Page 49 of Marrying the Accidental Groom
She closed her eyes. Not to miss it, but to mark it.Lord, I don’t know what You’re doing with my life, she prayed, words moving silently through the wind.But I want to trust You with it. I want to be the kind of person who can sit in a seat I didn’tplan, held up by something I can’t control, and still believe I’m safe.
“Talk to me,” Gideon said after a while. Not pushing. Just there.
“I’m...” She searched for the right word. “Weightless.”
He made a satisfied sound. “Good.”
“How many times have you done this?” she asked, opening her eyes.
“Tandem? Couple hundred. Solo?” He tipped them into a gentle turn, air cradling them like a palm as they spiraled over the open pastures. “Lost count.”
Of course he had. If adventure had a poster child, his dimples would be on it.
They drifted over the chapel again, its glass reflecting winter sun in a long bright line. Gideon’s chin brushed the top of her helmet as he pointed. “Christmas Eve service,” he said. “That view? You’re going to love it.”
“I already do,” she said, surprising herself with how true it felt.
They floated silently for what could have been hours. That kind of quiet didn’t demand to be filled. She’d spent years trying to create peace with schedules and control. Somehow, the absence of ground did it in ten minutes.
“All right,” he said at last, regret in his voice. “Time to land, Mrs. Reynolds.”
Goose bumps everywhere. “You cannot call me that right before putting me back on the unforgiving earth.”
He laughed. “Fair. Legs up at the end. I’ll release this side of the wing, and we’ll run to the left for a few steps.” He tapped her left shoulder, as though she didn’t know what direction left was. It seemed like a good call.
The pasture they’d been circling slowly rose to meet them. The wing stood them upright at the last second. Her bootsskidded. His hands came around her, strong and sure after he tugged something on the right. He pulled her two steps left, and then the harness relented and the world became gravity again.
She wobbled and turned automatically into him, fingers finding the zipper of his jacket like that was a thing she’d always done. They were still clipped together, chest to back, and he didn’t move, didn’t rush, just let her decide how long she needed to stay right there. Maybe thirty seconds. Maybe a small eternity.
“I didn’t die,” she announced into his shoulder.
“I promised you wouldn’t,” he said into her hair.
The wing settled in a soft sigh. He unhooked them one buckle at a time, hands steady, gaze flicking to hers like he was checking the edges for cracks.
“I have helmet hair,” she said, uncomfortable with his perusal.
“You look stunning,” he corrected, dead serious, which was rude when she was trying to be flippant.
They shrugged into puffy jackets, and he produced, like a magician, a thermos of steaming cocoa from the ATV he’d left parked nearby. They sat on the tailgate, ankles knocking.
“So?” he asked, tipping his cup toward her.
She considered her answer, then set her cup down and looked at him straight on. “It was...the best.”
His smile went slow and pleased. “Good.”
“I don’t like admitting you’re right,” she added.
“That’s why I brought cocoa,” he said. “To soften the blow.”
A comfortable silence settled. It would’ve once made her fidget and reach for a planner. She just sipped cocoa and watched a cloud drag its shadow over the far pasture and felt, absurdly, like her insides were fully attached to her body for the first time in months.
“You know,” he said after a while, spinning his cup between his palms, “I keep trying to think of ways to show you this placethe way I feel it. It’s not just the views. It’s...how small the noise gets out there. How big the right things feel.”
Juliana glanced at him, the corners of his eyes creased by sun and smiles and more kindness than she knew what to do with. “Mission accomplished.”
He nodded, then looked out across the slope. “The slope we launched from? I think it might be a perfect launch for an official tandem tour someday. It’s dumb, maybe, but I keep imagining making this part of the ranch. Letting people who think they can’t...find out that they can. I love that about mountain biking, but this is even further outside most comfort zones. I’m in a club that meets over at Grand Mesa, but I want to make this a part of the ranch.”
