Page 123 of Fly with Me

“It wouldn’t be too hard for you because of Jake?”

Olive shook her head. “I’ve learned a lot. I just really…” love you. The words were a gong inside her head, and she swallowed to prevent them from coming out. “… want you to know you’re not alone in this, okay?”

Shit. She did love her, didn’t she?

“I really appreciate it.” Stella pulled away and rubbed her hands together to warm them. “D-do you think we could go see my dad right now?”

Olive nodded. “Yeah, of course.”

“I—uh—I think I need you to drive.” Stella pressed the keys into Olive’s hand and headed to the passenger seat of her Prius.

Well, that felt like something.

Chapter 44

Flurries of snow glittered against the night sky as Stella led Olive down a DC sidewalk. Because of Stella’s flying schedule, Olive hadn’t seen Stella since the emotional tidal wave that was the family meeting day last week. It had ended up being a great night afterward with hours of eating popcorn while watching through Hector’s DVR full of historical aviation documentaries and Bravo reality TV shows while Hector provided a hilarious commentary on both.

Olive’s embarrassingly wide smile at the feeling of Stella’s hand in hers disappeared when Stella stopped in front of a restaurant with a big neon sign. “Surprise.” She grinned.

“No, no, no.” Olive took a step back.

On their normal nightly phone call a few days earlier, Stella had said someone had told her about a great restaurant in DC and that she wanted to go there tonight. Now it was clear Olive had been played. “No.”

“Yes. Yes. Yes.” Stella twirled her around and pushed her toward the door.

“I might throw up.” Olive covered her face.

“You need to trust me.” Stella locked eyes with Olive. They were almost nose to nose. “Do you trust me?”

“Yeah.”

“Then to karaoke we go.” And Stella grabbed her hand and pulled her through the door. They headed through a maze of tables and a bar area to a hostess desk.

“I booked a room for eight o’clock.”

“A room?” Olive cast questioning eyes on the beautiful woman holding her hand.

Stella winked at her.

The hostess in black led them down a hallway to a room that had a large TV screen with a small stage area and a microphone.

“Surprise!” shouted a single voice from the corner.

“Derek?”

He handed her a shot of something sparkly and clear. “Bottoms up.”

Stella turned to her. “You don’t actually have to sing if you don’t want to, but I thought this would be a good compromise. You said you thought you’d die before singing in a room of strangers. I came here a long time ago and thought it was super fun. And Derek said—”

“How?” Olive looked from Derek to Stella, pointing to each of them and then lifting her palms in a questioning motion.

“Stella got my number the night at the bar.”

Stella grinned. “Oh, and…” She gestured to a table in the corner. “Happy birthday.” There was an elegant cake with a few scattered candles and a bottle of champagne in an ice bucket. “It’s a champagne cake with champagne.”

Olive was truly shocked now. “Happy… how did you know?”

“When we rented the car in Georgia and the guy said the thing about his birthday. I didn’t know the exact day, so I asked him.” She grinned conspiratorially at Derek.