The Freefall Trilogy (Complete Collection) (4 page)

He felt his core temperature plummet by ten degrees as he sank into the couch beside her.  She responded with a mutinous stare.

'Look,' he sighed, adopting a more sympathetic stance, 'as your instructor, your...'  He waved a hand, trying to pluck the words from the air.  '...
personal issues
are none of my business...  But your state of mind is.  Very much so.  If you go ahead with the course, I need to know that when you say you're fine, you're telling me the truth.  That's lesson number one.  You can have that one for free.'

She peered back at him through her black lashes, picking the phone up again.  He watched her click the little silver button on the top, thumb swiping the screen, extinguishing the glow.  She flipped the case shut, tossing the phone into her bag.

'No...
personal issues
,' she told him matter-of-factly, scraping rebellious blonde curls back behind her ear.  'I don't tell lies, I
am
fine.  Now where were we?'

He watched her warily.  She hadn't lied about her weight on the medical form.  Almost all women do, generally by about half a stone.  In fact, she seemed a couple of pounds lighter than the 9st 4 she'd scribbled in blue curly writing.  He shrugged.  It was a start.

Her mouth twitched.  She picked up the very weak shandy, clinking her glass against his bottle.

'Cheers.'

Josh sighed, smiling back faintly.  The temperature was rising.  She was back in the room.

'So what made you want to get into skydiving?' Josh asked, feigning innocence, as if the last five minutes hadn't already told him.

'Flying squirrels.'

He frowned. 

She smiled back mischievously. 

'When I was a kid I was fascinated with them...'

He groaned inwardly.  He knew where this was going.

'Let me guess,' he said, in thinly-veiled contempt.  'You've seen Jeb Corliss on Youtube.  Now you want to be a
wingsuit pilot.'

She nodded, staring back intently.

'And Gary Connery,' she told him, 'Jokke Sommer, Roberta Mancino...  Alexander Polli, Michael Swanson, Lèo Fardim...'

Josh's eyes flickered.  He caught himself, narrowing them. 

OK.  So she knows her stuff...

Josh fought the smirk back to a line. 

'You're too short,' he said, glumly shaking his head.

Her brow crinkled.  He felt a pang of guilt as he watched her visibly deflate.

'They're custom made, surely?' she deliberated.

'You haven't got the muscle strength.  Do you know how much stamina is required to fly those things?'

She crooked a finely-arched eyebrow, fixing him through the thick, bare lashes.

'I work out.  It isn't a problem.  I'll just up the
carbs.'

He looked down instinctively.  She was in pretty good shape. 

Not bad...  Not bad at all...

He caught the stare again, quickly looking away.

'Have you any idea how much the rig will cost?' he asked, playing with the label on his bottle of Bud.

'Money isn't an issue.'

What is it with her? 
He was on the back foot again.

'Lucy, have you got kids?' 

She shook her head. 

'Family then.  Friends.' 
This chic is exasperating... 
'People who care about you...'

She shrugged.

'Same as anyone, I suppose.'

'When I started BASE jumping—'

'You BASE jump!' she gasped, eyes glowing with awe.

'Yes,' Josh admitted, doing his best not to look smug. 

'Can you teach me?'

...Oh Jesus Christ!

He had to take a different tack. 
Stop humouring her...
  Joshua rolled his eyes.

'I've never taught anyone, and I don't plan on starting,' he said flatly.  'I've only done a dozen jumps myself...  Anyway, when
I
started BASE, my mentor made me write a letter to my family, for them to read in the almost certain event of my death.  Justifying myself - telling them why I thought it was OK to deprive them of a son, brother...  nephew, cousin, grandson...'

She just sat there, staring at him. 

You don't have a girlfriend then...

Josh was sorely tempted to reach out and close her mouth for her, but he decided against it.  She did have a pretty mouth. 
Sheesh, a really pretty mouth
... but he liked it silent for now.

'You're talking about
Grinding The Crack
,' he asserted, slipping her a knowing look.

Lucy stared at him.

Her eyes flared, meeting his momentarily before her gaze fell to the floor.  He watched her scanning the room.  She'd look anywhere, but at him, a trace of a smile on her lips, her cheeks flooding with colour. 

Joshua frowned.

What's up with her?

He took a swig of beer, then balked in the realisation.

...GRINDING THE CRACK? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?

He almost choked. 

'The Jeb Corliss video!  On Youtube!' he blurted, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.  'That's what it's called!'

She was approaching beacon red.

'It's the name of the line... the jump, near the
Eiger...  You know...'

She looked back at him warily, like he'd just escaped from a psychiatric institution.

Crap!  You're going to get sued.  Or fired.  Or both.

'With the AWOL Nation music...  Sail!'

He ran his hand through his hair nervously.

Please know!  Please!

Nothing.

'...Ding-ding, ding-ding
ding-ding ding-ding...'

Fuck me.  You're singing now.  This is really bad.

'...With the balloons?'

Her
gaze bounced back to his.

'Oh yeah!' she grinned.  'That was it!'

It was like fighting with line twists and finally getting a square canopy.  He closed his eyes, sighing, smiling with relief. 

Thank God...

'Well, what you were watching there,' said Josh, blushing himself now, frantically trying to recover some composure, 'was BASE jumping combined with close proximity wingsuit flying.  He makes it look easy.  It's actually incredibly dangerous.

