Falls Like Lightning by Shawn Grady Read Free Book Online

froze, dumbfounded, then snapped her jaw shut. She swallowed. There had to be a hundred reasons why this wasn’t a good idea. Wind blew hair strands across her eyes. She studied him. Don’t say it. Don’t say it. “Okay.”
    He smiled and shouldered his fireline pack. “Okay if I bring this along?”
    “Yeah.” She nodded. “That’d be fine.” She eyed him head to toe. “You’re a mess. You sure you don’t want to—” She nodded toward the airbase, insinuating he should take a shower.
    He opened his mouth and glanced back. She could tell he was considering whether she’d leave without him.
    That she would leave him  . . .
    She smiled at the subtle turning of the tables. She had said he could come along. She wasn’t going to furtively slip away. “Go ahead. It’ll take me at least fifteen minutes to get the plane refueled and ready to go.”
    He grinned this time. “I’ll be right back.”

CHAPTER
    08
    S ilas peeled off his navy blue T-shirt and tossed it on the locker room bench. What was he thinking? He was so impulsive. Asking to fly along with Elle on a whim after walking out on her seven years earlier. Real classy.
    Still, was it wrong to want to fly with her? Did he make a bad decision? All he knew was that the moment he saw her, emotions and memories he thought well guarded flooded his mind and heart. Her presence felt like salve for a yearning years suppressed and too often ignored.
    A thick cloud of soap-scented steam billowed from the showers. He kicked off his pants and dropped them onto his sweat-and-smoke-saturated clothing pile. His cell phone vibrated on the wooden bench top. Ignoring it, he wrapped a coarse white towel around his waist. The phone vibrated again, working its way toward a precipitous drop onto the tile floor. Warren’s number flashed across the screen. Silas stretched his neck and stared into the fog overhead.
    Had it been anyone else . . .
    The phone buzzed and toppled. Silas snatched it in the air. “ ’Sup, Warren?”
    “Long time no talk. Catch you in the middle of anything?”
    “Almost.”
    “Just got a call from the Desolation Complex Incident Command. The IC wants us on the tarmac in South Lake by sundown.”
    Silas angled his jaw and exhaled. “All right. When are we heading out?”
    “Early evening. Captain Westmore has orders to make a quick flight into Oakland. When she returns, we’ll load up and make haste.”
    “About that flight to Oakland. You have any objections to my joining her?”
    The line stayed silent for several seconds. “I don’t see why not. Just make sure you’ve got your stuff packed for a long stay in South Lake.”
    “I will. Thanks. So the IC didn’t say anything else?”
    “Nothing, though I get the feeling the whole thing is blowing up. I’ll let you know as I hear more.”
    ———
    Elle exhaled. She honestly didn’t know what she was doing. She was a single mom, not a single girl in her early twenties. Sounds of Maddie singing a redundant refrain—“I’m bored, I’m bored, I’m bored”—to the tune of “We’re Off to See the Wizard” came from the crew compartment. The fuel truck arrived and connected to Jumper 41.
    Her mind trailed off to a little over seven years ago. Claiming it was on a whim, Silas had invited her to ride with him and a couple friends on a nine-plus-hour trip from McCall, Idaho, to Seaside, Oregon. They weren’t an item yet. It had just worked out that they both were on three days’ leave. It’d be a lot of driving, but he really wanted to camp by the Pacific. She didn’t know him very well, but it was the kind of decision a single girl with no ties could make.
    She’d stood out on the front walkway of her house before dawn that Friday with a backpack slung over one shoulder and a sleeping bag under her other arm. She heard the sound of his VW bus approaching before she saw it. A long surfboard lay strapped to the top.
    Inside, Silas sat behind the wheel. No other passengers.