Flipping his headset over in his lap, he bent and twisted the ear cups to adjust the fit, steadying himself in pre-flight routine. Damn things never stayed set right. He tossed them aside restlessly.
The gray aircraft loomed ahead of them, tip to tail one hundred and seventy-four feet long and nearly that long across in wingspan. Two days ago, they'd flown in medical supplies for a local village, then spent the next day mission-planning for the flight out when they would refly Sinclair's doomed mission.
Retracing the route was a common investigative technique in accident inquiries and had already been utilized. Twice. With the same conclusion. Pilot error—for lack of a better answer.
Pilot error. The epitaph every flyer dreaded.
Every man on the bus knew that accident report could have held his name. Their wives and children could have been the recipients of the front-porch visit from the commander.
Military spouses deserved the assurance that the Air Force would do whatever it took to retrieve the fallen body or honor of a comrade in arms. They'd all pulled combat time with Lance, trusted him with their lives as he'd entrusted his to them.
They wouldn't fail him now.
Zach grabbed his headset from the seat again, tweaking the fit. Julia would understand his silence about the mission once he explained. He'd worked like hell for five months to find something that would clear the accident report. Yeah, he'd kept quiet about more details than security required. But after a year where Julia was already juggling new baby with special needs and coming to terms with widowhood, he couldn't see that she needed to hear about him flying her dead husband's final flight.
Zach shoved aside niggling reservations. Now wasn't the time to question himself, not when doubts could shake his focus.
Had Lance allowed home-life concerns to rock his concentration?
No. Once they closed the hatch, training and instinct from thousands of hours in that seat assumed command. The flyer became one with the machine. Zach had to believe that or he was going to be in a helluva mess once he took to the skies.
The bus jerked to a stop beside the aircraft.
Mission time. Today, he would erase that "pilot error" blot. Today, for this crew, the outcome would be different from the results of the investigative team, because for these men, it was personal.
And for Zach, it couldn't get any more personal than the woman waiting at home for him.
"Okay, crew, let's roll."
* * *
"You sure did roll in late last Friday night." From the picnic table, Kathleen pinned Julia with a curious stare and mischievous gleam that promised a lengthy girl-chat to pump for information. Â Strolling to the tire swing, Julia looked to Lori Clark by Patrick's swing for help and found nothing more than a second set of inquisitive eyes peering back. She reminded herself that the friends surrounding her in her backyard were a blessing.
A nosy blessing.
Julia pushed the tire swing dangling from the tree, launching squeals from the Clarks'
little girl and Ivy. "Nothing wrong with staying out late on a Friday night."
"Late?" Lori's brow puckered as she tapped a manicured nail to her lips. "I thought you two left the party early."
Kathleen reached into the infant seat on the picnic table and adjusted the lightweight blanket around her daughter. "Rumor has it, Julia didn't even finish her chocolate cherry cheesecake."
"Criminal." Lori pressed a hand to her lightly rounded stomach, pregnancy hormones obviously protesting the blasphemy of neglected chocolate. "Well, it's more than a rumor from where I was standing. Since you were home with little Tara, you missed the decided spring in the commander's step as he hustled Julia out of the Valentine's Dining-Out."
Kathleen hugged her sweat-suit-clad knees to her chest. "Tanner's a dead man for leaving that part out."
Every word of the good-natured teasing dinged Julia like a staple gun attacking her tattered emotions. She reminded herself they meant well. It wasn't their fault she was so damned confused. If only she had someone to confide in, but her best friend was the problem, so she couldn't exactly turn to him for help on this one.
Lori fingered her braid with a dreamy sigh. "So? Where did you go? A late-night romantic make-out at Patriot's Point? Or a lovers' stroll along the Battery Park with water crashing against the harbor wall?'
All those beautiful images didn't come close to the perfection of their windswept motorcycle ride. Except love hadn't played any part in Zach's plans. Hadn't he flat-out said as much?
She'd seen well how shaky a marriage could be without love. Lance hadn't loved her either, not like he'd loved the other woman. He'd stayed in his marriage out of duty. Sure, Zach had shown her all the logical reasons why they should stay together. But for once, she wanted to be more than someone's duty. She wanted to fill a man's life and every thought, totally.
A ridiculously romantic dream for a practical woman who preferred power tools for presents over perfumed roses.
Kathleen canted forward like Mata Hari. "Did I forget to mention they came home on the motorcycle?"