Page 25 of Fly with Me

“Oh my god, this one.” Stella’s grin widened.

Olive came closer, her cheek grazing Stella’s shoulder as she checked which image she was talking about. “Yeah, my niece Fiona’s first trip to the fair. She loved all the animals, and she ran off because she wanted to nap with the pigs.”

“She looks so cute covered in mud.” Stella pointed at the picture. “That’s your brother holding her? You guys look a little alike. The smile, I mean. He seems really tall.”

Olive nodded. “Yeah, that’s Jake. Super tall.”

“Oh my god, the mud in this one. Fiona smeared it across his face?”

“Yeah.” The toddler had gotten the foulest-smelling pig mud all over him that day, and he’d just thought it was hilarious, to the exasperation of Fi’s parents.

“He didn’t have kids?”

“No.” Olive frowned. “He always joked that he was in a Carrie Bradshaw/Big relationship with his career, and he had trouble committing to anything else.”

“Big Sex and the City fan?” Stella’s eyes twinkled.

“The biggest. I wish he’d found someone, though. For a while, I was just stupidly hoping he’d marry my best friend because…” Olive took a measured breath. “I don’t know. He would have made a great partner if he ever stopped working so much. He was the sweetest, funniest, most selfless guy.”

“I get what he meant about the job thing, though. I—well, I’m not good at relationships either. When you have something that you want to put all your energy into… people can get hurt, you know?” Stella focused back on the screen and went through another few photos at a faster speed. “You all seem like you did a lot together with your whole family? That’s great you had them all close by.”

Olive was intensely curious about what Stella had meant about relationships, but given how quickly Stella had shifted the subject, Olive didn’t want to pry. “Yeah, it really was.” The necessary past tense stung. How long had it been since she’d seen Fiona and Cody? Olive had sent Fiona a birthday gift, but she’d never heard whether she’d received it. Cody would be turning one next month. Olive molded her face into a happy expression, ignoring the ache in her chest that accompanied thinking of her family. “Do you have much family close?”

“Not really.” Stella handed the phone back. “In the states, most of my cousins with kids live in Texas but all over, and it’s a big state. We’re so spread out. I see them around the holidays, but I wish I had some nieces and nephews nearby to spoil.”

“Do you like kids?” Olive asked.

“I do.” Stella’s expression grew pensive. “I think I could want a couple someday, maybe. Hard to know. My life’s really about my career, so I’m not sure anything like that will ever happen. Relationships… well… In any case, I can have a meaningful life without kids. I mean, everyone says having them is super fulfilling, but it might not happen for me, and that’s okay. I’m okay with it either way.”

Olive raised an eyebrow. “Yes, it’s okay. Whatever you want, right?”

“Right.”

Olive squared her shoulders to Stella’s. “It’s hard to see people—like my friends and family—having kids and not really knowing if that’s something I actually want. Or if I just want it because other people want it. And because dimples and chubby feet are adorable.”

“Yes.” Stella’s hands flailed out and then clapped together. “Yes, exactly that.”

“What do you do when you’re not flying?”

“I teach flying.”

“Like in a classroom?”

“In a Cessna.” Her eyes lit up at the word. “There’s a classroom component. But I like getting people up in the air. It’s beautiful. And honestly, there’s nothing like seeing someone take the controls for the first time. It’s magical. Ethereal.”

Flying in a small plane was the stuff of Olive’s nightmares, but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything that might dim the mesmerizing passion on Stella’s face, so she said something idiotic. “That sounds amazing. I would love to do that. Flying.”

What the hell are you saying, Olive?

“Have you ever thought about taking lessons?”

“No, they’re, uh—expensive. Expensive. Jet fuel.”

They had to be expensive, right?

“True, they are. I’ll have to take you up sometime. It’s nothing like being in a commercial jet. It’s…” Her eyes faced the starry sky past the monorail window. “‘Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned to the sky, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return.’”

Hearing Stella recite the quotation should have been corny, but it wasn’t. It was sweet and honest.