Eve shook her head, blinking. “Not really. Since Adam’s near crash, I get anxious every time he takes off. I hope it’ll stop soon. I hate feeling like this.”
“A glider hit Adam’s G550,” Jannie explained.
Nick frowned. “I remember that. It was all over the news. Damaged the winglet and aileron, as I recall.”
“The trailing edge and flap, too,” Ian said. “It wasn’t pretty.”
“Worst day of my life,” Eve said. “I thought I’d lost him. And now, every time he goes up …” She wrung her hands.
Nick nodded slowly. “Understandable. But think of it this way: many pilots experience at least one near-miss or close call during their careers.” He paused. “Adam already had his.”
Eve looked at him with misty brown eyes, and whatever she saw in Nick’s gaze made her unclench her hands and roll her shoulders.
She exhaled in a long sigh. “I like him,” she said to Jannie.
Nick smiled and motioned with his chin toward the 2024, now positioned some distance away at the end of the runway. “I think they’re ready.”
“Here we go.” Ian wrapped his arm around Claire’s shoulders and extended Eve a hand, which she immediately grabbed. “Let’s watch together.”
Mom and Dad, too, moved to stand with them, on edge with anticipation.
The next moment, the first engine of the 2024 roared to life, soonfollowed by the second one, and conversation became impossible. It was a sound unlike any plane Jannie had ever heard, so loud, so distinctive, so robust, it made the hairs on her scalp and arms stand on end. No matter which airplanes she heard after this, she would instantly recognize this one from all the others.
The noise grew higher-pitched, drawing an exhilarated laugh from her lips. Damn, the sound alone was enough to get her high. That, and the impossibly sleek silhouette of the fuselage. Oh, and the smell of jet fuel.
She loved the smell of jet fuel. It smelled like freedom.
She glanced at the spectators. Everyone watched with different expressions of awe, except for Ian and Dad, who grinned at each other like two kids with their first cool toy.
And suddenly, the 2024 jerked forward, moving so fast that Jannie thought it looked like it was shot out of a cannon. With dizzying speed, it barreled down the runway in a blur of blue, white, and gold. The needlelike nose lifted, and the sleek jet was airborne, reaching for the skies, its landing gear folding smoothly before disappearing into its belly.
Leaving behind an orange-brown exhaust trail, it ascended, climbing at a stunning rate, the glow of the afterburners blazing in the evening sky.
Beside her, Nick wrapped an arm around her waist. “Well. I can only think of a couple of things more satisfying than that.”
“He did it, Olaf,” Mom said, her voice trembling. “Our first baby … he did that.”
“He sure did.” Dad wrapped her in a tight one-armed hug. “That boy just earned one hell of a pair of wings.”
“Supersonicwings,” Ian said, shaking his head in awe. “Damn. Ug pulled it off.”
Jannie nodded. “Spectacularly.”
“I can barely see it now,” Eve said, shielding her eyes and squinting up at the orange dot shimmering in the sky.
Tears welled in Jannie’s eyes. Everything hit her all at once: the stress of facing her family and introducing Nick, the relief of seeing her brother finally reach his biggest goal, and the concern lurking in the back of hermind, knowing something could still go wrong during this first long flight.
But underneath it all, something else tugged at her subconscious: the deep longing to be in the cockpit herself.
CHAPTER 23
Jannie
She couldn’t sleep.
Again.
Jannie glanced at her phone on the nightstand.
