Chapter 55 Jordan #2
We settle into our seats. There are so many fucking screens, gauges, buttons, and levers that I’m afraid if I breathe too hard, I’ll break something. I feel like I’m in some sort of bizarre arcade playing a game left over from the 1900s.
“Am I supposed to put my feet on these pedals? Why does this feel like a recumbent bike?”
She shakes her head. “Keep your feet on the floor for now. Those are the rudder pedals.” Kennedy points to the back of the plane. “That’s how you taxi the plane to get to the runway. You really know nothing about flying, do you?”
“Not a damn thing other than my phone needs to be on Airplane Mode.” I grimace, feeling ridiculous for not knowing more. “Do you steer with your feet? What’s the Mario Kart controller for?”
She snorts. “This is not a car, or a video game, and this is not a steering wheel—it’s the yoke.”
I blink. “So basically everything is backward from a car. Got it.”
“Sort of.” She laughs. “You know how hockey has icing but involves zero cupcakes? Flying has a lot of terms like that—names that sound familiar but mean something totally different.”
“True! And now I want a cupcake.” I lick my lips, rolling my eyes as I picture the perfect yellow cupcake with chocolate frosting. “Wait. So, then how the hell does all this work?”
“Think of the rudder pedals like how you move around the ice with your feet. That’s how you change directions. The yolk controls other things, like the pitch and roll. I’ll show you some of the fun stuff once we’re in the air.”
I smile as I get strapped in, put my headset on, and watch her work her magic.
The way she checks everything. She is so damn smart.
There are a billion switches in here, and she knows exactly which ones to use when, not even hesitating before flipping them on and off.
She commands every situation, even when it’s just the two of us.
My heart has been pounding all day, but seeing her like this, with my life completely in her hands, is making all that blood pump straight to my dick.
I would adjust myself but I’m scared I’ll elbow a button by accident.
Fuck it—she’s seen my joystick before.
She taxis the plane onto the runway, talking to air traffic control and getting clearance for takeoff.
“Magneto, check,” she says, her voice sexier than ever in my headset.
“Magneto? Like X-Men?”
“Yes. Exactly like X-Men.” She peeks over at me as she continues her pre-flight routine. “The whole plane is run by magnets. You don’t have anything metal on you, do you?”
Oh shit. I fumble for my wallet, my watch, the jewelry I never wear, trying to think of anything metal I have. Will that make the plane not fly?
She snorts, placing her hand on my thigh. “JJ, I’m joking. Take a deep breath. Remember, I fly you places multiple times a week. This is no different. I get to see you at work all the time, now you get to see what I do.”
My shoulders relax as the fluttering feeling behind my ribs intensifies even as she gives me nothing but shit. I fucking love it.
I watch in awe as she talks to the control tower and they clear us for takeoff.
“You ready?” she asks, glancing my way.
My pulse is at full throttle, like it’s trying to win some sort of competition. “Fuck yeah.”
As we race down the runway and lift off into the air, my breath catches.
This is more than a flight. This is pulling us into uncharted airspace.
Something deep in my heart pulls loose. Like every bit of altitude we pick up frees me from things that have weighed me down for years.
But it’s not the air. It’s not the plane.
It’s not the instruments or the engine. It’s her.
This woman I’ve been drawn to for months.
I can feel it in my bones. She still hasn’t said those three words yet, but for some reason, this flight feels like her way of saying them without speaking at all.
She feels it too.
“You doing okay over there, pretty-boy?” she asks in the calm pilot voice I hear her use on our flights.
“Kenni…this is…this is unreal.”
She scoffs. “You fly all the time.”
“Not like this. Not with you. You know I like it when you’re in control.”
“I might have picked up on that,” she says with a laugh. “I wanted to bring you up here at this specific time because I knew the sunset would be stunning today. Look.”
I’d been too focused on everything Kennedy was doing inside, I forgot to look out the window. The oranges and yellows radiating across the ground are breathtaking. Goddammit, this needs to be part of a poem.
“It’s…it’s…fuck…” I rub the end of my sleeve under my eye.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” she says softly.
“It is, but…” I swallow the lump in my throat. “It’s us.”
“Us?”
“Yeah.” My smile is bittersweet; my eyes locked on the hills beneath us.
“You’ve been the light in the sky I’ve been searching for my whole damn life.
I could see you in the clouds, but it all seemed so out of reach.
You were so far out of my league. Not to mention, I was trapped in this cycle I thought I’d never get out of.
But seeing the sun come down and kiss the ground like this?
It’s like you coming down to get me. And you know what happens every night when the sun disappears?
In the morning, it comes back up. You grabbed me and pulled me back up with you.
You got rid of the darkness and finally dragged me into the light. ”
She blinks quickly as she eases into a turn. She clears her throat. “I’ve spent my whole career trying to hide my emotions while sitting in this seat. To stay calm, stay focused, do my job. Yet here I am, choking back tears on a flight that’s just for fun.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
“Don’t you dare fucking apologize for the most beautiful words I’ve ever heard. I just wish I weren’t flying a damn aircraft so I could wrap my arms around you. So I could look you in the eyes and tell you…” Her voice trails off.
