Page 10 of Love at First Flight

He shook his head as he squinted into the glaring sun that was beginning to feel unrelenting. “God. I feel like a—Why were you even with me?”

Ava gave him an annoyed glance. His question clearly perturbed her. “I told you when we first started going out that I wasn’t looking for that. I wasn’t lying. I haven’t changed. I don’t want the typical marriage and kids. I don’t want to do that. I want to be free.”

“Yeah,” was all he could say, because maybe hehadread too much into things, and this was what Jon had been trying to warn him against. “Okay. Well, I get it now.”

Selah’s two-way radio came to life, a static break in the awkwardness. “Sorry,” she said. He wasn’t even sure what she was apologizing for, as she had a job to continue doing. She chatted with the person on the other end, and it was clear it was getting close to the end of the ride. It couldn’t come soon enough for Dex.

Without the sound of a flame as they lowered, it became uncomfortably quiet. He was grateful when Selah at least described what she was doing and the process of landing. Before, he would have been asking a bunch of questions because he couldn’t help but be curious about it. But now he was depressed and could barely focus on her words. His whole world felt hollow, empty, and dark.

Dex was so absorbed in his thoughts, he barely noticed the basket bumping against the ground as it landed. He was snapped into the present when a sudden gust caught the deflating balloon, pulling and tipping the basket, with them in it, on its side.

Before he could react, Dex landed on his back with something soft landing on top of him with anOof. He squeezed his eyesshut on instinct, waiting for everything to stop moving, wrapping his arms around the person who’d landed on his chest. At first, he thought it was Ava, which might explain why he’d naturally wrap protective arms around her. Sure, he was completely wrong, and she didn’t love him, but despite this, he didn’t want her to be injured. He was heartbroken, not heartless.

Except this person felt different—smaller, softer, and she had a bright sage and citrus scent. When everything stilled, he cracked an eye open. Most of his vision was encompassed in a blue glow because of the balloon fabric enveloping them. To his right was Ava, who was swearing up a storm, but otherwise was fine. He turned his attention downward and saw his arms wrapped around Selah. Dex slowly released her as she began to move, bracing her hands on either side of his body as she rose over him, her sunglasses slightly askew and a few dark curls escaping the edge of her hat.

Her own shock and embarrassment was evident as her skin flushed pink, her mouth popping open. Dex knew he was about to hear another apology, even though he didn’t need one. He understood these types of things happened with hot-air balloons, and it wasn’t necessarily her fault.

To his surprise, Selah covered her mouth, doing a short imitation of a static sound before saying, “Uh, ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. We’ve experienced a slight bout of turbulence upon landing. Please take care when getting up and be aware that your overhead pilot may have shifted during landing and could be on top of you.”

There was a brief moment of him doing nothing more than staring at her in disbelief until it hit him that this particular joke at this particular time was the most hilarious thing he’d never expected. Honest-to-goodness laughter rumbled out of him, making it difficult to think about anything else. He continued laughing and wiping away tears when the rest of the hot-air balloon ground crew pulled the blue fabric of the balloon away and was able to help them to their feet.

Ava glared at him. “What the hell is so funny? I hope you get your money back for this shit service.” This had him chuckling all over again. She’d never understand, and he had no desire to share it with her. It was something between him and Selah, a person he was kind of regretting he’d never see again.

Of course, there was a round of apologies from both the captain and crew, but Dex brushed all of these aside, because the only thing hurting was his ego, and this couldn’t be blamed on High Desert Tours. Instead, he watched as Ava snatched the offered bottle of champagne from one of the other women before announcing she’d definitely need it and was ready to go home and make a reel about this.

The day started with him in a relationship, thinking he was about to be engaged, and he was leaving with his relationship broken. The woman beside him in the High Desert Tour van was now his ex.

Life was weird.

He leaned against an armrest and stared out the van window as it pulled away from the landing spot. The people left behind, Selah being one of them, were wrestling with the deflated balloon. What an unusual woman.

She glanced up from her task and they made eye contact through the window. Selah lifted her hand in a farewell, and he returned it out of habit.

The older woman who drove the van glanced at them through the rearview mirror. “Did you kids have a nice flight? My daughter, Selah, is a really good pilot, just like her dad, you know. He was an excellent man, the love of my life.” She rubbed the corner of her eye before brightening with a smile. “Sometimes things like baskets falling over happen, but you have to look at the positives. You picked a nice day for a flight, at least. Beautiful. You know, Oregon gets about three hundred days of sunshine a year.”

A strained laugh vibrated through him as he shook his head at the irony of it all. “Yeah, I’ve heard.” He was feeling ridiculous for all those times he’d spouted the same thing. He should start keeping track.

Dex wasn’t sure he believed that claim anymore.

Chapter Five

Three months later

Having to goon a silly date tonight was all Daniel Radcliffe’s fault.

For the most part, Selah enjoyed his movies, even the weird, quirky ones, but this wouldn’t be enough to save him from her decision to boycott all his future releases. Of course, Daniel Radcliffe would never know this, nor would he care. It also wasn’t his fault as much as it was her sisters’.

Thiswas actually all her sisters’ fault.

It started earlier that week, while she’d been on hold for an hour, waiting to talk to a customer service rep because her mother had “forgotten” to pay another bill. Selah overheard her sisters talking about some movie they wanted to see together and had asked, “Oh, is that the new movie with Daniel Radcliffe? I really like his movies.”

Hailey gave her a funny look and said, “It’s not Daniel Radcliffe. It’s Elijah Wood.”

This turned into a bigger argument where Selah was so confident the main actor was Daniel Radcliffe, she willingly took a bet, only to be proven, regrettably, very wrong. So, yeah, Selah losing a ridiculous bet to her sisters and having to go on a pointless date they set up through some app was also Elijah Wood’s fault.

Basically, everyone was at fault, and this was the reason Selah was jogging while crabby on a dusty river trail around Smith Rock today, not wanting to think about overdue bills, dates, or her sisters.

She expected this kind of thing from Hailey, but Naomi ganging up on her, too, the sister who was nice enough to share her townhome in Redmond, felt like a betrayal. Naomi’s romantic side overwrote the nice sister side, and she was more than eager to boost Selah’s lack of a social life. Any excuses given about her current priorities, lack of energy, her plan for not sticking around for the long term, or even bringing up how dating in general sucked balls in the modern world, did nothing to discourage her sisters’ glee.

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