Page 25 of Wedding Games
‘And how does a street party with dancing girls and free booze fulfil those criteria?’
‘That wasn’t for your stag do. That was just for me.’
Rory looked over his shoulder. ‘Did you know about this?’
Duncan and Jamie looked out the windows, trying to repress their smirks.
‘I just hope someone filmed my dancing,’ said Charlie. ‘Unfortunately, we didn’t get to the twerking part.’
Rory shook his head. ‘I’d honestly forgotten just how much of a knobhead you are.’
Charlie laughed and slapped him on the back. ‘Love you too, mate.’
He pulled off the road, and Rory frowned.
‘An airfield? Are we going flying?’
‘Fifty per cent of the time,’ Charlie replied with a grin. ‘The other fifty per cent we’ll be falling.’
‘Skydiving?’
Charlie nodded.
In the forces, he’d jumped out of more planes than he could count. Some guys hated it, but he didn’t. He loved the rush of the freefall and the quiet after the chute was deployed.
‘But…’ He turned to Jamie and Duncan. ‘Are you going to watch?’
Jamie shook his head, and Duncan took a card out of his back pocket and handed it to Rory.
‘We both got qualified so we could do it with you.’
Rory was lost for words. They’d done this for him?
‘As long as you don’t count the pilot, we’re five miles from another human, just as promised,’ said Charlie. ‘Can you now confirm that I am officially the best ever best man?’
Rory smiled. ‘The day’s not over yet, but this is pretty fucking cool.’
Outside the car, Charlie handed the keys to a man who drove it away.
‘He’s taking it home,’ Charlie explained. ‘Our drop site is back near Kinloch. It’ll be clearly marked.’
Charlie had given Rory’s details to the instructors at the airfield who’d cross-checked with Rory’s former unit about his experience. An instructor took Rory to one side and went through the equipment and procedures with him to reassure themselves he was safe to jump. Then they all kitted up and got in the back of the tiny plane.
When he left the army, just over two years ago, he’d let so much go. But now, flying over the Highlands, adrenaline and memories chased each other through his veins. He grinned at Charlie across the cabin. They’d shared so much together, good and bad. Both were now leading lives outside the army, but their friendship had endured. Jamie and Duncan looked more relaxed than he did when he’d first started jumping. They were good men and he was glad to have met them.
All too soon they were throwing themselves out of the plane, the wind buffeting them as they got into position. Below them, the vastness of the Highlands stretched in all directions. Rory picked out the landmarks, the roads, and Kinloch. An overwhelming rush of love for his home filled him as they hurtled towards it. This was his world. With Zoe at his side, he was where he wanted to be.
About halfway down the loch, in a field that Rory guesstimated was about five miles from the village, stood a large white cross. He knew Charlie would want to land in the very middle so broke formation and dived headfirst towards it.
He drifted after deploying the parachute, and landed first just off the centre of the cross and pulled his chute away. Charlie landed second, right in the middle, then flipped Rory the bird. Jamie and Duncan followed shortly afterwards. Waiting for them was another instructor from the school who took their equipment back with him to the airfield.
‘That was incredible,’ said Jamie, his eyes alight. ‘I can’t believe you did that all the time in the army.’
‘Well, not all the time,’ Rory replied. ‘There was a lot of boring stuff too. But I loved this.’
Charlie took fishing equipment out of the back of Rory’s truck parked in the field.
‘We’re exactly five miles from Kinloch,’ he said. ‘You lot can try and catch some fish, then we’ll cook everything I’ve caught because let’s face it, I’m the best at everything.’
