Flyboy
Top Flight: A Fighter Pilot Romance
Sophia Summers
Contents
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Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
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About the Author
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Ace
Bear
Flyboy
Mustang
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Chapter 1
Colton, call sign Flyboy, returned home to Texas on a rare break from his Top Flight pilot teams to check on his dad. He’d had a little scare when his dad went in for testing after strange bloodwork, but the strong eighty-year-old man had been cleared of any serious issues. Colton would spend a couple more days with his parents and his brothers, who’d come into town for the rodeo, then he was off on the next assignment.
He urged his horse to a gallop. He and Pepper flew across his parents’ back pasture. Not quite like an F-16, but there was still something about being up on a horse that brought most things in his life back into neat little lines where they belonged. He wasn’t usually appreciative of neat little lines, and he avoided labels and boxes. He had barely made it through the military with an honorable discharge, but not because he was trouble. He’d served well and had medals to prove it, but they sat in his top drawer here at home at his parents’ house. He steered his horse toward their favorite jump over a half-broken fence at the edge of the creek toward the back of the property. Maybe it was still there.
Pepper seemed to know where they were going, and Colton let the horse have his head. They took off even faster. He smiled so long his teeth hurt, and then they flew over the fence, cleared the creek, and kept racing out across the field on the other side. His horse leaped over smaller logs and rocks, anything in their way. Colton rose up in his saddle and put his arms out. The horse hit the steep upward climb on the hill in front of them as if it was nothing. They hadn’t been up to the top in over a year.
As soon as they reached the top, Colton felt his phone vibrating in his chest pocket. It was the Top Flight phone. Calls on that phone tended to be important, or if not that, urgent at the least. He dismounted and let Pepper wander.
“Ace,” he said into the phone with a smile.
“Fly. Good to hear your voice, man. It’s been a while.” It was his friend and the reason he sat on a board of four people who ran the Top Flight training programs.
They’d been doing most of their meetings over Zoom, but those had been nothing but business. “Yeah, yours too. Where are you right now?”
“Amazon Rainforest. But I’m coming home to Virginia so I can gear up and run my next group.”
“Amazon, huh? Did you get a good look at anything I’m going to be seeing while we’re down there?”
“No, nothing like that. These villages, dude. They’re like nothing even I’ve ever seen.”
“You figuring it out?”
“Yeah. So far.”
Ace spent half the year working on Top Flight assignments and the other half doing humanitarian work for underprivileged children. If Colton had to guess, the village he’d just left now had a well for clean water and the new workings of a school.
“That’s awesome, man. So, I’m glad you called. I have some questions about my assignment.”
“So do I.”
Colton walked to the edge of the ridge to look out over the whole valley in front. “Shoot.”
“So while I was down there, I made some phone calls, and Brazil only has two planes.”
“What?”
“Right. And a team of fifteen pilots to train.”
Colton frowned. “I could do that by myself.”
“Or maybe with just one other from Top Flight.”
“Right.” Colton shook his head. “Should we talk about it at our board meeting?”
“Yep, but before I brought it up there, I thought I’d mention it to you . . . you know, give you a heads up so you could think about it.”
“Thanks, man.” He knew who he wanted on his team. Ivy Hatfield. But why did he want her? That was the question that had him out here pounding the miles around his parents’ home. Was she qualified? Certainly. Would he enjoy working with her? That wasn’t the question that most concerned him. Something about her getting under his skin in an uncomfortable, itchy-but-good way, hung around in his head. And then there was the question about whether or not he should scratch the itch.
But as they began their Zoom meeting a few days later, Ace surprised him by not saying anything about the missions at the beginning like he usually did. Colton liked their board meetings. He was always reminded what a cool thing they’d all started. A pilot training program. Skills and consulting offered all over the world.
“Ridley! How are things with you? How’s the little squirt?” Ace grinned.
“We’re doing great,” Ridley answered. “She’s such a trooper about all this, really. But what about you? It’s been a long time. How’s the jungle?”
“It’s amazing. We’ve got the village all squared away. We have three new wells drilled and a school up and working, as well as education on newborn resuscitation and basic sanitation.”
Just as Colton had thought. Of course he’d taken care of all of that. How would it be to be Ace? Colton was good at things too, just one thing at a time.
“That’s awesome, dude,” Ridley said.
