Page 49 of Call Sign: Thunder
Allie tried to come up with something she could say to change the subject. “Fine… I’m just upset because our week is coming to an end and I don’t want to say goodbye again.”
Zach sighed. “I don’t want our week to end either, but trying to pick a fight with me isn’t going to help.”
The server set down their drinks and left before she decided to ask again the question he’d said no to the day before. “I just don’t understand why you can’t extend your stay. There is nothing stopping us from staying here in Colorado indefinitely.”
“Other than my job, and a court martial if I go AWOL,” he deadpanned.
“But Daddy can fix that.”
“Oh he can, can he? And is he going to support me for the rest of my life when I just quit working and decide to be a ski bum?”
“You’re exaggerating, but honestly if I asked him to, I know he would love to have you staying with me to protect me.”
“Do you even hear yourself? Do you think I’m the kind of man who wants to just stay home and let someone else subsidize my life?”
He didn’t say it, but Allison could read between the lines of what he wasn’t saying. “This isn’t about him supporting you, is it? This is about him still taking care of me. It’s why you keep pressuring me… When are going back to school, Allie? What career do you see yourself in after you graduate? Are you going to get a part-time job in your field to start getting experience? First it was him, and now you’re ganging up on me too.”
Allison could feel the panic building. Her pulse was spiking and her breathing was getting shallow. How ironic that before she was kidnapped, she couldn’t wait until she could win more freedom from her father’s protectiveness. But now, just the thought of going back to campus where anyone could snatch her freaked her out. Her therapist had prescribed Xanax for when she had an episode, but she didn’t have the meds with her.
Zach was using that lecturing tone of voice she hated. She tried to tune him out, but the words, “we both love you and worry about you” broke through her rising anxiety.
“Wait. Did you just say you love me?” she squeaked out.
Zach grabbed both her hands, leaning in even closer before saying passionately, “Of course I love you. Believe me, I wouldn’t go on a vacation with a woman and her father if I wasn’t in love.”
His words tamped down her anxiety better than any drug ever could. Allison jumped up and plopped into Zach’s lap, almost knocking over the damn Cosmo in the process.
“I love you, too,” she said, snuggling into his arms just before he captured her in a kiss much too racy for the dining room of the Vail Ski Lodge.
Only after they heard the clearing of a throat nearby did they separate. Allie looked into Zach’s eyes and was so relieved to see how much he cared shining back at her. She was so relieved. Surely everything was going to be okay now.
Zach captured a stray lock of her hair that had escaped her braid, softly putting it behind her ear. “I’m sorry I haven’t told you sooner. Yes, I love you, honey. In fact, for the first time in my life, I’ve started trying to picture my life and how it will need to change to make room for you. I’ve loved every minute of this holiday here with you and your dad, but that’s what it was… a holiday. This,” he said waving his hand around the opulent lodge, “isn’t how I live. I live in pretty meager military housing. I work crazy long hours most days, and move from base to base often.”
Allison interrupted him. “Yeah, but I heard you telling dad that your tour is up in April. So you can quit then, right?”
That was only four months away. They could make it a few more months apart.
“Just like that. The problem is… I love my job, Allie. But let’s say I quit. Then what will I do?” he asked.
“I don’t know. Fly planes. That’s what you do.”
“Like it’s that simple. I don’t fly commercial and honestly, at least right now I don’t want to. The thought of starting out at the bottom of the barrel with a small airline, flying shitty routes with old equipment day in and day out. I’d rather poke my eye out with a stick.”
“Fine, then you can teach people to fly. You said you’ve been enjoying teaching these last few months.”
“I have, but there is no money in that. And if it was just myself, I wouldn’t mind, but…” His voice trailed off.
Allie suspected what he was thinking, but she needed him to say it out loud. “But what?”
“Honey, I’ll never make as much money as your father makes. I need to know that you’re going to be okay with that.”
“I don’t care about money.”
“Spoken like someone who’s never not had any.”
“You keep saying stuff like that and I resent it. I don’t ask for most of the things my father buys me.”
“I know that. I’ve seen that he just likes to shower you with gifts, but if we stay together, I’m not going to be able to do that. Both my parents work, which is why I keep asking about you going back to college and what kind of job you see yourself in. Middle class families usually need two incomes.”
