Rafael Patino has a great life in Rain Valley. He’s a teacher at the high school, has a great group of friends, and enjoys the occasional baseball game. Other than the sporadic call from his drunken mother, he’s pretty content. He’s also been in love with his best friend Dustin for nearly a decade. Years of keeping those feelings under control are put to the test when they begin a summer project together. Dustin Vance builds furniture for a living, has just earned his pilot’s license, and has an amazing best friend. When he buys a 1976 Cessna Skyhawk, he asks Rafael to help restore it, then travel with him to Wisconsin for the largest aviation convention in the world. As they spend their days working on the plane, they begin to spend their nights together. Will they find love in the clouds, or will they stall out before they even take off?

Love in the Clouds

“Then I remove the control lock.” He pulled out what looked like a metal pin from the instrument panel holding the steering wheel in place. “I make sure the ignition switch is off, which it is, then confirm all the control surfaces work by moving the yoke in different directions.”


Yoke. Not steering wheel…yoke.He’d thought that sounded off.


As Dustin moved the yoke in certain ways, different parts of the plane moved. “See the flap going down on the tail? That’s called ‘the elevator.’ It’s important to controlling the pitch of the plane.” He moved it up and down again, then demonstrated the ailerons on the sides of the wings, shifting them up and down as well.


“Next we flip on the master switch. It turns on all the electrical power. Now I lower the wing flaps to make sure they’re working, check to make sure the beacon light is on, and then turn off the master switch.”


“But you just turned it on,” Rafael pointed out.


Chapter 54