"You look VERY nice," I told her, standing up and giving her a hug and kiss.
I took a quick look at her left ring finger, which was bare at that moment but would hopefully be adorned with my ring later that evening. "New dress?"
"Mom helped me pick it out," she affirmed. "You look very nice too. So where are we going?" The anticipation was killing her.
"You'll see," I said. "I think you'll like it."
We said our good-byes to the elder Blackmores. Mary, I could tell, was stifling tears as we left. Nina noticed this too and asked her mother what was wrong.
"Nothing dear," she said. "It just pains me sometimes to see how grown-up you've become. When you wear a fancy dress like that it hits me hard."
I held the car door open for her and then stepped around to my side, strapping in and firing up the little four-cylinder engine. I pulled away from the curb and headed for the freeway.
"Mom is so weird sometimes," Nina commented.
We made idle chitchat until I hit the freeway onramp. I'm sure that Nina was expecting me to head for downtown. I didn't, instead taking the opposite direction. She looked at me suspiciously.
"Bill, where are you going?" she asked. "Why are you being so mysterious?"
"I'm a mysterious person," I told her, refusing to say further.
It took us about ten minutes to get to our first destination. By the time I pulled in the front gate it was apparent to Nina where we were going.
"Why are we at the airport?" she wanted to know. "What's going on? Bill, tell me!"
"Well," I said, pulling into the parking lot of the private airfield and stopping. "I wanted to take you someplace REALLY nice. Nicer than we have in Spokane. In order to avoid a long drive, I enlisted the services of a family friend."
"We're getting on an airplane?" she asked.
"For a bit," I allowed. "He's the same guy that flew me and your Dad to Seattle. You're not afraid to fly, are you?"
"I've never done it before," she said. "Where are we flying to?"
"Seattle," I said, "All the nice places are there. I have reservations for us at what is reputed to be the nicest restaurant in the entire state of Washington. I will get you there, wine and dine you, and have you safely back in your own bed tonight."
"We're going to Seattle?" she said in disbelief. "What's the occasion?"
"Just because I love you Babe," I told her, calling her by that term of endearment for the first time. "Just because I love you."
Ron had of course been the unpredictable part of my plan. Would he volunteer to fly us there and back? Would he be free to do so? The last thing I wanted to do was impose upon a family friendship and make someone do something they didn't want to. But to my delight, he'd jumped upon the suggestion, especially when I'd told him my intentions. He'd offered to stand by at the airport until the next morning if that was required. I'd gratefully accepted and told him that a few hours should be all that was required. We'd talked over his portion of the plan and, once briefed in, he'd proved to be a godsend. His experience as a pilot had allowed me to time everything down to the minute. He also had some connections in Seattle that helped save me some money for phase two. When Nina and I walked across the tarmac, past rows of Cessna's and Pipers and the occasional Lear, we found him waiting beside the plane, its engine on, its propeller turning, its pre-flight check already completed, the flight plan already filed.
Introductions were made and Ron told Nina how lovely she looked and how much he'd enjoyed her father's company. He soothed her nervousness about the small plane, speaking loudly over the noise of the engine. He offered her the co-pilot's seat and helped her inside after I'd been stowed in the back.
Less than five minutes after my car had pulled into the parking lot we were taxing across the field. Less than five minutes after that, Ron, ignoring me completely, asked Nina, "you ready?"
"I think so," she answered nervously.
"Then push that throttle all the way to the front. Do it slowly so we don't stall the engine."
Nina reached out with a hand that was trembling slightly and grasped the throttle lever. She pushed it forward as instructed and the engine wound up to full. The plane began to move down the runway, moving faster and faster.
When it got to take-off speed Ron pulled smoothly back on the stick and we rose into the air, an audible bump sounding as the wheels broke contact with the ground.
We soared into the bright blue sky, Ron turning the plane until we were heading West. He took us up to our assigned altitude of seven thousand, three hundred feet, leveling us off and engaging the autopilot. By the time he did this Nina had lost her fear and was staring at the ground with awe, picking out sights that she recognized.
"There's the falls Bill," she told me, pointing. "And there's the river stretching off. I never knew it was that crooked before."
Ron kept silent as we plowed westward at a hundred and ten knots. Nina kept looking at the ground. I sat back and thought about all the things that could go wrong with this day and all the things that could go right.
Nina turned to me and said, "How are we getting from the airport to the restaurant?"
"You'll see," I told her.
About halfway to Seattle, just as the Cascades were starting to become visible in the distance, Ron checked his watch and concluded that we were a little ahead of schedule. He cited a tailwind as the reason.
"Care for a little flying lesson Nina?" he asked, winking.
"Why the hell not?" she replied with determination.
Now it was my turn to be terrified as Nina took the stick and, with Ron's instruction, began subjecting us to a series of turns and dives in the clear air. He'd done this with me before, back when I was about fourteen or so, and I knew it was basically harmless. But still… My stomach knotted as we moved up and down, left and right, as the horizon bobbed like it had on the fishing boat while Nina tried to get the feel of the rudder and the stick. She was almost as terrified as I was but definitely loving every minute of it. Her face showed nearly the same ecstasy as it had when I'd eaten her to orgasm. At one point she over-corrected for a bank, giving way too much left aileron. I thought I was about to die a horrible death for a few moments as I found myself looking out my side window directly at the ground. Nina, almost panicked, jerked her hands from the stick and screamed. But Ron, calm and cool, without the slightest bit of concern, simply chuckled and took the controls. Within four seconds he had us straight and level once more.
"Well that was exciting, wasn't it?" he asked us.
Both of us were trembling too badly to speak.
He played with the autopilot for a moment and then we were back on course. "Time's a wastin'," he said. "We'd better end our lessons for now and get ourselves to Seattle."
Once again the air over the Cascades bumped us around violently. It was like driving a car with old shocks across a four-wheel drive trail at sixty miles an hour. Neither Nina nor I got much more than a mild adrenaline rush from it. Nina's time at the stick had prepared us for anything and the serene expression on Ron's face soothed our nerves.
We circled in and landed with a thump at a small airport near downtown. Ron taxied the plane to the tarmac and parked it in a slot that had been assigned to him over the radio. No sooner had the engine been shut down and the doors opened up when phase two happened right on schedule. A sleek, white limousine came gliding in from the parking area. It circled around and stopped right next to the plane.
"Bill," Nina asked, her eyes shining. "Is that for us?"
"Yes," I affirmed. "They have nice taxis in Seattle, don't they?"