Page 25 of The Best Wild Idea (Off-Limits #3)

Juliet

Nothing could have prepared me for the blast of air that hurtles into the plane the exact moment that door slides open a few inches from me.

Traveling one hundred miles per hour at the height of those towering glaciers, I’m thrown into mental chaos.

There’s suddenly nothing between me and thirteen thousand feet of thin air down to the placid lakes below.

Not even a seatbelt to stop me from slipping out, should the plane tilt just so.

Jett scoots us another three inches toward the door until my feet are dangerously close to dangling outside it.

“Ready?” he shouts over the force of the wind exploding through the plane. It’s like a tornado has been unleashed in here and we’re going to be tossed out one way or another.

I squint out the open door while my heart thumps wildly out of my chest. Cold wind whips fiercely against my face, pulling my hair out of the braid I’d carefully made this morning — long strands flapping around my eyes, goggles pressing into my cheeks — while I close my eyes to exhale.

Grant .

For just a moment, in the thrill of it all, he’s here. In the wind, whipping past my face, in that heavenly view outside with no glass cover between us.

I open my eyes again to see a string of mountain peaks sitting at eye level. The world, peaceful and calm outside this frigid airstream crashing all around me. I want to be out there with them. With him . Spiraling out among the clouds.

Just live, sweetheart. His words echo in my mind.

“Ready!” I shout back as the adrenaline coursing through me wins, taking over what’s left of my better judgment.

I place my hands against the cold metal doorframe.

“Divers up!” Trek says into his mouthpiece.

“Prepare for departure,” the pilot answers calmly through the speakers. “Divers are clear.”

“Go!” Trek yells to us, pointing out the door.

Jett pushes my chin back so my head is nestled tightly under his jaw.

This is it.

I take it in, knowing I will never forget what it feels like to sit on the edge of this doorway, straddled between safety and survival, that beautiful world at my toes.

It’s time to join it.

I force myself to let go of the plane; then, following one deep breath, we slowly fall forward.

Spiraling out into that breathtaking tundra below.

I force my eyes to stay open, to see every nanosecond of our sixty-second freefall, our bodies racing down together at one hundred and twenty miles per hour toward the ground.

I’m whooping and screaming with whatever breath I have left in my lungs, but the wind is carrying it away so fiercely that my voice doesn’t have time to reach my ears.

Falling.

Floating.

Spinning above the most incredible view.

It feels better than all that — a wind tunnel that takes my breath away. We pick up speed as Mother Earth wraps her fingers around us so swiftly, so tightly, reclaiming our bodies into hers as we careen toward solid ground, while the clouds gently beckon us to stay.

And that view.

I don’t know whether to study the way the jagged mountain peaks and valleys are racing past me, closer than any land traveler will ever see them, or to settle my eyes on the lakes.

They grow bigger and less serene as we race straight toward them too.

Waiting to swallow us up if our chute doesn’t unfold like Jett promised me it would.

And just as I’m about to question when — and if — the parachute will explode to catch us, Jett tilts my chin back toward his neck again, and taps my shoulder — the signal to spread my arms and legs out to the sides, preparing me for the jolt we’re hopefully about to have from the backpack unfurling.

I hold my breath until—

Whoosh .

I hear it before I can feel it. The chute explodes from the pack. A snap of thin vinyl uncurling from its careful placement, finding a pillow of air to land us safely back on earth.

Relief crashes through me when we’re suddenly shot upright, no longer falling parallel to the ground, but perpendicular, with our bodies hanging down from the straps.

Safe.

“We did it!” I scream out into the beauty around us, flinging my arms out to the sides.

I’m suddenly filled with a new rush of powerful adrenaline, the hit of dopamine awakening a part of me that’s been left dead and dormant for too long.

My face already feels sore from the way it stretched — screaming and smiling my way through the ride.

I did it.

All too soon, we’re back on the ground, coming to a hard stop in a field of wildflowers and soft grass in a wide meadow beside the bigger of the two lakes. My heart is still pounding when I turn to search the sky while Jett begins to unhook us, my entire body still shaking, thanking him profusely.

It’s then that I spot them.

A red dot under an orange and white canopy, floating down gently a few dozen meters behind us. Silas with Ethan strapped securely to his back, their parachute quickly dropping them down to rest in the meadow a few yards away. They’ve made it too.

I rush to greet them while Ethan quickly unstraps their tandem harness. Then, without thinking clearly, I race straight into Silas’ arms and he snatches me up, spinning us both around, laughing in the emerald sea of green.

“I can’t believe I just did that!” I yell, pumping one arm over my head. “That was fucking incredible!”

Adrenaline can be a powerful drug, causing people to do things they’d otherwise never do — like jumping out of a perfectly good plane, or throwing myself onto a guy I normally can’t stand while he spins me around in circles.

At this moment, I don’t even care. I want to celebrate this with him — my partner in this incredible crime — who just defied all sense of logic and gravity right there with me. I wouldn’t have done it without him.

“That was unreal,” Silas says, bringing my feet back down to the earth for the second time today.

“Why have I never done that before?” I ask, still beaming at him.

He looks untethered in the best way, and I can’t remember ever seeing such joy spread across his face. Out of pure adrenaline, he grabs my cheeks and turns my face down to plant a kiss on my forehead.

As quick as it happened, he turns and slaps Ethan across the back. “That was incredible, man. Thank you.” Ethan beams back at us, and throws his hand out to Si for a hearty handshake.

“My pleasure,” he says, his German accent thick through his warm smile.

I can tell Ethan’s and Jett’s veins are coursing with the same excitement that Silas and I feel, and I wonder if it ever gets old for them — doing this every day. From the look on their happy faces while they gather the parachutes back up, I can tell that if it does get old, today is not that day.

As we make our way to the SUV that will drive us back to the hangar, I make a mental note to never let the day come where I stop feeling adrenaline from new adventures either. And to never let this length of time pass before I give myself that gift again.