Eyes on the Stars Page 4

  “What are you thinking about?” Claudia’s voice was thick with sleep.

  “Nothing.”

  Claudia pushed up and leaned on her hand. “Liar.”

  Jessie shushed Claudia with a kiss and guided her back down onto her shoulder.

  “You’re trying to distract me.”

  “Is it working?”

  “No. So give.”

  “You need to sleep. It’s the middle of the night.”

  “I’m not going to stop pestering you until you tell me what’s going on in there.” Claudia tapped Jessie’s forehead with a well-manicured fingernail.

  Jessie debated with herself briefly before acknowledging that if she didn’t answer, Claudia would likely keep them both up the rest of the night. Since they had to fly back to Sweetwater in less than ten hours, they really needed to get some rest.

  “I love you,” she whispered.

  “What?” Claudia shot straight up in the bed, dislodging the covers.

  Jessie swallowed hard, then cleared her throat. “I said, I love you, Claude.”

  Jessie didn’t know what she had expected, but seeing tears in Claudia’s eyes startled her. “Did I… Geez, Claude, did I say something wrong?”

  Instead of answering, Claudia simply shook her head and sniffled.

  “But you’re crying.” Jessie used her fingertip to wipe away moisture from Claudia’s cheek. “I knew I shouldn’t have said anything. I’m sorry. I’m an idiot.” Jessie felt an overwhelming urge to flee. She struggled to disentangle their bodies and was surprised to meet resistance.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” Claudia’s arms and legs wrapped around her like a vise.

  “Get out of my way, Claude.” Jessie’s face flamed with embarrassment and shame. “It’s bad enough, don’t make it worse for me. I-I can quit the program, and you won’t have to see me again.”

  “What are you talking about?” Claudia released her grip. Jessie could feel her body shake. “Why would you say such a thing?” Claudia poked her hard in the chest. Their faces were inches apart.

  Jessie pulled her head back to create a little distance. “You—you cried because I said I love you. It’s obvious you don’t feel the same way. My mistake, and I won’t trouble you again.”

  Claudia took her by the shoulders and shook her. “You are an idiot, Jessie Keaton.” She cupped Jessie’s face in her hands and forced eye contact. “Now you listen to me! I…love…you…too. I was crying tears of joy. You have heard of those, haven’t you?”

  Jessie nodded dumbly.

  “You’re not going anywhere without me. You’re stuck. Period. I love you, and that’s all there is to it.”

  Jessie knew she should say something, but her mind was still busy processing what Claudia was saying. She blinked a few times. “So, you do love me? You don’t want me to leave?”

  Claudia rolled her eyes. “That’s what I said, isn’t it?”

  “For real?”

  “For real.” Claudia leaned forward and stroked Jessie’s face as she kissed her.

  “Oh,” Jessie said when they broke apart. “Oh,” she said, in an entirely different tone of voice, when she felt Claudia’s hands begin to roam over her body.

  “What are we going to do when we get home?”

  “Hmm?”

  They were in the park where they’d picnicked the day before. Jessie was sitting with her back against a big oak tree. Claudia’s head was resting in Jessie’s lap, and Jessie was contentedly stroking her hair, noting the varying hues of burnished copper as they glinted in the midday sun.

  “When we get back to Sweetwater.”

  “Fly planes, of course.” Claudia stretched and crossed her legs at the ankle. Her eyes remained closed.

  “I know that.” Jessie snapped off the last “t.”

  “What are you getting so irritated about?” Claudia half-rose on an elbow to face Jessie.

  “I mean, what are we going to do about us?”

  “Oh.” Claudia scrunched up her face in a look Jessie quickly was coming to recognize as her “thinking” pose. She shrugged. “We’ll just have to find time to be alone.”

  “You say that like it’s going to be a simple thing.”

  “We’ll just have to make it that way.” Claudia captured Jessie’s hand and kissed her palm.

