Page 304 of Unexpected Ever After

I grab my keys and bag and walk through the sliding glass doors. Mason looks up at me and his face immediately blanks, but his eyes stay locked on me. That’s when it hits me. Something’s wrong.

I walk over to the desk where Mason and Wyatt are standing with Gabe who works as ground control here. There’s not much other than Merritt and a few other cargo planes that fly in and out of here a few times per week.

Gabe is hunched over the laptop on his desk with his headset covering his ears. His workspace is cluttered with snack wrappers and coffee cups. Mason and Wyatt lean over the desk surrounding the area. Wyatt’s shoulders are hunched and he’s reaming someone over the radio. Chances are that person is my daughter and I can’t help but flinch.

If I were her, I wouldn’t want to be spoken down to either. While I think Pops and Court are right and there’s an attraction between them, she won’t go there until he treats her like an equal and not like a wayward child or a puppy he found at the pound.

I walk over to them to find out what’s going on. When I hear my daughter’s words over the airwaves, I drop my bag to the floor and gasp.

“I’m going to land on the bay.”

“Are you crazy?” Wyatt snaps. “Turn back now.”

“No time,” she says. “Brace for impact.”

“Fuck!” Wyatt and Mason say at the same time.

“What’s happening?” I whisper and Wyatt looks up at me. His face is filled with terror and my heart clenches in my chest.

Mason pulls his phone from his pocket and calls his office to have dispatch get Harbor Patrol to pick Court and Merritt up. He was flying with her this morning. “I’ll make sure they’re okay,” he says before placing a kiss on my cheek and striding out the door.

Wyatt goes back to listening in as Merritt talks with Gabe and the world moves around me like I’m holding still and everything is spinning out of control.

Wyatt moves to pace by the window while Gabe contacts whomever gets airplanes out of bodies of water and I kind of want to throw up. I think my heart is beating so hard I’m surely going to die when this is all said and done.

I know that they’re back when Wyatt stops pacing and stomping and holds so still I think he’s frozen. The sliding glass doors part and Merritt and Court file in with Mason bringing up the rear.

Everything in me as a mother wants to run up to her and grab her. The need to hold her in my arms is overwhelming but I lock it down because, while she’s my youngest daughter, she’s no longer a baby. Merritt is a grown woman and a competent pilot. I will not make her feel like she’s neither of those things right now and as far as I can tell, they both look to be in one piece. I’ll hit my knees to thank God for that later, in private.

“What the fuck happened?” Wyatt shouts.

Merritt raises her chin and answers. “You heard. It was a bird strike.”

“You should have flown back,” he snarls. “You’re not Sully, all miracles on the Hudson.”

“I’m a competent pilot, Wyatt,” she says quietly, and I notice the slight shake to her hand. My baby is not all fine and dandy just yet. She’s barely hanging on. “I knew that we wouldn’t have made it back.”

“You could have been killed,” he says, clearly losing the battle with his own emotions.

“You think I don’t know that?”

“I don’t know what to think, Mer!” he shouts. “You take too many fucking risks, and I don’t know why.”

“Because you’re a man and everyone just assumes that you know what you’re doing. No one second guesses everything you do,” she says, and oh man, I get that. “I have to prove myself every day.”

“No, you don’t, Merritt,” Mason’s deep voice wades in and I hate that he’s joining the jump all over Merritt movement. “Everyone knows you’re a fantastic pilot.”

“Then, what?” she seethes.

“Taking too many risks is going to get you killed,” Mason says.

“You don’t know that.”

He lowers his voice and answers gently, “Yeah, I do, honey. I’ve seen it time and time again. When you take so many risks, one day there will be that one you don’t walk away from.”

“But not everyone—”

“Yeah, Merritt,” he says. “Everyone. Right, Davies?”

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