Blue Skies Tomorrow by Sarah Sundin Read Free Book Online Page A

grandson. Especially Ray. There’s something soft about that boy. Weak.”
    Jim also talked like that about Ray, called him a coward. Helen fumbled with the stack of dollar bills and tried to laugh. “Goodness. All this fuss for nothing.”
    “Good. He’ll end up like his father, you know. All boys do.”
    She couldn’t count the bills. Why—why did boys have to end up like their fathers?
    He slipped a blouse off a hanger, frowned at it, and slung it over his shoulder. “The Carlisles have belonged to our denomination for generations, and I won’t let one meddlesome pastor drive me away, but the man needs to keep his nose out of people’s business.” He marched to the back room with the discarded blouse.
    Helen stared at the swinging burgundy curtain. Pastor Novak meddlesome? What on earth had he said to Mr. Carlisle? And didn’t Mr. Carlisle see the irony of pressuring her to date the son of the most meddlesome woman in town?
    “It’d be a lot easier if you went out with me.” Vic smiled and winked.
    Helen set her jaw and bowed her head over the cash. “Good-bye, Vic.”

6
    Saturday, April 1, 1944
    Ray leaned back against the fuselage of the Jenny biplane in his grandparents’ barn and smiled. Grandpa and Grandma Novak knelt on a blanket with Helen and Jay-Jay while kittens scampered around with exclamation point tails.
    “That’s it, sweetie. Gently.” Helen held an orange tabby and guided her son’s hand over the fur. The night before, she’d seemed tired and jumpy over dinner, although she’d relaxed dancing in Ray’s arms. Today she wore a yellow peasant blouse with a yellow and white checked skirt, and she glowed in the sunshine that slanted through the barn door. This day at the farm seemed to be what she needed after a long week.
    Jay-Jay shrieked in delight, and a gray kitten made three stiff hops to the side. Jay-Jay lunged for her. “Kitty.”
    “Gently,” Helen said. “She’ll come if you’re gentle.”
    “Look,” Grandma said. “Here’s the mommy cat. Time for a snack and a nap.”
    Helen let out a deep sigh. “For someone else too.”
    A nap? Ray hadn’t thought about that. So much for his romantic afternoon plans.
    “When you’re ready,” Grandma said to Helen, “I have the guest bed made up for the little dear.”
    Grandpa grunted as he stood. “We figured you two lovebirds wanted time alone.”
    “Grandpa!” Ray gripped the rim of the cockpit beside him.
    “What?”
    “It’s not . . . it’s not like that.”
    “You said you were bringing the girl you were interested in.”
    Ray groaned and grabbed a rag draped over the wing. Yep, those were his exact words.
    “Goodness gracious, Jacob,” Grandma said. “Let’s leave before you put your other foot in your mouth. Now, Helen, you bring in that little angel whenever you’re ready.”
    Ray rubbed hard at the dust on Jenny . The early stage of a relationship required painstaking balance to avoid revealing too much too soon. Grandpa tipped the scale.
    “You miss flying, don’t you?” Helen said.
    She hadn’t left? Ray resumed polishing. “Yeah, I do.”
    Footsteps crunched over the straw toward him. “Too bad you can’t take the biplane up.”
    “No fuel.” He gritted his teeth and scrubbed a stubborn spot near the cockpit.
    “I’m glad I’m not the only one whose family embarrasses them.”
    Ray shot her a glance. “Your parents are in DC.”
    A smile curved her lips. “Don’t you think Betty makes up for them?”
    “Betty?”
    “Remember how she teased me last week about the stories I wrote as a girl?”
    “What’s embarrassing about that?”
    Helen ran her hand over the spot Ray had cleaned. “The stories were about you.”
    A fog filled his mind, then swirled away. Her revelation righted the balance. “Me?”
    “Why don’t you take Jay-Jay and me on that walk around the farm you promised, and I’ll tell you.”
    “All right.” Ray tossed the rag in the general direction of the wing.