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“My apologies.”
“What was all of that?”
“I’m not going to let anyone talk… nothing. It’s nothing,” Toby muttered hotly. “It’s nothing. Just a temper-tantrum on my part and I am very sorry.”
The waitress walked up to check on them at that moment – and Samantha’s head was still spinning.
“Can we get a to-go box?” she asked and heard Toby’s sigh of understanding and regret.
As they left the restaurant, Toby turned to her in the parking lot.
“Samantha, I am really sorry I lost my temper…”
“I don’t care about that,” she uttered in surprise.
“You don’t?”
“No,” she scoffed, smiling. “I kinda wanted to eat in peace, have a nice evening, talk, and maybe walk around in the moonlight… and none of that is happening there, you know?”
“I’d like that…” Toby began, smiling. “Where to, then?”
“Let’s sneak away to the last place that anyone would look for us… and where we were once the most carefree?”
“The hangar?”
“We can picnic…” she invited, smiling. “With no interruptions from anyone.”
“That sounds perfect.”
12
They rode to Flyboys and pulled onto the tarmac; the entire car ride, neither of them speaking a word. It was tense, and Samantha could feel the anxiety palpable in the air. It was tough, because neither knew what to say or where to start… because they’d known each other for so long.
It would kill her to admit that she’d had a crush on him back in third grade – a sweet, innocent, naïve crush that had been pushed down so deep that she’d run away in fear… circling around to this moment.
“How long are you in town for?” Samantha asked, as they both exited the car. The stars were just beginning to peek through the darkened sky, and she loved that being out here, in the middle of nowhere, you could see them.
“Two weeks.”
“Oh…” Samantha said quietly, realizing that he was leaving before she knew it.
“Yeah, I’m here for graduation, to spend some time with the family, and apparently my sister has some sort of announcement she wants to share.”
“Do you know what it is?”
“No. She won’t breathe a word,” Toby smiled, looking at her as they walked up to the hangar, opening the door. Samantha turned immediately, punched in her alarm code on the keypad, and saw Toby’s expression.
“I forgot about that. Thank you.”
“Really, we don’t need the police or my father showing up with guns drawn, now do we?”
“I would prefer not,” Toby muttered. “Assault at Flyboys - news at ten tonight… which might not be an accident. It would be horrible press and definitely leave a rift between our parents.”
“That’s not even funny,” Samantha frowned.
“Because there’s an element of truth to it?”
Both grew silent as Toby unfolded two metal chairs, and pulled from the small space behind Glory’s hot pink toolbox. He smiled pointedly, handing her one.