“What about you, Mustang?” Ace twirled a pencil, leaning back in his chair. Zoom was fine, but Colton wanted to sit in a real room with each of the board sometime.
“I’m ready for another mission, that’s what.”
“And I have the four we’ve chosen ready for you,” Ace said. “But before we go through our pilots and choose teams, there’s something else we need to address.”
That sounded ominous. He tried to get a read on Ace, but he just couldn’t tell all that much through a Zoom chat image.
“We had a letter of complaint.”
“A what?” Colton couldn’t remember there ever being a letter of complaint.
“Yes. Th
ere’s really nothing for it. I’m not sure what to think, so I’ll just read it.”
Was he taking this letter seriously? Or was he laughing inside? Looking at the now intense expressions of the others, Colton shifted in his seat at the dining room table and leaned closer as if peering into the screen would help him figure things out.
Ace unfolded a piece of paper. “This is from Ivy Hatfield.”
Colton’s heart hammered inside. And a knot in his stomach grew.
“I’ll skip to the good stuff.” Ace cleared his throat. “Colton Bushman has proven overly aggressive in his efforts to teach the more challenging flying to pilots who lack experience. When he teaches, he is goaded on by their encouragement and creates an atmosphere of recklessness that is a danger not only to himself but to all our pilots. While I see that Top Fight wants to improve upon the training pilots may have received previously, I don’t feel it is in anyone’s best interest to create a team of pilots all over the world who take undue risks and potentially lose lives and expensive planes.” Ace cleared his throat. “She goes on, for three pages. But that was the gist of what she continued to say in many different ways.”
“Sounds like she’s got a real bone to pick with you. Did you do a flyby and scare her one time or something?” Ridley shook his head.
“No, nothing like that at all. I can’t figure out why she, of all people, would have written this. We’ve never worked together.” Colton couldn’t make up his mind about whether to be irritated, hurt, or amused.
“She’s around. She sees you or hears of you.” Amanda interjected, and her tone gave Colton pause.
“What are your thoughts, Mustang?”
“I think you need to let her see why you do what you do. Maybe you could explain your methods and theories to her.” Her tone sounded a little too placating to Colton.
“Why should I have to talk at all about it? My actions speak for themselves. My history, the pilots I’ve trained. It can all stand on its own.”
“I know you’re an exceptional pilot. We know that. But it’s so much easier for people to know you or understand you if you spell it out a little bit. None of us can read minds.”
“Ace? Ridley?”
Ridley cleared his throat. “Might want to talk to her.”
“None of you agree with her?”
Every one of them shook their heads.
“Honestly, Flyboy, we love it when you do your amazing maneuvers. No one can fly like you. Hands down. No one. And we know that. We trust you.” Ace would always come through. And it sounded like the others didn’t think he was a danger to pilots everywhere.
Colton shrugged. “Looks like Ivy Hatfield needs a little Flyboy education. So now I’m going to request for her to be on my team.” Of course, he knew he was already planning to do just that, but they didn’t need to know that, or that her words cut deeper coming from her than they would anybody else. He couldn’t just shake them off. They were sticking to him in uncomfortable places.
Silence met him, and then Ridley shook his head. “That’ll be something. Could I come just to watch the show?”
“I’ve got the popcorn.” Amanda grinned.
Ace wiped laughter tears from his eyes. “Now, you know the four of us know what an asset you are to our team, but it seems we have yet to convince Ivy. Perhaps it would be best if you just give her a lot of room for a few months. What do you think?”
Colton shook his head. “No. I’ve convinced myself. I want her on my team. In Brazil.”
“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea . . . did you hear what she said?”
“I heard it. And what better way to prove her wrong?”
He saw the hesitation on every one of their faces. “I know we need a smaller team, but I thought maybe Jed, Rocky, or Omar could come with us? Ivy seemed to get along well with all of them.”
“I think a good consideration of any of those others is a great idea.” Ace was still holding back support of asking for Ivy. Colton could read it all over his face.
“And Ivy.” Colton didn’t know what it was about her ridiculous letter of complaint, but her words—as off base as they were—had cinched his determination to ask for her on his Brazil team.
“Wait, are you serious?” Ace tried to study his face through the screen.
“I’m serious. Hey, don’t worry about me. She’ll be singing a whole new tune in no time. No one can resist my Texas charm for long.”