She’s holding something back—she’s holding back from saying it.
My cheeks heat as I smile wider than the sunset we’re flying over. “You were the one who wanted this to be romantic.”
She huffs a laugh and shakes he head. “Point taken. How about we head back to the airport? I have more surprises, and I can’t hold all this in any longer.”
I wipe my face again, my sleeves soaked with more happiness and relief than I’ve felt in forever. I’ve been in love with Kennedy Kramer for a while. But now? My stomach dips, but it’s not the plane. It’s the inkling I have about her feeling the same.
“Ninety-eight, ninety-nine, one-hundred,” Kennedy told me to stand in the hallway and count so she could get a couple of things ready.
I have no clue what’s happening, but I’m bouncing on my heels, I’m so fucking excited.
I click the fob on the lock, my hands steadier now that I saw she was still in the apartment and still let me in.
As I push open the door, I hear Kiss Me, the most romantic song of all the ’90s movies, playing in the background. Then I look around and see a trail of rose petals leading down the hallway toward the bedroom. What in the rom-com is happening?!
“Kenni? What…what is going on? How did you…you could not have done all this while I was in the hallway, so how…”
She flashes me the most brilliantly beautiful smile as she grabs my hand. “I recruited a little help from Maggie. Here,” she hands me a gift bag overflowing with tissue paper. “Open it.”
“You got me a present?” I gasp, flinging the papers all over the floor and tearing into the bag as fast as possible.
I reach inside and pull out a box. My brows narrow, my eyes darting between the gift and Kenni.
“You got me…a Bougie Bobblehead? Why would you give me my bobblehead? You know the team gave me one, right?”
She snorts. “That’s not yours.” She takes a step toward me. “It’s mine.”
“It’s…” My eyes fly to hers, a knowing smile lifting my lips.
“Jordan Boucher, will you please autograph my Bougie Bobblehead?”
My cheeks ache from my smile. “Seriously? Now?”
“I have felt bad about this for a while, and I wanted to make it right.”
I take my little mini-me out of the box, grabbing her Sharpie to sign it before handing it back. “You got me rose petals to ask me to sign my bobblehead?”
She nods. “That’s part of it. I wanted to make it up to you. Not just the bobblehead. All of it. The fact that I ignored you for months before I really knew you. All the ideas I had about who I thought you were. And for last night.”
“Kenni, no. Last night was—”
“Let me finish,” she says, placing a finger on my lips.
“You used your safe word last night. I respect that. I will always respect that. But after we stopped, I thought…” she runs her finger down my arm, grabbing my hand.
“I thought maybe it was because you didn’t want it to be with me.
When I first met you, I would have been fine with that.
I thought you were too self-absorbed, too rich, too young, too immature.
But over these past couple of months, I realized none of that was true.
You are the most kind-hearted, caring, thoughtful person I’ve ever met.
And when you jumped into the shower, saying we could fuck like rabbits because you fucking loved me so much, I realized I was wrong to think you would ever want to be with someone else.
“You were willing to give up something you’ve been holding onto so deeply for so long, just to comfort me. I realized that’s how much you loved me. You’d give everything up for me. But you shouldn’t have to do that. Ever. For anyone. I…I wasn’t about to let you give that up.”
I squeeze her fingers. “After last night, I was just hoping I didn’t scare you off. That I—”
“I’m right here.” Her palm curves around my cheek, her eyes bouncing with warmth between mine.
“And I’m not going anywhere. Not today. Not tomorrow.
Not ever. Because I love you too, Jordan.
Somehow between the fake dating, having a creepy stalker hellbent on keeping us apart, and being your clit coach, I fell in love with you. ”
My hands shake as my eyes go wide. Did she just say what I think she said? Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod…This is my moment. “You…you love me?”
She nods, biting her lip. “I do. And I wanted to show you with a grand gesture that was, well, you.”
“Kenni, I’m…” I look around the apartment, the petals blurring together.
“This is the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever done for me. No one really…no one outside of my family ever…” My lungs are trying to take in air, but somehow the tears welling in my eyes are stopping my lungs from doing their job. “Thank you.”
“I love you, Jordan. You do so much for everyone else, it was beyond time for you to get a grand gesture too.”
“I love you so much. I’ve loved you from the day I saw you step out of that flight deck on the plane.
I love how much we laugh together, how much shit we give Chadd together.
I love everything about you. I always imagined what it would be like to be with you, but my dreams didn’t even compare to how amazing you are in real life. I love you so much—”
I barely finish the words before she pulls me in, our lips colliding in a frenzy of passion. All of my hesitation disappears. Every ounce of worry finally evaporates out of my head. It’s just us, here in this room, as the rest of the world fades away. I don’t need the world anymore anyway.
Kennedy Kramer is in love with me.