Page 27 of Knight's Fall

She smiled. “Yes, she was. When my dad died, my mom and I went to live with my grandparents. My grandfather was retired from the army and was very proper and rigid. Having a little kid in the house was tough on him, but my grandmother loved having me around. She took me everywhere. We cooked together and read books. We worked in her flower garden. Played bridge with her friends. It was some of the best times of my life.”

“Where is she now?”

Her body relaxed against him without her realizing it. The more she talked, the more comfortable she was in his presence. She might have blamed it on the fatigue except the moment felt too right for her to question it.

“I was in college when my grandparents died. I lost everyone I ever cared about before I was twenty-five years old, except for Olivia and her family. They’re like my adopted family. She and I were friends in high school, went to college together and have been a part of each other’s lives ever since. I never knew my dad’s parents. We lost touch with them after Dad died from an aneurysm. I was little, like four, so I barely remember him. During my freshman year of college, my grandparents got sick. It started as a virus of some kind, then became the flu and then developed into pneumonia before we realized how sick they were. They went into the hospital and got better. Then they both took a turn. It’s like they knew it was their time, and they wanted to go together. It's sort of romantic, I guess, but it was tough. My mother remarried, and he was alright. He didn’t have any children, so he didn’t know exactly what to do with me. Luckily, I wasn’t home a lot, and when I was, I stayed with Liv more often than not. My mom and stepdad died in a car accident a year after they were married.”

“I’m sorry, Courtlyn. That’s rough.”

“Yes, but then Olivia’s family took me in. They never made me feel like an outsider. It’s like I’ve always been a part of their family. Liv says they actually like me better than her. She thinks they’re disappointed in her, but that’s not true. She surprised them with how she decided to live her life, but they love her.”

“It’s none of my business, but what is it about her life that surprised them?”

“She won’t care for me to tell you. She got a job when we were in college as a phone sex operator. The pay more than covered what her scholarship didn’t, and she had enough money to cover all of her expenses and mine, while all of our friends were going into debt. She graduated with a Master’s in English and creative writing. She now writes erotica fiction novels and does pretty well. She has a retail job to help her cover the costs of self-publishing. Liv doesn’t know it, but her mom owns and has read every single one of her books. I actually think her dad has read a few of them, but he won’t admit it to anyone.”

Wings chuckled, and Courtlyn felt the sound reverberate all the way to her toes.

“Does she write under her own name or a pseudonym?”

“Oh, she uses her real name. Olivia Gaines. Her last book,Mine for the Taking, hit some top one hundred book list. It was low on the list, but it’s a big deal. At least that’s what she told me. I don’t understand all of that. She’s working on a new series now that she hopes gets her the attention she’s wanting.”

He leaned closer to her until his breath stirred the loose tendrils of hair around her ear. “Have you read all of her books?”

The way he asked the question sent a tingle down her spine and a flush to her cheeks. If he’d asked her to get naked, she probably wouldn’t have been any more embarrassed than she was right now. She shifted her weight on the step but only succeeded in touching him with her arm and her thigh.

“It’s, uh, required. You know, for the role of the best friend. I can loan you one if you’d like to read it.The Billionaire’s Mistressis a personal favorite.”

She had no idea where the cheeky response materialized from, but it succeeded in having him draw back in surprise, giving her a small modicum of space to breathe. She didn’t expect the full belly laugh that followed, shaking his body and vibrating the step as a result. His teeth seemed to gleam against his dark beard, a sharp contrast to the dusk that had fallen.

She never thought a man to be beautiful, but a smiling — no, a laughing Wings was a sight to behold. If she wasn’t crushing on him before, this moment would send her over the edge with no hope for return.

“I can just hear my buddies now if they catch me reading an erotic romance novel. Damn, I shudder to think of the nicknames they would come up with.”

Courtlyn smiled. “Something tells me no matter what they come up with, it won’t trump Wings. I mean, you are a pilot. It’s sort of a no-brainer.”

“I got the nickname long before I finished flight school. Becoming a pilot only helped it stick around. No one calls me anything else.”

She stifled a yawn, hoping he didn’t notice and decide to leave. Though he made her uncomfortable, she enjoyed speaking with him too much to want the conversation to end.

“I have to know how you got your nickname now. You can’t just make a comment like that and leave me sitting here dying of curiosity.”

His expression grew intense, and she wished she could see his eyes more clearly. She doubted she could tell what he was thinking by looking into them, but she suddenly wanted to see them this close.

The last threads of daylight disappeared. The streetlamp flicked on, but its beam didn’t reach where they sat. She was left imagining the pale eyes that made her think of an Alaskan sea she saw while on vacation with Olivia and her family.

“Can I trust you with this information?” His tone was serious, but the sides of his full mouth twitched, pulling her own upward in a grin.

“Are you saying it’s classified information? You could tell me, but then you’ll have to kill me? If that’s the case, this story better be worth it.”

“It’s actually not that big of a deal. When I was in basic, a bunch of us went to this hole-in-the-wall dive while we were on furlough. They were having an all-you-can-eat chicken wings contest, and my buddies dared me to enter. I’ve never been one to back down from a dare. I won, too, so they started calling me Wings after that. The story followed me all the way to flight school, so the name stuck. My family thought it was hilarious, so they started calling me that too.”

She tilted her head to watch him thoughtfully. “How many wings did you eat?”

“Fifteen in ten minutes.”

Courtlyn’s eyes bulged in the sockets. “Fifteen? You’ve got to be kidding me. It makes my stomach turn just thinking about it.”

“They were also covered in hot sauce. The guy I was competing against was working on his eleventh when they called time. Just goes to show, I never back down from a dare.”

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