Page 36 of The Backtrack
Damon had always been the thrill seeker growing up. And now here she was, scaring the hell out of him. She had to admit, something about that was kind of fun.
“Here we go,” she said. As Sam brought the wheels off the runway, she chanced a glance at Damon, who bit his lip in either delight or horror.
Being in a smaller plane made the dynamics of the air more present, so they felt every bump and breeze. And with each bit of turbulence, Damon’s arm pressed into her own, forcing them closer in the already tight space.
“I can’t land us in Tybee, but I can fly over Band Practice Brews so you can say hello to Farrah,” she said.
“Screw that,” he said. “Show me something I don’t see every day.”
“You got it,” Sam said. The flight to Tybee was twenty minutes, and she planned to circle around the island and then head back. She wasn’t sure what she could show him that he hadn’t already seen—he’d lived there his whole life—but she’d find something.
As they approached, the ocean came into view, along with the outline of the water where the sand met the waves. There were vast patches of untouched land, green and dotted with the occasional home. There was the top of Band Practice Brews with the neon guitar sign, and Pearl’s house with the three Adirondack chairs. The world turned into her personal diorama.
But Damon could see this view in any plane, and she needed to show him something special. Something only she could. She searched the surface of the water, hoping to find her treasure. There was a disturbance just ahead of the nose of the plane, causing white seafoam to stir up and ripple.
“There.” She pointed out to the horizon as she navigated them toward the movement.
“What am I looking for?” Damon asked.
She waited as the plane inched closer and the shape in the water became dark and more defined. And there it was: a right whale.
“Down there, do you see it?” She gestured for where Damon should look, and he did.
“Woah,” he breathed out. “That’s a whale, right?”
Sam laughed. “A right whale. They’re endangered, but they swim through here to give birth.”
“You always did remember everything from class.”
Tybee wasn’t a haven for whales, but the right whale was an endangered species they’d learned about as kids.
Sam was careful to keep the plane high enough so as not to disturb the mother whale. “Soon she’ll have a baby with her,” Sam said. For maybe the first time, she caught a glimpse of what Grandma Pearl saw when she looked out at the ocean—calm and serene and mesmerizing.
“It’s beautiful up here,” Damon said.
And Sam looked over at him, and while she was sure he was talking about the landscape, he stared straight at her. “It is,” she said, not breaking eye contact.
“I can see why you like flying so much.”
She gave a soft smile. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah, it gets your heart pumping. You get a totally different perspective up here.”
She swallowed in relief. She’d worried Damon wouldn’t like this trip, but now it seemed like he was getting to see a part of her he hadn’t before. And while her instincts were to hide in jokes, she found she didn’t mind this more vulnerable option, either. “Ready to head back?”
He nodded, and she decided to please the adrenaline junkie in him by taking a sharp turn with the plane.
“Woo hoo!” she yelled.
“Sam!” he shouted, which made her laugh more.
“Don’t worry, I know a bartender who can get you a beer when we land,” she joked.
The engine buzzed beneath them, not unlike the feel of riding on his motorcycle. And they sat in the quiet purr for a stretch. “Thanks for showing me this,” Damon said as the Savannah airport came into view. “I’m glad I got to share in your dream with you. You’ve figured out how to have everything you want.”
Not everything. The thought popped into her head and she tried to ignore it. She had everything, didn’t she? Just like Damon said, all of her wishes had come true.
“Prepare for landing,” she said out of habit. And as Damon readjusted himself in the seat, she tried to focus on the descent instead of how much she liked being next to him.
