Such a Rush

He didn’t answer. The silence stretched into awkwardness, without even a noise from Grayson’s phone in the backseat to break it.

Finally Alec asked, “Why not?”

I didn’t have an answer for that. I made up one. “It’s not much of a door.”

“Of course it’s a door, and I’m walking you to it.” He parked the car, cut the engine and the lights, and got out.

He was walking around the car to open my door for me. I didn’t have much time. I turned around, looking past the seat’s headrest, and said, “Good night, Grayson.”

He was already looking straight at me when I turned around. “Good night,” he said with absolutely no expression on his shadowed face or in his voice.

I didn’t know exactly what I’d wanted from him. Jealousy? Maybe a declaration of No, Leah, don’t do it! I’m calling the whole thing off! Whatever I’d wanted, this wasn’t it.

“I like your hair better curly,” he said in the same flat tone.

Before I could ask him what he meant—he liked my curly hair, or he thought Alec liked it better?—Alec opened the door.

Heart racing, I got out of the car and stepped into a thick cloud of barking from the pit bull. Alec followed me across the yard and up the cement-block stairs. I didn’t want to kiss him, but there didn’t seem to be any way around this now. I met his gaze and tried to telegraph to him that, sure, I did want to kiss him, but his brother was watching us, and moreover, hello, was he horny with that pit bull barking his head off?

Alec didn’t seem to get my meaning, though. I was afraid I’d screwed things up by accidentally implying that I didn’t want to kiss him at all. I almost explained the whole thing to him: I don’t want to kiss you outside my trailer with a pit bull barking in my ear. It’s too much like my nightmares about my marriage someday.

But he did understand. He half-smiled down at me. “Tomorrow night I’ll make sure we’re alone.”

There would be a tomorrow night? This was good—Grayson couldn’t complain that I wasn’t holding up my end of the deal—yet my face burned with the possibilities. I was frightened that Alec would want to do more than I was willing to do.

He bent toward me. I went rigid, anticipating his kiss, and tried to relax. Maybe he felt me go stiff, or maybe he didn’t really want to kiss me either. For whatever reason, he hesitated, and swallowed.

Then he came in the rest of the way, pushing both his hands back into my hair. His lips met mine.

He was kissing me. But not very dynamically. The kiss was awfully chaste for a couple of legal adults on spring break. I didn’t want him to think I was a prude, but I didn’t want to encourage him, either. Or, I did, but just enough for Grayson to see I was encouraging him.

And for Grayson to eat his heart out.

So I slid my hand into Alec’s hair and pulled him closer.

He broke the kiss and started again. I felt his tongue against my lips, but he didn’t press inside. It was like kissing a middle school boy who’d heard about kissing but had never done it himself.

I didn’t correct him.

He pulled back and slid his hands out of my hair, or tried. One finger got caught in a layer underneath that had kinked in the night humidity, defying the flat-iron.

“Ow!” I squeaked.

We both laughed.

“Sorry. Hold on just a sec.” He squinted at my hair in the moonlight and used his other hand to extricate the finger that had gotten caught. As he released me, I glimpsed the hand that had been snagged and saw he was wearing Mr. Hall’s Air Force ring.

“Good night,” I said too quickly. “Thanks. I had fun.” I turned my key in the lock, escaped through the door, and closed it behind me before we could get into another scrape. And before I could gaze into the yard, checking to see how closely Grayson had been watching.

The odor of mildew hit me in the face and made me breathe shallowly. I never noticed it unless I’d been away for a while. The trailer was rotting underneath, where I couldn’t reach it, and there was nothing I could do.

Standing there with my back to the door, listening to the pit bull barking and Alec’s car starting through the thin aluminum, I was overcome with fatigue. I wasn’t sure I could negotiate another night of Alec kissing me and Grayson looking on.

But Molly would be at the airport tomorrow. Molly made things easier for me, just by talking out her ass.

And I would get to fly again. Whenever this farce didn’t seem worth it over the next few days, I had to remember I was doing it to keep my wings and fly.

ten

As I walked over to the airport in the morning, I kept an eye on Mr. Simon’s hangar. I didn’t want to resolve anything with Mark. If I could just avoid him for the rest of my life, that would be perfect. I was in luck for once. His plane wasn’t visible through the tall open doors of the hangar. He’d arrived a lot earlier today than he had yesterday—possibly because he’d gotten in trouble with his uncle the day before—and he was already up.

Alec taxied the yellow Piper past me, waving to me from the cockpit. I waved back. Then I veered toward Molly, who stood in the grass between the runway and the taxiway, struggling to fold the huge red ba

She didn’t approve of what I’d worn, either. With one mechanical hand, she gestured to my slouchy T-shirt layered over my bikini top. “I see you dress up for work.”

“How’s the labor going?” I joked.

“Laboriously.” She wiped her brow with her wrist and put both hands on her hips like she was winded already. She didn’t laugh like she should have. I wondered whether I’d offended her last night with my comment about her laboring. That didn’t make sense, because Molly didn’t get offended.

I couldn’t apologize to her, though. We didn’t operate that way. So I simply asked, “Why’d you want this job?”

“To watch over you and protect you from these animals, of course.”

That didn’t make sense, either. She should have been jumping up and down and squealing right now and telling me how hot these boys were and I was crazy not to do both of them at once right there in the hangar.

“Did you have to kiss Alec last night?” she asked.

“Yes.” I tried not to sound suspicious as I asked, “Did he tell you that?” I doubted he’d dished to her at the hangar this morning about taking me home last night.

“I just figured,” she said. “I’ve got something pla

“Oh God, no.” My words were drowned out by an engine. Alec raced past us on the runway, the yellow Piper sailing into the air.

When the roar had faded, I said, “Anything but that.” Most people in my high school hated me only in passing. A few rich girls would walk all the way across the hall just to make a nasty remark about my curly hair, if they thought of a good one and could get a friend to go with them as a witness and bodyguard. Francie was one of those girls. I’d tried to tell Molly this about her friends repeatedly, but she didn’t believe me. They were on their best behavior while she was around. They called me a sack of shit the instant Molly left the room. And Molly didn’t have PE with us.