Page 87 of Fireworks

Chapter Twenty Eight

*****

Nate

“Do you trust me?”

Her fingers dug into my hand as she squeezed harder.

“Trust you, yes. Trust you enough to get in that...”

She just stood staring ahead, not finishing her sentence.

“Look, I’ve been up in this thing a million times. Harry checks the planes every night and every morning. I can check it right now if that would make you feel better. I promise that it’s safe. You think my mother would have let me keep flying if she didn’t trust it? Half your issue is you not knowing the pilot. Well, here I am. My name is Nathan King and I’ve been flying for a while now and promise I’ve never crashed a plane.”

Holding my hand out, I grabbed hers, shaking it as if someone had never introduced before us.

Heavy footsteps echo through the entire place as Harry walked up behind us.

“Well, there was that one time, but we don’t count that.”

His deep laugh was rough from smoking for so many years. Turning around quickly, I shot him a look.

“When? I never crashed. Also, you’re not helping right now.”

Taking a drag of his cigar, he smiled.

“It was a rough landing, granted it was his first time, so you shouldn’t hold it against him. I will say I saw my life flash before my eyes.”

Smacking my hand to my face before adjusting my cap, I couldn’t believe he was going to bring this up. It seemed to be his favorite story about me.

“Harry, you gave me control and said just go with it. What kind of direction is that?”

Turning back to Katie, her face now void of any color. I knew the chances of her going up on the plane was diminishing.

“He’s not that bad, ma’am. I’m just playing with you. He’s one of the best I’ve seen come through those doors. You’re in very safe hands.”

He gave a convincing smile, but I knew it would take a hell of a lot more than that to get her to go up in such a small plane even if she wasn’t going up for long.

“What if we just sit in it for a while? We don’t have to go up today. I just figured...”

I trailed off. I knew exactly what I was thinking; my need to impress her was balanced equally with easing her fear and showing her just how exhilarating and safe it was. I clearly overshot. I wanted her to see something about me I never shared with anyone else before.

Flying was something that had driven a wedge between us at Christmas, but maybe it would be something that we could enjoy together now. Her entire body tightened as she looked back at me.

“Fine. I’ll go up but on one condition. You talk to Asher.”

Fuck me. She had been asking for me to tell him sooner rather than later. I always found an excuse not to. Thinking about her proposition, she didn’t say when I had to have the talk, just that I needed to. I could agree to that loophole. Before she could say anything more, I agreed.

I took it easy and explain everything that I was going to be doing before we even left the ground.The inflight checklist intrigued her I had to go through before I could do anything. I knew explaining it would help her have even a shred of her nerves calmed. She had dug her fingers deep into my thigh the minute the wheels were off the ground.

“You’re ready to go back down, aren’t you?”

I looked over at her as she nodded. We hadn’t been up for long, but based on the gouges in my upper thigh, I could tell she was not anywhere near as relaxed as I was up here. There was something about flying that brought me so much peace. Maybe it was because I felt more connected to my dad up here. I could almost feel his presence when I lifted off each time, like he was watching over me and always going to make sure that I was going to land safely. It may have just been because for however long I was up in the sky, I left my worries down on the ground. Nothing else mattered when I was up here.

In the sky, I could be Katie’s boyfriend. Something I hadn’t labeled myself as, but the idea had been growing on me. It didn’t matter that I needed to tell Asher about it. It didn’t matter that I was having major regrets about my career choice. Not a single person's opinion of me or my life choices mattered up here. All that mattered was that I was making sure my plane had fuel, and that I was on the flight path I was supposed to be on.

“Okay, we should probably get to the airport to pick up your brother soon, anyway.”