Virgin Flyer

“How do you know all of this?”

She reached over and squeezed my forearm. “I finally weaseled it out of him piece by piece. It was like pulling teeth.”

I turned to look out the driver’s-side window so I wouldn’t have to look at her hopeful expression. I felt ripped wide open, like my guts were on display. “Why didn’t he tell me?”

“Oh, Teo. He’s fucking terrified. It’s so much easier to keep himself walled off from people. That way he doesn’t get hurt or hurt anyone else.”

I turned to face her again. “What do you mean hurt anyone else?”

She let out a sigh. “He stayed with Ty too long. I didn’t realize it at the time because I wanted it too much, but they were never really suited. It had just worked so perfectly with the four of us hanging out together. By trying to make it fun for me, he ended up hurting Ty. Then when he finally broke up with Ty, he was afraid he’d hurt not only Ty, but also me.”

“Why do you say they weren’t suited? Ty’s great.”

Okay, so maybe I was fishing.

“He is great. But Ty… Ty has an ambitious streak that Jack doesn’t really have. Jack thinks he’s ambitious because he’s pursued his flying career so doggedly, but the truth is, he just loves to fly planes. It’s why he was willing to take a big pay cut to go private. It’s more fun to fly the small planes. Ty needs someone… who has the same focus on career. Also, I kind of think Jack wants to have kids, and that’s not really something Ty has ever expressed an interest in. He’s more likely to want to keep a perfectly decorated house that never gets messed up. I’m actually shocked he’s moving here. I think Kirk is going to need to talk to him to make sure he’s not moving here with some secret motivation to help us with the business. Kirk would freak if Ty saw him as a charity case.”

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.”