Hangar 13

With a laugh, Mac nodded. “There are no secrets about me, are there?”

“Once an eagle, always an eagle,” Ellie said. “You’re always happier in the air.”

“No argument there,” Mac said. He turned off the boulevard and headed toward the interstate that would take them to Luke Air Force Base. The streetlights broke up the darkening sky, the coverlet of the night now stretching from horizon to horizon.

“What led you into the life of a military pilot?” Ellie asked. She wanted to know more about Mac. The fact he’d already asked her out on a date had startled her out of her normal response to men. Did he live fast? Had he asked her out from mere curiosity about her, or from genuine liking? Those were questions Ellie dared not ask.

Mac kept most of his attention on the nighttime traffic, which was diminishing now. “Since my father was an electrical engineer, I grew up helping him fix things around the house. He had always wanted to be a pilot, but had bad eyes and flat feet.”

“So the military wasn’t an option for him?”

“Right. He couldn’t meet the physical qualifications.”

“But he passed on his love of flying to you?”

“Yes. He took me to the airport at least once a year and I saw the Air Force Thunderbirds fly. I knew when I was ten what I wanted to be.”

“A bird,” Ellie said.

Mac glanced at her and smiled. “Exactly.”

“Birds can fly above a situation and not get involved.”

“That’s an interesting observation,” he murmured.

“We all have our escape routes when things get bad or too painful for us to cope with.” Ellie opened her hands. “Look at me. When I’m unhappy or in pain, I work in my garden for a couple of hours and I come away feeling much better.”

“Oh,” Mac said. “And do you view this escapism as a cop-out?”

“Not necessarily. I see going to the garden as something positive, something life affirming. I’ll bet when things get bad around your office, you take off and go fly. When you come back, you feel better. Right?”

He chuckled. “You’ve got me all figured out, haven’t you? You’re right, of course—flying is more than just a simple pleasure for me. It’s also an escape valve.” His brows dipped. “Right now, with all my work pressures and this trouble at Hangar 13, I’ve been wanting to grab my g-chaps and helmet and fly all the time.”

“Sure, you’d like to leave it behind.”

“Flying helps me think more clearly,” Mac said. He met and held her luminous eyes. “Does gardening do the same thing for you?”

“You bet it does.”

“Maybe we’re not so different after all.”

Ellie chuckled. “I’m a ground person and you’re an air person—we’re not exactly similar.”

“But we derive the same things out of our experience.”

With a nod, Ellie conceded his point.

“Just because people are opposites doesn’t necessarily mean they can’t get along,” Mac added.

“Is that argument for my benefit or yours?”

He laughed. It was a deep, rolling laugh, and he hadn’t laughed like that for a long, long time. “You’re a pleasant surprise to my world, Ms. O’Gentry.”

“Thank you, Major.” Her smile lit up her face.

“Can you say the same about me, I wonder?”

“You’re a surprise,” Ellie said. “Can we leave it at that?”

“For now.” He chastised himself for moving too quickly with Ellie. She was cautious, and he couldn’t blame her. What had gotten into him, anyway? It had been a long time since he’d entertained the thought of having a woman in his life. Since the divorce, Mac had thrown himself into his work—usually twelve-hour days—to forget the pain from the past.

“So you grew up in Portland. You were a city kid. When did you learn to fly?”

“My father paid for my flying lessons and I had a student pilot’s license when I was seventeen.”

Ellie was impressed. “And what made you choose the air force?”

“I enrolled in the Air Force Academy because it was my father’s favorite military service.”

“So your father was pretty much living out his unfulfilled dream through you.”

“That’s right.”

“And you didn’t mind?” Ellie wondered what might have happened to Mac if he hadn’t been so strongly influenced by his father.

“No. It was just sort of a natural progression, I suppose.”

“Is there anything else you wanted to do besides fly?”

Mac slowed down and took the off ramp leading to the air base. The sky was completely black now. Luke sat west of Phoenix, and he could see the thousands of stars quilted into the fabric of the sky. “When I get a chance, I like to hike in the desert.”

“Oh?”

“I like to hunt for rocks.”

“Really?” So there was a streak of earth in him!

“I’m an amateur rock hound of sorts,” Mac said hesitantly as they approached the main entrance of Luke Air Force Base.

“An eagle who likes rocks. Isn’t that a bit of a dichotomy?”

Mac braked the sports car at the main gate. “I don’t know. Is it?”

Smiling, Ellie said nothing. She saw the sentry, dressed in a light blue, short-sleeved shirt, and dark blue slacks, snap to rigid attention and salute Mac as he slowly drove past onto the base. The base seemed quiet and Ellie couldn’t see much in the darkness.

“What do you know about Luke?” Mac asked as he navigated through the streets toward the hangars silhouetted in the distance.

“Not much. You don’t learn a lot about the military when you’re raised on a reservation.”