“Ready.”
Vincent stands, or should I say crouches, in the small space. I unlock the door with the click of a button. He exits.
The scent of cherry blossoms fills the air, then Claire is beside me. Usually the flight attendant will hold the door in place for us to lock it once again, but she’s too busy staring in awe out the windshield. “It’s so bright up here.”
I push the button and hear Vincent rattle the door to check that it’s locked from the outside. Then I’m free to watch Claire. I wish I could invite her to take Vincent’s seat, but should she accidentally push any buttons or levers, we’d both lose our jobs.
I remove my headset from one ear so I can have a conversation with her. “Do you want to pull out the jump seat?”
She glances behind her to where the seat is stored, then leaves ituntouched to gape out at the world below. Probably too much work for the little time she’ll be here. Rather than stay hunched to keep her head from hitting the ceiling, she folds her knees together and squats beside me in a ladylike manner. “Where are we?”
I tear my gaze away from her sweet, awed expression to study the earth. She came at a good time. “Look.” I point to a rounded gray cliff. “We’re over Yosemite, and that’s Half Dome. Have you ever been?”
“Ooh ...” She leans forward, the curve of her long, graceful neck bringing her soft scarf close enough to tickle my cheek. “We went camping there when I was young, but my dad and brothers climbed Half Dome without me.”
Despite my lack of experience with sisters, I’m offended she got left behind. “Because you’re a girl?”
She rocks back on her heels, and I look for something else to point out to bring her close again. If I’d been camping with her, I never would’ve left her behind.
“My brothers are all about twenty years older,” she explains, distracting me from my study of the terrain.
“That’s quite an age gap.” I’m intrigued with her family history.
“Yeah.” She shoots me a mischievous smile. “I was a surprise after my third brother graduated from high school. So growing up, my brothers were more like uncles to me. In fact, I’m younger than one of my nieces. She came on that camping trip with us, and the two of us played at the natural waterslide the day our dads went hiking. We didn’t miss out.”
Now I feel I’m the one who missed out. “My family didn’t do a lot of camping. I grew up in the kind of little mountain town where other people vacation. It’s decorated to resemble a Bavarian village and become a tourist destination. We mostly just went outside to hike or kayak.”
Her lips purse to form an O. “That sounds magical. Do you go home to visit much?”
I grump. Dad invited me home to Leavenworth for Thanksgiving, but that’s too uncomfortable to consider right now. “I’ve been trying to avoid it since my ex, Joey, still lives there.”
For the first time since Claire joined me here, I’ve got her full attention.She’s studying me the same way she studied Half Dome, amber eyes a mixture of intrigue and uncertainty. “Joey?”
I meet her gaze, surprised by her sudden interest. She can’t really care that I’m single. Unless she knows the lore of my ex-girlfriend. Rumors fly faster than planes in the airline industry. “You haven’t heard? Apparently the flight attendants warn each other not to date me because I’m still in love with my ex.”
The chime rings. Vincent.
I push the button to answer his call. “Ready?”
“You want some cranberry juice and a cookie?” he asks.
“I’ll take orange juice and almonds.”
“All right. Give me a minute.”
I hang up and turn to finish my conversation with Claire. But she’s already peering through the peephole to make sure nobody else is trying to get into the cockpit besides Vincent. So she must not have been as interested in my love life as I’d assumed.
That’s my cue to change the subject. “Vincent needs another minute.” Awkward pause. “How are you liking the job?”
She faces me again, and we’re back to our easy banter. “Nobody has tried to hijack the plane yet.”
Could she be any more adorable? She doesn’t need a soda in a sock—she could simply kill the enemy with cuteness. “Darn. I’d been hoping to see your kung fu skills in action.”
Her giggle warms me more than the golden sunshine through the windshield. “Most passengers are sleeping. Maybe they’ll wake up later and attack then.”
“They don’t have much time. We’re landing in twenty minutes.”
“Lazy terrorists.” She relaxes, taking in the instrument panel surrounding us. “How’s it going up here?”
