Page 16 of Life To My Flight

I hadn’t quite planned on her downright not talking to me.

Everything I had planned stemmed on getting her to listen to me grovel.

Unsurprisingly, it looked like it was already time to implement plan B.

Shutting off the bike, I waited for the man to get closer before I spoke.

“I’m fixing it,” I said to the man once he stopped next to the bike.

He was tiny. Like really tiny.

He reminded me of a rabid squirrel.

His brown, shaggy hair was practically vibrating with his annoyance.

“Good,” he snapped. “Cause if you hurt her...”

I raised my eyebrow, waiting for him to finish his sentence.

“I know people,” he finally finished.

I laughed. “Got it.”

I didn’t blame the man.

I blamed myself.

Rue was easy to love.

I knew that.

She inspired every protective bone in my body, and if it was possible, I’d kick my own ass for putting those tears in her eyes.

I just needed time to fix it.

I knew I could.

***

“Hey, Cleo. You ready to fly?”

The pilot and my partner, Cormac Reed, asked.

Mac was a crazy fuck who I’d come to really rely on in the past three months I’d been working for Life Flight.

“Yeah, but we haven’t gotten a call yet,” I observed dryly.

Mac gave me a sardonic look.

He was a big bastard.

Not so much tall as stocky.

He was just shy of the two hundred and fifty pound weight limit required for piloting the EC-135. The EC-135 was the brand new addition to the Life Flight fleet in Shreveport, Louisiana. The newest aircraft could now safely transport up to two patients without fear. In the old helicopter, weight was a major issue. Overloading it could be detrimental.

Previously, there’d been a limit to the weight requirements by not only the crew, but the gear and patients as well. Before, we couldn’t transport more than one patient, and the stretcher size was minimal at best. Now we could fit a full size stretcher¸ and the EMS worker could possibly have another partner for help if it was needed. With the newest bird, we could do damn near anything.

Mac loved the new bird, and he called her Tweety.

---