Page 106 of Hitting the Gap

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw what looked like parachutes drifting through the sky.

“Bailey?”

She pulled her attention off the skydivers.

“You want to talk about it?” Kia asked.

“What?” she absently replied as her gaze shot to the parachutes once more. An idea taking hold. “I’m going skydiving,” Bailey announced.

“What?” Kia’s head whipped around. “What do you mean you’re going skydiving? When?”

Bailey stood up. “Now.”

“Whoa, hang on.” Kia grabbed her arm. “What’s happening here?”

Bailey scooped up her towel. “You can come if you want to, but I’m going.”

“Holy shit, okay, wait.” Kia scrambled to her feet. “Max, let’s go,” she yelled.

Bailey tapped her knuckles on her knee as Kia pulled up to the hanger at SoCal Soar Skydiving and parked the car.

Maybe this wasn’t the best idea.

“Is this where you jump out of the plane?” Max asked from the backseat. “Will I be able to see you?”

“Yep, this is it, buddy.” Kia turned in her seat to look at her son. “We have to stay on the ground when Bailey jumps, but we’ll try to guess which one she is when she’s coming down.”

“Let’s go.” Max unhooked his seatbelt, stood up, and poked his head between the seats. “Are you scared?”

“Umm a little.” Bailey eyed the plane near the hangar. It somehow seemed both bigger and smaller than she’d expected. She took a deep breath and let it out. Squaring her shoulders, she pushed open her car door. “Let’s do this.”

As she walked to the hangar, Bailey dimly listened to Max pepper his mom with questions. How fast did the plane fly? How fast would it be going when she jumped out?

Kia pulled open the hangar door and held it. As Max walked in, he asked, “What if there’s a bird?”

Kia winced and mouthed sorry to Bailey, before saying to her son, “There won’t be a bird and if there is, it’ll move.”

Bailey’s heart jumped. What if there was a bird? That had to be bad, didn’t it? Was death by bird a thing? She put her hand on her pounding chest. She was too old for this. Maybe she didn’t have to literally jump out of a plane to take a leap of faith with Gonzo.

Kia grabbed Bailey’s forearm. “It’s completely safe. You got this. No guts, no glory.”

Right, like her mom always said, fear was just a lie you told yourself.

“Hey guys.” Sloane stood up from behind the desk in the corner and walked toward them. “Hi Max, you here to watch Bailey jump out of the plane?”

“Yeah, but she might chicken out.”

Geez called out by a child. That was rough. Was it that obvious? Now there was no way she could back out. “I’m not gonna chicken out,” she told him.

“You sure? Cuz you kinda look like you wanna puke.”

Bailey pretended to sneer at the little boy. “I’m not gonna puke.”

Max cocked his head to the side and wrinkled his nose as he looked at her. “You sure?”

“Positive.” She stood up straight. “Alright, Sloane, what do I need to do?”

“First, we need to fill out some paperwork. Then we have a video and a bunch of safety stuff to go through.” Sloane guided them back toward the desk.

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