“Fewer witnesses,” Larry added with a laugh.
Jack didn’t ask what they didn’t want witnesses to. He was sure he didn’t want to know. “So what time should I get there?”
“Around five.”
“Five in the morning?” Jack asked.
“Best air is at dawn and dusk,” Bobby replied. “And Rocky’s more likely to be booked up already for the evening flights.”
He nodded, and said his goodbyes. Cassie’s brothers were a great bunch of guys. This thing might not work out but it wouldn’t be for lack of effort.
But by the time he was in his minivan, fear was riding heavily in his heart, fighting with the hope trying to take root. He wasn’t afraid Cassie was going to throw him overboard.
No, his fear was just a common, ordinary fear of heights. The thought of a thousand feet up made his stomach lurch and his hands sweat. But he could handle it. If this was the only way to get Cassie back, he could handle it. Merrill men weren’t cowards.
Cassie got to the park just before 5:00 a.m It was going to be a perfect morning for a balloon ride. It was clear and still cool, with the sun just starting to peek over the horizon. She was going to enjoy this, she thought—until she thought she saw a minivan that looked like Jack’s at the other end of the park and felt like bursting into tears.
Marry him for the baby’s sake! That kind of thinking went out with the Hula Hoop and coonskin caps.
Irritation pushed all other emotion out of her heart as she parked her car at the opposite end of the park, near Rocky’s truck. The balloon was on the trailer, but as Cassie came over, she saw it was Bobby who was unloading stuff.
“What are you doing here?” Cassie demanded. She knew Bobby had crewed for Rocky sometimes—after all, she’d met him through Bobby—but her brother had never crewed for her.
“Boy, that’s some welcome.” He nodded at the large wicker balloon basket and she grabbed the two handles on her side. “I should have let you set this all up yourself.”
They hauled the basket out and set it on the grass.
“Rocky call you, too?” she asked, knowing it was a stupid question. Why else would he be here?
“Yep. Said you needed a chase crew.”
“And you’re it?”
They started pulling the balloon from the basket, laying it out on the ground downwind of the basket. The balloon was massive—seventy-five feet high and sixty-five feet wide—and getting it unfolded from the basket was a two-person job in itself. Getting it ready to inflate would take Bobby a good half hour if he didn’t have help. And she had to get the burners hooked up.
“Naw, I roped Larry and Adam into helping.” They heard a car pull up on the gravel. Larry and Adam.
“Have they ever done this before?” Cassie asked.
“What’s to do? We just need their heft to hold the balloon down until we’re ready to let you go. Other than that, we just order them around.” He grinned at her. “Should make your day—all three of us having to obey your orders.”
Cassie just glared at him. They’d gotten the balloon out of the basket and she wanted to start him on stretching it out flat. If they waited too long to take off, the wind could pick up. But there were four heavy propane tanks that she would never move on her own.
“Let’s get the tanks in,” she said, and went over to take one side of the first one.
“Hey, Larry, move your butt. Adam, get over here!” Bobby shouted, then waved Cassie away. “We’ll get these in, Cass.”
Cassie refused to budge from her place next to the tanks. “Take your side, Bobby, or you’ll be wearing this around your neck.”
Bobby just smiled at her. “Now, don’t get hostile, Cass.”
But he helped her move the first tank into the basket. While Cassie was maneuvering it into a corner, Bobby and Larry carried the others over.
Once she got them strapped in, she had Bobby help her put the cagelike burner supports over the basket and cotter-pin them in place. Larry and Adam were busy stretching the balloon out on the ground, but that was the only movement in the area. The houses that bordered the small neighborhood park were still and quiet. No cars were coming down the street.
“Where’re our passengers?” she asked Bobby.
He looked around, then shrugged. “Not here yet.”
She frowned. “We always used to verify the flight with the passengers on the morning of the ride,” she said. “But Rocky never gave me a name or number.”
“I think he was taking care of that.”
