“I thought it was just helicopter rides. That sounds awesome. Let’s go.” She tried to pull me toward the cordoned off landing pad area, but my knees locked.
Knox jumped in. “Bay, I’ve been trying to steal a couple minutes with you all night to catch up. I can take you up.”
My vision narrowed onto the whirring blades of the helicopter. My stomach roiled, breath increasing into choppy pants and my muscles tensed. The helicopter rocked back and forth, hovering in the air before planting its landing skis down on the makeshift helipad.
Panic gripped my chest, wrapping its fingers of dread tight around my throat.
Marisa chimed in, her overly light voice sounded like it was at the end of a tunnel. “Let’s do it as a girls’ thing. The guys can get us more funnel cake.”
Bay looked to me. “Are you okay with me going with them? Knox, are you okay with that? We can talk after.”
He nodded. “Don’t worry about it. Just wanted to catch up, we can do it some other time.”
“Keyton?”
“We’ll be fine. Hang out with them and we’ll kick your butts in skee-ball for the giant dancing taco.” My voice was strained.
A flicker of a question danced in her eyes.
My breath stalled in my chest and I worked to unwind the tight cording in my muscles. I offered her a smile that probably bordered on full-on serial killer to hide my panic. I licked my lips and cleared my throat.
“Seriously, we’ll be here waiting with piping hot funnel cake once you guys land.”
She smiled and let Marisa and Jules pull her away. Her fingers slid across my suit jacket.
I wished it was my bare skin.
They rushed forward under the whirring blades of the helicopter and the door was closed behind them.
I was seconds from bracing my hands on my knees so I didn’t pass out.
Knox placed his hand on my shoulder. “She’ll be fine. She’ll be perfectly safe.”
“Still not up for helicopter rides?” LJ stood shoulder to shoulder with me.
“One near-death experience was more than enough for a lifetime.”
Berk stepped up to my other side like they thought my legs might give out from under me just from being in the vicinity of a helicopter. “Plummeting thousands of feet through the air in a helicopter with a stalled engine still got you scared of hopping into one of them again?” His attempt at a joke fell flat.
“I’ll stick to commercial aircraft with multiple engines.” My fingers had felt like they didn’t unlock for at least a week after the sightseeing tour over the Grand Canyon three years ago had almost ended in a twisted, charred metal catastrophe. “Let’s get the girls their funnel cake.”
I kept my gaze on the sky. Fear gripped me by my throat so tightly I couldn’t speak. All the scenarios of what could go wrong raced through my head, careening off the inside of my skull. If something happened to her…
Knox held onto my shoulder. “Breathe, man. She’ll be okay.”
I ripped my gaze away from the sky and stared back at him. “You can’t know that.”
“You’re right. I can’t, no more than any of us can know about anything, but she’ll be alright. And you’ll freak her out if you tackle her the second she gets off the helicopter. Calm down.”
I closed my eyes and breathed through the irrational fear, taking each scenario of what could happen to her and putting it aside. Driving myself crazy in the few minutes she was gone wouldn’t do any of us any good.
The sounds from the party slowly edged in over the tight, strained breaths that gave way to slower, steadier ones. Partygoers slipped further into drunken revelry around me, celebrating their charity. I couldn’t blame them one bit, and the money we made here as their inhibitions over at the auction table loosened would do a lot of good over the next year and beyond.
For a while, I’d been worried about what would happen when I left the city mid-season. Leaving the guys in a lurch wasn’t what I ever wanted to do, but I needed to take this step, and there was no guarantee we’d all be playing together after this season anyway.
It wasn’t a situation I had to worry about anyway. Ernie’s call that Wisconsin had reached their salary cap for the year and even my lowest trade salary couldn’t be met had squashed my hopes of it happening. The money I got here would be well spent, and the foundation would start their planning as soon as all the numbers came in.
Being here with the guys and Marisa and Jules wasn’t the worst thing. It was the best. Maybe it was a sign I needed to finally stop looking for my chance on the field and focus on what was most important to me.
When the four-passenger helicopter landed, I was standing beside the roped-off area waiting.
She rushed toward me and flung her arms around my neck. “We solved it!” Her mask collapsed some against my shoulder. She pushed it up, lit up with excitement pouring off her. “We were guiding people on the ground through it. We got our whole team out without needing to double back.” Pumping her hands overhead, she made mock crowd noises.
People walked behind us.
My back stiffened wanting to shield her.
“I’m glad you had fun.” I slid the mask back into place.
Her fingers shot to the mask and her eyes darted around behind it.
“Don’t worry, no one saw.”
She nodded. “I forgot for a second.”
My heart rate spiked in frustration that she had to remember that she needed to remember.
Knox left early, needing to get back for a mid-afternoon show tomorrow and he’d be nursing a chocolate chip cookie martini hangover.
I hugged him.
He thumped my back. “Good to see you, man. Let me know if you need anything and how you’re doing.” He released me and his gaze flicked to Bay. His wariness made sense after being the only one to keep the pieces of me in near human form after she left the last time. But this time I wasn’t the complete and total bad news mess I’d been back then. Still nowhere near perfect, but not teetering on the edge anymore.
“I’ll be good. Don’t worry.”
The noise he made didn’t sound like he believed me, but he didn’t push it.
The night wound down, going a little off the rails when Marisa finished her third bag of cotton candy and got on the Tilt-O-Whirl.
LJ wrapped his arm around her shoulder. “I’m going to take her back. Thanks for a great night. And it was nice to meet you, Wonder Woman.”
Tucked under his arm, Marisa looked a whiff of funnel cake away from painting the ground with neon puke. She mumbled a goodbye.
“Nice to meet you too. Feel better, Marisa.” Bay stood a little in front of me to the side. Close enough that the front of my chest touched the back of her arm with every breath.
“We’ll head out too.” Berk held Jules’s hand. Their fingers intertwined. “See you at practice.”
“Bye, Keyton and Wonder Woman. We had a lot of fun.”
“I did too. And I’m happy I met you both. Maybe I’ll see you again sometime.” Her chin swung toward her shoulder like she was trying to check with me, but the mask kept her from catching my eye.
“That would be awesome.” Jules beamed.
They disappeared into the after-midnight crowd, not one bit deterred by the dropping temperatures.