Chapter 8

Isthat what she’d always done? Run away? Maybe it was. Unable to face his choices, his hidden sorrow, his eyes that hid so few of his thoughts now that she knew how to look.

Yet she had kept coming back. Now she truly knew why.

Whatever Brody had done, he’d done it with a single reason and a single passion more pure than she’d imagined possible. Certainly clearer than any of her own motivations had ever been.

“I was thinking about the Night Stalkers.”

“I like my job just fine. Same answer I gave you after flight school, Karina. Lifter Rescue,” and again she saw the sadness in his eyes. But it was different from the sadness she’d seen in the Ariane’s capsule. That had been about the Lifters who hadn’t survived their dream; this was personal.

“I know that, Brody. You’d be less than who you are if you did anything other than LR. I get that now.”

“So, why are you thinking about the Night Stalkers? If you’re suddenly talking about leaving them, I’ll never speak to you again.”

“You’re not getting off that easy.” But actually, she had thought about that for a big piece of the flight back. What it would be like to fly with Brody? There was an immediacy to what he did. He saw the deaths, but she could still see the damp places where the men and women who he had saved had wept their thanks onto his shoulders. Lives he had changed, including his own.

“Then…what?”

“I thought about the similarities of what we do. There are a lot of soldiers who are alive because of what I do.”

“Damn glad you see that.”

“I’m not stupid, Brody.”

“Nope,” he still leaned back against the Mod18. No qualifications, just simple agreement. As if he simply knew things about her that she sometimes doubted so deeply.

“So, here’s the deal.”

“There’s a deal? Like I said, if you’re thinking of leaving the?—”

“Shut up, Brody.”

He harrumphed and shut up.

“The deal is: you ever need a backup pilot, I’m your first call. I’m going to talk to my commanders and make sure they know. I’m also going to take a couple weeks leave until Felice’s arm heals. After that, unless I’m on an active mission, I’m your Number One call. Clear?”

He studied her for a long moment, then hit her with one of those big smiles of his.

She didn’t know how a man who’d seen so much could smile like that, but she’d like to find out. Very much.

“That’s huge, Karina. Do you have any idea how huge?” In his excitement, he grabbed her hands, squeezed, let them go, grabbed them again. “You were always the best pilot I ever flew with. And I can’t afford a permanent backup. Every time any of my team gets so much as a stubbed toe I break out in a cold sweat. It’s such important work. I can’t let anything?—”

“I know,” she freed a hand and rested it on his arm to stop him. “I know.” She liked the way it felt to touch him. And oddly, that simple contact was enough for her to now remember the kiss that he’d never forgotten. After that kiss, she’d made myriad post-graduation plans—all based on the assumption that, of course, he’d fly with her. But when he’d chosen Lifter Rescue, she had backed away, unable to understand why a man with his skills would ever make such a “low” choice. Worse, she had locked her heart away—safe from everyone…including herself.

Now she knew.

It was because she’d never met a better man than Brody Jones. She also understood that she never would. Maybe it was finally safe to let her heart back out.

“There is something else we need to talk about,” she freed both hands and stepped back. She needed some distance from him if she wanted to get this right.

He eyed her cautiously.

“A little comm told me that you spend a lot of time mooning over some Queen Bitch named Rostov.”

Brody groaned, “I’m going to kill Felice as soon as her arm is better.”

“Your option. But what if I gave you an excuse to stop mooning?”

“Like what?”

“What’s your operational base, Brody Jones?”

He shrugged those nice big shoulders of his, “Same as yours, Brit Habitat One.”

“Same as mine,” she nodded. “Let’s go.” She slipped an arm through his to tug him off where he was still leaning on the Mod18.

“Where’re we going?” The back of his flightsuit was black with the char from the Mod18. There was a marginally cleaner imprint of his body on the hull. It made it very easy to imagine what imprint he’d leave upon her body.

“We have to check something, very carefully.”

“You’ve lost me, Karina.”

No. No, she hadn’t. She had found him. She’d found him long ago, but her eyes hadn’t been open to see that. They were now.

Karina had always simply flown, being best was all that mattered. But now she knew why she flew. The best man she’d ever known had taught her. Brody helped Lifters arrive—she made sure the place they’d given everything to reach was safe once they made it.

“What are we checking out?”

“We need to know whose quarters, especially whose bed, is more comfortable. We need to test them both very thoroughly because I’m planning on us using whichever one we choose for a long time.”

Brody looked down at her with those smiling blue eyes as they walked from the Mod18 and down the line of Stinger-60s. It was a walk she was looking forward to taking together—for all the years to come.