Breaking Sky(61)

“Do you want to?”

Now he was looking at her lips. His smile started to lean in and she looked away.

“Pippin,” she said. Her emotions corkscrewed through her chest from his name. “He…pointed out that I’ve been distracted. I need to focus on flying.”

“All right, I have to ask. What’s up with your RIO? Is he always this bipolar?” Tristan said. “Romeo is worried about him. We can never tell if he’s going to hang with us or act like we don’t exist.”

“I have to admit that I’m glad I’m not the only one he does that to.” She paused and chewed her thumbnail. “Have you and Pippin had a moment or something? In the hangar?”

Tristan blushed through the cheekbones, and she wasn’t imagining it. “What? You can tell me,” she said. “I’m cool about whatever.” Her voice cracked ironically.

“I’d rather not say. It was embarrassing for everyone involved.”

“Okay…” Whoa, what in the world had gone down? Did Pippin come out to Tristan? Tell him about his feelings? “What…how…”

Tristan saw her spinning out. “Hey, look, it was crazy when you guys got back—after the drone. He woke up on the concrete and thought you were dead. It took Romeo five minutes to get him to stop screaming. Pippin loves you, Chase, but I think he’s melting down inside. I admit…I was pretty upset too.”

Chase gave his speech a solid minute. Picturing Pippin like that—losing it—made her feel like running after her RIO that second. But what would she say?

“We’re all melting down.” She looked at Tristan. “Is there anything else going on?”


Tristan didn’t catch her nudging. Or he caught it and went another way. His eyes drifted over her neck. “You tell me. What about our moment?”

Chase’s mouth went dry. Tristan was. So. Close. And it sounded like he thought about that kiss as much as she was trying not to think about it. Another reason not to burst out. “Kale,” she said like she was coming up from underwater. “He doesn’t want us to get friendly.”

Tristan sat back, frowning. He felt bigger than he had a few moments ago, like a sudden aggravation had puffed his shoulders. “You always do what Kale tells you?”

“Wow. You really don’t like him,” Chase said, factoring in the tense conversation she’d overheard. “Why? Kale’s a seriously decent commanding officer. Haven’t you seen how relaxed he runs this place? How many freedoms he gives us?”

Tristan didn’t answer. His eyes trailed some faraway spot.

“Kale has saved my butt so many times. You wouldn’t believe what he’s done for me.” Her mind skimmed the day she’d met the brigadier general. The way he’d given Janice murder eyes. “He’s the only reason I agreed to come here,” she admitted.

“I understand you have a relationship with him, but that does not extend to me.” Tristan paused. “And he already told me to stay away from you.”

“He did what?”

“I went to him last week. I asked him about what happened with JAFA, hoping that if we had an open conversation about it, I wouldn’t be so uneven in the sky. I took a big risk and told him about my freezing up in the air, and I even admitted you’ve been helping me. That’s when he told me to keep my distance from you.”

“I’ll kill him.”

“Why? Isn’t that the exact thing he said to you?” The simulator light played on his cheeks, brightly coloring Tristan’s sudden sadness. “So many people died,” he said. “My teachers and friends. I don’t even know who made it. Who didn’t.”

Chase touched his chest. He looked like he was about to turn to stone, and she wanted to keep him with her. She sat closer. He reached for her face but pinched her ear instead, like he’d done in the infirmary.

“Why do you do that?” she asked.

“Seems like a safe place to touch you when I…feel like I have to.”

She knew that feeling. It was the one keeping her hand tight on his chest. He had a way of making her lean in. Encouraging her to talk and listen. It made her feel the rush of what she wanted to do with him like it was brand new. Like she’d never kissed anyone before.

“Harcourt.”

Kale appeared over the back of the simulator chair, making her jump even closer to Tristan. The brigadier general’s eyes narrowed. “Take a walk with me. Now.”





28


    FUR BALL


   Cross-Eyed in the Fray


Kale marched her to his office without a word. Despite the ominous nature of their meeting, Chase filled with a sense of familiarity in the small, warmly lit room: the coffee scent that almost seemed painted into the furniture; the overgrown, weepy-armed plants; and the line of old muskets on the wall that she always wanted to throw against her shoulder and take aim.

Kale surprised her by sitting in the squishy leather chair—her chair—and picking a mug off his desk. “Have a seat,” he said.

The only other chair was behind his desk. After a pause, she sat in it, marveling at the new angle of the office. The Stars and Stripes on the opposite wall had never seemed more prominent. Chase aligned her thoughts on how she’d defend her friendship—it was a friendship, wasn’t it?—with Tristan, but her order left her as soon as Kale spoke.