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CHAPTER1
Gosh, she was beautiful…
Luke tried to avoid staring off into the distance where the woman of his dreams was standing in the bright sunshine talking with her father.
It was getting harder to ignore the enchanting girl that had grown into quite a woman. A woman that he’d known all his life… and that was slightly alarming because something had changed.
This was his sweet Nicolette!
The Saxon’s middle child – except she wasn’t a child anymore. She was an incredible woman, infinitely gorgeous, exceedingly smart, and wonderfully optimistic in her views of life. She was Valkyrie’s precious daughter, off-limits, and completely out of his league.
… Nor was he dumb.
He played in the high school band with Toby and Caspar, her brothers, had gone trick-or-treating with the flock of children that he grew up with, and knew even considering anything with Nicolette… well, it was a bad idea.
How could there ever be anything at all when you grew up together, knew every single secret about the other person, and there waszeromystery?
… Except no one knew his secret.
Luke had been watching Nicolette for almost five years now, growing more and more attracted to her… and trying harder to stay away.
Nearly four years older than her, he should be focusing on figuring out his life. He had taken to learning how to work on cars and was ‘studying’ under Glory, trying to help, and holding down two jobs. Working part-time at Flyboys in the hangar doing maintenance on the planes; he also worked as a meter reader for the town.
Neither was glorious. Both could be grueling in the hot Texas summers… but no one knew why he worked so hard, except his dad.
His father had guessed – and they had an endless talk about girls, priorities, families, and boundaries. So, he drew a big line in the sand, a gorge, the Grand Canyon, a defintive border, regarding his Nicolette.
If she was going out to Flyboys for a bonfire? Luke skipped it and blamed it on work.
If she was going roller-skating on Friday night with the other kids? He suddenly couldn’t go.
When he soloed for the first time? She’d been waiting there with the other potential pilots, waiting for her turn to fly, and made eye contact.
Luke buckled, nearly melting in his boots…
She looked so proud of him. Clasping her hands together over her chest, her bright blue eyes were glowing and her soft dark blond hair like Valkyrie’s was pulled over her shoulder in a loose braid. All three Saxon children had blue eyes… but Toby was the only one with dark black hair, like his mother.
That was the first time he desperately wanted to kiss Nicolette, nearly saying the soulful secret aloud. Instead, he smiled nervously, stared at her for what felt like forever, before pivoting and walking back to the offices.
He needed to move out of the way for the next student, and pick up the pieces of his mind, heart, and soul… because he was falling apart with that single glance and breathtaking smile.
… And she was completely off limits.
Luke cursed softly, realizing how stupid it was to sit there and fawn over someone he could never have.
Yanking off his baseball cap and flipping it around on his head as he leaned into the engine compartment of the Cessna that Glory had him working on today.
Glory was bound and determine to restore the old B-52 airplane that had sat for years and years, convinced they were going to fly it for marketing.
Oh, it absolutelystarted!
… It was the ‘remaining running’portion of flight, however, that seemed to be a constant problem.
They’d gotten the massive plane out of the hangar to taxi three times over the years and just before take-off…kaput.
There would be engine failure, a leak, some sort of alert, or it would simply die, leading them back to square one. If there weren’t fifty electrical gremlins or fuel leaks, then there were over a hundred. Every time Glory fixed one gauge, something else went out.
This was no longer a viable airplane to use for the company, but a labor of love for her own pride – and her husband’s. Alpo bought the plane before Flyboys ever opened years ago and it was a great prop for events.
