Whispered Promises

New Heights

The next morning, Sir woke Brie up well before sunrise. While she was still groggy from sleep, he tossed her a set of clothes and said, “Get dressed, babygirl.”

Donning them quickly, Brie headed out of the bedroom to find Sir bundling up Hope and Antony as he got ready to leave the house.

“Where are we going, Sir?”

“I think it is high time we redeem one of our wedding gifts,” he answered.

Without further explanation, Sir dropped the children off at Unc’s house. Judy met them at the door still dressed in her nightgown. “Are you hungry, Hope? I made a giant stack of pancakes for you and Jonathan.”

Hope instantly perked up. “Jon-Jon?”

“Yep, cutie. He’s in the kitchen with Unckie Jack.”

The moment Brie set her daughter down, Hope started toddling down the hallway to the kitchen.

Judy took Antony from Sir, grinning. “You two go off and have fun!”

“We plan to, Auntie,” Sir replied, giving her a peck on the cheek. “Thanks again for agreeing to watch the kids on such short notice.”

“You know we’re happy to, even at this early hour,” she assured him. Laughing, she added, “We told Jonathan that Hope was coming to visit last night, and he decided to wake up extra early this morning.”

Brie grinned. “I love that they get along so well.”

“The two are inseparable. It’s the cutest dang thing.”

Back in the car, Sir continued driving north to Santa Barbara. As soon as Brie saw the empty field with a hot air balloon, she squeaked in excitement. “I’ve always wanted to ride in one of those!”

“This gift is compliments of Captain. I had to check to see if the company would still honor the certificate since it is years old now. Thankfully, they were extremely gracious about it.”

Brie stared at the brightly colored balloon, loving how the rainbow hues contrasted beautifully with the early morning sky.

The pilot and his crew walked up to greet them. “It’s an honor to have you ride with us today, Mr. and Mrs. Davis.”

“The honor is all ours.” Brie grinned as she stared up at the giant balloon.

After giving them a short safety briefing, the pilot announced they were ready to take off. Sir helped support Brie as she slid one foot into the foothold on the side of the basket and threw her other leg over to jump in.

Once Sir joined her, Brie grabbed his hand, squeezing it excitedly while she watched the pilot activate the large burner.

Hot air swirled around them as the pilot began releasing the sandbags one by one. Brie could feel the basket start to move beneath her, and she imagined that the hot air balloon was as impatient as she was to take off.

Holding her breath, Brie braced herself. Finally, the balloon lifted off the ground. But it was gentle, not jolting like she was expecting.

Leaving the confines of the Earth almost had a dream-like quality to it as they slowly began to float upward. Brie looked down, marveling at everything as the ground became increasingly smaller.

It was surprisingly quiet—so quiet, in fact, she could hear the tiny cattle mooing as the balloon slowly drifted over a pasture.

Sir nudged Brie, pointing to the left. She couldn’t believe it when two large California condors soared past them. They flew so close to the balloon that she felt as if she could reach out and touch the one closest to her.

Turning to Sir, she whispered, “This is pure magic!”

He nodded, clearly as awestruck by seeing the pair of condors as she was.

After the condors flew off, the pilot turned on the burners and headed even higher. Once the balloon leveled off, he informed them that they were now three thousand feet in the air.

Brie looked down at the world below her, marveling at the beauty of the Santa Ynez Mountains as they were silently carried along by the breeze.