Cass. There's no future in it for you.”
“I still don't see why not. Unless you don't love me. That I could understand. This I can't. This is crazy.”
“It's very simple. I could be dead next week.”
“So could I. So what, we're fliers. I'm willing to take my chances on you. Are you willing to take them on me?”
“That's not the point and you know it. If I do get lucky and survive, which would be lucky for me, and maybe not so lucky for you, then what? You live in a shack and starve for the rest of your life? Congratulations to the big winner. I'm a flier, Cass. I'm never going to have a hill of beans. I never minded till now. I never paid attention, just like Billy isn't. He's having a good time. So was I. I still am. Then what? It's no future for you, Cass. I won't do that. And your father would kill me if I let you do that to yourself.”
“He may kill you sooner if you don't wind up with me. He thinks we're both crazy. Me for loving you, and you for running.”
“Maybe he's right. Who knows, but that's the way I see it.”
“And what if I save some money?” It was an interesting question.
“Good for you. Enjoy it. I hope you do. You're practically a movie star these days. Every time I see a newsreel from home now, you're in it more than Hitler.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“Well, it's true. Williams sure knows what he's doing.
So what are you asking me? If you get rich thanks to him, am I willing to live off of you? The answer is no, if that's the question.”
“You don't make anything easy, do you?” She was beginning to get annoyed. He made everything impossible. Heads I win, tails you lose. He had loaded the dice, and she just couldn't win a round, and she was getting sick of it. “Are you saying that if you'd saved some money over these past few years, then you'd come home and marry me. But since you didn't, if I make some money, that's not okay. Is that it?”
“You've got it,” he said smugly. He had decided not to ruin her life, and he was determined to do everything he had to to stick by it. “I don't live off women.”
“You don't make much sense either. You're the only man I've ever met who's more stubborn than my father. And he's at least beginning to make sense in his old age. Just how long do I have to wait with you?” She said impatiently.
“Till I get soft upstairs,” he said with a grin, “and it won't be long now.” He was tired of arguing with her. All he wanted was to put his arms around her and kiss her. It drove him up the wall when he saw her in the newsreels. He wanted to shout, “Hey, that's my girl!” But she wasn't. He wouldn't let her be. She was his best friend's daughter, and the girl he'd been in love with since she was three. Try explaining that to a bunch of guys in the RAF. It had blocked him off his feet to realize that. Two or three of them had her on their walls as pinups.
“Get over here,” he said gruffly, as she stood several feet away with her arms crossed, tapping her foot at him. “And don't look at me like that.”
“Why not?” She scowled at him.
“Because I may be a complete jerk, and I may want you to marry someone half my age and have ten kids, but I still love you, Cass… I always will, baby… you know that.”
“Oh, Nick.” She melted at the sight of him, and as he pulled her into his arms all she wanted was him. They stood together and kissed for a long time, forgetting all the words and the arguments and the problems. And then they walked slowly back to the airport. Her father saw them from where he sat in his office, and he figured they had worked things out. He wondered when they were going to get smart and figure out that they had something rare and important. But they were both stubborn as hell, and he wasn't going to get into it with them. He wondered if she had told Nick about the world tour yet, and what he would say. But it was only the next day that it came up, as they were all three sitting in Pat's office.
“What are you talking about?” Nick looked confused. Pat had referred to it, and Nick had no idea what he was saying.
Pat looked at his daughter then and raised an eyebrow. “Aren't you going to tell him?”
‘Tell me what? Oh great. So what's the big secret?” He knew she wasn't in love with someone else or even seeing anyone, although he had told her to, and she had had a fit over his telling her that. And she certainly wasn't pregnant, since he pretty much knew she was a virgin. There had never been anyone in Cassie's life except Bobby, and Nick. And all she and Bobby had ever done was a little light kissing on the porch. And Nick would never have touched her. “So what's the deal here?”
She decided to tell him herself. It wasn't a fait accompli yet. But she was as good as sure. And she was going to tell Desmond when she went back to LA that she was going.
“I've had a very interesting offer from Williams Aircraft.”
“I know. For another year. You told me,” he said smugly, but Cassie only looked at him and then slowly shook her head as Pat watched her.
“No. For a world tour. A year from now. I've been thinking about it, and I talked to Dad about it before you got here. But I wanted to make up my own mind before I told you.”
“A
“That's right, Nick,” she said calmly. She didn't tell him the price attached to it, because that wasn't why she wanted to do it. And saying it sounded vulgar.
“I told you that's what that sonofabitch had in mind right from the beginning. Goddammit, Cassie, don't you ever listen?” He raged at her, swinging at the air with a pointing finger. “That's what the newsreels are all about, and the constant publicity. He wanted to make you into a name, and now he's going to exploit the hell out of you, and risk your life. There's a war going on, how the hell do you think you're going to do it? Even if you do figure out some insane route, which I doubt. Goddammit, Cass, I won't let you do it!”
“That's my decision, Nick,” she said quietly. “It's not up to you. Any more than your joining the RAF was mine. We make our own decisions.”
“Oh great. So what is this? Revenge? Because I volunteered? Or because I don't write you? Don't you understand what this guy is doing? He's using you, Cass. For God's sake, wake up, before he kills you.” Nick was in a total rage over what Williams was doing, and Cass refused to see it.
“He's not going to kill me. That's ridiculous.”
“Are you crazy? Do you know how dangerous that trip is, with or without the war? It's suicide. And you won't make it. You don't have the endurance or the experience.”
“I do now.”
“Bullshit, all you do is fly test flights. That's nothing like it. When was the last time you flew long distance?”
“Last week when I came here. I do it all the time, Nick.”
“You'll kill yourself, you damn fool. And what about you?”
He turned to Fat with a look of fury. “You're willing to let her do this?”
“I'm not happy about it,” Pat said sadly. He had just lost a son after all, but he had learned a lot in recent years, and much of it from Cassie. “But she's old enough to make up her own mind, Nick, for better or worse. I don't have a right to make her decisions for her.” Cassie wanted to cheer when she heard him.
“What happened to you?” Nick looked stunned. “How can you say that?”
“Because I've grown older and wiser, and maybe you need to too. On the one hand you tell her she's on her own, you won't marry her because you're too old for her or God knows why and then you want to tell her what to do. It doesn't work that way, Nick. And even if you marry her, she may not let you tell her what to do. It's a new generation of women out there. I'm learning
“I don't believe you. You sold out. You've let her talk you into this.”
“No.” Pat was adamant. “She hasn't even told me if she's going yet. This is her decision, Nick. All hers. Not yours, or mine. I don't want to be the man who kept her from it, if I stop her, and you shouldn't either.”
“And if it kills her?” Nick asked bluntly.
“Then I'll never forgive myself,” Pat answered honestly. “But I still have to let her do it.” There were tears in his eyes as he said the words, and she walked over and kissed him.
Nick was staring at her when she turned to him again. “Well,