“That might be the wrong approach . . . ” Amanda didn’t often mince words. She was careful with her tone, but Colton could see all over her face how bad an idea she thought it would be for Colton to ask for Ivy on his team.
“I’ll address her concerns myself.” Colton smiled.
“And just how will you do that?” Ridley had been quiet. Colton wondered what he thought.
“I’ll call her. Ask her point-blank.” Colton shrugged. “And then after I hear her reasoning about why I’m not qualified to lead this organization, you can let her know her next assignment.”
“Colton.” Amanda’s smile gave him hope. “You’re the fastest pilot we have. No one would ever dispute your contributions to the pilot world either. They’re still studying your move at Top Gun, you know. But have you considered that there might be some truth to what she says?”
“Whoa. Now hold on, Mustang. We all have different theories about discipline and rule-following, and everybody’s style is needed.”
“It’s true, Flyboy. None of us can argue with your record.”
“Darn right. If it weren’t for the Fly, things would have gone very differently in Afghanistan. Someone had to break the rules, and that someone was usually Colton. But I see your point. The Ivys in the world are important too.”
Didn’t have to tell him twice. He couldn’t seem to get her out of his system. And he was hoping that being in such close quarters with the woman day in and day out would cure him of his interest, especially now that he knew she loathed him enough to write a three-page letter of complaint. He’d never seen two more highly incompatible people. And he obviously drove her to distraction.
He smiled.
Was that a good thing or a bad thing? But he had to convince the other three that working with Ivy was a good idea. “Okay, so here’s how I see things. She obviously has a problem with me. Maybe I can learn something from her, and to be honest, maybe she can learn something from me. She’s coming at me all wrong, and we all know it.”
Was he just asking for trouble?
His attention wandered out to the fenced pastures surrounding his home. He had one more day here and then it was off to Brazil, ahead of his team. “I want Ivy. I need her, anyway. I’m heading down to Brazil early. And she and either Omar or Jed can join me down there at the end of the week.”
It was hard to tell what everyone really thought about his opinions from a Zoom call.
“Let’s talk about our other teams, then.” Amanda seemed ready to let it go. Ridley hadn’t said much, and he knew if Ace had a real problem, he’d hear about it, now and later.
But they moved on. The slide show of all their potential pilots started playing, and the Top Flight board of directors started picking out the best pilots for the teams they were each putting together.
Colton could never have guessed that their new idea, to gather discharged military pilots and put together an international training program, would have taken off the way it had. They had more work than time, more pilots applying to be a part of it every day, and a healthy income. When Ace had told him there was money to be made and that he could still get up in a plane now and then, Colton had jumped at the chance. There was nothing else to do with his life anyway. Everything lacked the thrill of being up in those planes; nothing felt as important as being deployed for his country.
Top Flight filled a lot of holes in his life.
And he was lonely. But so far, he hadn’t found anything or anyone that could solve that problem. When he figured out what women really wanted,
he was sure he’d also see, plain as day, that he wasn’t it.
He hardly listened as the other three assigned the teams. When he logged off the call and stared at the names of those who would be on his team for the next four to six months, he didn’t know if he really wanted what he’d fought for.
Ivy. Who hated him, apparently.
And Omar. He hadn’t spelled it out to the others, but Omar was there to be a buffer between Ivy and him.
He rubbed his face. This was going to be some assignment.
Chapter 2
When Amanda told her she was being assigned to Flyboy’s team, Ivy almost lost her cool . . . almost.
“Mustang.”
“I know. Don’t even say it. Well, okay, you can say it. I’ll listen.”
“I plan to tell Flyboy too. This feels like a cruel joke. I submit a formal complaint, and you guys put me on his team? All the frustrations of working with him aside, he knows I complained about him. He’s bound to dislike the experience as much as I will.”
“On the contrary. He asked for you. He was adamant about it.”
Something inside did a little flip. “Why would he do that?” She shook her head. “Is this some joke to him?” Did he really want her on his team? That was crazy.
“He said you’re the best pilot for the job. Maybe it was just a professional decision.” Amanda was the best part of Top Flight in Ivy’s opinion. She’d connected with her immediately, and the two often sat together when the testosterone in any room was thick.
“I can do this,” Ivy told herself more than Amanda.
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