St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle; be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the devil.
“You all right?” Luke asked me, his voice sounding tinny and suppressed through the headset. I planted a smile on my face and gave him a thumbs-up.
“We’re going to stay low, ok, sweetheart?” Another thumbs-up. Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed are thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb Jesus. Holy Mary Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.
“Amen.”
He gave me a worried look, and reached over to squeeze my knee. I replaced his hand on the airplane steering wheel. The yoke, Luke had called it. Hands on the yoke.
“Let’s go see the Manitou Islands!” Charlie said.
After a while, flying over both islands, Big Glen and Little Glen Lakes, and the Sleeping Bear Dunes up to Leland, over to Suttons Bay and Omena and Northport, with Luke keeping a steady stream of distracting conversation, I started to actually enjoy myself. It was amazing being able to see so far. I had been to the observation deck of the Renaissance Center in Detroit on a school field trip, but this was better. I smiled at Luke, this time a real smile, and he grinned at me, clearly loving every moment up in his plane.
We finally landed, and Luke helped me out. Despite my new, relaxed attitude about flying, my legs were shaking, hard.
“Can you speak now?” he asked me.
“What?”
“You haven’t said one word since we took off, except ‘amen.’ Were you praying the whole time?”
“No!” Not the whole time. “I had fun, Luke, thank you for taking us.” He raised an eyebrow. “Ok, it was a little rough at first, but then I had fun. I mean it.” I leaned up and kissed him.
Charlie made a gagging noise. Too soon post-Hank for that to be funny. “I knew it!” he crowed. “I knew he was your boyfriend.”
“Charlie—” I started to say, but Luke took my hand.
“Yep, I am,” he told Charlie. “Maybe next we should fly out to the Fox Islands.” He put an arm around Charlie’s shoulders, and pulled me into him with the other arm. “Have you two ever been out there?”
We had such a nice day together. We went to lunch with Luke in Glen Arbor, then went back to his house and talked about plans to renovate it, while Charlie ran on the beach and skipped stones. Luke and I sat on his deck, his arm around me, watching Charlie play. It was perfect.
“Why did you sigh like that?” he asked, his fingers winding through my hair.
“I didn’t mean to. I was thinking that I don’t want this day to end. It was so much fun. Thank you, Luke.”
He tightened his arm around me. “Coffee.”
“Huh?”
“What you just said reminded me of how excited you were when I brought you coffee on the way to the meet. Also there was your reaction to the coffee this morning…” I tucked my chin and blushed. “It doesn’t take much to make you happy.” He kissed my head.
We had spent the whole day relaxing—no work, no cleaning, no cooking, no fighting. No worrying about transportation, or people pinching my ass. Well, people who were not Luke pinching my ass. What was not to like about this day? But the biggest part for me had been the company. “You make me happy,” I told Luke, and bit my lip.
He turned my face to his, and rested his forehead on mine. “You make me happy, too.”
Charlie was asleep when Luke dropped us off at home after a late dinner that night. Apparently he and Frankie had stayed up for quite a while past their usual bedtimes. I was trying to push back a feeling of suffocating guilt for having left Cassie for so long, for having a fun day, for being healthy instead of sick.
“Cassie has chemo tomorrow,” I said.
Luke nodded. “How is that going?”
“She won’t tell me anything.” I picked at a thread in my jeans. “She won’t let me come to her doctor appointments, and then won’t say what the doctor tells her. I’ve read everything I could, called my old professors to ask them questions. The prognosis isn’t great for her under the best of circumstances, but I don’t really know.”
“Maybe she should go downstate to a bigger hospital.”
That made me angry. “Maybe. Maybe we should drive there in our Rolls Royce.”
He sighed. “I didn’t mean it like that.”