'Have you seen the other one where he hits Table Mountain?' he asked.

Lucy nodded back slowly.

'You're a proper little
nutter, aren't you?' smirked Josh. 

She giggled, bursting into a wide grin.

He took another glug of beer. 

You sure as hell know how to scare the shit out of me.

'So?' he said.  'What would you write?'

She looked pensive for a moment, chewing her bottom lip.

'I love you,' she said gently, locking Josh in her hesitant gaze.  'Please forgive me.  I knew all of the risks...'  She shrugged back at him meekly.  'I chose to do it.  It was my decision.  I just wanted to feel...
alive
.'

Josh stared at her.  Give or take a paragraph or ten, he'd scribbled down exactly the same thing. 

He shook himself, slouching into the sofa, swigging his beer again.

That's what everyone says.  What else is there TO say?  Time to reign her in...

'You felt alive today though, right?' he asked gently.

'Yes.'

Good!

'I think today was the start of the rest of my life.'

Oh no...

'Let's just take it one step at a time, shall we,' he grumbled.

He'd seen her sort before: hot-headed, impetuous, but never packaged like this.  Usually, they were spotty, late-teen boys.  Fresh out of high school, all raging testosterone and rampant, unquenched libido.  They'd hit a spin in Level 4 and all the bravado fell by the wayside.  They wouldn't even finish the course.

'You know, sometimes,' said Josh, 'in the heat of the moment, really smart people do stupid things...'

She was bright, he could see, but he didn't doubt that she had it in her.

'Sometimes, really shitty things just happen... 

'That freezing thing you did at the door?'

She glanced back at him guiltily.

'It's OK with regular skydiving,' Josh told her.  'You've got a reserve.  From that height, you get a second or two to think.

'But with BASE?  Half a second?  There are no second chances.  No reserve.  That's the difference between life and death.'

She blanched.

'You hear what I'm saying?'

She was listening.  He was knocking enough wind out of her, but not too much.

She nodded back intently. 

Good.

Josh proceeded to talk her through the AFF course, level by level.  She didn't interrupt. 

She was calming down. 

Finally...

'What are you going to do now?' he asked as she drained her glass.

'I still want to do it,' she asserted.

'I didn't mean that,' Josh grinned.  'I meant when you leave here.'

Oh...

Real life.  She couldn't imagine it.  The world seemed a different place.

'Go back to the shop, I suppose,' she shrugged. 

She didn't want to.  She could have listened to him all day, but she'd taken up enough of his time.  Lucy clunked her glass down on the table, glancing down at her watch.

'I'd better get going.' 

Joshua sat up straight, watching in dismay as she grabbed her bag, slinging it over her shoulder. 

'Thanks for the drink.  And the chat.'

She hauled herself up, Josh quickly following suit.

'...The chocolate shop?' he blurted to the back of her head.

She paused, turning back to him.  He stood there, hands on his hips, blinking back. 

He'd tried to make chitchat as he harnessed her up in the hangar. 
'What do you do?'  'Where are you from?' 
Lucy could barely hear, her heartbeat thundering in her ears, her subconscious screaming
'RUN, SIMKINS!  RUN!'
.

'The chocolate shop, that's right,' she told him with a warm smile.  He smiled back, running a hand through his neatly-cropped curls.

Wow...

'Hang on,' he said distractedly, feeling around in the back pocket of his combats.  'I suppose you'd better have this...' 

He pulled out a business card.  Lucy took it from him, turning it over.  It had a mobile number scribbled on the back.

'That's my direct line,' Josh told her.  She giggled. 

'Thanks,' she said, slipping it into the front pocket of her jeans.  'You'll be hearing from me very soon.'

'I'll look forward to it.'

'Let me get that,' said Josh from behind her.  Lucy's stomach fluttered as he laid his left hand on her shoulder.  He reached out for the door handle with his right.  Swinging the door inwards, he slid his hand up over her head, holding it open.  Lucy stepped under his arm, grinning inanely.

He is so
—

She stepped out.  She didn't even see it coming. 

'
Fffff...  Argh!  ...ARGH!'

Lucy clutched her face.

The football thudded twice, rolling into the gulley skirting the portacabin
café.
  She flinched as Joshua pulled him into her arms.

'
Oi!' he roared angrily.  'Mind the lady!

'...Are you all right?'

Oh god!  Oh god!  Oh fuck, it hurts!

He put his hands on her shoulders, holding her at arm's length.  Lucy peeked through her fingers. 

Two kids stared back from the grass behind joshua, open-mouthed. 

'Sorry.' 
'Sorry.'

Joshua's head whipped around, his eyes a livid green blaze.  Lucy watched the kids' faces pale.  Josh looked back to her.  She quickly closed her fingers, clenching her eyes shut again.

'Lucy...' he said gently. 

Don't cry... Don't cry...

'Let me see,' he said, rubbing her shoulders.  'Take your hands away.'

His fingers gently encircled her wrists, drawing her arms down.  Lucy's eyes blinked open, peering down at her hands, turning them over.

Thank god...

There was no blood. 

They dangled by her sides.  She felt him stroke her face.  Lucy's eyelids fluttered shut.  He was standing so close, she could smell him again.