  “But— How am I supposed to act like nothing’s changed?” Jessie was having a hard time not jumping up to pace, which was what she normally would have done when faced with a problem that was vexing her.

  “Are you worried about what the girls will think?”

  “Aren’t you? We could get kicked out of the WASPs for having an inappropriate relationship. Then where would we be?”

  Claudia sat all the way up and faced Jessie fully. “We’re not going to let that happen. We’ll just have to be careful, that’s all.”

  “I don’t think you’re understanding the full import here, Claude. I can’t just treat you like you’re any of the other girls. I’m sure they’ll see my love for you written all over my face, just like your feelings are written all over yours right now.”

  “Why?” Claudia licked her lips seductively. “Just because I want to kiss you?” She tipped forward and did just that, until Jessie pushed her back.

  “I’m serious. It won’t take Shirley or Annabelle thirty seconds to put two and two together and get four. You know how they gossip about everybody. They’re like hawks, those two.”

  “Janie and Rebecca aren’t much better.”

  “Exactly. So, what are we going to do about us?”

  Claudia leaned into Jessie. “What do you want to do about us, Jess?”

  “I keep going over it in my mind, but I can’t come up with any good answers. All I know is I’m not willing to go back to the way things were.” Jessie cupped Claudia’s face in her hands and caressed her cheeks, marveling yet again at the softness of her skin. “I can’t lose you.”

  “You won’t. I promise. I love you, Jess.”

  “I love you too. You’re right—we’ll find a way to make it work.”

  It was 1450 hours, and Jessie and Claudia were back at the Palm Springs Air Base. They were running through the final visual inspection on the Valiant. Jessie would fly the first leg to their refueling stop in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Then Claudia would take over, just as they had done on the way out.

  “Everything looks to be okay.”

  “Except for them.” Claudia subtly jerked her head in the direction of the handful of flyboys and mechanics lurking just inside the hangar.

  “What about them?”

  “I can’t put my finger on it. They just look like my little brother used to look when he’d been up to mischief.”

  “I wouldn’t know anything about that. But I can’t see that anything’s amiss here.”

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “But you still don’t like it.” Claudia looked uneasy, something Jessie had never seen before.

  “Not a bit.”

  “What do you want to do about it?”

  “Nothing we can do. Just make sure your parachute is in good order.”

  Jessie nodded grimly. They’d both heard stories of WASP planes intentionally being sabotaged. “Off we go, then.” She helped Claudia into the rear cockpit and climbed into the front. She ran through the instrument checks. Everything seemed fine. She turned and gave Claudia the thumbs up.

  Claudia returned the gesture and mouthed a silent “I love you.”

  Jessie nodded back at her.

  A few minutes later, they had the all-clear. Jessie accelerated down the runway and pulled back on the control stick. The Valiant lifted off effortlessly, and Jessie took her into a gradual ascent. Their eventual cruising altitude would be 12,000 feet.

  “Beautiful day for a sightseeing cruise.” Claudia’s voice crackled over the airwaves of their internal communications system. “You do know how to fly this bird, right?”

  “Who me?” Jessie responded, keying her
mic. “Nah. Just making it up as I go along.”

  “I suspected as much. Never trust a woman who won’t wear a dress.”

  That startled a laugh out of Jessie.

  “That’s the sound I adore.”

  The love in Claudia’s voice brought a smile to Jessie’s lips. She remained deeply concerned about how they would handle their relationship at Sweetwater. Being in such close quarters and not looking at Claudia like she wanted to get her alone every second was going to be a challenge. As Claudia herself pointed out, Jessie was no poker player. Her feelings were always written all over her face. But up here, all alone so high above the earth, it was hard to care about such things.

  The sky was a brilliant blue, the clouds puffy and sporadic. It was, indeed, a perfect day to fly.

  “Leveling her off now.” Jessie said, more out of habit than anything else. It’s what she would have told her instructor had he been in the plane with her.

  “Roger. We’ll be home in time for the sunset if the refuel doesn’t take too long.”

