Who closed the door?
Travis’s eyes dimmed at her movement. She did her best to ignore it.
“Do you mind if Brady hangs out up here with us during the flight?” Travis jerked his chin toward the jump seat.
“Yes.” She nodded. “I mean, I mind.”
She did. He was eight. What if he touched something?
He should stay in the cabin with her and the rest of the family and leave the piloting to the actual…pilots. Or whatever these guys were.
Travis’s jaw ticked, but he didn’t say anything more. “I’ll watch out for him,” Dane said, not looking up from whatever he was doing with his own metal clipboard. “Once we’re in the air, Travis can handle the bird on his own.”
“I can handle the bird on my own before we’re in the air,” Travis said.
“If you’d feel more comfortable, he can come in after takeoff and go back to the cabin before we land,” Dane suggested, not acknowledging Travis’s comment. “Gotta be honest, though, those are the best parts of the flight.”
He looked up at her, then, and something in her expression made his lips turn down. “I guess that’s only if you like to fly.”
One could say that. She bit at her bottom lip, glancing between the two of them.
“Rach,” Travis said, his tone entirely too serious. “The kid clearly loves airplanes. Let him have the chance to see what it’s all about up here.”
No. Just no.
“Please,” he added, before she could say anything. “I’m sorry, I’m not comfortable with this,” she said, her tone the one she used when she was through negotiating with her kids and it was time to move on to the next subject.
Dane and Travis shared a look that she was not going to read further into because if she did, she’d probably take her kids and their dogs and stay on the ground in Denver forever.
Instead, she turned to leave, pulling on the door. It didn’t open.
She pulled harder. Still didn’t open. Harder.
Still nope.
Her heart rate was spiking, and where the fucking hell was April with her meditation app when Rachel needed it? Before she could kick the damn thing, Travis was behind her, his chest to her back and his scent surrounding her and making her stomach do the unacceptable flippy thing it did sometimes when he was there. He reached around her shoulder and pushed the door open.
Push. Not pull. Good to know.
Not that she’d need to know because she had no intention of coming back into the cockpit again.
“Rach,” Travis said, low enough so only she could hear.
She turned and, hoo boy, he was really right there, just ready to rip at the seams of his family structure.
She started to step back, but he beat her to it.
“I know you’re not comfortable with the plane, but I’ll keep your family safe.”
Her throat didn’t seem to be capable of swallowing all of a sudden. She had to force it.
“You can’t promise that,” she said.
She was pretty sure she was the only one capable of it.
Sometimes Gavin, but he was sure iffy lately.
“I can promise that I’ll do everything I can to keep your kids safe when they’re in my plane,” Travis said, expression solemn like he was at church confessing to sins that would make the most experienced priest blush down to his toes. “And you too.”
