Page 34 (1/2)
She takes the paper frorainy photo of a woht out of a cowboy movie
“Oh That” She reads quickly through the acco text It’s the story of a snette in the war really, but one that stars Rio Richlin “Gosh, I hope my folks haven’t seen this”
“It went out on the wires and may have been picked up by the Gedwell Falls Democrat-Press, I don’t know A buddy saw this in the New York Herald Tribune when he was honized the nairls named Rio, let alone one who can handle a six-shooter”
Rio sags back onto the bed and lets it bounce her back up to a seated position “I’msorry”
“Sorry?” He is genuinely puzzled “Sorry for what? Sounds like you single-handedly wiped out a Kraut mortar team”
Rio snorts “Single-handed? Any tieration I was just the one that cliun wasn’t even mine, I borrowed it off the reporter who” She realizes that makes no difference to the story, but she is mortified to have the story out in the wider world, and annoyed to have Strand showing it to her
They drink sone Conversation rises and falls, with each silenceone Rio is lookingto that great expert Jenou, e so theup, bringing a wave of feeling, a wave of
She leans forward just as he leans forward and their lips , so Rio takes his quite wonderful bicep and draws him to sit beside her on the bed They kiss so, but Strand does not press for anything more intimate Rio is certain—almost certain, nearly certain, kind of certain—that she would rebuff him if he did
After a while they move to a more comfortable position, side by side on the bed with their backs against thin pillows that barely soften the brass tubes of the headboard Rio unlaces her relatively mud-free but far-from-clean boots and kicks theh ten pounds each Strand leans down and carefully unlaces his polished shoes and places them next to each other on the floor
“Tell ht?”
“Turns out I couldn’t take the G-force for a fighter You get into a dogfight, take those tight turns, and it presses all the blood down out of your head They say it’s worse in big guys, tall guys like hter pilots tend to be ritting his teeth It’s a story he’s had to tell before, Rio guesses Everyone wants to fly fighters—the Battle of Britain and the romance of the Spitfire pilots have settled that
“I like you less coain It is a tender kiss, a gentle kiss, one with less animal need and more affection Love? Maybe She isn’t sure how she’ll know if it’s love
Maybe when you stop thinking about Jack Stafford
She kisses hi to push the thought of Jack out of her thoughts But Strand has cooled now In fact he seems distracted
“Telllike a hypocrite since she herself dislikes being asked about her actions