LITMIR.BIZ

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      Contents

       Cover

       Back Cover Text

       Title Page

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

       Chapter 3

       Chapter 4

       Copyright

Chapter 1

       December 24, 1973 Castle Air Force Base, California

      Captain Kyle Anderson jogged up the sidewalk toward Captain Mike Taylor’s base home. Was he too late? Kyle was supposed to go with his best friend, who was getting married tomorrow, to pick up their Air Force dress uniforms from the base cleaners, but he’d overslept. Damn!

      Rubbing his smarting, bloodshot eyes, Kyle rapped his knuckles sharply against the door. Tomorrow, Mike was marrying Gale Remington, an Air Force officer he’d met a year ago. On Christmas Day, of all things. It was like Mike to do something romantic like that.

      Kyle’s breath was coming out in white wisps as he stood restlessly, hunched down into his dark blue wool coat, waiting to see if Mike was home.

      “Mike?” His voice carried impatiently as he waited at the door, knocking even more loudly. Looking around, Kyle realized he was probably attracting the attention of every Air Force wife in base housing. They’d probably be looking out their windows to see who was shouting at 0800.

      He’d overslept because of jet lag. Four days ago, Kyle had flown to Castle A.F.B. from Udorn, Thailand, where his fighter squadron was based, to be best man at Mike’s wedding. But because of time-zone changes and the need to unplug physically and emotionally from the duties of a fighter pilot in Vietnam, Kyle was exhausted.

      The door opened. Kyle grinned, expecting to see his friend from boyhood. Instead, he saw Gale, Mike’s beautiful fiancée. His smile slipped considerably in surprise, his eyes widening as she opened the screen door.

      “Hi, Kyle. If you’re looking for Mike, he took off about fifteen minutes ago for the cleaners.”

      Pulse skyrocketing, Kyle drew in a shaky breath. He stood there, tongue-tied. Ever since he’d been introduced to Gale three days ago, his world had been out of control like a jet in a flat spin. The moment he’d looked into her incredible forest-green eyes, something wonderful, something terrible had happened to him. Once, twenty-five-year-old Kyle would have scoffed at the idea of falling head over heels for any woman on first sight. But he wasn’t laughing now.

      Placing his hands on his hips in a typical arrogant jet-jockey gesture, he covered his reaction to her. “Hi, Gale.” God, did she realize what she did to him? It was agony to be around her because he wanted to simply absorb her, lose himself in her sunny smile, and stare into those dancing eyes that held such sparkling life in their depths.

      Gale smiled shyly. “Mike said you might be late. He’ll pick up your uniform.” She forced herself to look away from Kyle’s hawklike blue eyes that were large with intelligence. If there was such a thing as brazen self-confidence, Kyle possessed it. His stance was cocky and unapologetic. He was a proud eagle standing before her, knowing he was the cream of the Air Force pilot crop because he was an Academy graduate. Her pulse was doing funny things and she tried to ignore it. Since meeting Kyle, an exhilarating force swept through her whenever she thought of him or saw him. When Kyle looked at her with that burning intensity, she felt shaky, her carefully mapped out world falling apart.

      “I overslept,” he said with a laugh. He wasn’t going to admit to her he couldn’t shake the jet lag. Gale looked vulnerable and pretty in a pink long-sleeved blouse. The red apron tied around her waist and the dark brown slacks showed off her slim figure. She didn’t look like a captain or a meteorologist, but she was both. Her hair, a pageboy of shifting brown color interlaced with gold and a few delicate strands of burnished copper, barely touched the collar of her blouse. He had to get away. It wasn’t good to be here alone with her. God knew he’d taken great pains not to be alone with Gale—because he hadn’t known what he’d do if he was. She affected him deeply.

      It wasn’t Gale’s fault. She was hopelessly in love with Mike. Kyle rationalized his attraction to Gale by telling himself that because she was Mike’s fiancée, he naturally liked her. “Look, I’ll come back later,” he said, his mouth growing dry.

      “Nonsense, come on in. Mike’s due back in less than half an hour and he wants you to stay for breakfast. Why go all the way back to the B.O.Q. just to come back later?”

      Hesitating, Kyle glanced at the watch on his wrist. A half hour. It would look stupid to leave if Mike was going to be back that soon. “Well...”

      Gale stepped aside, looking up at him. A large part of her wanted him to leave because in his presence, her emotions vibrated with a strange yearning she’d never experienced. But etiquette dictated differently. “You look tired. Come in. I’ve got a pot of fresh coffee.” She knew Kyle had flown from Thailand to attend the wedding. The strain of what the war had done to him showed on his lean face, around his eyes and in the set of his mobile mouth. Heat fled through her, sweet and unexpected, as she stared at him.

      She knew that, like every other arrogant, self-assured military pilot, he wasn’t going to let on he was tired, much less exhausted by the war or the flight home. No, Kyle was like his fellow pilots: his callous, cocky exterior hid a vulnerable interior that was rarely shared with anyone. From the moment she’d met Kyle, she’d sensed a warmth and gentleness beneath that facade, and for some reason, Kyle’s ebullient, joking presence had been able to lift the fear from her heart. Thirty days after the wedding, Mike, too, would leave for Thailand and become a part of the war. Gale feared losing her young husband.

      Taking off his garrison cap, Kyle gave a nod. “Tired?” he teased. “You know us handsome, unabashed jocks aren’t fazed by such

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