Compass (5 page)

“Army?”

“Marines.”

Ryan gave her a quick nod. During college, he’d joined the Air Guard Reserves to help pay for his tuition. He was never called up for active duty, but he had the utmost respect for those who were. He gave Carin’s shoulder a gentle squeeze. “You’re daddy was a brave man. You remember that.”

Carin met Ryan’s gaze. “He’s a hero,” she heralded.

“Yes, he is. And so are you.” Ryan stood up, and saluted Carin and her mother.

Ms. Ross straightened up, tears streamed down her cheeks. No further words were exchanged. They didn’t need to be. His salute was an honor in the likes of the Ross family. Ryan reached into his carry-on and pulled out his extra uniform hat he always had with him. He placed it on Carin’s head with a smile. With a click of his heels, in a military fashion, he turned from the Ross family and made his way to the departure gate.

At the door of the jet bridge, a young ticket agent swiped a tear from her eye. She gave Ryan a smile and opened the door for him, not saying a single word. Once the door closed behind him, Ryan raced down the bridge to the awaiting aircraft. When he reached the door, Makenna Davis, the chief purser, stood waiting for him with a cup of coffee and a smile. “About time you showed up for work, Fisher.” She glanced over her shoulder toward the cockpit and announced, “Captain, our straggler has arrived.”

Ryan groaned, shaking his head. “Don’t even start.”

“Start what?” Makenna teased, gracing him with a wily expression. “I can’t remember the last time you were late. Or have you ever been late?”

“Never!” Kix called out from the cockpit.

Ryan sniffed, cutting his eyes to Kix and biting his tongue. He removed his hat and exchanged it and his luggage for the cup for coffee. Makenna giggled, patting him on the back. “Oh, buck up. It happens to the best of us,” she noted, picking up his bag and placing it in the captain’s luggage compartment.

“Not to me,” he groused.

“You’re human. Give yourself some slack every once in awhile.”

Ryan slipped into the cockpit, taking his seat to the right of the captain. Captain Kix Jones smirked, his eyes cutting to Ryan. “I want details.”

“Huh?” Ryan muttered behind the lip of his coffee cup.

Kix dropped the preflight checklist clipboard in his lap and stared at Ryan with the most incredulous look on his face. Ryan knew exactly what Kix believed had caused Ryan’s unusual tardiness, because it was something that had happened to Kix more times than Ryan could count. Kix was what one might call the perpetual bachelor. He’d been married once, but being in the air proved to be a bit more challenging for him in the monogamy department.

Many nights, Ryan found himself at the hotel bar watching Kix at work with the ladies. It almost had become a sport to keep score on how many women Kix could pick up. He often wondered what it was that attracted women to the captain. Kix was in his mid-forties; slightly balding, sandy brown hair with gray peppered through it, pale blue eyes, and a small gut that hung over his pants.

Ryan once had the unfortunate circumstance of seeing Kix in the locker room. After that experience, he was sure the captain had stopped developing at the ripe age of fourteen. There was no way it could be the size of his package that attracted women. This left him with only one conclusion: either it was true what they said and size didn’t matter, or that man had to have one talented tongue.

“Oh, c’mon, kid. Just one juicy little detail.”

“There are no details. I overslept. That’s it,” Ryan grumbled, swiping the preflight checklist from Kix. He took another swig from his coffee and set it aside.

“Gah!” Kix snarled. “You’re too young for there to be no details.”

“That’s it?” Ryan repeated, this time forming a question.

He gave Ryan a nonchalant shrug and started back to work. “Anyone else, I would’ve called them a liar. But you...meh. When you say you overslept. You overslept.”

Ryan rubbed his jaw and glanced over the checklist. “Am I really that predictable?”

Makenna stuck her head into the cockpit. “Not predictable. Dependable.” She gave Ryan a wink and disappeared again.

Kix let out a boisterous laugh. “Thanks, Kenna!”

“Anytime!” she shouted back.

The two men set to work, preparing for the flight. As they worked, Ryan’s mind wandered back to Alexis. It was true his only reason for being late was lack of sleep, but he hadn’t been completely forthcoming about the nature of his insomnia. While it had been many, many years since he had last seen Alexis York, not a day went by where he didn’t think of her. He’d always hated how they lost touch.

