Wild Heart - Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell

9. Feelings

Despite what you may believe, you deserve to be happy.

He sat there, staring at Ice's typed words for a long time, Ice, in turn, starting pointedly at him. 

These words from his friend brought back some words spoken by his best friend thirty plus years ago: "You're a wild heart, Mav - you fall hard and fast, but you fall strong."

Goose's words made him smile.  "Thanks Ice."

His two closest friends, looking out for him, always, no matter what.

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Finley couldn't stop thinking about it. In all her day dreaming and mind wandering, it took her right back to shirtless Pete on the beach.

Okay, she had been surrounded by a lot of attractive people, and okay, she would admit it had been quite some time since she'd had any romantic sort of action, so this must be what her brain was telling her.

And so, as she did whenever she felt this, she had a nice evening to herself. She ran herself a bath, made  some hot chocolate, and spent some time in bed with her vibrator. She must have had a lot of worked up energy and she just needed an outlet. This should do the trick. 

She was on the beach again, only this time no one else was there. She heard the familiar rumbling of a bike motor and saw Pete in the distance, riding not his, but her bike. And he was shirtless. Of course he was.

He was riding the bike right across the sand, and stopped in front of her. "Well, what do you think, Sweetheart?" And this time she knew the the 'Sweetheart' was meant for her.

"CAW!"

And then a rooster appeared, a full on rooster, giving its morning call.

And then she woke up.

Okay, so far all she'd managed to do was take all that worked up energy and push it to her subconscious for her brain to have fun with and create wild dreams. Everything made sense, even the rooster. All the other pilots had been referring to each other by their call signs, including Bradley, so instead of Brad, her subconscious had conjured up a real rooster in his place.  

Come morning, she found her tactics hadn't worked as she'd hoped, and if her mind wandered, it wandered right  back to Pete. 

Thanks a lot, brain. Now she was thoroughly distracted. 

Her phone buzzed, and her heart skipped when she saw the PE of the person's name in the text. But, her overexcited brain had seen PETE and the motorbike and jet emojis, when really it was PENNY with a sailboat emoji.

Penny: Hey Finley! I know you and Amelia have a tutoring session tomorrow after school, how would you like to join us for dinner after at our place? I'm inviting Pete too

Finley: Sounds lovely, thanks Penny! Can I bring something? Dessert?

Penny: Awesome! And not necessary but we will always say yes to more dessert in this house! ;)

And so after tutoring the next day Finley got on her bike and followed Penny's car to her house.

As she was following Penny for directions, she was mostly focused on what was in front of her, but kept noticing something behind her in her side mirrors. 

 This red jeep had been tailing them for most of the ride, so at the next light, Finley spun around to try and get a better look and see what was going on.

The driver was waving. She squinted. Pete.

Of course it was. She threw back her head and laughed.

When they arrived at the Benjamin house - a gorgeous little house at the end of the street with a lush garden and twinkling fairy lights - Penny pulled around to the garage while the two guests parked in front. 

"I just about flipped you off for tailing me," Finley admitted.

"Sorry." Pete chuckled. "I was trying to get your attention."

"Trying to distract me while I was driving?"

"Not exactly."

"So this is your ride when you can't ride a bike or fly a plane?"

"Precisely. But I love her no less, right Sweetheart?" 

Oh God, there it was again. 

"And I couldn't really ride a bike with these-" He produced a bottle of wine and a bouquet of flowers from the seat.

A golden retriever greeted them as soon as the door opened. 

"Oh hello!" Finley dropped down to a crouch to say hi.

"This is Theo," Penny introduced.  "The man of the house."

"Hi Theo, hi - oh no, those aren't for you-" He was sniffing at her tray of dessert, which she held up.  "Here's the brownies."

"Oh yes, you're officially my favourite person." Amelia came forward and took the  tray from her, making her laugh.

"This is for us," Pete said, holding up the wine bottle. "Though not for you Amelia, sorry. And these are for the lady of the house-" He presented Penny with the flowers. 

"Oh wow, aren't you sweet. I'll find a vase for these and put them on the table."

 Finely thought it was so cute of him to bring Penny flowers. She was pretty certain there was something going on between them now and it made her smile. 

"Well I believe Amelia has some exciting news she'd like to share with everyone," Penny prompted over their dinner of spaghetti and meatballs with a side of garlic bread and salad.  

Amelia grinned as all eyes fell on her.  "I got a part in the school play!"

"Yes!" Finley cheered.  "Congrats Amelia, that's awesome." She reached over to give her tutee a high-five. 

"Nice work, Amelia. That's really exciting."

"Thanks, Finley, thanks Mav."

After dinner, Amelia took Finley up to her room to show her the script before dessert while Pete helped Penny with the dishes.

"I thought I'd take the pressure off by getting us all together," Penny told him while they cleared the dishes. 

He chuckled at her matchmaking scheme. Then he leaned against the counter and sighed. "I don't know, Penny..." But then there were Ice's words, tugging at his mind again, as they had been ever since their conversation: Yes, retirement is inevitable at this point. And what are you going to do? Be retired and lonely? Unhappy? Despite what you may believe, you deserve to be happy.

"Is it only the age thing that's holding you back?" Penny asked.

She could read him so well too.  "No," he admitted.  "That, and the fact that she's Bradley's friend. I don't want to come between their friendship." I don't want to make him hate me any more than he already does. "I'm just finding it hard to act on my feelings this time, so maybe it's best if I don't."

"Oh come on Pete, I know you. You're Pete Mitchell - when have you ever not acted on your feelings?"

Her words hit him just as hard as Ice's had, and the memory of Goose's.

"You're a wild heart, Mav - you fall hard and fast, but you fall strong."

"When have you ever not acted on your feelings?"

Despite what you may believe, you deserve to be happy.

So why was it so hard for him to believe?

(Thank you so much for all the love you've been giving this story! I love all the love! :)

Saw the movie again - it just keeps getting better and better!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :))