Page 94 of One Year Ago in Spain
Claire sighed. “And I love you.” The words flowed easily out of habit.
Matías, though, cocked his head.
Oh shit.She’d temporarily forgotten that this Matías had only known her for a handful of interactions.
Claire tried to look sheepish. “Pretend you didn’t hear that? I think I’m just super nervous about, you know, hurling my body out of a flying tube of tin, fifteen thousand feet from the ground.”
But instead of laughing, Matías frowned.
Then he ran his hand through his mess of black hair. “Would it be strange to say I feel like we’ve known each other in a different life?”
She had to bite back a sob.
Claire reached toward him. Her fingers fluttered, but she closed the last inch and grazed his hand.
It was so light, barely a touch. Even so, she could feel tiny sparks in the infinitesimal space between them.
Matías held still.
Could he feel it, too?
“Does this mean I have permission to touch you now?” he said.
She half laughed, half cried. “Yes. You do.”
Across the way, Esmeralda rolled the plane door closed again. One of the other instructors turned toward Claire and the British couple. “We are close to altitude now, so we are temporarily shutting the door so you can hear about final preparations. Each of us will come by to check your harnesses, and then we will be ready to jump!”
Claire inhaled sharply.
“Don’t worry,” Matías said. “I will be out of the plane right behind you.”
Esmeralda came over and double-checked Claire’s gear.
“You look good. Goggles on and we’re ready to go!”
Claire looked over at Matías. He gave her an encouraging nod before he lowered his own goggles over his eyes.
The crew rolled open the door again. The sun was setting now, and the air around them glowed as if on fire.
It would have been one of the most beautiful things Claire had ever seen if she hadn’t been worried about jumping into it with just a scrap of fabric to slow her descent.
“Okay, get close to the door,” Esmeralda said.
Claire inched forward but refused to look down.
“You’ll love it once we’re out there!” Esmeralda grabbed the top of the doorframe and finished strapping herself onto Claire’s back—not the other way around, as Claire had initially thought. But this would be better, right? Even though Claire would have to see the ground coming at them first, it meant that Esmeralda would be in charge of pulling the cord for the parachute and steering it and everything.
“On the count oftres,okay?” Esmeralda shouted into the wind.
“You got this,” Matías said as he climbed past them andswung himself through the door, so he was holding on to the outside of the plane.
The outside of the plane?Claire’s eyes went wide, but he winked at her. “I got this, too.”
“Uno,” Esmeralda said, beginning to swing herself and Claire in the doorway. “Dos, tres!”
They shot out into the sky.
Oh god oh god oh god…
