Night Maneuvers - By Jillian Burns Page 0,29
Couldn’t make himself care about much. He knew Grady had been covering for him with his commander, and if he didn’t get his act together, he’d earn himself a reprimand. Maybe even mess up his promotion.
“You shouldn’t be out here, McCabe. Go home.”
Staring out at the row of F-16s where Hughes was just coming from, McCabe ran a hand down his jaw. “Yeah. I’m going.” She had a special walk. It wasn’t at all masculine, but it wasn’t all mincing and prancing either. It was just…Alex.
Was this SEAL guy going to appreciate that? Or any of the other special things about Hughes? Once they’d been married a few years—if it lasted that long—he’d probably find fault with her and start an affair. Hughes would be devastated.
And he couldn’t stand to watch that happen.
“Look.” Grady propped his fists on his hips. “I’m sure not the one to be giving advice, but…just talk to her.”
Mitch winced but still kept his eye on Hughes. “I don’t think she’d listen.” Had he listened when Hughes tried to tell him not to marry Luanne? Of course not. That’s what love did. It made a perfectly sensible person turn into a moron.
“Well, what about…” Grady shifted weight from one boot to the other. Even Mitch knew the guy was completely out of his element here. “Hey, remember when Jackson was trying to get Jordan? He sent her all those presents like flowers and a car.”
Mitch gave him his full attention. “I’m not trying to ‘get’ her. I just don’t want to lose my friend.”
Grady raised one disbelieving brow.
“Besides,” Mitch continued. “Can you see Hughes caring about any of that?”
“No.” Grady scratched his head. “You could always fall back on the tried and true.”
Mitch gave him a weary smile. “What’s that?”
“Apologize.”
Mitch tried to laugh but it came out sounding more like a grunt. He squeezed the bridge of his nose. “If only that was all it took.” He reached out and started the Jeep’s engine. “Hey, this never happened, right?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Grady called over his shoulder as Mitch drove off.
ALEX DIDN’T REMEMBER driving home the night after leaving Mitch’s house. Things were slightly blurry. The whole next day was a blur, too.
Thankfully, she had classes to teach. Air-to-air combat demanded one hundred percent of one’s concentration. The Mistake, as she’d begun thinking of her actions Saturday night, was shoved down into the dark recesses of her brain. For eight hours each night—or most of them—she didn’t give Mitch, or The Mistake, or her miserable love life one thought.
By the end of the week, working nights and not seeing Mitch at all, she still hadn’t figured out how to undo all the damage The Mistake had caused. Not only had she not roped her calf, she’d actually let the stallion out of the corral and—oh, hell. She’d screwed up big-time. Now everything was such a mess she had no idea how to fix it.
“Captain Hughes?” Lieutenant Davis’s voice snapped her out of her miserable thoughts.
“Yes, sorry.” Alex blinked and her PowerPoint presentation came back into focus. She stood at the front of the classroom pointing to the screen behind her. Similar to a football game play, the drawing had arced arrows dissecting two roughly drawn aircraft. “Tonight we’ll be practicing the High Yoyo.”
Thank goodness this was her last class of the week.
“Half of you will fly defensive maneuvers, the other half will be attacking. Now, who wants to tell me about a High Yoyo?”
Davis—or Rooster, as he’d been named, something to do with being cocky, Alex surmised—raised his hand.
She nodded at him. “Go ahead, Lieutenant Davis.”
Drew Davis was slouched in his chair, rolling a pencil between his fingers. His eyes smoldered into Alex. Ever since that night at the officers’ club when he’d seen her in the red dress and come on to her, there’d been a sexual undercurrent in his attitude. “The High Yoyo is a defensive maneuver where the pilot rolls out, takes the vertical plane, pulls back on his stick until inverted, and then continues to pull on his stick until he’s horizontal.” Somehow, he managed to make the entire description sound like a sex act. Cocky, so cocky.
“Correct. But remember. You can’t see the bandit in the dark. Night vision technology helps, but you can’t always rely on computers. Before you finish this course, we’ll practice all basic fighting maneuvers without night vision equipment.”
Several pilot trainees had quick questions, which Alex answered, then she assigned each student to defender