Chapter Five
"Do you want to take the controls?"
Ollie had to laugh when Callie's mouth fell open and she placed her hands over her headset, clamping them to her ears as she said, "Can you repeat that? It sounded to me like you asked if I wanted to—"
He nodded eagerly. "It sounded that way because I did. Do you want to fly this bird?"
Her eyes grew wider. "Are you serious? You mean it? I can?"
"You sure can."
She looked down at the stick beside her seat. "What if I do something wrong and crash us?"
"You won't," he assured her. "And besides, this thing has a parachute."
"For me to bail out?"
"For the whole plane. Pull a handle, the plane floats down. Cirrus thought of everything. We shouldn’t need it, though. I still have the controls right here, too. I can take over if necessary, but I don't think it'll be necessary. There, just rest your hand."
Her eyes were still wide, but her grin was eager as she gingerly wrapped her right hand around the control stick.
"See the dial in front of you?" he asked. "The one with the horizontal line across the middle?"
She nodded.
"Just keep an eye on that. If you push down gently, the nose will go down and you'll see that we dip below the line." She glanced at him and he nodded. "Go ahead, try it."
She eased the stick forward a fraction of an inch, and the nose of the plane dipped slightly. He chuckled. "I should have realized that you'd have a light touch. I guess with your pottery making, you have to be sensitive to the feel of things and how it changes."
She nodded but didn't look at him. Her gaze stayed fixed on the instruments in front of her. "Should I bring it back up now to level with the line?"
"Yeah, go ahead."
"And if I pull back, will it make us go up higher?" she asked.
"It will. Try it."
She pulled back with a little more force and giggled as the plane started to climb. "This is freaking awesome, Ollie."
His heart felt as though it swelled in his chest as he nodded his agreement. "Isn't it? I'm glad you like it. A lot of people are terrified at the thought of taking the controls."
"Not me," she said. "I love this. I can't believe I'm actually flying a plane." She paused. "I mean, I'm not really flying it. I know that. You're in charge."
Ollie held his hands up and waved them in the air. "I might be in charge, but you're definitely the one flying the plane right now."
She let out a little squeal of delight that only made him like her more.
"You should think about getting your pilot's license."
She nodded eagerly. "I'd love to, but..." She made a face, and he could guess what she was thinking — and he didn't want her to go there. Didn't want the question of money to always be the thing that sat between them.
"I'm a qualified instructor," he told her.
"No shit?" she asked.
That made him laugh again. "None whatsoever. Instructing is a great way to build hours in the beginning."
"You need so many hours before you can take your test, right?"
"That's right. And if you're serious, if you want to get your private pilot’s license, you'll need lots of hours, and I'll be happy to spend them with you."
She shot him a quick glance, and he realized the way he'd said it gave him away. Of course he'd be happy to teach her to fly — and it didn't hurt that it would be a good way to spend time with her.
He watched her closely, wondering how she'd react, whether she'd gloss it over — and a buzz of happiness filled his chest when she said, "I'd be happy to spend more time with you too, Ollie.
And I don't just mean so you can teach me to fly.
" She shot him another quick glance. "In fact, I don't mean that at all.
That'd be great, but..." She paused. "But even without the flying—"
When she didn't finish that sentence after a few moments, he had to ask. "So, if I asked for another date, you might say yes?"
"I would. I will. I do." She laughed. "Sorry, I'm busy flying a plane here. But yeah — and just so we're clear, if you asked, I'd say yes, but this is me asking you."
He closed his eyes briefly. He was thrilled, but he almost felt as though he didn't deserve it.
"Do you want to take the controls back?" she asked.
"Sure. Are you okay?"
"I'm on top of the freaking world. I love this. But my fingers might cramp because I'm gripping this thing so hard."
He chuckled and took the stick. "I have the controls. You're clear."
She let go and flopped back into her seat. "That was a-freaking-mazing. Thanks so much, Ollie. I can't believe I actually got to fly a plane." She chuckled. "I have to tell my folks. My brothers will be so jealous."
"I'd be happy to take them up when they come to visit."
"That's so nice of you to offer. But..."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to put my foot in it." He'd probably overstepped by saying that.
