All the Right Moves(35)

They paused near the deep end of the pool and Cassie got roped into a conversation about the correct way to make mojitos. As he took his next sip, listening to Cassie’s conversation with the female half of Shane’s neighbors, his eye caught on Nancy huddled with her friend Carolyn. He’d always liked Shane’s wife, but he was tired of her trying to fix him up. The beautiful and polished Carolyn, case in point. Then there was Rick’s date. She’d brought her sister—another attempt at matchmaking. So naturally Rick gave him the stink eye before pointedly frowning at Cassie.

John didn’t give a damn. His night wasn’t going according to plan, either. A few hours ago, he’d decided to skip the party altogether. The chance to see Cassie outside the bar changed his mind.

Next to him, she laughed and the warmth he felt for her, aside from the want that had been on simmer since that first day at the bar, made him glad that he’d brought her.

In the company of his friends, he felt adrift. In Cassie, a lifeline.

What the hell was going on with him?

Last night, after the frustration of being thoroughly decent for Cassie’s sake, he’d found himself caught up in memories of another decent man. His friend Danny. He and Sam and Danny had been a team since college. John’s thoughts had kept him up late—dark, circular and confusing thoughts. The tragedy of Danny’s death was something John fought to understand. It had been so senseless. Danny hadn’t made any mistakes. The fault had been in the jet. Something had gone wrong with two things that weren’t even parts of the same system. Completely unrelated. Neither of which should have happened at all, let alone at the same time.

And like that, Danny was gone, leaving his wife, his friends, his future.

As if obsessing over Danny hadn’t been hellish enough, John’s brain had insisted on replaying Sam’s phone call when he’d confessed that he’d been grounded. After surgery to correct his vision had somehow gone wrong, his eyesight had slipped just enough to ruin his career. By the time John had spoken to him, Sam had gotten his act together and tried to sound upbeat about his new plan. But underneath the forced calm, John had heard the devastation in his friend’s voice, had felt Sam’s bone-deep pain as clearly as if it had been his own. Never allowed in the cockpit again. The idea was unthinkable.

The morbid train of thought made its own kind of sense, he supposed. Helping Cassie study brought up memories of him and his friends. The three of them had been decidedly different yet they’d bonded over their passion for flying. They’d crammed for exams together, pushed each other to be better, stronger, smarter, even when the course load got so tough it would’ve been easy to switch dreams.

Damn it, John had no right to be judging the people at this party, no right to question his own amazing good fortune. Danny had given his life. Sam had soldiered on, willing to become an instructor instead of a pilot, when being a pilot was all he’d lived for.

It was easy to look down his nose at officers like Kevin who drank too much and screwed other officers’ wives. But John was guilty as well of too little gratitude for too much privilege.

Cassie’s tug on his shirt alerted him that he was about to guide them right into the pool. He hadn’t even realized they’d been walking, or where to.

She didn’t seem to mind. She smiled at him the same way she had in the Gold Strike and in her tiny overgrown kitchen. It was the first time in years that he hadn’t specifically sold himself as an air force pilot. That had always been his calling card, and it worked an amazing amount of the time. But Cassie didn’t care. When she looked at him she didn’t see the flight suit, just the man. She’d even promised she wouldn’t hold it against him.

“You’ve been awfully quiet,” she said.

“I apologize. I’m being a terrible date. I should be showing you off—”

“I’d rather talk with you.”

Before he could muster a response to that, a call came from near the house.

“John? Over here.”

He recognized Moony’s wife’s high-pitched voice before he spotted her waving him and Cassie over. But her name escaped him. He motioned that they’d join them, then he squeezed Cassie’s hand. Her lips tilted up at the corners and her eyes sparkled. No drink demands or an open textbook to distract her. She looked happy and relaxed, and he felt better than he had all day.

He wanted to kiss her. Sweep her away to somewhere private. But that would have to wait for a bit. “You’re about to meet two couples. Mike, known as Moony, and Scott, whose call sign is the uninventive Scotty, are in my squadron. Scotty’s wife is Ashley but I can’t remember Mike’s wife’s name so work with me.”