by Vivian Wood
“’Bout time, lazybones,” Jack said. He cradled two coffees from the good drive-thru in his hands.
“Jesus! Jack, I thought you were working today.”
“I was, I just got off. Coffee?”
“Aren’t you… aren’t you tired?”
“Tired? But it’s morning.”
“Yeah, but not for you.”
“Do you want the coffee or not?”
She bit her lip and looked at the two large white paper cups. “What kind is it?”
“Dunno. Americano, I think.”
“Black?”
“What, is my wife racist?”
“I meant… never mind. I like it with a lot of cream and Splenda. Which I’m guessing you don’t have.”
“You guessed right. But I do have sugar and skim milk.”
Addy wrinkled her nose, but took the nearly-empty carton of milk when he handed it to her.
“This expires today,” she said.
“Good thing you’re going to use it, then.” Jack shoved the white and pink bag of sugar with a spoon stuck in it toward her.
Addy added what she thought was the smallest amount possible to make the coffee bearable.
“So! Your day off, right? What’s the plan? What do you want to do?”
She looked up at Jack through her thick lashes. God, he was really raring to go.
“Well, I was going to get the groceries. And the bathroom really needs—”
“I was thinking gliding,” he interrupted.
He’d taken the lid off his own coffee and generously sucked down the steaming liquid.
“Gliding,” she repeated.
“Sure! It’s a great opportunity here, I’ve looked into it. And we’ll get a great view of Reno,” he said with a wink.
“Jack, I don’t really have time for—”
“C’mon, we’re newlyweds, aren’t we? Shouldn’t we be putting tons of pictures on Facebook or something? Polluting all our social media channels with happy photos?”
She paused. He had her, there.
What was the point of this whole sham if they weren’t going to really sell it? Who would be jealous of them if all they did was disappear into their jobs?
“Well, I guess. God, how do you have so much energy? When’s the last time you slept?”
He grinned at her but stayed silent. That look made her heart start to beat faster.
“Well?” she asked to fill the silence.
“I just slept seven straight hours in the break room at the hospital. Totally recharged my batteries.”
“You slept there? You didn’t have night rotations? Why didn’t you come home?” It felt alien to say home, but Addy didn’t know how to take it back.
“You miss me?” he asked with a wink.
“No! I just meant—”
“Addy. I know it’s weird to have me sleeping in here. I finished my rotation, it was the middle of the night, and I knew I’d probably wake you up if I came home. There was a bed right there. It’s not like the couch here is the king of comfort, you know.”
“Sorry,” she said, and lowered her eyes.
“Don’t be. So? Gliding?”
“Let me get my camera.”
Addy threw on a pair of jeans, grabbed her purse and DSLR, and shoved her sunglasses on as she swept her hair into a messy ponytail.
Jack held the door of his Jeep open for her—the passenger side was the only part of the car that had some semblance of a door, though it was just a frame.
“Oh, so is this like a real date?” she teased.
He just shrugged and jumped into his side. As they merged onto the highway, the wind and sounds of Tahoe raged against her.
Of all the cars to pick, he had to go with an open Jeep with no top or sides. But she had to admit it fit him. He looks so comfortable like this, wind in his hair, a man in control of his surroundings.
“Care for a detour?” he called to her over the wind.
“What do you have in mind?”
“Maybe a drive by Jeremy’s father’s current construction project? He’s working on it, right?”
“Yeah, how—how do you know that?”
“Not hard to find things out in a small town,” he said, and smiled over at her.
As they approached the site, flaggers pumped their hands at Jack and gestured at him to slow down. Addy spotted Jeremy’s truck immediately, the biggest one on site.
As they crawled by, she saw Jeremy’s broad back. He wore that Metallica t-shirt she’d always hated.
Jeremy felt their eyes on him and turned slowly. The hard hat he wore cast a mean shadow across his face. Addy grinned over at Jack.
“I think it worked,” she said.
“Of course it did, love.”
Jack maneuvered the Jeep up a dirty trail she’d never noticed before. As they climbed to a high point, she saw an unfamiliar Jeep, one with actual doors, and a man with what looked like a strange, supersized paper plane on the cliff.
“What is this, Jack?” she asked nervously. “I thought we were going hang gliding.”
“I never said hang. I said gliding. Like a sailplane.”
“A plane?”
Jack grabbed a small backpack out of the backseat and jumped out. “Coming?” he asked.
She scrambled after him and caught up just as he slapped the glider professional on the back. “Is this, like, skydiving?” she asked. “Like tandem, or whatever it’s called? Are you taking us up?” she asked the man in the official jacket with the “Sail Away” logo.
“Me?” the guide asked. He looked vaguely familiar. Addy was sure they’d probably gone to school together. “I mean, I can. But Jack said—”
“I’m an experienced pilot,” Jack told her. “Done this tons of times, don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry?” she repeated, incredulous.
“Okay, now, since Jack is licensed and he’s piloting, I just need to go over the basic safety procedures for you, Addy.”
