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“Baby, I will take care of you for the rest of my life.”
I bite my lip and caress his cheek. “Promise?”
“Promise.”
— Read Leila’s story in The Terrible Personal Shopper now!
https://books2read.com/u/3kP7D6
FOREVER FORWARD - A FLYBOYS SHORT STORY
GINNY STERLING
BLURB
How often do you get a second chance to win over your childhood crush?
Tobias Saxon always knew he adored Samantha Sloan. They grew up together, were childhood friends, and the first time he tried to change their relationship? It backfired… badly. Now, years later, Toby has a chance to reconnect with his soul mate in the town of Yonder, Texas.
A life-long series of awkwardness had only one solution to both their families: to separate the two of them.
Can true love prevail after all?
1
Then…
Samantha felt eyes on her and didn’t have to turn around to know it was Tobias Saxon watching her again. The guy had a massive crush on her, and had since she was ten years old. It was off-putting, disconcerting, and weirdly sweet.
… And nothing she took seriously.
Their families grew up together, worked together, and everything was going perfectly until that fateful day at the Flyboys annual picnic. Her parents co-owned the local flight instruction training grounds for a good part of the eastern Texas region – having people drive in from an hour or more away for flight lessons by retired air force pilots.
During the picnic, they grilled, showed off the planes, got to watch fireworks, and spent the entire day in the sun on picnic blankets on the field behind the offices and hangar.
She was the only daughter of Jackson ‘Thumper’ Sloan – and her mother ran the entire business, having helped to establish it. Her Uncle Hunter was her father’s best friend while he was in the Air Force and had married the mechanic at Flyboys, and their twins were completely insufferable.
Dad’s other friend, Uncle Cody, had seven children and was forever swamped with having to corral them with her Aunt Delilah. Ace, Reaper, Valkyrie, Firefly, Caboose, Hot Cakes, Handsy… all of them were her ‘uncles’ and the team of retired pilots was thicker than thieves.
A family.
One big, happy, strange, weird family.
… And then there was Tobias, or Toby, as she had dubbed him.
He was the oldest child of the Saxon family – Valkyrie’s kid - which she thought they might have been bio-engineered or something, because they were all extremely tall, gangly, and scared of nothing. While other kids had been playing around, flying kites, climbing in and out of the planes… Tobias was flying with his father today, working towards his pilot’s license.
It was in the blood – and the Saxons were utterly fearless.
That was the day she realized Tobias noticed her. They’d always been friends, but this time was different. He walked right up to her where she when she was getting ready to eat her burger her dad just had taken off the grill, only to notice a shadow.
Glancing up, because he was almost a foot taller than her, she met his blue eyes and hesitated.
“What Toby?” she blurted out in the way that a ten-year-old would… and hesitated. His nickname slipped easily off her tongue, causing him to smile in a way that made her feel all fluttery and nervous.
“You have the most beautiful eyes,” Tobias said softly – only to have her father reach over, grab the boy by the arm, turn him around, and hover protectively over her.
“Go see your father, boy – and cool your jets around my Samantha…” her dad had ordered, before looking at her. “Sam, you tell me if he bothers you again. Okay?”
