morning, Chief,” she corrected. Jen slowly let her gaze slide off the other woman, appeased that Karolyn had addressed me properly.

I bit back the grin that was fighting to surface. Karolyn was just a bit too friendly. She needed to be kept in check. From what I could tell she was a good crew chief, just a little immature. We needed all the good crew chiefs we could get. We just didn’t need the drama. I decided to take care of it.

No one gave Sarah a hard time because she was discreet and mostly kept to herself. If anything, we tried to bring her out of her shell a bit. The two women couldn’t be more opposite, but they appeared to be friends nonetheless.

“Since you don’t want your breakfast we should get going. I want to check over the aircraft before our shift.”

“Again?” Karolyn whined.

The high pitched, nasally sound was like nails on a chalkboard for me. That sound was one my ex-wife had perfected over the years and even after all this time I couldn’t stand the sound of whining, from a man or woman.

“We went over everything last- '' Karolyn broke off when Jen sent her a death glare.

“Let’s go,” Sarah said, grabbing Karolyn by the arm.

I reached out and grabbed Jen’s hand before she could get away from the table. “Don’t think I forgot about what you did the other night.”

Her face blushed and she tried to pull her hand away from me. I tightened my grip, holding her in place. “Nothing happened. It didn’t mean… just forget it.”

I held her gaze for ten solid seconds before responding. “No. When you’re done with your shift, we’ll revisit this.” I held her hand for another second, then let go. She brushed her hair back nervously, then the surprise vanished from her face and a scowl appeared. She was looking past me.

I turned in my seat to see the asshole from Bagram, who had been arguing with her the first day I met her, heading our way. He walked up in a huff and glared at me.

“The fuck you think you’re doing, Chief.” He spat my rank at me, it was only now I realized that he was a captain, too. Well, nothing like starting my morning with some insubordination.

Mark

I stood slowly, and with exaggerated care stepped away from the table and approached the asshole. A bit theatrical? Yeah, but I wasn’t going to do this a third time.

“Don’t let me catch you holding her hand again, Chief.” There it was again. Tiny man hiding behind his rank.

“Or?” I folded my arms over my chest. It was mostly so I didn’t reach out to strangle the man who was glaring up at me.

“Huh? What?”

“Are you a midwit? You said not to let you see me holding her hand.” Dropping my hands to my sides, I stepped forward, forcing asshole to step backward in order to hold my gaze. “What happens if you catch me holding her hand again?” I tilted my head, daring him to respond.

“Mark, don’t.” Jen put her hand on my shoulder and tried to step between us. “Scott, just…go away. I don’t want to speak to you and you’re not welcome here.”

I put my hand on her shoulder, then, looking the asshole in the eye, lowered my hand down to hers, and took her hand in mine. Turning back to her I said, “You tried it your way, that didn’t work. Now it's my turn.” I let go of her hand and grasped her around the waist, lifting her out of my way and setting her aside. The last thing I wanted was for her to get hurt if this guy got the bright idea to do anything other than what I told him.

Jen just stared, slack jawed, at me and the fact that I’d gently set her out of the way. She didn’t seem to know how to take that. I was grateful she was held immobile by shock. It allowed me to do what I needed to.

When I let go and turned back to asshole he was stepping toward me, jabbing his finger into my chest. So much for him making a good decision today. He was about to find out why he should have chosen to listen. “I told you to keep your hands off of her, I’m not fucking around.”

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