Even more reason I wanted to help them succeed. I would start by being the best decorator organizer I could be.
“Then let’s get to work,” I said, opening the door to the SUV. “Don’t forget to grab your smoothie before it melts.”
Because apparently pregnant women had to have certain things. Before he’d left the house this morning, Kirk had warned me not to question the desires of the belly.
Once we got to the side of the hangar where the action was, things got a little out of hand. I was so distracted by everything going on around me, I was useless helping organize the decorations. I’d had no idea it was as big of an operation as it was. In addition to four airplanes and an enormous hangar, they had the entire runway to themselves. I couldn’t stop gawping at everything. It was a truly impressive operation.
During the day there, I learned more about what had happened with the dud business partner. He’d been in charge of the office side of things while Kirk was in charge of the actual instructions and jumps. When they discovered Dave hadn’t actually been booking marketing or paying half the bills, they’d confronted him, and he’d demanded they liquidate the company to get his investment back out.
In order to be able to buy him out of his share, Millie and Kirk had already had to refinance their house, sell one of their cars, and make some tough decisions. But realizing the full impact of none of the marketing being done during the off-season had meant also dealing with a lower amount of sales and income. They needed help getting some exposure and stat. A low summer season could put them out of business even after all of their hard work.
Thinking through possible solutions was one of the things that kept me so distracted during the day. That evening, when Millie and Kirk were in their bedroom “taking a rest for a minute,” Ty and I started brainstorming with a pad and paper at the kitchen table.
“It’s too bad we don’t know any celebrities we could get to come jump,” Ty mused, taking a sip from an icy cold beer bottle. Remnants of the pizza we’d picked up for dinner lay scattered at the other end of the heavy wooden table. “Does Jack fly anyone famous now that he’s private?”
“He’s flown Seth Meyers, but I don’t think he’d feel comfortable approaching him. It would need to be a client he has a comfortable relationship with.” I thought of Rourke. “He flies Rourke Wagner, but Rourke is in a wheelchair.”
“He flies Rourke Wagner?” Ty asked. Clearly he was both impressed and excited. “That guy is amazing. Have you heard him speak?”
“Yeah. Not in person, but I’ve seen his TED Talk on the internet.”
Ty looked past me at the wall. “God he’s gorgeous. And smart too. Did you know he went to Yale on a full scholarship and then worked full-time at a nonprofit while he was there? He grew up with nothing. He qualified for full need-based scholarships, but he went on merit-based ones. He busted his ass on the phones advocating for people with functional limitations, and he even helped convince government agencies like the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to increase oversight to foster families with disabled children. He—”
Ty stopped and stared at me, realizing he’d gone off on a little tangent there. I sensed a celebrity crush in our midst.
“Sorry,” he said with a laugh.
“No, go on. Keep telling me about the beautiful perfect man who spends so much time trapped in a shiny metal tube with my boyfriend. It’s awesome,” I teased, blushing when I heard myself call Jack my boyfriend.
He laughed harder. “You don’t think…? No. I can’t see the two of them together. Rourke needs someone who…” He stopped and glanced at me. “Someone more like you. A caretaker. He works too hard and travels too much. He needs someone to ground him.”
“You’re either trying to set me up to get me away from your ex, or you’ve actually met Rourke in person.”
He held up his hands and grinned. “The latter. I swear, it’s the latter. I don’t have designs on Jack, I swear.”
Ty was kind of cute when he got flustered. “Tell me about meeting him.” I stood up to get us each another beer while Ty described a speech Rourke had given to his company a year ago at the annual sales kickoff event. I listened with half an ear. I had to admit, the more Ty talked about Rourke’s attractive qualities, the more I second-guessed myself and began to feel insecure. I thought of all the times Jack had said Rourke thinks this and Rourke said that. Maybe I was naive and Jack really did have feelings for the successful businessman.
“Well, I’m not sure he wants to jump out of a perfectly good airplane,” I said eventually, feeling warm and fuzzy when I heard Jack’s gripe come out of my own mouth. “Besides, Jack is in Europe this week, so we have no way to get in touch with Rourke.”
Ty gave me the deeply skeptical look this statement deserved.
So, yes, fine, I was being a wee bit jealous and ridiculous, but I didn’t need the amazing and talented Rourke to be the one to save the day. I waved my hand dismissively and said, “Ahem. So. Who else can we ask?”
Ty’s lips twitched, but he didn’t say a word. More proof he was a decent man. I wasn’t sure if the fact Jack was surrounded by so many good men in his life made me angry or happy. Either way, I appreciated Ty not calling me on my shit.
“Too bad we don’t have an in with a social media influencer. They’d know how to get a post to go viral in a short period of time.”
As soon as the words were out of his mouth, I remembered meeting Ryan Fae this week at Wilton. We’d totally hit it off and had even exchanged phone numbers.
The only problem was, Ryan Fae rarely left his house. But it was worth a phone call at least. Wasn’t it?
The following day, I called Ryan on my way back to the city in Jack’s SUV. My original plan was to ask if he knew any other celebrity types who might be willing to do a public jump that we could film and publicize to get exposure for Nose Dive.
“I’ll do it,” he said, shocking the hell out of me. “On one condition.”
I blew out a sigh of relief. This was going to be huge. I couldn’t wait to tell Millie and Kirk. “Anything,” I said.
That turned out to be a mistake.
32
Jack
“He’s doing what?” I shouted into the phone. I’d just finally fucking landed at Midway after a hellish trip to Frankfurt and Florence with Chris and his jackass friends when Millie called with her big exciting news.
“Skydiving. Duh.”
When her news rendered me speechless, she continued. “Teo didn’t tell you? Haven’t you talked to him?”
“I’ve talked to him every day! And I know exactly why he didn’t tell me, because I would have flown home and tied his insane, do-gooder ass to a chair.”
“Well, it’s too late for that. He jumps in less than an hour. Where are you?”
“I’m in Chicago, at Midway airport, for god’s sake. Tell him not to do it. Please. You know how I feel about this. Millie, he’s terrified of flying. He can’t… just please tell him not to get on that plane. Tell him to wait for me.” I hung up the phone to try and call his number.