The guide began to tick off his prepared speech, but her heart hammered so heavily in her head she couldn’t digest anything he said. Instead, she took in the glider, aware of how flimsy it looked.
The actual plane part was tiny, and the wings and tail stretched out long and slender. It was like a pretty supermodel version of a plane.
“Got it?”
“Sorry, what?” she asked sheepishly and looked at the guide.
“Just sign the waiver, here, in all the blank boxes.”
She looked to Jack.
“Go ahead,” he said. “Trust me.”
Addy didn’t know what made her do it, but she watched her hand take the pen and signed her life away. She couldn’t have stopped it if she wanted to. And she wasn’t sure what she wanted anymore.
“These look like paper planes gone wrong,” she said as Jack grabbed her hand and led her to the cockpit.
He laughed, but when she saw how close they had to sit together, her fear began to transition to excitement.
If he’s an experienced pilot, you’re safe. Right?
As they climbed in, she quickly reached for the seatbelt while Jack gave the guide a thumbs up. Addy pulled the camera strap over her neck.
“Ready?” Jack asked. Addy shook her head no, but Jack started the winch and almost immediately they were off the ground.
“Oh my God,” she said as she watched the ground disappear below them. “This thing goes fast.”
She gripped the edge of her seat.
Jack laughed. “Relax!”
“That’s easy for you to say.”
Still, after a couple of minutes, it was clear that he really did know what he was doing. The way he expertly guided the glider put her at ease—or as much as could be expected.
“Wow. It really is beautiful,” she said under her breath. She’d never seen her small town like this before. Slowly, Addy lifted her camera and began to take photos.
“You know, the first time I was in a glider? I was just a kid. My dad t
ook me up. Been addicted ever since,” Jack said. “I even thought about being a pilot.”
“I thought you were,” she said, and shot him a look.
“You know what I mean. A commercial pilot.”
“So why didn’t you?”
“Eh, you know how it is. Lawyer or doctor, those were the only two possible professions approved by the family. Doctor seemed a little more exciting than lawyer.”
“High standards in your family. I’m sure your wife the waitress will fit right in,” she said. Addy meant it as a joke, but knew it didn’t sound that way.
Maybe because you aren’t really joking.
“I didn’t mean it like that,” Jack said quickly. “I mean, those standards are just for me—”
“You know, I like this a lot more than flying in real planes,” she said, eager to change the subject.
Inside, though, she thought: what do you mean those standards are just for you?
“Yeah?”
“I’ve only flown a handful of times, though. Mostly just to Arizona or New Mexico for college. And I had to take Xanax just to make it seem okay.”
“You did? Sorry, I didn’t know. You seem okay right now, though.”
“Yeah,” she agreed. “Maybe it’s more the airport and all the rules you have to follow …”
“We’ll need to get you a passport.”
“Sorry? Is there… something planned?”
“No, not at the moment. But planning isn’t my thing. You should always have a passport with plenty of pages waiting to go though.”
“Oh, well. Okay. Kenzie has one.”
“Yeah? She travel a lot?”
Addy laughed. “Hardly. One road trip to Tijuana for spring break and the car broke down halfway to California.”
“Bummer. I’m guessing you’ve never been removed from a flight, then?” he asked. “Given your limited flight experience and all.”
“Uh, no. Definitely not. I bet you have, though.”
“You would win with that bet,” he said.
Addy was silent as she mulled everything over. How did I end up here, looking down on my little town with some crazy wealthy doctor adrenaline junkie?
“Did we mess up our lives?” she finally asked. “Not getting the annulment right away?”
“Well… I’m having a good time. Aren’t you?”
“Sure,” she said. “I mean … how can I complain?”
“I think we’re alright, then. Oh, look! A river.”
“No, that’s Martis Creek Lake,” she said.
Addy spent the rest of the flight pointing out landmarks she knew, and steered clear of any serious talk.
It’s better this way, she thought. Light and easy. I mean, it’s just a couple of months, right?
“Time to head back,” Jack said as he glanced at his watch.
“Already?” she asked.
He laughed. “You want more?”
“It just went so fast.”
As they started to descend, she felt the panic set in that she’d felt before at airports. Jack grabbed her hand reassuringly. Addy held her breath as the ground got closer and let it out in a gust of relief as they touched down.
Jack jumped out and leaned down to help her out.
“Okay?” he asked.
She was aware of how closely they were pressed against one another. As she nodded and gazed up, she thought there was a flicker of interest in his eyes. Jack looked down to her lips, and she licked them out of instinct.
“Smile,” he said, and whipped out his phone.
He held it above them and kissed her on the cheek for the selfie. Addy felt her face flush.
I’m not disappointed, she told herself. This is all just to show Jeremy that he messed up, anyway.
It would just be a lot easier if Jack wasn’t so damn handsome.
9
He was disappointed when he pulled up to the condo and Addy’s car wasn’t there.
Why? he wondered to himself. You miss her or something?
It was strange. They’d only been in this faux marriage for two weeks and he’d somehow settled into a kind of routine. It felt almost… normal.
Jack opened the front door and realized that slowly, Addy had started to become more prominent in their shared space. Little pieces of her had started to appear.
