Broken Wings Read Online Free PDF Page B

up. I had a little sailboat, and I must have spent hours a day fighting the wind and the waves. All my life I’ve planned to go back, find a little seaside house with big windows that have an Atlantic view. Just never have.”
    Erin looked out over the water. A speedboat arched past them, causing the water in its wake to thrash against the shore. “I hardly ever come here. I’m always so busy. But I should come more. It’s peaceful.”
    “Is that why you started flying, Erin? For peace?”
    Her eyes gravitated toward the sky, and a tentative stillness seeped into their golden depths. “Maybe. The first time I went up it was in a little single engine plane that a boy I was dating had rented. He had just gotten his license, and I had to sneak out to the airport because my mother absolutely forbade me to fly with him.” Erin laughed softly and glanced down at the sand. “When I saw the clouds below me and the ant-sized people and the cars inching along, I remember thinking that that was where I wanted to be. Up above it all, soaring free and fast, like a seagull.”
    Addison’s smile was one of genuine pleasure. “How did you talk your mother into letting you take lessons?”
    “I didn’t tell her,” she said, a mischievous grin pulling at the corners of her mouth. “My father paid for them and swore me to secrecy. For years, she thought aviation was a science elective in college and that everyone who graduates from LSU has to learn how to fly. She finally figured out that I wasn’t going after a master’s in art when I went to Emery Riddle to train to be a commercial pilot.”
    Her lilting laughter joined his on the wind, then quickly died. Erin dropped her gaze, reminding herself why they had come here…reminding herself that it was no time to drop her defenses. “I’m glad she wasn’t alive to hear about the crash. Thinking I was on it would have killed her.” Silence lay between them, heavy, dark. “Go ahead,” she said with false bravado. “Ask me your questions. What do you want to know?”
    Addison looked at her for a moment, as if assessing the resolution in her face, or measuring the strength in her features. He didn’t try to change her mood, she realized, and that endeared him somewhat to her. “Let’s sit down,” he suggested.
    Obediently, Erin dropped onto the grass with no regard for her clothes. He lowered himself next to her, dropped his clipboard on the grass, and set his wrists on his bent knees. “Erin, when was the last time you saw Mick before the crash?”
    The question demanded a direct memory, one she had tried to avoid for two weeks. She forced herself to answer. “The day before, I guess. I took his son to a wrestling match.”
    “A what? ”
    His amused tone made her smile again. “A wrestling match. Hulk Hogan, The Undertaker, the works. What’s so funny about that?”
    Addison chuckled again. “I’m sorry. I just find it hard to imagine you at a wrestling match. Did you like it?”
    “Of course I liked it,” she said. “It’s very entertaining. I’d elaborate, but I don’t really think we came here to talk about wrestling.”
    “No.” Addison seemed to regroup his thoughts, and his smile faded. “Okay, so you took his son to this match. Did he come, too?”
    “No. He and Maureen stayed home. It was their anniversary. Twenty-seven years.” Erin looked out over the water, remembering the candlelit table and the polished silver and the Cornish game hen Maureen had roasted for the occasion.
    “What about when you brought him back? Did you stay?”
    “Only a few minutes.”
    “You said it was his anniversary. Had he consumed any alcohol that night?” Addison asked, picking up his clipboard and making a notation.
    “That was at least twenty hours before the flight.”
    Addison began writing furiously, which vexed her further. “Did he or did he not drink that night?”
    “Maybe a glass of champagne,” she admitted defensively.
    “One glass?”
    That