  “Not sure I’m all that happy about that.”

  “About what, watching a glorious sunset together on our descent?”

  “No, about sharing you once we arrive back in Sweetwater.” Jessie frowned. From the time she’d become aware of Jackie Cochran’s program, she’d set her sights on getting accepted. Flying planes was her greatest love—until now. Would she put Claudia before flying? She didn’t know, and that frightened her more than words could say. Nothing and no one had ever mattered to her as much as being in the air.

  “I know what you mean. Wish we could’ve stolen a few more days alone—” Claudia stopped talking mid-sentence when the engine coughed, sputtered, and quit.

  “Jess?”

  Claudia’s voice held all the alarm that Jessie felt as everything suddenly went deathly quiet around them.

  Jessie watched the instrument panel, cursing when the indicator predictably showed the oil pressure rapidly dropping.

  “Hang on. I’m going to put us into a shallow dive and try to get her back.” Jessie pushed down on the stick and attempted to restart the single engine. Nothing happened.

  “Switch to the other fuel tank.”

  “Roger.” Jessie flipped the toggle to switch from the left fuel tank to the one on the right wing. “That one’s no good, either.”

  “Dandy. I knew those idiots were up to something. Bet you a million dollars they put water in the fuel lines.”

  “Bastards.”

  “Never mind that. How are you at flying gliders?”

  Jessie appreciated Claudia’s obvious calm, despite the dire nature of the situation. “Haven’t done it in a while, but there was this one time…”

  “Now you want to get all loquacious on me?”

  “All what?”

  “Talkative. Now you want to get talkative?”

  “Sorry. Thought it might lighten the mood.” Jessie noted the falling RPMs, and the fact that they were still at 11,500 feet. If everything went right, they would have a maximum of thirty minutes to land the plane. “Check the map, will you, Claude? Find a place for us to put down.”

  “You know map-reading isn’t my strongest suit, right?”

  “Now you tell me.” Jessie turned her head from side to side to lessen the tension in her neck. There was nothing for it now, except to bring the Valiant down safely. If anything happened to Claudia while she was flying the plane, Jessie would never forgive herself. “Okay, risk-taker. You said you like adventure. Hang on, this ought to be one for the books.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Jessie worked desperately to keep control of the powerless plane. She feathered the prop, putting just the leading edge of the blade into the wind, and began a gradual, controlled descent.

  She and Claudia jointly determined that the safest place to put the Valiant on the ground was the Kingman Army Air Base in Arizona, some two hundred miles to the east.

  After radioing their distress call and getting the go-ahead to land, Claudia fell silent, and Jessie was grateful. She didn’t need to be reminded of the many perils they faced on the way down, or that their calculations could be thrown off by shifting winds or any number of other factors.

  Sweat dripped into her eyes, and she used her sleeve to wipe the moisture away. She had, indeed, flown gliders before, but never for this distance or under these circumstances. And never with someone else’s life at stake—never mind that she was in love with that someone else.

  “Land ho, darling.” Claudia’s voice crackled over the radio. Twenty minutes had passed.

  “And here I thought we’d been over land all this time.”

  “True, but in this instance I do believe this spit of land is Kingman, Arizona.”

  Jessie looked off to the left side of the aircraft, and spotted a runway in the near distance. “Roger.” She keyed the radio and requested clearance from the tower to land.

  “Bravo-four-zero-niner, all clear for your bird. All other traffic has been diverted. Nothing in your way now,” a male voice informed her. “Happy landings.”

  “Roger,” Jessie replied. “Here we go,” she said to Claudia. “In case—”

  “In case, nothing,” Claudia cut her off. “We’ll tell each other over a pop after we’re on the ground.”

  Jessie smiled thinly at Claudia’s forced bravado. She reviewed in her head procedures and possibilities. Lower the flaps until they’re lined up with the runway, reduce speed, land normally. It sounded so simple in theory. Jessie took in a deep breath through her nose and let it out through her mouth. She did the same thing two more times for good measure. “I love you, Claude,” she whispered, as she maneuvered the crippled plane over the runway. She could see a pair of fire trucks moving into position nearby. The sight did nothing to steady her nerves.

