Cadence convinced Aaron to stay in Ireland for another full day, and he spent the time telling her tales from his early days as a Guardian, showing her the majestic heights of the Twelve Bens, and even took her to see the breathtaking Cliffs of Moher. Cadence breathed it all in, relishing the opportunity to spend so much uninterrupted time with him, to experience the places he considered to be so meaningful.
The flight back was equally impressive from where she sat in the passenger seat. There was something incredibly sexy about watching him take command of the airplane. "Do you want to fly for a while?" he asked her, the sparkling waves of the Atlantic far beneath them.
"Are you serious?" she asked, afraid she would instantly crash the second she took the controls.
"Sure, why not? It isn't hard," he replied, smiling at her.
Cadence hesitated. "All I have to do is steer, right? Nothing else?"
"I'll handle everything else,” he assured her.
"Okay," she answered, the lack of confidence evident in her wavering voice.
"Take the yoke," he insisted, reaching over and placing her hands in the proper position. "Just keep it steady. It's really not complicated."
Cadence did as she was instructed, and once he removed his hands from hers, she took a deep breath, and then realized she was flying the plane. "Wow, this is so cool!" she gushed. "I'm actually flying a plane!"
"You sure are," he replied. "Turn it slightly to the left."
"Define slightly," she requested, but then gave it a tiny, minuscule shift. "Like that?"
"Perfect," he assured her. "You're doing great. When we get to Iowa, you want to try landing it?" he teased.
"Uhm, no!" she answered, the hesitation completely out of her voice. "So, how do you keep it at the right height and stuff?" she asked, showing she knew nothing about airplanes.
Aaron pointed out the various instruments on the panel to her, showing her how to read the altitude, pitch, and direction. He explained the control towers and various navigational tools. Cadence attempted to understand, but she really had no idea what he was talking about, so she just nodded and smiled. "You really don't care do you?" he asked after a few minutes.
"Oh, no, I care," she assured him. "I just don't know anything about flying, that's all. When did you learn?"
"Actually," he admitted, "your grandfather taught me."
"Really?" she asked, her shock allowing her to lose focus just enough to pull the plane slightly to the right.
Aaron calmly reached over and corrected her hands, putting the plane back on track. "Yeah. He was quite a pilot. You should ask your grandma about it."
"I will," she said, her expression still showing her surprise.
"Hey guys, do you have just a minute?" Hannah asked over the IAC.
"I don't think I can fly this plane and talk to her at the same time," Cadence admitted.
"I don't think I can either," he replied sarcastically.
"Shut up," she said nudging him. "You can talk on the IAC and do anything."
"Well, not anything...." He smiled at her in a mischievous way, making his meaning quite obvious.
"You could," she reassured him. "You better not..."
"Hello?"
"Oh, sorry. Go ahead, Hannah," Cadence finally replied.
"I just wanted to let you know that we set up the memorial for the day after tomorrow at 2:00 PM. We'll have it at the chapel in the back of the complex," she explained.
"Do you think that space will be big enough?" Aaron asked, realizing it only sat about a hundred people and thinking there might be more Hunters and Guardians attend.
"I think so," she assured him. "We decided to go ahead and broadcast the service so that all of the affiliates in the field could stay on location. Thousands of Hunters and Guardians have expressed their desire to come in, but that would be leaving an awful lot of humans vulnerable to Vampire attack. So, I just went ahead and told them to stay put and we'd do our best to accommodate that. I hope that's okay."
It took Aaron a moment to answer, and the fact that they were discussing his best friend's funeral was not lost on Cadence. She reached over and gave his arm a gentle squeeze. "That sounds like an excellent option," he finally replied. "Hannah, thank you for taking care of all of this for us," he added.
"Thank you for trusting me with such a great responsibility," she answered solemnly. “I also thought you should know that I was able to contact Elliott’s ex-wife, Marnie, and his kids. They were all very polite, but none of them expressed any interest in attending.”
Aaron was quiet for a moment, and Cadence was shocked. It didn’t make any sense to her that his family wouldn’t want to be there. Eventually, Aaron said, “Thanks for reaching out to them.”
“Absolutely,” Hannah said serenely.
"We should be arriving in Shenandoah in about four hours. We'll check in with you then, all right?" he asked.
Just as Hannah was about to reply, an idea popped into Cadence's head. "Hannah, I need you to do one more thing," she said.
"Sure, Cadence. What is it?"
"I need you to find a woman named Amanda Keen," she replied. Aaron looked at her questioningly, and she hesitated, not sure exactly how much she should say. "All I know about her is that she lived in the Tulsa area about twenty years ago. But she was important to Elliott. So, we need to find her and let her know about the memorial."
"Okay, Cadence," Hannah replied, her voice wavering a bit. "I'll see what I can do. That might be nearly impossible," she admitted.
"I have faith in you," Cadence assured her.
"I'll let you know what I find out," Hannah replied.
"Thank you," she said before disconnecting.
"Who's Amanda Keen?" Aaron questioned, the puzzled expression still on his handsome face.
"You've never heard of her?" Cadence was surprised. She thought Elliott would have mentioned the woman he loved to his best friend at least once in all of these years.
"No," he acknowledged. "She was a friend of Elliott's?"
"Something like that....Why do you think his family didn’t want to come?" she asked, changing the subject.
“It’s complicated,” Aaron replied. “His wife divorced him before he even Transformed. By the time he joined LIGHTS, she’d already taken his kids across state lines and turned them against him. She didn’t want him to see them, and so he decided he didn’t want to either. It was all pretty sad, really. He had been such a great dad before the split.”
She nodded, certain that would be the case. “Why did they break up?” she asked quietly.
“He didn’t like to talk about it, but I think there was some infidelity on one side or the other. Or both. It’s hard to say, honestly. He was always very private about women in general. I guess that’s why I never heard of this Amanda person.”
“It’s too bad. I see how he was with Cassidy. He would have been an amazing father.” Cadence turned to gaze out the window, choosing to focus on the distant clouds rather than the tears beginning to well up in her eyes again. Aaron's hand on hers was reassurance that they would get past this together... somehow.
