Jim was certain that she was upset because of his neglect of her while he waited for the credit card in the mail. He couldn’t blame her. He reckoned... that he should have come up for a few days and let his landlord collect the mail. ‘It’s sure easy to figure these things out in hindsight.’ He told himself that he would have to get better at these things, now that he and Hildy were a couple. He also had to admit to himself that the prospect of a big new project had excited him and as much as he. He pulled up into the foothills on a goat path. He was sure he had missed Derek and Maddie. The roads on this side still had patches of snow on them and there were no other tire tracks through it.He stopped beneath a ridge and took binoculars from the car, then climbed up to the ridge to look back along the road. The Jeep Patriot he’d wildly shot at when he hit the road came into town slowly, as if checking every alley for him, and then came to a complete stop. After a minute the driver backed. "Her face screwed up into an expression I'd never seen on it before."Look, Luke." she put her delicate hand over mine, "there's no easy way to ask this, and I'm going to have to tell you some very private things before I do, so I've got to ask you, please, to never tell anyone about this conversation."Her eyes pled her case more eloquently than her words, but I would never have done anything to hurt or embarrass her anyway. I think most of the guys felt that way about Tina."Sure, Tina." I. You didn't, and I'm proud to have flown with you today. We're going to be early, so close out your flight plan, and let's go take a look at the beach this morning since that shower mess has passed."That thrilled the student and she called to close out the flight plan and we started flying under visual flight rules (VFR). We began at New Port Richey and flew south to South St. Pete beach. We turned and headed northeast to get back to the field while on the lookout for other low flying.