Page 29 of Breaking Emily's Rules
“It doesn’t feel like there’s that much between us and the ground down there.” I swallowed.
“That’s because there’s not. Don’t let anyone fool you. This is a bunch of tin strapped together. Any minute now we could both plunge to our deaths.” He turned and smiled, and that’s when I noticed the dimple.
The jerk was trying to scare me when my hands were already shaking. “W-when do I get a chance?”
“Grab a hold of the control column.” Stone touched a large column between us. “You can steer the plane for a while.”
“Steer the plane?” Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all. “Are you sure?”
“Second thoughts?” He quirked an eyebrow.
“No, but that would make your day, wouldn’t it?”
“Steer. And don’t do anything crazy.”
The amount of faith he had in me was positively touching. “I can do this.”
“I’ll keep control of the rudder pedals, and you steer.”
I placed trembling hands around what he’d called the control column. I reminded myself he probably didn’t want to die either, so he wouldn’t have me do this if it wasn’t perfectly safe.
This is it. I’m flying, and I’m not even afraid. Even though we were several thousand feet in the air, and a drop would mean certain death.
He tried to talk me through making a turn, but I didn’t do it smoothly and the plane jerked, which made my breakfast threaten to make its reappearance. I couldn’t handle that right now. The last thing I needed was to get sick and prove his point.
“We’ll head back now,” he said.
How could I possibly keep this up? I already felt like I’d run ten miles, and we’d only been up for twenty minutes or so.
“You okay?’ He glanced at me, brow furrowed.
“Of course I am. Why would you ask that?”
“You’re white knuckling it.”
We finally landed, and I had never been so happy to see the ground again. Legs shaking, I took off my headset and flung the door open. I needed a drink of water, an aspirin and maybe my head examined.
I managed to make it a few steps from the plane before I heard Stone’s voice behind me. It sounded tinny and distant.
“Still want to fly?”
I turned to see his dimpled smile. It was the last thing I saw before everything went black.
* * *
Stone
This wasnot going accordingto plan. His first student had passed out, just missing the tarmac. With what felt like seconds to spare, he’d made a dive for her and caught her by the shoulders before she hit the ground.
Wonder how many of Dad’s students had passed out after a plane ride?
He gathered Emily in his arms, ready to carry her back into the airport, when her eyelids fluttered open.
“What are you doing? Why are you holding me?”
The color had returned to her formerly ashen-white face, and he managed to relax a little. Maybe he hadn’t killed his first student.
“You fainted.”
