“I'm okay. I promise.”
The line is quiet for a moment, and I can hear noise in the background — voices, the beep of equipment, someone making an announcement over a PA system.
“Jasmine, I need to tell you something.”
“Okay.”
“When the engine went out, and the captain told us we were making an emergency landing, I thought about a lot of things. I thought about my family, but mostly I thought about you.”
I press my hand over my mouth. My whole body is shaking, and the tears won't stop.
“I thought about the fact that I never told you that I love you, Jasmine. I never stopped. Not for a single day in ten years. It's always been you.”
I'm crying so hard I can barely breathe. My hand is shaking against my mouth, and the phone is slipping against my wet cheek, and I am completely and totally undone.
“When I was up there, and I thought it might be over, the only thing I regretted was that I never said those words to you again.”
“I love you too.” The words come out broken and raw, but I don't care. I don't care what my mother or Cat Shaw thinks.“I never stopped either. I’ve loved you since I was sixteen years old, and I have been so scared to admit it because the last time I loved you, you left.”
“I'm not leaving. Not this time.”
“You better not.”
“I'm not, Jasmine. I swear to you.”
We're both quiet for a long moment. The TV is showing the same aerial footage of the plane on the runway. “Are you really okay? Are you hurt?”
“I'm fine. Blake almost broke my arm gripping it during the descent, but I'm fine.”
I laugh, and it comes out wet and shaky. “Tell Blake I said thank you for holding your hand.”
“I will not be telling Blake that.”
“Is everyone else okay?”
“Everyone's fine.”
We're quiet again, and I pull a blanket off the couch and wrap it around my shoulders. “When are you coming home?”
“I don't know yet. Probably tomorrow. Right now, they’re arranging another plane or a bus or something.”
“Will you still play in Chicago?”
“If we get there in time. Cole is talking to management now.”
“When you get back to New York, come straight to me.”
“That's exactly what I was planning to do.”
I close my eyes and lean my head against the couch, and listen to him breathe on the other end of the line. The biggest thing on my mind this morning was a sportswear contract. It seems so trivial right now.
“Tell me about the house in Maine,” I say.
“Now?”
“Yes. I want to hear about the porch and the kitchen you almost destroyed with a hammer. Tell me everything.”
He laughs and starts talking. He tells me about the porch that faces the water, the wood he chose for the railing, and how he sanded it by hand over three weekends.