“If he could do that, why couldn’t he take the flight?”
Bobby got real busy hooking up the cables to the burner supports. She watched him in silence for a few minutes.
“I’m not sure we should do anything else until the passengers get here,” she said. “We could be doing all this for nothing.”
“He’ll show up.”
Cassie stared at her brother. “He?”
“I mean, the passengers.” Bobby glanced over at Larry and Adam. “I’d better help them with the top panel. That’s tricky.”
“I still think we should wait.”
“Hey, it’s all paid for,” Bobby said. “If nobody shows up, go up yourself. It’ll do you good. You’ve been kind of down lately.”
“I have not,” she snapped, but the thought of a solitary glide over the countryside as the sun rose sounded so wonderful that she gave up the argument. She climbed into the basket and started hooking up the propane tanks to the burners that would heat the air in the balloon.
Once she finished that, she attached the instrument panelsetting the altimeter at zero so she would know how high they were once they started going up, and checking the variometer and thermometer.
“She’s all ready to start filling up,” Bobby said. “Want us to lay the basket on its side?”
She let them but refused to start the fan that would blow air into the balloon. “We really ought to wait,” she said and scanned the neighborhood once more.
An older woman in her robe and slippers was standing on her front porch, newspaper in hand, as she watched them. A police car was driving by slowly; the cop at the wheel waved when they looked his way. A jogger jogged by, apparently oblivious to the balloon all stretched out flat in a yellow, red and blue striped silhouette in the grass. Cassie sighed.
“This is really weird. I’ve never had paying customers not show up.”
“Means you get a free ride.” Larry glanced at his watch. “Come on, Cass. Rocky said if nobody showed up by fivethirty, you could go up.”
She stared at her brother, her eyes narrowing with suspicion. “When did he tell you that? I thought he called Bobby and Bobby called you.”
Larry looked at Bobby, unable to hide the panic in his eyes. Adam coughed. “Bobby told us,” he said quickly. “You know, that Rocky told him.”
“What are you guys up to?” Cassie demanded. “This whole thing has smelled fishy right from the get-go.”
“What do you mean?” Bobby was obviously going to try to bluff his way out.
Then, suddenly, she saw through it all and started to laugh. “This is all a plot, isn’t it?”
They looked warily at each other.
“You guys wanted to treat me to a balloon ride and you made up this whole scheme to get me up.”
Bobby smiled widely. “Yeah, that’s it, Cass.”
“We should’ve known we couldn’t fool you.”
“Well, I think it’s the sweetest thing anybody’s ever done,” she told them, her eyes stinging suddenly. She blinked and looked away for a moment. “You guys are the best.”
They just grinned at each other, then back at her. “Just trying to take care of you, Cass,” Bobby said. “Want to get that fan started now?”
There was no reason to wait, no reason to chance that the wind might change. They brought over the huge fan and Cassie turned it on as Larry and Bobby stood on either side of the bottom of the balloon, holding the opening wide. Adam went a
cross the field to hold the steadying rope that would keep the balloon from righting too quickly.
In a matter of minutes, the balloon was like a huge striped nylon cave—a seven-story building lying on its side—filled with enough air that she could walk in and check the Velcro fastenings at the top.
This whole scheme of the boys really astounded her. They’d always been good brothers—maybe a little overbearing at times—but always caring. This elevated them into the “great” category. She couldn’t believe how nice they were being. Everything looked fine and she came back out of the balloon.
“Dad told you, didn’t he?” Cassie said as she turned on the burners. The flames shot into the inside of the balloon and began to heat the air.
“Told us what?” Bobby shouted over the roar of the burners as he stretched to keep the skin of the balloon away from the flames.
“You don’t have to pretend,” she called out. “It’s okay if you know. I was going to tell you all soon anyway.”
