She glanced at him. “I’m just a little warm. And worried I may have a blackout.”
“Are you having any other symptoms?”
She aimed the air conditioning vents at her, turning the fan up. “No…well, my pulse is a little fast because now I’m nervous I’m going to blackout and kill you.”
“You’re not going to kill me. You may try to commandeer the plane, but I trust you.”
She breathed out a long exhale, trying to steady her nerves.
“Sparky, you okay?” Alex asked.
“Yeah. I think I’m just panicking. I’m okay. You worry about you, babe. Don’t do too much, okay?”
“I’m glad to be doing something constructive. It’ll take my mind off of how truly awful I feel.” The clacking of his keyboard split the silence in the car.
“Well, you have the entire flight to get through, so save some of your strength, okay? We need you up and at ‘em when we get to the facility.”
“Yep, I’ll just hack in and take a peek, then I’ll take a nap. Shadow can wake me when it’s go-time.”
Ava nodded, feeling a little better than she had. The sensation of heat passed, and she shifted the vent off of her. “The heat passed. Must have just been hot in here.”
“Good,” Kyle said as he pulled into the airport’s parking lot.
“We’re here. We’ll be in the air in just a few minutes. “I’ll hang up, and you can watch us on the pearl cam.”
“Good news,” Alex said as Kyle killed the engine. “I’m in at the facility. So, I’ll just take a quick nap.”
“Sounds good, babe. We’ll see you when we’re in South America.”
“Have a good flight.”
Ava smiled as she ended the call. She slid out of the car into the cool air, a shiver snaking down her spine. An ache lodged in her back again as she stepped forward, slinging her purse over her shoulder.
“Hey, you okay?” Kyle asked as they headed for the plane.
“Yeah, just a little backache. Must be that horrible mattress at the motel.”
“Ugh, yeah,” Kyle said with a nod as they climbed aboard and settled into the plush leather seats. He rubbed at his neck. “That pillow or pancake, rather, killed my neck.”
She chuckled as his characterization of the terrible bedding as the engines spun to life. The flight attendant closed the door, and the pilot’s voice came over the intercom. “We’ll be underway in just a minute. Make sure you’re buckled in.”
“Just a few short hours and hopefully this will all be over,” Kyle said, drumming his fingers on the arms of his seat.
Ava glanced at him, her eyebrows furrowing. “Nervous flier?”
“Something like that,” he answered.
She raised her eyebrows at him, reaching for his hand. “Really?”
“No, I’m…I’m usually fine, but…there’s something about breaking into a pharmaceutical facility that has me nervous.”
“I’m sure we’ll be…” Her voice trailed off as a dull ache started at her temples.
“Fine? I hope you were going to say fine,” Kyle said, “because if you were going to say something else then I’d really be nervous because you are like a beacon on confidence, and if you’re nervous…”
“I’m not, I’m just…” She cleared her throat as the plane lurched forward.
“What? What is it? I should know so I can have the entire flight to obsess over it,” Kyle said.