They’d promised to call once a week, because long distance calls weren’t cheap. And they’d kept that promise for some time. Ryan had even taken on a part-time job as a busboy to pay for their weekly calls. He loved talking to her about her new life in New York and always kept her in the loop about the on goings in Edenton. But slowly the calls moved from once a week to twice a month, then to once a month. Then there were no calls, only the occasional letter or email. And soon, even those disappeared. He blamed no one. Time and distance played its toll on their friendship.

After high school he moved to Florida for college. Between school and the Air Guard, Ryan had little time for much of anything. He’d been to so many places and seen so many sights. London, Paris, and Riyadh, were just a few stops along his journey. Little did anyone know, there was a box of postcards, all made out to Alexis, at the top of his closet at home. It had become a sort of tradition with him. Each new city, each new country, he picked up a postcard for her. It didn’t matter if he didn’t know where to mail them. This had been his way of keeping her in his heart, always.

Ryan scratched the top of his head, his ink pen dangling from his lips. He glanced over the checklist twice, initialed it and handed it back over to Kix for him to do the same. Ryan was a stickler for detail. Safety was key to him and it was one of the reasons why every captain that flew with him loved him. Nothing got past Ryan.

By this point, passengers had started to board the plane. It was almost time for takeoff and no matter how many times he flew, Ryan always felt a twinge of excitement before the plane lifted into the air. He loved the feel of the controls at his fingertips and couldn’t wait for the day he’d become captain.

“Hey, guys,” Makenna addressed the two pilots as she entered the cockpit. Her jet black hair draped over her shoulder like a dark veil and her dark blue eyes peered behind her cat-eye glasses. Around her neck dangled a red scarf. It was against airline dress code, but no one said anything to her about it. Makenna was a tenured flight attendant and damn good at her job. Pilots fought to have her on their flights and there was no way any of them would complain about something as insignificant as a scarf.

“Sup?” Ryan quipped.

“Just wanted to let you know all passengers are on board and the manifest is complete. Pre-flight drink service is underway.”

“Speaking of which.” Kix lifted his coffee cup, dangling it at Makenna. There was some heavy sexual tension between the captain and chief purser, but Ryan knew Makenna would never give Kix the time of day. Everyone knew of his playboy ways and Makenna was better than that. Her restraint made Ryan protective of her. He adored Makenna like a sister and didn’t want to see her hurt by the captain, no matter how much he respected Kix.

Makenna cocked her head. “You know what, just for that, you can get your own coffee.”

“Kenna,” Kix whined, drawing out on every syllable of her name.

“Nope,” she smacked. “Get off that lazy ass of yours and get your own coffee.”

“Lazy!” he rebuked. “I’m not lazy.”

“Whatever. We all know Fisher runs the show while you sit back and jerk off.”

Ryan’s head fell back in laughter. “She pegged you!”

Kix huffed and stood up. He popped Ryan against the back of the head and followed Makenna from the cockpit. Ryan laughed harder, pulled on his headset, and switched the radio to the control tower frequency.

Just as Ryan received the clearing for departure, Kix reappeared in the cockpit sans a cup of coffee. “Everything set?”

“We just received clearance. I thought I might end up flying this bird by myself.” Ryan nodded his head toward Kix’s empty hands. “What? No coffee? Or did Makenna finally give you a chance to join the Mile High Club?”

Kix slapped his knee and buckled over in fake laughter. “Ha! Been there, done that. Besides, the purpose of the mile high club is being in the air. If you’d ever pull your dick out and use it, you’d understand.” He closed and locked the cockpit door. With a shake of his head, he slid back into his seat.

“I’ll take that as a no,” Ryan stated.

Kix buckled himself back into his seat. “We both know the answer to that one. But, I did see a passenger that would knock your socks off. She damn near did mine.”

“Ah, that explains the missing cup of coffee.”

Kix wrapped his headset over his crown, pulling the mouthpiece down to his lips. He settled his hands on the yoke, reviewing the coordinates Ryan had entered in for him. They were all set to take off. He spouted off a few instructions to the control tower and then turned to Ryan. “You should go check her out when we’re in the air. You won’t be sorry.”

Ryan groaned, rolling his head from side to side. “I swear you have the libido of a teenager.”

