Page 33 of Love at First Flight

“You know what, Mom? I really don’t have time to baby her. She’s twenty-three years old. If, at this stage of the game, she needs to hear it from me that maybe she should treat people with a little more respect and take some responsibility in her life, then I don’t know what to say. We’re all here doing stuff, and yet, I’m supposed to stop working to make her feel better? You weren’t there. You didn’t see the video and you didn’t hear what she said.”

“You know your sister means well and she loves you.”

“Yeah, well, right now, I don’t care,” Selah said as she wrote down a note to herself.

“Don’t say that!” Elena cried, instantly becoming weepy. “You all need to love each other. And you do. You do love each other. Your dad would want you to work together and to love each other. You’re their older sister, our Selah, our rock. They’re not like you. Hailey is just doing the best she can.”

Except, at the moment, Selah didn’t feel like the rock everyone wanted her to be. She was more like aging, crumbling concrete. Last night was proof that she was full of pits and not structurally sound enough for everyone to lean against.

“I’m also doing the best I can and, right now, I can’t talk to her. She needs to grow up, just like I’ve had to do.” Selah had a lot more to say, but she couldn’t say it without making Elena more upset. Instead, she pushed everything down and focused on work.

After her mom left and she was alone, Selah called the number from the Post-it. “I appreciate you giving us a call back. We’ve already been talking with Dex Westerly, your...?” Bria from KTVZ didn’t finish the sentence, prompting Selah to do so instead.

“Uh. Friend?” She wasn’t sure which direction the woman was trying to push her, but this was the best way to describe their relationship, even with one quick kiss in the books.

“Yes, sure, of course. Anyway, we’re planning on sending a crew to do an interview and get some footage for a piece we’re planning to air this coming week. I think... yes, Clint and I are coming to Smith Rock tomorrow and thought it would also be nice, since your business is so close to the park, if we can swing by afterwards to talk with you as well.”

“But this story is about Dex’s rehabilitation center, right? Not that I wouldn’t love to have our business in the news, but I’m confused about what I’m going to contribute—”

“This is simply one of our human-interest pieces for a special segment we’ve been doing calledStories from the Heart of Central Oregon. You worked with him on an event recently, correct?”

“Yes, but depending on what you want to know, my sister Naomi might be a better person for you to talk to.”

“Is that your younger sister? The one with the Loop account?”

Selah scrunched her features, her suspicions beginning to take root. “She’s one of my younger sisters, but no, that’s Hailey and, um, I just want to again mention that Dex and I are just friends. My sister can be a little—”

“Okay, I’ll be there in a minute,” she said to someone else on her end before continuing with, “Yes, yes, of course. I understand perfectly. We’re hoping to get some B-roll with your balloon. Are you doing any tours this week?”

Selah informed her there was one tomorrow, but she flew early in the morning. Before she knew what was happening, she was booked for an interview soon afterward and Dex would be there too... which sort of threw a wrench into her whole plan of never seeing him again.

*

Selah tried herbest not to show any anxiousness on her tour the next morning. It was a calm, uneventful flight, but she was as nervous about seeing Dex as she was seeing the news van with the letters KTVZ parked beside her mother’s vehicle when approaching the landing spot.

There was a man with a camera on his shoulder, completely focused on her andThe Blue Wonderand... What if she tipped the basket over for the whole world to see? If this were to happen, she’d never be able to pilot anything again, let alone a hot-air balloon, due to humiliation and what people would see as incompetence. It’s not like she’d get a reshoot.

Dex also made her nervous. He’d sent a text yesterday with a picture of his crow, reading,

Harper and I are wondering how you’re doing this morning?

Sure, it wasn’tI couldn’t stop thinking about you and your lips since last night. This was probably a good thing, since Selah wouldn’t have known how to react to something like that. Instead, he and Harper were being nice because he was a sweet guy and wanted to make sure she wasn’t an inconsolable puddle on the floor. She’d replied with an emotionless thumbs-up emoji, which had to be confusing, but she was still in the process of packing herself up again.

Her reflection in the mirror when she came home that night was burned in her memory. This morning, she rose earlier than normal and did her makeup. Not full nightclub face, but somewhere between being barefaced and looking “natural,” but with makeup. Hopefully, no one would notice her obvious effort when she was simply trying to avoid appearing exhausted.

“Oh, good, you did your makeup,” was the first thing her mother had said that morning.

“No. Yes. Just a little. I’m going to be on the news, for frick’s sake. I had dark circles under my eyes.”

“Well, you look very pretty today,” her mom had assured her. “They’re going to love you, and your dad would be so proud of you flying his balloon on the news.”

Except it was one thing to look pretty before a flight and quite another thing afterwards. Selah did her tour with the sun beating down on her and the wind whipping hair into her face and, also, forgetting and rubbing her eyes. She got tired of it, putting on her regular baseball hat and aviator sunglasses. In the end, she got up early for nothing.

As she andThe Blue Wonderapproached closer to the landing spot, she sucked in a steadying breath, begging the universe to please give her a perfect landing with no tipping. The camera lens was an unflinching witness. When she saw Dex, her heart skipped. He peered upward as the balloon approached but, while most people focused on the envelope, he looked directly at her. He had a huge smile on his face, as though thrilled to see her, raising a hand and doing a small subtle salute in greeting. Her heart continued skipping, her nervousness washing away at the sight of it.

To her relief, the balloon cooperated, landing perfectly. Naomi and Boone went to work securing and tethering the balloon as they had previously agreed, so the camera could get a few shots of it on the ground for B-roll.

Dex strolled straight to the gondola as though he were part of the team. He helped the passengers disembark as they climbed from the basket, chatting with them like he was the hot-air balloon flight attendant.

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