Chapter 8

8

"Two years' training," Fence groaned. "Waiting through two years training," he told Mickey, still his best pal.

He'd thought he'd known how to fly, to really fly. The Navy's promotion board had always concurred. Two years later, he now knew what he did and didn't know because there was nothing like Night Stalkers' training. Despite all of his skills coming in, it had still been two hard years to get here.

Here. He and Finella had talked about Fort Campbell, Kentucky, the Night Stalkers' main base. Or Joint Base Lewis-McChord where the 5th Battalion D Company was based. But they knew where they had to go.

The summer sun shone across the green of the field behind Marathon Central High School. It glistened off the lazy curve of the thigh-deep, thirty-meter-wide Tioughnioga River that meandered down one side of the field and had carted away its fair share of wild-kicked soccer balls over the years. The single section of five-tier bleachers by the sidelines had become two, but little else had changed in their hometown.

Fin had cried when she'd visited the Peck Memorial Library where she'd spent so much of her youth. That more than anything else had reassured his nerves—yes, the girl he'd loved so long ago remained inside the woman now walking toward him. Her parents were huddled with his and making moving-back-after-retirement noises. Someday they, too, might settle here and put down roots and have a family. But that would definitely be after they were done flying.

For now, he could only watch in wonder as Fin approached. Yes, the prom dress had been a knockout, the Captain in her flightsuit had been utterly startling. But Fin in a wedding dress was an utter revelation.

She was so many women, and he looked forward to years of getting to know every one of them.