A framed photo of her and her college roommate on the bookshelf. Her favorite lavender scarf hung on the hook by the door.
He opened up his laptop and saw thirty-nine new notifications on the Facebook tab. It was working. Daily, he’d cultivated a few new photos that highlighted the ideal newlywed relationship.
From Instagram to Tumblr, he’d expertly taken to building a fake, but beautiful life with his new bride.
Whether it was a photo of an amazing view he tagged her in, or simply a photo of her that was snapped on the patio on one of the rare moments they were home together, Jack had to admit that he was pretty good at this. Anyone would think they were in idyllic newlywed bliss.
Jack clicked on the notifications just to clear them. There were comments of congratulations from both of their friends. Some of his he hadn’t spoken to in years.
He thumbed through his phone to upload the selection of the day. As he swiped through the photos, filtering some and deleting others, he stopped short at the last photo he’d taken when they’d gone gliding.
Addy was freshly flushed, cheeks a warm pink as he kissed her. He looked closely at the photo—at her. Everything had happened so fast, the night at Dusty’s.
The rush into marriage, the moving in together, he’d never really looked at her before.
Of course, he knew she was hot. He couldn’t help but notice those sunkissed legs as she ran around the house in cut-off shorts. He’d caught his breath a couple of times on the rare occasions she let her hair down. It was so long that it licked the small of her back.
But those were cursory things about her. Easy and obvious. In the photo, he could see the real her. The Addy that he’d grown so accustomed to so fast.
Actually, you don’t know her at all, he reminded himself.
He drank in the unnerving blue of her eyes. There were depths there, flecks of gold and green. It was so intense, it was like she cradled galaxies in her eyes.
Her skin was soft, supple, and that kind of all-American golden bronzed that only came from a lifetime of growing up near a lake. A spray of freckles burst across her cheeks and nose, concentrated most along the bridge.
Her eyelashes were unnaturally black, lush and thick. Her lips crested with a sharp cupid’s bow that lent a kind of permanent pout.
Faintly, just between her thick and shapely brows, he could make out the light worry marks bred from years of woes he knew almost nothing about.
It made her look wise, like she’d lived. That small so-called flaw was what made her so perfect.
But it wasn’t just her face. He remembered the curves of her body as he’d pulled her out of the cockpit. How he could feel the hourglass figure beneath her loose t-shirt.
The way her hips spanned out, a perfect surprise of a curve above her lean body, toned by hard work and not hours grueling away at the gym.
He shook his head.
How could he have never realized before how beautiful she was? Not just sexy, not cute, but truly beautiful.
Jack hated to admit it, but when they’d first met, all he’d really seen when he looked at her was that she wasn’t like the other girls he’d dated. And that had been enough for him.
She wasn’t blonde, she wasn’t tall, and she wasn’t insanely thin from constantly working out.
When he’d met Rosalie for instance, he was struck by her magnitude. She was achingly thin, but with her height and her haughty confidence she’d made it seem like it was natural. Like every man should want her, and he’d fallen for it.
However, the first time he’d pulled Rosalie close, he’d almost pulled back in shock at how thin she was. But he’d trudged forward because eve
ry other guy in their program had wanted her so badly.
Now, as he looked at Addison, as he really saw her for the first time, he realized how hot she was.
Ridiculously smoking hot, he corrected himself. How had he never seen it before? Why weren’t all the guys in this podunk town knocking down her door? Maybe they were, and you were just so caught up in your own interests you didn’t realize.
Mentally, he patted himself on the back.
You made a good choice, mate, even if you were totally blotto at the time. He racked his brain for clues that she might have dropped. Was she a hot commodity around here?
He didn’t know—and part of him was ashamed for going back to his old habits of basing someone’s worth on what everyone around him thought.
“Hey,” Addy’s voice broke through his thoughts. Embarrassed, Jack shut off his phone and snapped the laptop shut.
“Hey. Long day?” he asked.
She groaned and slumped onto the couch next to him.
“The longest,” she said. “And not just that, the worst.”
“What happened?”
Exhaustion emanated from her. She smelled of fresh baked pies and real vanilla.
“Well, for starters, the deep freezer and dishwasher stopped working at the same time. It’s like they were in on it together, total nightmare. The repair guy is there now. I just couldn’t wait around for him to tell me the bad news.”
“Bad news?”
“Yeah. I’ve suspected for a while now that the dishwasher is on its last leg. It probably has to be replaced. And the deep freezer, it’s a miracle it’s lasted as long as it has. It’s ancient, rusty—I think it’s the same one that my… well, never mind.”
“Dishwashers and freezers aren’t that expensive, are they?” Jack asked. “I mean, I don’t know American prices, but—”
“These aren’t, like, the dishwashers you buy for homes. They’re commercial kitchen grade.”
“So, what, like… ten grand?”
“Probably fifteen.”
“Oh. Well, I can lend it to you.”
“Sorry?” Addy rolled her head to the side and looked at him.
“It’s no problem, just fifteen thousand—”