But she shook her head rapidly. "No, that's so sweet of you. It's not you. Sorry. I guess it's just that I don't know when they'll come to visit or how things will go if they do."
~ ~ ~
As Ollie turned the plane onto the approach to the airfield at Fort Bragg, Callie watched him closely. She would never have dreamed that she might one day get to fly an airplane. But now that she'd had a taste, she couldn't get it out of her mind. This was freedom at its finest.
Ollie was so competent. He kept talking into the radio even though no one was answering him, announcing that they were on their final approach.
He even talked her through what he was doing, which was awesome.
As they descended toward the runway, he pointed out the row of lights beside it, explaining that when the lights showed two white and two red, they were on the perfect glidepath.
"All white means too high, all red means too low. Two and two is the sweet spot."
It was fascinating. She wanted to ask him how on earth that worked, but she figured she'd better wait until they were back on the ground. As competent as he was, she figured he didn't need her distracting him with questions while he brought the plane down safely.
The landing was so smooth that she checked out the windows to make sure that they were really back on the ground.
"Everything okay over there?" he asked.
"It's amazing. And that landing was so smooth."
He chuckled. "Why, thank you. In fact, I may have to bribe you to tell Reaves that. We have a kind of running competition about who makes the smoothest landings."
She laughed and shook her head. "Guys! You might be pilots, but you're still just typical guys, aren't you?"
"We sure are." It felt like there was a touch of the old weirdness in the air in the cockpit when he added, "And there might come a time when I ask you to remember that you just said that, okay?"
As tempted as she was to ask him to explain, she decided to let it go. The flight had been so much fun. She didn't want to spoil their goodbye by interrogating him. He was probably only joking anyway. Hopefully.
"Okay."
When they reached the end of the runway, he turned the plane and taxied back toward the hangars. She watched his feet work the pedals, curious about how much of flying happened down there rather than with the stick.
She startled when the sound of his phone ringing filled her headset.
"Shoot, sorry," he exclaimed. "I didn't think to disconnect it."
He pulled his phone out of the door pocket and checked the screen. "It's only Reaves. I'll call him back."
A cold shiver of doubt slithered down her spine.
Hopefully it really was Reaves — and even if it wasn't, it was none of her damn business anyway.
She had to remember that. They'd both said that they'd like to spend more time together, but she didn't have any claim over him.
There was no reason another girl shouldn't be calling him.
He brought the plane to a stop in pretty much the same spot where he had last week when he came to pick her up. Back then, he was just some friend of Becca's. Now—
She glanced over at him as he removed his headset. Now she wasn't exactly sure what he was, but she was hoping that she might find out.
He smiled at her and reached across to remove her headset, making her feel dumb — she'd completely forgotten that she was still wearing it.
"Oh, thanks." She tried to smooth her hair, but that was a losing battle.
He grinned. "You're welcome. Thanks for enjoying it so much." He held his phone up. "I need to call him back. He knows that I'm flying, so— it's weird that he would call me."
"Yeah, of course." Callie glanced in the back. "I can grab my bag and get out of here, I..."
He rested his hand on her shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
"That's not what I'm saying, Callie. I'm saying, do you mind if I give him a quick call before we do whatever—" He pursed his lips.
"I'm free for the rest of the day, that's all I'm saying.
I mean, if you need to get home and don't want to hang out, then I understand, but—"
She met his gaze, and goosebumps raced over her skin when he smiled. "It's up to you, though."
"Then sure. Give Reaves a call first, and then we can figure out what we want to do, okay?"
~ ~ ~
Once they were out of the plane and Ollie had Callie's duffel bag slung over his shoulder, he pulled his phone from his pocket.
"This won't take long," he told her. "I just want to check in with him."
"Take your time," she said easily. "It's not like we're in any hurry."
He was hoping that by that, she meant she was happy to spend the rest of the afternoon with him. He deliberately hadn't tried to make any plans with her for what they would do once they got here. Now that they’d arrived, he was hoping that she wouldn't send him straight on home again.
He frowned at his phone, hoping that Reaves didn't need anything — but maybe he'd just forgotten that Ollie was here with Callie.
She smiled at him. "It's not a problem, really. Just call him." She turned to look at the plane. "I'll be over here, admiring this thing. Don't mind me."