Christmas Diamond, a Novella: Inspired by The Jewel series and the Virtues and Valor series Read Online Free PDF Page A

gesturing toward Faith. "I'll help you after I take her back to the airfield."
    Feeling a well of nervous energy, Faith smiled and stepped closer to TJ. "Not at all. I'll gladly lend a hand as well." She looked down at the small, skinny man with the dirty blue baseball cap. "I'm Faith."
    "Nelson," he said, holding his hand out. "Pleased to meet you."
    As she shook Nelson's hand, she looked back at TJ. She could tell by the look on his face that unloading mulch was the last thing TJ Viscolli wanted to do. But he didn't argue. Instead, he glared at Nelson. "Let's get it done, then."

CHAPTER 5

    FAITH pulled the goggles down from the top of her helmet and covered her eyes with them. She took the stick in her gloved hand. After a thumb's up from her engineer, she pushed the throttle forward and taxied down the runway. In no time, she was airborne. Minutes later, she checked her position in the formation of six vintage aircraft. As she looked over, she saw her cousin Alfred and smiled. He gave her an answering grin and broke away from the formation to begin his stunts.
    As Faith flew the routine she'd done a hundred times before, she couldn't stop her mind from wandering. TJ had taken her to dinner every night that week. She couldn't believe how much she'd enjoyed herself.
    Working in a field dominated by confident men, she'd never really been open to being pursued. She'd had a few boyfriends here and there in her twenty-four years, but never anything serious. For some reason, she didn't feel like TJ belonged in the casual relationship corner of her mind. The man dominated her thoughts. Even now, while performing a highly complicated stunt routine, she couldn't stop thinking about him.
    He was careful not to bring up her grandmother, but the lack of talking about it was almost as bad as if he showed an interest. She knew he was just trying to reassure her that he was interested in her and not her family history. And, maybe he had started to understand on some level. She imagined people had tried to befriend TJ his entire life just to get close to his father.
    She suddenly wondered if he could ever trust anyone's motivations at the outset of any relationship. How did he handle that? How did a family that came across as so open and loving handle that?
    Somehow, in the course of a few days and nights, they had become a couple, if only informally. They closed every evening with a stroll on the beach where they ended up sitting in the very same spot they'd occupied on the night of the party. They talked for hours, about flying, family, history, America, England — they talked about everything. And just when he would get a serious look in his eye, just when she knew he wanted to recapture that moment right when he was about to kiss her in his office, she would push herself to her feet and bid him good night.
    Why? Why not let him kiss her? He was breathtakingly handsome, smarter than almost anyone she'd ever known, shared her love and her passion for the history of the second world war, and was wealthy well beyond her personal experience. Why not let him kiss her?
    Because it was Christmas Eve, and in a week she'd leave this beautiful patch of the Atlantic Ocean and go back home to her island. She was afraid that if she let him kiss her, she'd fall completely in love with him. Maybe if she didn't let him kiss her, her heart wouldn't break as badly as she already knew it would.
    On cue, she broke away from the pack and executed a series of rolls. She often wished they'd pipe in the crowd's responses when they performed their stunts. It would be amazing to hear the cheers and know what worked and what didn't. Of course, they'd all seen the recordings of the events many times, so they were able to hear the applause later, but she suspected it wasn't the same as a live response.
    As a team, the six planes wrote in the sky and formed a Christmas star. Faith knew they all performed perfectly, and that the star would look amazing against the