The balloon rose slowly as the air heated, putting a strain on the rope Adam was hanging on to. She watched the thermometer on the control panel. A little longer and the air inside would be one hundred degrees hotter than the outside air. When it was one hundred and fifty degrees hotter, the balloon would leave the ground and she would be free as a bird for the next hour. She wished she could shed her thoughts of Jack as easily as she would shed the shackles of the earth.
“You were going to tell us what?” Larry bellowed.
“Well, it’s not like I could really hide it for very long,” she shouted with a laugh. “I mean, another five or six months and I think you all would be able to figure it out for yourselves. It’s not exactly something a girl can hide.”
“Hide?” Bobby yelled. “What do you want to hide?”
Cassie just laughed as the balloon slowly rose, righting the basket and rising majestically above it. She’d seen it happen dozens of times before, but the sight never failed to thrill her. She turned off the burners and climbed into the basket as Bobby and Larry clung to the sides, holding it down. Adam came running over with the rope. She tied it to one of the burner supports.
“Now what’d you say?” Bobby asked, his frown filling his face.
“We couldn’t hear a damn thing with that propane burner going,” Larry said.
“Just that I can’t hide being pregnant,” she said. “Sooner—”
“Pregnant?” Bobby shouted. He let go of the basket’s sides for a moment and it careened wildly. He grabbed it again. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“How’d you get pregnant?” Adam demanded.
The three brothers looked at her, then at each other.
“That ass—” Larry snapped.
“Hey, none a that,” Bobby said with a nod toward Cassie. “Pregnant lady present.”
Larry and Adam paused a moment, blinking in a bewildered way.
“What the hell is with you guys?” she cried.
“You’re right,” Larry said with a nod. “I meant, that… that…scoundrel.”
“That snake in the grass,” Adam added.
Cassie just stared at them. It was like she’d stumbled into the Larry, Bobby and Adam version of the Three Stooges.
And if they weren’t doing this because Dad had told them she was pregnant, why were they?
It looked like they were ready for him, Jack thought, and got out of his minivan. Bobby had said when the balloon was upright, he should hustle over. Then they would toss him into the balloon and let go. Well, the balloon was upright, like a medium-size office tower. No doubt about it, time to get tossed.
Maybe he could sit on the floor of the basket and not see how high it was rising. Better yet, he would just stare at Cassie the whole time, never noticing anything else.
Although there was always the possibility that she just might toss him back out. Then he would have no time to worry about his fear of heights. He would probably hit the ground before he could get focused properly.
Jack hurried across the grassy stretch. His heart sank a little as he got closer. It looked like they were having an argument. Great. That meant Cassie would already be aggravated. This was never going to work.
Still, Merrill men weren’t cowards. He broke into a jog.
“Hi, y’all,” Jack said when he was a few feet from the balloon. Larry was on one side, hanging on as the balloon fought to get airborne. Bobby and Adam, their arms wrapped around the corner posts, were anchoring the other side.
All three turned to look at him, friendly as a pride of lions toward a hyena who’d come upon them and their lunch.
“You reprobate.”
“You vermin.”
“What the hell are you doing here?” Cassie demanded.
Talk about your friendly small-town spirit. “I came for my ride,” he said, choosing to address Cassie’s question since she was the only one making sense.
“Your ride!” Her eyes went from sparkling to crackling as she turned to her brothers. “What’s he talking about?”
“It ain’t his talking that’s the problem,” Bobby snarled.
“This here’s our little sister, you know,” Larry told Jack.
“Yeah, she’s not some helpless young girl all alone in the world,” Adam warned. “She’s got us to protect her.”
Oh, Lord. It suddenly hit Jack like a five-hundred-pound opponent. Somewhere in between the planning meeting for this little outing and this morning, they’d found out Cassie was pregnant.
All three brothers looked ready to kill, or at least maim him. Probably the only thing saving Jack was the fact that if they let go of the balloon, it would go floating up, up, and away. Of course, once they figured out that that would leave them free to dismember him without Cassie’s interference—assuming she would interfere—they would let go before he had a chance to blink.
