Chapter 24
Cricket Jenkins
The sleek white jet sits on the tarmac like something out of a movie, and I stop dead in my tracks. “That’s for us?”
Micah chuckles beside me, adjusting the strap of his guitar case. “Levi doesn’t do anything halfway.”
River falls into step on the other side of me. “Nice.”
My mouth goes dry as we approach the aircraft.
The Barrett family fortune has always been an abstract concept to me, like numbers on paper that Micah never talks about.
But this? This gleaming machine with its curved windows and pristine exterior makes it suddenly overwhelmingly real.
How much money is Micah going to inherit?
A flight attendant in a crisp uniform greets us at the bottom of the stairs. He smiles. “Welcome aboard. Please watch your step.”
I grip the handrail as we climb up, my palms already sweaty. Behind me, I can hear Skyler chattering excitedly about the plane being “so shiny!” while Tobias murmurs something to Kiki about making sure she doesn’t break anything.
The interior takes my breath away. Cream leather seats that look more like armchairs are arranged in clusters of four, with polished wood tables between them. Everything gleams under soft lighting, and the carpet beneath my feet is thicker than anything in my parents’ house.
“This is insane,” I whisper to Micah as we walk to our seats.
Micah motions. “Go ahead and sit by the window. You’ve never flown before.”
I slide into the seat and grin at him. How considerate. I try not to swoon, but that’s pretty much all I do around Micah.
River slides in across from me, looking completely at ease, like private jets are just another regular thing for him.
Micah sits next to me and pulls out his phone to show me a voice memo app. “Want to hear what I’ve been working on? A new song came to me last night, and I’ve been working on it nonstop.”
“Another song for your new album?” I lean forward, excited to hear it.
He nods and hits play. His voice fills the small space between us, raw and beautiful even through the tinny phone speaker.
The melody is haunting, and I can already imagine how it’ll sound with full instrumentation.
The lyrics are about love and loss, and they hit me in the feels.
I didn’t know he could write a song like that.
It seems like all of his songs of late have had deeper meanings.
He’s growing as an artist, and it makes me so proud of him.
“Micah,” I breathe when it ends, “that’s incredible.”
River looks up from his own phone with interest. “That was really good, man. What’s your process like? Do you start with lyrics or melody?”
“Usually melody,” Micah says, his eyes lighting up the way they always do when he talks about music. “I’ll be messing around on guitar or piano, and something will just… hit me. Then I build from there. Although I recently wrote one where the lyrics came first.”
“That’s fascinating. In acting, they talk about finding the emotional truth first then building the performance around that. Sounds like you do something similar with songs.”
I watch Micah’s face brighten as he and River dive into a discussion about creative processes, and I feel a warm flutter in my chest. It’s fun to see them connecting over their art.
The captain’s voice crackles over the intercom. “Ladies and gentlemen, we’re cleared for takeoff. Please ensure your seat belts are fastened.”
My stomach drops. We’re actually doing this. I’m flying to Vegas. Excitement zings through me, and I open the window even more to see the view.
The engines roar to life, and the jet starts moving. I press back into the leather seat as we taxi toward the runway, my heart hammering against my ribs. Through the window, the ground rushes past faster and faster until suddenly—
We lift.
My stomach lurches as the plane jerks upward, and I squeeze my eyes shut. This feels nothing like I imagined. I thought it would be smooth, like riding in an elevator. Instead, it’s bumpy and tilting and completely terrifying.
“Oh no,” I whisper as the plane banks to the right, making my stomach swoop. That doesn’t feel right.
The jet shudders and drops what feels like a hundred feet. I gasp and dig my fingernails into the armrests so hard I’m probably leaving marks in the leather.
Warm fingers cover mine, gently prying them loose from their death grip. “Hey.” Micah’s voice is calm and steady. “Are you okay, Cricket?”
I open my eyes to find his face inches from mine, his dark eyes full of concern. “I didn’t think flying would feel like this,” I whisper. “What if we crash? What if—”
“We’re not going to crash,” he says firmly, his thumb stroking across my knuckles. “This is completely normal. The plane just hit a pocket of air that’s moving differently than the air around it. Think of it like… driving over a bump in the road, except we’re in the sky.”
The plane dives down again, and I imagine it’s plummeting to the earth. “It doesn’t feel normal.”
“I know it doesn’t,” Micah says, his voice gentle. “The first time I flew, I was convinced we were going to fall out of the sky. But look.” He gestures toward the front of the cabin, where Levi is laughing at something Claire said, completely unbothered. “We’re okay.”
From across the aisle, Skyler’s voice pipes up. “Are we riding on the bouncy clouds?”
Despite my terror, I can’t help but smile at her innocent question. Tobias chuckles and tries to explain turbulence. The plane lurches again, and I close my eyes.
Micah snickers. “Bouncy clouds. That’s cute.”
The adorable way Skyler sees things breaks through my fear, and I find myself giggling despite the continued movements.
Micah grins, still holding my hand. “Well, there you have it. Turbulence explained by a five-year-old.”
The plane levels out, and the shaking subsides to a gentle rocking motion. My heartbeat slowly returns to something resembling normal, though I don’t let go of Micah’s hand.
“Better?” he asks softly. His gray eyes are probing. Gently asking if I’ll be okay.
I nod, suddenly embarrassed by my freak-out. “Sorry. I didn’t know I was afraid of flying until… well, until we were flying.”
“Nothing to be sorry for,” River says. “My first time in a helicopter for my show, I threw up.”
“Really?”
“Really. And that was after they gave me motion sickness medication.”
Micah squeezes my hand. “The turbulence usually only lasts a few minutes while we climb to cruising altitude. Once we’re up high enough, it’s much smoother.”
Micah is right. After a few more moments, the ride becomes noticeably calmer.
I finally release my breath and look around the cabin.
No one else seems fazed by what just happened.
Noah and Savannah are looking at something on his tablet, Levi and Claire are sharing earbuds and listening to music, and Skyler has moved on to coloring in a book.
Kiera is sitting next to Violet, who is crocheting something, her bag of yarn on the floor next to her.
“Thank you,” I whisper to Micah, finally loosening my grip on his hand.
He doesn’t let go. “That’s what I’m here for.”
I look at our joined hands then up at his face and feel something warm unfurl in my chest. Not just gratitude but something deeper. Something that has nothing to do with flying and everything to do with the way he knew exactly what I needed to hear, the way he stayed calm when I was falling apart.
“I don’t know what I’d do without you,” I say softly.
Micah’s smile is soft, and for a moment, it’s like River isn’t sitting right across from us, like the rest of the family isn’t chattering around us. It’s just him and me and the steady hum of the engines carrying us toward Vegas.
“Lucky for you,” he says, echoing words I said to him once before, “you’ll never have to find out.”
I smile back at him, my heart full of gratitude. Outside the window, the world spreads out below us like a patchwork quilt, and for the first time since we took off, flying doesn’t seem so scary after all. Not with Micah sitting next to me.