Page 91 of Burnin' For You
Then they were all falling. The wing, the plane suddenly nosing down, then over and over, rolling, its beautiful white belly up as it plummeted to earth.
Gilly hung from Reuben’s arms, her own suddenly flung out. She stared at the world below as she gulped in the cool, brisk air. The fire, simmering to the west, her poor Annie plummeting over a ridge, disappearing into the green.
Reuben tucked his arms around her, clasped his legs around hers and pulled the chute.
They arrowed up fast, and her breath caught as their fall arrested.
She looked up, watching as the square billowed out, a deep indigo against the ocean of blue.
And then they were floating.
Just soaring above the treetops. A quiet rush of wind filled her ears, but really just silence here, fifteen hundred feet above the earth.
Not silence. Peace.
Strapped to her parachute—actually, strapped to her, well,man—the fear drifted out of her chest like a slow exhale.
“What do you think?” Reuben asked, his deep voice against her helmet, in her ear.
“Breathtaking. Is this how it is every time?”
“Not every time,” he said. And then he took her hand and guided it to the parachute toggle. “You drive.”
She took the other toggle in her hand, and, just like in the simulator and how she’d learned on the platform, she steered them toward the creek bed.
A gust of wind blew them away from their destination, but Reuben’s hands went up to cup hers, right there to guide them back.
The crash came into view, her Twin Otter in pieces. She spotted Pete, Riley, Ned, and Tucker attending to Jed and CJ, strapping them to litters. Next to them, on the rocky bed, sat the red-and-blue PEAK chopper from Mercy Falls. An EMT crouched beside CJ.
“We’re not going to roll,” Reuben said as the ground came up to them. “Just land with me, I’ll cushion our fall. Don’t worry, I got you.”
She knew that. But the creek bed wasn’t a grassy field, and as she landed, pain speared up her leg and she cried out. But he did have her—his arm went around her waist as he pulled her on top of himself, landed beneath her.
Breaking her fall. She leaned back into his arms as the chute fell over them.
A silky blanket of blue.
She didn’t kick if off. Instead, as Reuben unhooked her, she pulled off her helmet. Then she turned in his arms, lifted his visor, and as he blinked in confusion, she kissed him.
An awkward, less-than-effective kiss, but he was all in, his arms closing around her, kissing her so sweetly, she knew…tangled up with Reuben Marshall was exactly where she was supposed to be.
She let him go and met his eyes.
“Wanna go again?” he said.
She raised an eyebrow.
“I meant the jumping part, but, yeah, I like how you think, Gilly Priest.”
She laughed, and then someone yanked the blue silk off of them, and she looked up at Pete, standing over them.
“Do you mind?” Gilly said. “We’re having a sort of private moment here.”
Pete frowned.
“Team meeting,” Reuben added and reached for the chute.
But they couldn’t stay wrapped up together on the ground with the team in need of help, so she pushed herself off of him. He helped her climb to her feet.