“What the hell is going on?” Cassie shouted at her brothers. “Why is he here?”
He knew that he should be gearing himself up for the coming brawl, but Cassie looked so damn beautiful. The sparkle in her eyes put the morning sun—just visible over the eastern horizon—to shame. He couldn’t imagine life without her. She would be his sun and his moon and his stars. She would be the air he breathed and the pulse that kept his heart beating.
If only she would give him a chance to slay the dragons that haunted her. To cut the bonds of fear that were holding her prisoner.
“I’m here because I love you,” he told her. Jack was only watching Cassie. He knew her brothers wanted to stomp him good, but he couldn’t worry about them.
“Fine way to show it!” one of the brothers shouted.
“Should’ve kept to talking, buddy. That’s about the only thing a lawyer can do.”
“Actually, he did a little more than that.”
“This is a setup, isn’t it?” Cassie demanded of her brothers. “He’s the mysterious passenger.”
“I want to marry you,” Jack told her.
“You can bet all the gold in your trophies that’s what you’re going to do.”
“Here and now, if we had a preacher.”
“Hell, what’re we waiting for? Let’s go get us a preacher.”
“Now, wait a minute!” Cassie cried. She was matching her brothers, angry look for angry looks. Except that one of hers was equal to three of the others’ combined. “This wasn’t some thoughtful little gift from the three of you, was it? It was a setup. A way to get Jack alone with me where I couldn’t escape him.”
“Just so we could talk things out,” Jack explained. “I have no intention of forcing myself on you.”
“Ha, that’s a good one.”
“Enough talking,” Bobby said, getting a better grip on the bobbing basket. “Larry, go get a preacher.”
“Wait just a damn minute,” Cassie retorted. She grabbed Bobby’s shirtfront and got right up in his face. “I’m not marrying him. You got that? I don’t care how big any of you talk, or what kind of Neanderthal
games you play, I am not marrying him.”
She gave her brother a push and he staggered back a bit. But Bobby was a big fella and he kept a hold on the basket, keeping the balloon from floating free.
“You guys aren’t exactly helping my cause,” Jack reminded. He’d had bad feelings about this from the beginning. He should have just stuck with the flowers and the candy. Sooner or later, she would have talked to him. Even if it was just to tell him to stop sending them.
“We should just let go and take care of this bounder,” Bobby said.
“Good idea.”
“Whoa,” Larry said. “We can’t let a pregnant woman go up in a balloon.”
“Hell,” Bobby agreed, his face falling in disappointment. “You’re right.”
Cassie just rolled her eyes. She looked like she didn’t know whom to be angrier at, but Jack thought her brothers were ahead of him by a hair. It wasn’t much but, at this stage of the game, he couldn’t afford to look for a measuring tape.
“Leave while you got the chance, Jack,” she snapped at him.
He smiled at her. “I’m not running.” He turned to her brothers. “You boys think you can whup me, give it a try.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake, Jack,” Cassie cried, her voice sounding exasperated. “There’re three of them.”
“Merrill men never run from a fight.”
“Swell. And how many Merrill men are left?”
“There might be one more than a few weeks ago.” He caught her eye and thought there was a glimmer of softness there. He wasn’t afraid of anything—not when she looked at him that way.
“We can take turns,” Bobby suggested. “One of us thumps Casanova, there, and the others hold on to the balloon.”
“Sounds good to me,” Larry replied.
“Oldest gets first crack.”
“Hell, I’m always last,” Adam complained. “That ain’t fair.”
“Your home floor, boys,” Jack said. “You call the tune and we’ll dance it.”
“This is stupid,” Cassie insisted. “I can take care of myself.”
“This won’t take long, darlin’,” Jack said.
Suddenly her hand whipped out and her fingers locked in his hair. Damn, she was quick.
A Father's Gift Page 24
