The Invitation by Jude Deveraux

there was. “I have to go,” she had mumbled to Rey before practically running out the door.
    So now, after three days of William’s calm, of William’s organization, of William’s eyes, which sometimes made Jackie shiver, she knew that she had to get rid of him. But how? Insults didn’t seem to affect him—they never had. When he was a kid, Jackie had said lots of rude things to him to try to get him to go away, but nothing had worked. And oddly enough, she had begun to enjoy his silent company. He was so rock solid, something dependable in her life that seemed to have no stability.
    So, now, how did she make him go away? Make him go away before the whole town started talking about the two of them?

Chapter Six
    W ould you like to go flying with me, Billy?” Jackie asked in her sweetest voice. “I’d like to see what you can do with a plane.” The smile she gave him made honey look poisonous. It had taken some thought, but she had remembered William’s caution, his great love of safety. As a child, the only time she’d ever been able to get rid of him was one day when she’d pulled him onto a log stretched high across a cold, rock-filled, rushing stream. He’d walked the log, but later he’d said, “I don’t like you anymore,” and Jackie hadn’t seen him for over a week. Of course she wouldn’t admit it back then, but she’d found herself missing him. In the end, she’d “stopped by” his house for a visit. His mother had pointed Billy out and Jackie had found herself walking toward him. They didn’t say anything—nothing so ridiculous as apologies—but when she left, William was tagging along behind her, and it was four whole days before Jackie had told him he was a nuisance.
    Today, she thought, this airplane was going to be another log across a stream. Only this time she wouldn’t go after him and bring him back.
    One of the Wacos William had purchased was equipped with pilot and student gear so the plane could be flown from both seats. William was in front, Jackie in the back. Pete, her mechanic, gave the propeller a turn, and Jackie gave a thumbs-up sign to William as he started down the runway.
    Again she smiled at him. He looked so sweet, so innocent, sitting there, and his every gesture told her that he wanted to impress her with his flying skills. William was so methodical that she wondered if he’d taken lessons just because his heroine, Jackie, knew how to fly.
    But Jackie knew that flying, like anything else in life, was a talent and talent could not be taught. You could teach a skill and a person could learn to fly by the book, but there were some who had the talent and some who didn’t.
    A few years ago a manufacturer had produced a beautiful little single-wing plane. He thought it was going to revolutionize aviation, and with great hope, he sent the first test pilot up. The plane performed better than anyone had expected, but a few hours later the pilot, for no apparent reason, crashed into a mountain.
    The designer tried to tell people that the crash was the result of pilot error, but pilots, a superstitious lot, said the plane was jinxed. Another prototype rolled off the line and a second pilot took it up. Exactly the same thing happened. After the second crash, no one in the flying world could get near the plane without crossing himself or laughing, or both.
    Desperate, the designer went to Jackie and offered her a large sum of money to take his plane up. Jackie felt that if your time came, it didn’t matter if you were on the ground or in the air and she would much rather be in the air, so she accepted the man’s offer. Many people asked her not to go, but she didn’t listen to them.
    In the air, the little plane was a dream. It handled beautifully, the stick so easy that she felt she could almost go to sleep while flying, and she wanted to stay up forever. Unexpectedly,