Page 1 of Cloud Nine Love

1

REMI

“The eye of a storm is calm and peaceful.” ~ Tim Rhodes

“What’s this?” I asked the airline attendant, who handed me a piece of paper as I disembarked the plane.

“It’s an upgrade to first class and a drink coupon for the executive lounge. For your inconvenience,” she explained.

“Oh, okay.” My brow creased in confusion.

I got the ‘inconvenience’ part. Due to bad weather conditions, we had to make an emergency landing at O'Hare and sat on the plane for over four hours before receiving instructions to exit and await instructions for a new flight. The only thing I didn’t understand was why I hadn’t noticed any of the other passengers get a slip while they were exiting the aircraft.

Her light amber eyes twinkled. “And my phone number.”

I glanced down, and sure enough, her phone number was written on the top.

“Thanks.” I held out the paper, trying to give it back to her. “I appreciate that, but I’m engaged.”

She kept her hand at her side. “Just take it. You never know.”

I did know. I’d been with my fiancée, Misty, for over eight years; and engaged for five. Still, I wasn’t going to argue with her.

With a dip of my chin, I continued down the air bridge. A bolt of light flashed through the glass window. Rumbling thunder followed it a few seconds later. Rain pelted the metal tube we were all filing down. The platform shook beneath our feet due to sixty-mile-per-hour winds. This storm was not slowing down. Mother Nature was here to play.

The atmosphere inside the airport terminal was no less turbulent. The mood was tense as travelers all around me were on calls explaining their delays and frantically trying to get updates regarding their flights from airline employees who clearly did not have the information they sought.

I’d always been a pretty easygoing guy. Nothing really fazed me. I had one mode. Steady. It took a lot to get me upset, frustrated, or agitated. The only time I’d ever felt any of those emotions was when it came to my baby sister, Ruby. I’d always been fiercely protective of her.

From the moment my mom came home from the hospital with her when I was ten years old, and she put her in my arms, and I looked into her big blue eyes, I knew I’d do anything to keep her safe. Murder. Steal. Die. Whatever it took.

It had been a running joke with my friends growing up about how protective I was of her. They used to tease me that any guy who dared to speak to her was going to find himself staring down the barrel of a shotgun. I never found it funny; just factual.

What I did find funny was that one of those same friends, who used to give me such a bad time, was marrying my sister in eight days. Luckily, he was one of the best men I knew, so a shotgun would not be needed. But there would be a wedding.

In a week’s time, one of my oldest friends, Kane Kingston, was going to be exchanging vows with Ruby. The wedding party was a tad unorthodox, and not just because it challenged traditional gender roles. I would be standing next to my sister as her Man of Honor. And across from me would be Taylor, who was the best woman and the mother of Kane’s five-year-old daughter Harper. I’d never met Taylor, but I hoped that we could all just be one happy family.

As I walked through the terminal, my phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out, intending to call Misty, my fiancée, and let her know that I had no clue when I’d be arriving in California. My flight was supposed to get in tonight, and then we were supposed to fly to Texas together the day after tomorrow, but now I wasn’t sure what was happening. I’d thought about calling her on the plane when we were sitting on the runway, but I’d decided to wait until I had something to tell her. When I looked down at the screen, I noticed that I had missed several calls from her, but the alert had been my Random Fact of the Day.

A few years earlier, I downloaded an app called DRF, which stood for Daily Random Facts. Which was exactly what it sounded like; each day, I was texted a random fact. The reason I had it was not a quest for arbitrary information. It was more personal. Each time I got the daily message, I felt like my dad was still with me, still a part of my life, even though he’d passed away when I was nine.

Tim Rhodes was an amazing father. He was funny, kind, hardworking, and a real man’s man. Even eighteen years later, I missed him every day. One of the favorite memories I had of my dad was that he collected all the caps on Snapple bottles and would recite the facts printed on the inside of the caps all the time. He loved having random knowledge about so many different things. It was his party trick. So, these daily messages made me feel closer to him.

Today’s random fact read: It’s impossible to hum while plugging your nose.

I pinched the end of my nose and attempted to hum as I called Misty back. Both of my efforts were in vain. The call went straight to voicemail, and I was not able to hum with my nose plugged. I hung up and I tried her again, with the same result. Since I was unable to get through to her, I listened to the message.

“Hey, it’s me.” Her voice was thin and stressed. “Call me back as soon as you get this.”

The fact that my baby sister was getting married before we were, when Ruby and Kane had only been together for a few months, appeared to have caused some tension between us. She’d brought it up several times with me. Or maybe it was because in the past six months, I’d only seen her for about four days, and that was a little over three months ago.

My job as a hotshot meant that I was gone a lot in the summer. But this year, I’d also attended a training course in Montana in the spring. Once fire season was over, I’d headed straight to Vermont for another training course.

Misty had been noticeably distant on the phone. Typically, when I was in the field, we FaceTimed for at least an hour every day, but lately, for the past couple of months, I’d been lucky to get her on the phone at all. Nearly all of our communication had been through texts.

As tough as the distance had been on us, there was now a light at the end of the tunnel. I was taking some much-needed time off until after the holidays. I had three months to make up for the time I’d been gone and finally start planning the wedding.

I tried her one more time before leaving a message and heading to the bar in the executive lounge that I now had access to, thanks to my upgrade. I wasn’t really a drink-at-the-airport bar kinda guy, but I’d also never flown first class before and figured I might as well take advantage of the upgrade and the access it provided.

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