Chapter 19
MITCHELL
Raised voices coming from the other side of Number One grabbed my attention. I recognized PitA’s voice. My temper was immediately raised. If that fucker was talking more shit about Sam, I was going to drag his ass to Honcho.
I wasn’t going to risk my career beating the shit out of him.
He would get his ass handed to him one way or another.
It didn’t have to be me. I knew it would disrupt the team, but we’d flown with five before.
We could always move someone into Number Seven and bump him into PitA’s place.
I couldn’t keep tolerating the bullshit.
I started toward the voices when I recognized the other voice. He was talking to Honcho. I stayed back and out of sight to do a little eavesdropping.
“She threatened me, sir,” I heard PitA say.
“Samantha Reid is not a team player. She’s not even part of the military.
We can do better. The Blue Angels deserve the best, not some civilian who doesn’t know us or who we are.
She doesn’t know how we operate and the brotherhood we have with one another. We can’t have her on the team.”
“Why?” Honcho asked.
“She said she would make up some shit to keep me grounded,” PitA complained.
“I wouldn’t suppose this threat had anything to do with the fight last week?” Honcho asked.
“I was just telling her she should come to me if she had a problem with something I said,” PitA whined.
“She didn’t need to send her attack dog after me.
Now she’s threatening to ground me. She told the others she would report them and ruin their military careers.
This woman isn’t even one of us. She doesn’t get to make threats like that. ”
“Sounds like she already did,” Honcho said nonchalantly.
“I think you’re upset you’ve met your match.
She might be a civilian, but she’s got balls of steel, just like I would expect every person on my team to have.
You picked a fight with someone who isn’t going to lay down and take it.
I would suggest you think long and hard about why she had to threaten you.
Sounds to me you should stop running your mouth.
If she says there is an issue with your aircraft, there’s nothing I can do about it.
Her word is the final one. If you piss her off, that’s on you. ”
“Sir!”
I had to cover my mouth to keep from laughing and giving away my presence. The little prick deserved it. Sam put him in his place. I wasn’t surprised. I knew she wasn’t the soft, mushy type. She would probably kick his ass, given a chance.
I walked away feeling proud of Sam. Then a thought occurred to me and I almost turned around and went back to kick PitA’s ass again.
Sam must have heard them talking about her.
She had to defend herself. If he told her about our fight, that likely meant she knew about why it happened. She was not going to be happy with me.
After showering and changing, I went to pick up Sam for our date.
I couldn’t call it a date to her. She would say that was against the rules.
Tonight was about me testing the waters.
I had not been able to stop thinking about everything Watch Dog and Medusa had said.
A relationship with her did feel like it was right.
She checked all the boxes. But now what?
What was I going to do? Did I ask her to go steady? This was all foreign territory.
“You look nice,” I said. She was wearing a simple blue summer dress. It wasn’t too dressy. If anyone happened to see us, we looked casual. We didn’t look like we were on a date. At least I hoped we didn’t. I didn’t want to give her a reason to avoid me again.
“Thank you.”
We went to a restaurant that had great reviews on Yelp in one of the vehicles I had procured for the evening. She ordered water, which told me she was not drinking again. I went with a Coke. “So,” she started and I knew I was in trouble.
“Yes?”
“That fight last week, was it about me?” she asked.
Lying would be futile. She would know. “It wasn’t necessarily about you.”
“Liar,” she said. “Thank you for trying to defend me. But for what it’s worth, I can defend myself.”
“I heard.” I laughed.
“What?”
“I happened to overhear PitA bitching about it to the CO,” I told her.
“He told Honcho I ripped him a new one for sexually harassing me?” she asked in a tight voice.
“Yeah, I think he left out the part about what he did to deserve the threats to ground him.” I laughed. “But don’t worry, Honcho isn’t stupid. After the dustup last week, he knows all he needs to about PitA. From the part of the conversation I heard, he wasn’t sympathetic.”
“Good, because I will not tolerate that nonsense. I will absolutely take this up a rank. I don’t care how many stripes anyone has on their shoulders.”
“Good,” I said. “I knew you could handle yourself. I just couldn’t stand listening to them talk like that. Sometimes a man has to put another man in check.”
“Well, if you did it for me, I appreciate it,” she said. “It’s nice to be defended, but never put your career on the line for a stupid man like that. He’s an asshole. Pardon my vulgarity, but fuck him.”
I had to laugh. “I agree completely.”
We ordered our meals and sipped our drinks. “You look like you’re feeling better,” I said.
“I am,” she said. “It was just a little dehydration.”
