Page 176 of Finding Olivia (Trace + Olivia 1)

Trace laughed at my reaction. The people turned to look at me, chuckling as well.

“You’re the best boyfriend ever!” I squealed, jumping into Trace’s arms, kissing him.

“Whoa there,” Trace chuckled, pulling away from my monkey-like embrace. “I didn’t know the hot air balloon would make you this excited.”

“I’m sorry,” I blushed, steepling my hands in front of my face. “When I made the list, this was one of the things I was most excited to do, but figured I’d never have the chance.”

“Well,” he smiled, “here’s your chance.”

I squealed again and the men gathered around the hot air balloon laughed.

“Normally, the girl is scared to death to get in one of these,” one of the men remarked.

“Not my Olivia,” Trace grinned, throwing his arm over my shoulders as we stepped towards the guys. “She’s one of a kind.” He kissed my nose.

“Ya wanna help?” Another man asked. He was older with graying hair and a heavy beard. His brown eyes were warm and caring.

“We can help?!” I gushed.

“Of course,” he replied in his gruff voice, waving his hand for me to join him, “it’s all a part of the experience.”

“Eeeek!” I squeaked and went to help him. I think my behavior was embarrassing Trace but I was too excited to care.

This was going to be way better than the Ferris Wheel and I had thought that was awesome.

The older man introduced himself as Richard and the other three men were his sons, Kasey, Jackson, and Matt. Richard owned the business and was in charge of flying the balloon while his sons were the chasers.

Since, when you went up in a balloon, you never knew exactly where you were going to land, it was the chasers job to follow the balloon to give us a lift back here, to our starting point.

“Ya always have to land in an open field,” Richard explained. “Any open land will do as long as ya have permission from the owner to land there. But that’s the beauty of these things,” he tapped the basket, “ya never know which way the wind will blow ya. Kinda like life.”

I smiled at his words. I had instantly taken a liking to the older man. He was kind and funny.

“Alright, y’all,” he waved to Trace and me, “get on in here. We’re ‘bout ready to go up.”

I ran by Trace, and hopped into the basket, not very lady-like, but I didn’t care.

The fire that lifted the balloon roared to life and the heat warmed my face.

The ginormous rainbow balloon rose above us, its stripes running up and down. I gazed above me at the inside of the balloon, blown away by the sheer size of it. They looked small, when you saw them up in the sky, but in person…they were breathtaking due to their massive size.

“I’m beginning to regret this decision,” Trace muttered as the basket lifted off the ground.

Richard chuckled and clapped him on the back. “Don’t be a sissy, boy, it’s only a few feet.”

I laughed at Trace, and gripped the edge of the basket, peering below us as the people on the ground grew smaller and smaller.

I saw the cars zoom by on the highways that intersected neighborhoods and farmlands. The straight lines of the farm plots were beautiful to see from above. Little black dots were scattered around the grassy area and I marveled at how small the cows looked from this high.

“Special occasion?” Richard asked us.

“Nah,” Trace explained, “we wanted to do something different.”

“We don’t get a lot of young folks comin’ to us, unless there’s a proposal,” Richard chortled.

Trace choked on his saliva. “Nope, no proposal, sir.”

Richard’s chuckle echoed through the air around us. “Ya don’t need to get all worked up, boy. Ya look like ya can’t breathe.”

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