Chapter 299

Payne listened to Dycke talking about the freedom flying had given her. She remembered all the hours she put in to get to her jet rating. Now it was sitting in her pocketbook, doing nothing. She remembered needling him, when he could not fly a single engine airplane. You could always tell his aircraft, when he was in the approach pattern. His was the airplane with the left wing down 20° or more. It was as if he needed to see the ground to make sure it was still there. After six months of trying, he and the instructor came to a mutual understanding. Dycke would stop flying, and the instructor would stop taking Dycke's money. He would never understand how to keep the wings of an aircraft level, while they were in the air.

Payne smiled at him, and said, "You do love me, don't you?"

"Payne, any day you doubt it, shoot me, because I've done something to put a wedge between our hearts. I told you when we first met the most important thing in my li