Page 70 of Fake It For Love (Faux Love)
RYAN
“Thanks, man,” I said and hopped in the passenger seat of the old Chevy pickup the airport used.
“No problem, but I don’t know if this is a good idea,” he warned.
“Is this a hurricane?” I asked him.
“Nah. Maybe. Could be a one or two. Definitely not the worst we’ve seen.”
“That’s not comforting,” I said.
He laughed and started the engine. “I’d wear your seatbelt.”
“What’s that going to do for me?”
“If I drive off the road, you don’t want your pretty little face to go through the windshield,” he replied.
I grabbed the belt and snapped it into place. I wasn’t necessarily thrilled with the idea of my face going through the windshield either. The wind blew so hard the truck shook. I thought for sure it was going to roll us. My driver didn’t seem too worried. He slowly pulled the truck onto the road and pointed it in the direction of the resort. I was really wishing I would have paid more attention to the route. The few times I’d been to the airport, I had been distracted.
“Woah!” I grabbed the dash when he swerved around a chair blowing across the road.
“I told you this would be a rough ride,” he warned.
He did tell me that. They all had. They thought I was crazy for wanting to get back to the resort so badly. I probably was. I couldn’t explain the deep-seated need driving me to her. Part of me was worried she was hurt or scared in the storm. Another part of me had to get to her. I had to tell her I wanted her. I wanted to kiss her. While I was in the air, I kept thinking about our last kiss. It wasn’t nearly enough for a dying man to be satisfied with. I needed more. The near-death experience had opened my eyes to a lot of things.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I shouldn’t have pushed you into doing this.”
The guy shrugged. “My girlfriend works at the resort. I don’t mind checking on her.”
That made me feel a little better. I hated to think I was putting the guy’s life on the line because I suddenly had an epiphany. That wasn’t really fair to him. This urgency I felt was my own fault. I spent way too much of my life thinking. I needed to act more. I needed to be spontaneous and live in the moment. Thinking didn’t always lead to a lot of fun. It was great to feel secure and solid in my decisions, but I wanted to be just a little reckless.
“Shit. Hold on.”
I tried to see what he saw. A tree was coming down in slow motion. I held on. I didn’t know what good that was going to do if a tree fell on us, but it seemed like it would save us in some way. He hit the gas and we were suddenly speeding under a tree that was only about ten feet off the ground. It hit the back of the truck.
“Shit!” I shouted as the back end of the truck whipped to the left.
My driver was apparently a former racecar driver. Once again, he punched the gas and managed to steer us out of what I thought for sure would be my final moments. The guy looked over at me and grinned. “That was a close one.”
I could only stare at him. “Yeah.”
“You’re a pilot, aren’t you used to going fast and tempting fate?” he asked.
“No. I’m a pilot. A good one at that. I’m not worried about speeding in the air. There’s nothing to run into.”
“But you could lose an engine and fall out of the sky,” he reasoned. “That’s a bigger risk than a tree falling on you.”
“Apparently not,” I quipped.
He chuckled and put his focus back on the road. The rain came down in sheets, then stopped. It was the craziest thing. I’d been through some crazy weather in my travels, but this was wild. “Don’t they normally see this shit coming?” I asked him.
“Yes and no,” he answered nonchalantly. “Anytime there’s a storm brewing out there, we just kind of prepare. No one controls the weather. It hits where it wants to hit. Then it moves on. It’s the big ones you have to look out for.”
“I would hate to see a big one,” I muttered.
“Uh oh,” he said and hit the brakes.
My body leaned forward. “What’s that?” I asked. I squinted to see through the rain.