I heard some voices with my name being tossed around. “Excuse me,” a young man said. “Aren’t you Dice? Number Five with the Blue Angels?”
I looked at Sam, who was smiling prettily. I nodded. “I am.”
“Can we get your autograph?”
“Sure,” I replied.
It wasn’t long before one autograph became twenty.
People had spotted us and the whole restaurant was buzzing.
We didn’t really get recognized all that often, not when we weren’t in uniform.
We weren’t exactly A-list celebrities. Unfortunately, I could see the attention was making her uncomfortable.
She was going to leave. I could see her mind spinning with her hundreds of rules flashing through it.
She would worry the pictures that were being snapped of me and inadvertently her were going to get back to Honcho.
I could practically see her ticking off the rules she thought she was breaking.
“Why don’t we get out of here?” I said in a low voice. “We can get something to eat at a drive thru or something.”
“Thank you,” she murmured.
The moment we were out of the restaurant and away from the many prying eyes, she relaxed a little. “Can I take you somewhere?” I asked.
“Somewhere?” she said.
“It’s a surprise,” I said. “For both of us.”
“Alright then,” she said. “I guess we can stay out a little later than normal.”
We drove to a place near the airport. I led her around to a dark field that flanked the runway where our Hornets were all lined up on the tarmac. “What are we doing?” she whispered.
“When I was young, like really young, I would always hang out at the airport. Not at the airport, but like this. I would watch the planes come and go. I loved watching at night. I loved the lights and the noise. When I have downtime, I still like to go out and watch the airliners come in.”
“You want to know a secret?” she asked. We sat down in the tall grass with our legs stretched out in front of us.
“I do.”
“Me too,” she said.
“You too?”
“My dad and I would often sit in the car and watch the planes come and go,” she said. “After my mom died, we would sit for hours without talking. We’d just watch the planes. It was very cathartic.”
“You know, I pulled some strings and called in a couple favors,” I said. “I got you a flight tomorrow.”
“A flight?” she asked with confusion.
“In Number Seven,” I told her. “You know we’re always doing the flights for deserving people in the community or whatever. Turns out, one of the people that had been selected backed out at the last minute. I put your name in. Everyone on the team agrees it should be you.”
“No!” She shook her head. “I can’t do that.”
“Sure, you can,” I said. “It’s already settled.”
“No, I can’t. I mean, not tomorrow. I’ve got a lot to do.”
“You told me before you had always dreamed of going up,” I said. “This is your chance.”
“I’m sure there’s a long list of people who want that seat,” she said. “Let one of them go up. I’m not ready.”
“Not ready?” I asked. “You’re not the one who’s going to be flying. You just need to buckle in and enjoy the ride.”
“I appreciate the thought, and one of these days, I would like to take you up on the offer, but not tomorrow,” she said.
“Are you nervous? Afraid?”
“No, I just have to do the preflight inspection. The show is scheduled early. Unless I get up at the crack of dawn to start, I will never get through it all before showtime.”
“Are you scared?” I joked.
She slapped at my chest. “I’m not scared. I fly my dad’s Cessna every chance I get. Quit treating me like I’m a fragile girl. I’m not just a girl. I can fly!”
“I never implied you couldn’t,” I said. “I only wanted to try and give you something.”
“I don’t need anything,” she snapped. “Everyone thinks I’m such a newbie that doesn’t know shit about anything. Just because I haven’t spent the last ten years in the Navy, it doesn’t mean I’m a total novice.”
“Sam, fine. I’m sorry.”
She was making a lot of excuses. I didn’t understand why.
I thought she’d love the idea. I knew she loved flying as much as I did.
This offer was something most people would jump at the chance to get.
But maybe she was nervous. Watching the jets was a lot different than climbing into the back seat and getting whipped around at four G’s.
“Okay, okay, I’ll let them know you won’t be taking the seat,” I said.
She was acting strange. I didn’t understand it but I wasn’t going to ruin the night by asking questions. I turned to face her. Our shoulders brushed together with my legs going one way and hers going the other.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
Her expression softened. “I’m sorry I can’t take you up on the offer. I’d like to one day, but I just can’t this time.”
“I understand,” I said. I reached up and stroked my fingertips over her cheek. “If you don’t want to go up there, we’re fine staying right here on the ground.”
“Incoming!”
I heard the sound before I saw the lights. Together, we watched a Boeing 737 coming in for a landing. Flying one of those would be okay, but I would miss the speed and agility of my Hornet. But the power of one of those bad boys would be satisfying.