Page 35 of Big & Lily

“My reputation precedes me.”

Their cargo (us) loaded, our pilots stand on the airfield. Loni crosses his arms and leans against our plane. Jace points to the sky. Brick laughs. I’m glad they are enjoying themselves while my stomach clenches.

“Dane,” I say, turning toward him, the proximity of our bodies making what I’m about to say even more awkward. “You and I might have gotten off on the wrong foot. With the thing outside the bar last night and all. But I need to tell you something about Lily.”

It would be so much easier to tell this guy, and everyone else, why we are really here, instead of watching my sister play out this weird alter ego thing. I can keep this charade up for a few more days, as long as she doesn’t do anything she’s going to regret. I take a sharp breath. I’m not sure what I want from him except to slow his roll. Friendly, fine. Flirty, okay. Getting physical—no way.

“Here’s the deal. Lily’s got a lot on her plate at home. She’s, um, got employee issues that are affecting her business—”

“The sleep store. Brilliant concept.” Dane’s tone makes me think he’s moved on from the f-off comment. Or maybe he didn’t care in the first place.

“Yes, the sleep store... and, well, running a small business is super stressful, and a lot right now for my sister... so we came out here to... well, so she could clear her head before she has to handle things at home... you know, with the employee problem.”

“Say no more. I played an office manager in a sitcom about a paper supply company—”

“What? No you didn’t.”

“Notthatpaper supply company. I was inThe Workplace. It came out the same season as that other show, so we got canceledafter the pilot. My point is, I get what being management is like. I can relate.”

“Um, okay. Sure. So, you understand, right? About Lily having so much on her mind? She’s here just to enjoy nature and clear her mind.”

“Got it, Big.”

“Bridget.”

“Um, yes. Bridget.”

“Right, so we’re on the same page.” It’s a statement, not a question.

“Sure,” he says.

That was easy. I let my back muscles relax a little. Until I realize I’m leaning into Dane’s warm chest and bolt upright again.

Finally, the pilots’ convention breaks up, and Jace steps in front of the plane and gives the propeller a spin like a real Wright brother. I brace myself on the side walls, both of which are practically touching my shoulders. The headphones, which Dane offers to me, filter out the roar of the engine, as our pilot jumps back into the tiny cockpit, pumps some pedals, and flicks some levers. Jace speaks into his mic, a series of numbers and words and the term “roger,” but it all translates in my mind to “it was nice knowing you, suckers.”

I swallow hard as the yellow plane in front of us, the one carrying Ian and Luna, rolls down the airstrip and lifts into the air. It seems impossible that these things can fly. Yet somehow, it does. The aircraft lifts like a kite on the wind, tilts its wing, and flies off toward the mountains. It all happens like a silent movie thanks to my headphones and the rumbling of our own engine.

We are next in line. Jace taxis, picking up some speed, but certainly not enough to raise us off the ground. I clench my butt cheeks and hold my breath while the ground drops away from us. My stomach lurches, but I pick a spot on the horizon, as Brick suggested before we left this morning, and stare it down for dear life. Soon Jace says we’re at altitude, and I sneak a peek around.

We are on a high wire with no net. Thousands of feet in the air, nothing between us and an endless drop but a thin metal floor. Below us there are no roads, no buildings, no cars. It’s all twisting streams and pools of water and thick stands of evergreens and rocky outcroppings. Every shade of green and blue and yellow where the bright sun is hitting the grasses. Around us are mountains and cliffs of jagged stone and so many trees they carpet the earth. In the distance I see the yellow plane suspended above it all. Overhead, the sky is cloudless and robin’s egg blue. The sun bounces off the highest snowcapped peaks and casts others in ominous shadows. And it is spectacular. All of it.

“Look down on your right, guys,” Jace says through the headphones. “There’s a real treat.” Below us a brown bear is foraging in a stand of bushes on a hillside. Two cubs are wrestling and tumbling near her in tall grass. After all the talk about bear sightings, and the pistol packing, and the frying pan clanging, it’s clear these animals are where they belong and that we are the intruders. I tap Dane and point downward, since he can’t hear Jace’s commentary on the wildlife.

“They’re like teddy bears,” I say. “So sweet.”

“From up here, yeah,” says Jace. “You wouldn’t want to be any closer.”

I press my nose to the window and scan for wildlife. It’s not like the safari ride at Animal Kingdom where you are guaranteed a sighting around every corner, but I do spot a small flock of Dahl sheep clinging to a cliffside and see a hawk floating on the wind below us. It isn’t until Jace makes a quick landing on a silvery and icy glacier that I realize I haven’t been airsick, worried about sitting on a stranger’s lap, or thought about Lily’s problems at all.

Chapter Seventeen

The lake is not as I imagined. Not turquoise like the ones we saw from the plane, shocking bits of a tropical ocean in the middle of a field of ice. This water is an eerie gray like the beach and the rocks and the hills around it. In fact, except for a green patch on the far shore, you’d think we’d landed on another planet, a moonlike vibe in this otherworldly place.

“It’s the silt from the mountain,” says Brick. “You won’t see your oar tip once you dip it in the water. Very sci-fi out here. Takes your breath away.”

I readjust my expectations of what lakes should look like, blue-green water, thick stands of trees right up to the shoreline, geese flying overhead, squawking, and I start to see what he sees. A world I might never have had the privilege to experience.

When we arrive at the shore, after we leave the planes and Loni and Kyle behind, a line of kayaks with long oars and a pile of life jackets and other equipment is waiting for us. “How did this get here?” asks Xavier.