Page 69 of Sol
Dani -- Airborne
Iskippeddown a trail that went along the spine of the green hills of Extremadura, Trent following closely behind me. He and I had rented a car and driven to southwestern Spain, wanting to explore for the day, see more of this passionatecountry.
We needed fresh air after the week we’d spent in class. One would think that I’d already been on the roller coaster ride of emotions—from stoked to see him, to wanting to spit on the ground he walked, to feeling sorry for him and then tentatively opening up. But after spending a weekend in bed with him, going back to the class was an entirely new set ofchallenges.
Two hours a day, three days a week, hiding my nascent amorous feelings from two dozen pairs of interestedeyes.
Let’s just say we needed to get out of town, and I thought we’d like going for a hike. As usual, Trent was up for anything Isuggested.
“They say that in the spring, this area is covered with bright red poppies. I’d love to see that. Like out of a movie or something.” Spinning around under the blue sky, my arms flung out, I felt like I was reenacting the opening sequence ofThe Sound ofMusic.
Trent’s tone was light, though his words somehow made my belly flutter. “You’d stay in one place longenough?”
Tilting to my head to the side, my finger on my lip, I thought aboutlingering.
Would I want to stay in Spain thatlong?
Kinda, yeah. Especially if Trent was part of thepackage.
Giving him a big smile, I wrapped him in a bear hug, my head against his chest. “I don’t know. I never have. But it might becool.”
His big arms held me as he kissed the top of my head. “Yeah. I wonder what it would look like from the air. The hills all covered in red poppies as far as you couldsee.”
“So beautiful, I’msure.”
I disentangled myself and trotted down the path, spying a ruin up on a hill above us maybe a half mile away. “Oh, let’s go look at that! Raceyou!”
He grinned and chased afterme.
For some reason, Spain had an interesting, old damaged building on every hilltop, without a sign or any explanation of what it was. For all we knew, it could be hundreds of years old and culturally or historically significant. But nope, no way ofknowing.
Only in Spain. Castle on the hill.NBD.
When we reached the ruin, we had a great vantage point to check out the tapestry of the undulating hills spread out before us like a patchwork quilt of brick red earth, silvery-green olive trees, and freshly paved black roads. “This view is amazing,” Imarveled.
“Agreed.”
Climbing over the rocks and around the knee-high weeds, we discovered the castle consisted of an empty collection of stones with no roof, no windows, and no doors. An outline of an old foundation and a fallen chimney made me think it was a residence. But it definitely used to be something interesting, with this vista below. Made you feel like a king or queen even if you weren’t. I sat on the closest comfy-looking rock and sipped my water bottle. Trent stood before me, his hand behind his neck, taking in the expansivesight.
“Kinda makes you feel like you’re flying, being this high up,” Isaid.
“When you’re flying, the landscape is even tinier, like miniature dollhouses. I love tojump.”
“That’s right! You were airborne. WithDegan.”
“Yeah.” He took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. “We wanted to do that, you know? We specifically signed up for it. The recruiter sent us to Alaska fortraining—”
“Iremember—”
“And we each have forty-sevenjumps.”
“Wow,” I said. “I can’t imagine going up in a plane and not coming back down init.”
“It’s kind of crazy,” he admitted with a chuckle. “But it’s such arush.”
“I’d like to try it. Can you even do it inSpain?”
He looked at me as if I were crazy. “Noway.”
