Page 19 of Fly with Me

“I—yes, my brother ran this race last year. It was super important to him. He—uh, got me the bib. So, I wanted to do it for him.”

“How are you feeling about saving the man’s life on the airplane? Being a hero?”

Olive gritted her teeth. “I’m not a hero. I did what anyone would’ve done. I got lucky with catching what was wrong…” Hero. She couldn’t even hear that stupid word without thinking about Jake and the video. People used that word to try to make Olive’s family feel better. Well, Jake was such a hero. Like it was supposed to make them feel fucking better about him being gone. She was going to throw up. She was going to vomit on camera in front of who the fuck knows how many people. Her ears started ringing.

A hand caught hers from behind and nudged her backward.

Stella was there, using her most Stella-like voice. “Running a half-marathon is a really big accomplishment, and Olive has had a very hectic twenty-four hours. Thank you for sharing her story. It’s important for all of us to remember that what we saw Olive do on the plane is what nurses all over the country do every day. Thank you so much.”

“Are you her—”

“Friend.” Stella’s eyes met Olive’s. “I’m her friend.”

For a second, neither seemed to know what to do. Olive paused in her not-so-subtle escape, and Stella appeared to have run out of words.

“You’re my friend?” Olive’s voice was breathless, trying to make it so low no one would hear it except Stella.

Stella nodded and then yanked her “friend” away from the camera crew.

Chapter 9

Olive knew her legs wouldn’t actually fall off. She was a nurse, after all. The muscles and bones were all still attached to one another. But with every limping stride, her medical knowledge seemed less certain. The ground didn’t seem soft, but the idea of lying down on it was more and more appealing.

Hoping to distract from her limping, Olive turned to Stella, reaching to touch her arm but then thinking better of it. “Thank you for coming today. You didn’t need to feel obligated, though. But with all of that…” She pointed backward in the vague direction of where the camera crew accosted her. “You saved me.”

“I took a short nap in my hotel room and then woke up all excited to come to Disney World. When I ran my marathon a million years ago, I would’ve been really upset if no one had come to see me. My dad came then, and it was really nice to see a friendly face at the finish line. He practically had to carry me to the parking lot. Speaking of which, where are we walking?”

The corners of Olive’s mouth twitched. Stella spoke in paragraphs, not sentences. And fuck did she like that about her. “The shuttle. I’m sorry. I should’ve asked where you want to go. My brain’s not functioning very well right now.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No, just rethinking all the life decisions that led to running a half-marathon.”

Olive had expected Stella to laugh at that. Not that what she’d said was funny. It wasn’t really funny at all. Olive was completely out of funny at the moment.

Her phone began vibrating, which meant it was one of the few numbers that could bypass do not disturb. She grabbed it from her fanny pack.

“Shoot. My brother’s hospital.” Olive had given them several other numbers in case of emergencies for while she was down here. She paused her walking.

“Do you need to answer it?”

Derek had demanded she take a mental break this weekend. He’d threatened to block every hospital number and her mom’s number if she didn’t agree to let other people take over care decisions for a few days.

“Um. No, I don’t.” She put the phone away. It was pathetic how hard it was to start moving again after the short pause.

As if sensing this, Stella linked arms with Olive, taking a bit of the strain off Olive’s legs. “You ran the race for your brother?”

“Yep.” She was still very conscious of being sweaty, but she couldn’t pull away. It felt soft and safe to have Stella so close beside her. The scent of her and the way Olive’s head could lean into her shoulder at exactly the perfect angle. It was addicting.

“He’s—well, that is to say, there was the implication… but I don’t want to overstep or make assumptions because that’s none of my—”

“He was going to run it with me. It’s a long story.” And she wasn’t sure she could tell it today without completely losing it. “He just… can’t run anymore. He’s at a long-term care facility. Paralyzed. Traumatic brain injury.” There. She said it without crying this time. Maybe coming here really was a good decision.

“I’m sorry.”

Olive fumbled for a follow-up question that would deflect from a discussion about Jake. “D-do you have any siblings?”

“No, only child. Just me and my dad.”

---