  She wasn’t one for praying, but she made an exception in this instance. God, I just found love, please don’t take it away now. But, if I can’t save myself, at least let me save Claudia. Let her have a full and happy life. “Brace for impact, Claude.” Jessie pushed the words out through the tightness in her chest and throat. There were so many more things she wanted to say. Would she ever get the chance again? Brief memories from the night before flitted through her mind. Claudia’s head thrown back in rapture. Claudia calling her name in passion. Claudia—

  “Looking good, bravo-four-zero-niner.” The disembodied voice in the tower interrupted Jessie’s train of thought.

  “Roger. One dead stick landing coming up.” Jessie put both hands on the control stick and pulled back until the Valiant leveled off. The front wheels bounced once hard off the ground, shoving Jessie forward into the control panel. She fought to keep the stick steady as it vibrated wildly in her hands. It seemed the plane might flip over as the front wheels pounded the ground again. A second later, the back wheel hit and the plane skidded sideways. Jessie stubbornly held onto the stick, steering as best she could.

  Seconds seemed like hours as dust flew everywhere. Jessie momentarily was blinded. Her head hit something, hard. She blinked but refused to let go of the controls. When the plane came to rest off the side of the runway, miraculously still right-side-up, Jessie slumped back into her seat. She was dimly aware of the sound of wailing sirens coming closer, then of hands grabbing at her safety harness. Then her world went black.

  The first thing Jessie was aware of was a blinding light. She blinked quickly, and closed her eyes again. “Claude?” she mumbled. “Claude!” Jessie shouted. Her eyes flew open as her mind clicked into gear, and she remembered what had happened.

  “Shh. I’m here, darling.”

  Claudia’s hand pressed into hers, warm and soft, and Jessie immediately subsided. She tried to turn her head in Claudia’s direction, but a white-hot lance of pain behind her right eye forced her to abort the motion.

  “Stay still, Jess. The doctor says you suffered a bad concussion, and you shouldn’t move around just yet.”

  “Where am I?”

/>   “Kingman Army Air Base Hospital.”

  “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine.”

  Jessie detected a note of…something…in Claudia’s voice. “I don’t believe you. Come here where I can see you.”

  “Really, I’m okay.”

  Claudia’s face came into focus as she moved into Jessie’s line of sight, and Jessie gasped. “Oh my God. Oh my God, Claude.” She reached out with gentle fingers and traced the contours of a bandage that covered part of Claudia’s left eyebrow. “You’re hurt.”

  “It looks worse than it is.”

  Jessie swallowed back tears. The sight of Claudia injured was almost more than she could take. “You’ve got a gash over your eye and a shiner.”

  Claudia squeezed Jessie’s hand harder. She looked back over her shoulder, then leaned over and quickly brushed her lips against Jessie’s. “I’m alive, and I’m here with the woman I love. A woman who just happens to be a hero.”

  “I’m—” Jessie started to protest.

  “You brought that bird down safely and kept it from doing a cartwheel on the runway. Not many pilots could’ve done what you did. You saved our lives.”

  Jessie opened her mouth to speak again, but Claudia silenced her with two fingers on her lips.

  “The cut will heal, and the shiner will give me a good story to tell. It’s nothing compared to what could’ve happened.”

  Jessie was surprised to see tears swimming in Claudia’s eyes. She pushed up in the bed until she was sitting, ignoring the pain in her head. All she wanted to do was take her lover into her arms and hold her. She opened her arms in invitation.

  “Ah, I see you’re awake.”

  Jessie froze in mid-motion as a nurse bustled into the room. Jessie felt her cheeks flame red. She leaned back against the pillows to create distance from Claudia, who had yet to move.

  “She just woke up. I was adjusting her pillows to make her more comfortable.”