Then Jacob made a sound, not a yell precisely, but a noise of pure delight that cut right through all the fog in Linc’s brain and loosened the stranglehold anxiety had on his chest. He didn’t have to see Jacob’s face to know that he was grinning. Jacob stretched his arms wide, enjoying the free fall, flying for the first time, and through him, Linc saw everything new and wonderful again—the trees and hills beneath them, endless panorama, pure blue sky, the rush of the wind coming up to greet them.
“About to deploy the chute,” he shouted to Jacob after checking his altimeter. Because of the additional weight of a tandem jump, they used larger than normal main parachutes and deployed them sooner to decrease velocity.
“Already?”
“You’re gonna fit in just fine.” He had to smile himself as he pulled the rip cord. At least Garrick would have a new jump junkie for company this season. The jolt of the parachute pulling them up made Jacob whoop again. By the end of the summer, all this would be old hat to him, and the seriousness of the job would take over, but right then Linc let him have his fun, steering them in gentle swoops, drinking in Jacob’s laughter until he was laughing right along with him, until they were truly doing this together in a way none of Linc’s other tandem jumps had experienced, a synergy that left him breathless as they approached the landing zone.
They landed about as close to textbook as possible, a soft touchdown that got another pleased sound from Jacob.
“Fuck yeah. We did it!”
“Yeah, we did. You’re going to do great for the solo jumps. Good job keeping your head about you.” He’d praise any rookie jumper, but something about Jacob made his voice warmer, more intimate. Their eyes met as he unclipped them, and an unexpected closeness blanketed them. This was why he hadn’t wanted Garrick to be the one to jump with Jacob. He was selfish, had wanted this all for himself, had wanted to be the one to put that look of awe on his face.
Only the presence of the others nearby, also laughing and shouting, stopped him from embracing Jacob. Even a backslapping hug felt too risky for all the big emotions churning inside him. Damn it. How was he supposed to get through a whole season of this? Maybe he wasn’t as old and washed as he’d feared, but he sure as heck was screwed.
Chapter Six
“What do you mean I’m not ready?” Jacob had been looking forward to the first static line solo jump all week. The jump that enabled them to practice correct body positioning while still connected to the aircraft was supposed to be the capstone of the first week of training, prelude to next week’s intense practices and more solo jumps with increasing autonomy. They’d have the weekend off, which was a good thing, what with Jacob’s mom’s birthday party. But right now, he wanted to jump more than he wanted two days off.
“I mean you’re not ready.” Linc stared him down.
Unfortunately, rookies needed their jumper-in-charge to sign off before they got to go. And Linc was being a damn pain in the ass. He and Garrick had been drilling him all morning on body positioning and how to deploy the reserve chute in the event of an emergency. That was the part he’d messed up on when they quizzed him, forgetting to mention cutting the main line, even though he knew that.
“You’re too cocky.” Ray, who would be going up with him as spotter, was usually quieter than the other two, but now wore a frown even deeper than Linc’s. “This is way riskier than the tandem jumping. I’m with Linc on this one. We’ll let the other groups go ahead of us. You need another run-through. Start by showing me your gear. Each part of the deployment bag assembly.”
Fuck. This was typical of the past few days—the instructors gave them work and then his crew gave him double on top of that. All the rookies had stuff like extra inventory and hauling gear, but his guys in particular seemed to delight in keeping him busy. But he couldn’t complain—he’d wanted this, and while he hadn’t asked to be on Linc’s crew, there were no guarantees that anyone else would be easier.
He started again, labeling the static line sleeve, pack opening loop, sliding sleeve, safety wire and other gear components. Then Garrick had him demonstrate cutting a line from a piece of old rigging—like Jacob couldn’t use an emergency knife on his own. But whatever. Finally, finally he was in line for the plane. And the good thing about being irritated at the others was that there wasn’t a lot of room to be nervous about his first time jumping solo.
“Do good work,” Linc said, clapping him on the shoulder. Seeing as how he usually avoided touching Jacob when not strictly necessary, that was nice. It was weird—when they’d tandem jumped together, for those few minutes, Jacob had never felt closer to anyone, but most of the time, he felt further away from Linc than ever despite working right next to him. And then Linc had to go and ruin the warm tingle from the contact, leaning in to add, “Don’t fuck this up.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He glared at Linc before following Ray to the airstrip.
“I’ll be working your deployment bag,” Ray reminded him as they waited for the plane to return from the previous batch of trainees. “Just keep a clear head and listen to your comm set. You’ve got this.”
“Glad someone thinks so,” he grumbled.
“Hey now. You need to stop butting heads with Linc. No one’s making you be here.” Tone impatient, Ray scanned the sky.
“I know. But it feels like you guys are just waiting for me to tap out. And that’s not happening, no matter how much work you pile on me.”
“Good to know. And hell, I’d say it’s nice to see you treating Linc normally instead of that crush you had on him several years back, except all this snapping is getting old quickly. You gotta find a happy medium, kid. Figure out how to work together for the season or else you’re both going to be miserable.”
“I...what?” Jacob’s jaw was currently taking up residence on the tarmac. He hadn’t thought anyone had picked up on that crush, except maybe him at nineteen had been way less subtle than him at almost twenty-five. Because his feelings hadn’t changed one bit even if apparently his behavior had. But fuck a duck on Ray noticing anything. “I didn’t...”
“Sure you did.” Ray shrugged. “And you’ll find some guys here with issues with you being out. God knows your brother ran his mouth enough. But not me. I’ve got a cousin. Married to a SEAL. Good guys. But Linc’s not like that...” He made a dismissive gesture with his hand that Jacob had no idea how to interpret. Linc wasn’t what? Out? No shocker there, but Jacob was never entirely sure who knew what with Linc—Wyatt had known or suspected something, but he didn’t know about the rest of the friend circle. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to out him so he said nothing as Ray continued on. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is don’t go letting yourself get hung up on him again, but maybe stop with assuming he—or any of us—are out to get you. We just want to keep your ass alive for the season.”