Hawk’s Way: Colt

“WATCH YOUR WINGTIP! YOU’RE too close.  We’re going to—Bail out, Huck! God, no, Huck!

          Colt Whitelaw sat bolt upright in bed, his eyes wild with remembered terror.  His heart was racing.  His hands were clenched, and his sheet-draped body was drenched in sweat.  It took him a moment to realize where he was.  Home, at Hawk’s Pride, his parents’ ranch in northwest Texas.

          He’d been jet-lagged when he’d arrived late last night.  That was the excuse he’d used, anyway, to go right to bed.  To avoid doing what had to be done.

          I have to see Jenny.  I have to tell her there won’t be any wedding next month, that Huck was killed six days ago in a midair collision over the Egyptian desert.

          Colt felt the sting in his nose, the tickle at the back of his throat.  He wasn’t going to cry anymore.  His best friend was gone, and nothing could bring him

back.

          “Colt?”

          Colt turned and found his mother standing in his open bedroom doorway, her heart in her eyes.  There had always been a chance he’d be killed flying jets. This time, he’d come damned close.  He rose and crossed to her, pulling her into his arms.

          His birth mother had been a teenager, alone and in trouble, when she’d given him up to the Whitelaws for adoption.  He’d often wondered about her, but he didn’t miss her.  In Rebecca Whitelaw, he had the best mother any kid could want.

          “Are you all right?” she asked, leaning back to look into his eyes.

          “I’m fine, Mom.  Really.  I need to see Jenny, to tell her about Huck.”

          “You mean the Air Force hasn’t contacted her?”

          Colt shook his head.  “Huck named his father as next of kin for notification purposes.  The way things are between her and the senator, you can bet Huck’s dad hasn’t said a word to her, and I didn’t want to tell her over the phone.”

          “I understand,” his mother said.  She brushed her fingertips across his chin, coming as near as she dared without touching his stitches.  “I know how close the three of you were.”

          Inseparable, Colt thought.  We were inseparable.

          He decided to ride horseback to Jenny’s ranch, mostly because it postponed the moment when he would have to tell her about Huck’s death.  He was startled when he rode around the side of her barn to find another rider on horseback.          “Jenny.  Hi.”

          The instantaneous smile made her bluer-than-blue eyes crinkle at the corners.  His gut clenched.

          I thought with Huck dead I’d feel different.  But, heaven help me, I’m still in love with my best friend’s girl.