Page 220 of Things We Hide from the Light
Fuck.
“You’re not throwing yourself out of a goddamn plane.” A cold sweat erupted in my armpits.
She slid my sunglasses on top of my head and cupped my face in her hands. “Nash, I’ve done this more than a handful of times. This is one of my favorite things to do, and I want to share it with you.”
Double fuck.
How in the hell was I supposed to say no to that?
“Come on, hotshot. Have some fun with me,” she coaxed.
I’d put her through hell yesterday and this was my punishment. Death by gravity.
Less than a minute later, I was—reluctantly—following her toward the huge open garage door on the side of the building. Her hand gripped mine in a way that suggested she wasn’t going to take no for an answer.
“Doesn’t this require a license or some kind of complicated paperwork that takes weeks to get approved?” I asked desperately.
She looked over her shoulder at me, smirking. “Not for a tandem jump.”
“What the hell is a tandem jump?” My back was turning into a Slip ’N Slide with sweat.
“Newbies jump attached to pros,” Lina said, pointing to a giant poster just inside the hangar’s open door. In the photo, a guy too stupid to be scared was grinning like a lunatic. He appeared to be harnessed to another man from behind.
“There’s no way I’m dying with another man strapped to my back.”
“Of course not. You’re jumping with me.”
I stopped in my tracks and dug my heels in, putting an abrupt end to Lina’s forward momentum. She rebounded into my chest.
“I’m certified,” she said.
Of course she was.
“Nash.” There was laughter in her tone.
“Angel.”
“Tell me what you’re feeling right now,” she insisted.
Abject panic. A little delirious.
“Just sit through the training video and then decide. Okay?”
A training video. If it was long enough, I could pray for a thunderstorm to roll in. Or a cloud of locusts. Or some kind of mechanical failure that would be discovered while we were still safely on the ground.Oh, two flat tires and a hole in the propeller? Too bad. Let’s go get some breakfast.
“Please?”
Fuck. Me.
I had two options. I could put my foot down and wuss out, in which case I’d have to sit here alone on the ground and panic until Lina floated back to earth. Or I could sign my own death warrant, defy gravity in a tiny tin can, and then hurl myself out of it with her.Forher.
I was vaguely nauseous and extremely sweaty. But those brown eyes locked on my face. Her cool hands pressed against my chest.
She wanted this from me. And I had the power to give it to her.
“Fine. But if we plummet to the earth and create a tandem crater in a cornfield, I will never forgive you.”
She let out a little squeal and launched herself into my arms. She may have knocked me back a step, but I still managed to catch her, holding her so her feet dangled off the ground.
