Page 16 of Trapped with the Billionaire

She nodded, but repeated herself. “I’m scared.”

I pulled her chin up to look at me. “You’ll be fine. The only people in danger are the ones up front that might get trampled by the stampede when we get on the ground.”

She managed a half-hearted laugh, but her nails still dug into me like a kitten stuck in a tree.

“Airplanes are built to handle things like this.” I hoped talking to her would keep her mind from going to all the dark places it surely wanted to hide.

She tapped the yellow cone over her mouth. “Why these then?”

“When they shut one engine down, there’s less air from the engines for pressurization.”

This question had been answered for me when Dad had made us all go up with him in the company plane for an example of single-engine flight. It had mostly been for Mom’s benefit. He’d instructed the pilot to shut one of the two engines down to show us how the plane wouldn’t fall out of the sky, even if one engine failed. It had made me feel better.

Mom hadn’t been as impressed. “You're an idiot, Lloyd. Taking us all up and turning off an engine. How could you be so reckless?”

I’d still thought it was cool, but it had taken Dad more than a week to live it down.

Nicole clung to me, and I held her tight. It wasn’t the way I’d envisioned getting her in my arms, but I’d take it.

As the plane descended, the turbulence lessened, and most of the passengers calmed down.

“The captain has told us it is now safe to remove your oxygen masks,” the attendant announced after a while.

I removed mine and helped Nicole out of hers. The scene in front of us was a mess as all the masks swayed above the passengers.

Granny kept hers on until a flight attendant came by to insist she remove it.

The ground grew closer, the flaps came down, and before long I heard the landing gear extend.

The landing was nothing special, but it generated instant applause from everybody on board.

“Welcome to Sioux City, Iowa,” the captain said over the speakers. “Operations tells me they will have a plane and crew here first thing in the morning to get you on your way.”

The crowd groaned, and the bitching about having to wait until morning began.

Nicole joined them. “I have to get back. Like, really have to get back tonight.”

I let her out of the hug, and she slowly released her grip on me. “What’s the hurry?”

She shook her head and didn’t answer.

Granny produced another bag of Cheetos and offered them to Nicole. “Sure you don’t want some, dear?”

Nicole and I waved Granny off.

I still had Nicole’s hand in mine.

The complaints ahead of us increased while we waited for the door to open.

We were the last two to join the conga line leaving the plane, directly behind Granny.

I let Nicole go ahead and grabbed the remainder of my dinner from the floor.

The pilot shook damn near everyone’s hand as they exited.

I offered mine as well. “Do we know when the replacement plane arrives?”

“Not exactly, but I would figure on a departure at around seven in the morning,” he said.

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