“There’s nothing wrong with a healthy sexual appetite,” Kix argued. The taxi had pulled away and the cockpit was now in control of the craft. Through Kix’s mastery of flying, the plane was set into motion. It picked up speed along the runway. The nose started to rise, lifting the commercial aircraft from the ground.

Ryan loved how the sky looked as they started to ascend. There was no greater rush than gaining speed and taking an object that shouldn’t be capable of flying and make it soar to the Heavens.

As soon as the plane was off the ground, Ryan lifted the wheels.

“How about you make the announcement, Fisher.”

Ryan jerked his head to Kix. “Are you sure, sir?”

Kix gave Ryan a wink. “Don’t question your captain.” There was a playfulness to his tone, but also a note of seriousness. Ryan graced him with a smile and switched the frequency in his headset to the main cabin.

“Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, this is your first officer, Ryan Fisher, speaking. I want to welcome you aboard this nonstop flight from New York JFK to Dallas. Our expected flight time is three hours and forty-eight minutes. Your flight is being flown today by Captain Kix Jones. He’s assured me we have a smooth flight ahead of us today. So, I will now turn off the seatbelt signs.” Ryan flipped off the Fasten Seatbelt sign as promised. “Please feel free to move about the cabin if necessary. However, we, the crew, ask that if you are in your seats, to please keep your seatbelts fastened in case of unexpected turbulence. Otherwise, please sit back, relax, and enjoy the flight. If there is anything we can do to make your flight a more pleasant experience, please let us know.”

Once his greeting was complete, he switched his frequency back to the departing tower and listened to their inflight instructions.

“Nicely done, Fisher,” Kix noted.

“Thank you, sir.”

“So, as I was saying…”

Ryan laughed. “Seriously, Captain, is that all you have on your mind?”

“If you saw this babe, you’d have a raging hard on too.”

“I have a bit more self-control than you.”

“You wouldn’t be able to maintain that haughty smirk of yours if you knew what she looked like.”

Ryan dropped his smirk, trying hard not to laugh. “Fine. If it makes you feel better, tell me what she looks like.”

“She has these big brown eyes, and long flowing brown hair,” Kix described. “And her legs,” he let out a guttural groan, “I could imagine those lanky limbs wrapped around my neck. She was toned in all the right places, and had a rack on her that would bounce in your face as she…”

Ryan waved his hands for mercy. “Okay! I think I got the mental image here.”

He really did have the perfect mental image. The woman Kix described sounded like the same woman that had invaded Ryan’s mind the night before, causing him to oversleep and be late to work. While there was no way it was the same girl, Ryan felt a little flutter in his chest. A smile twitched the corner of his mouth as he recalled the memory of the old ladder he used to climb into her bedroom at night.

When they were eight, their parents thought their sleepovers were adorable. Alexis would sing and dance for Ryan, while he regaled her with details of the last plane model he’d acquired. They would make tents in her bedroom and camp out. When they were fourteen, their parents started to worry that it might be inappropriate for them to sleep in the same bed. There were several arguments about how Ryan and Alexis’ bodies were changing to which they ignored. They knew they were only friends and their parents needed to get a clue to that as well.

That argument ceased after Cora’s passing.

The day of Cora’s funeral, Ryan stuck to Alexis like glue. Even at the tender age of fourteen, he could feel his friend’s pain. He loved Cora and thought of her like a sister. He grieved for the young girl, but worried about Alexis. She took the death of her sister hard. All through the funeral, he held her tight. He remembered how his collar was soaked with Alexis’ tears, but not once did he complain or attempt to change his shirt.

That night he left her, at the bequest of their parents, only to be awakened by her screams from across the street.

Ryan didn’t think twice. He ran to her side. The moment he wrapped his arms around her, she calmed down. Miles and Melanie quickly realized Ryan’s importance and the innocence of the arrangement. So, after that, their parents said nothing about them sleeping in the same bed. They knew nothing was going on between Ryan and Alexis besides sleeping.

Not that Ryan wouldn’t have minded something more to have happened. For as long as he could remember, he was in love with Alexis York. She was beautiful, popular, and smart. But aside from all that, she had the soul of a poet and the freedom of a pilot. Every night he held her in his arms, close to his body. Many nights he would lay in silence listening to her breathing, while his hands would tenderly caress her.