“None taken.”
I try to protest, but he goes on before I can get a word in edgewise. “We worked things out back then, but it feels good to set the record straight here, in front of God and country. How often do you get the chance to go back in time and right some wrongs? Life doesn’t always give you an opportunity to make amends.” He turns and looks me square in the eye. “So I’m taking it.”
My heart rate, which has been accelerating wildly for the past few minutes, crashes to a halt, a tangle of emotions warring in my chest. If I’d been worried about what people could read on my face, there’s no hiding the kaleidoscope of feelings now: disbelief, alarm, apprehension, acceptance.Gratitude. It feels like the entire auditorium is waiting for me to say something, but I can’t find any words.
Dr. Wynn is practically foaming at the mouth at this development. “It sounds like we may see these two reunited together on-screen after all!” he crows with the giddy energy of someone who knows his long-awaited fifteen minutes of fame has finally arrived—he’ll go down in pop culture history as the man who solved the mystery of Scarlett and Ryder. Maybe that fun fact will end up onhisheadstone.
“That is, if I can steal her away fromthisguy,” Ryder quips, jerking a thumb in Jase’s direction. “And we all know how well that went ten years ago,” he says with an exaggerated roll of his eyes, to more hoots from the crowd.
“You’ll have to fight me for her,” Jase jokes, reaching over to grab my arm in a faux tug-of-war.
“Anytime, anywhere, Hamilton.” Ryder turns back to me, his eyes finding mine, and the look on his face makes my heart leap into my throat. “Losing Scarlett is a mistake you only make once. This time, I intend to get the girl.”
10
Then
The opportunity tostress-test our truce came just a couple of days later.
He’d definitely thawed since our forced ceasefire, though I still half expected that the moment I let my guard down, Rude Ryder™ would make his reappearance, bop me on the nose, and say,You didn’t actuallybelievethat self-effacing, vulnerable crap, did you? Talk about gullible!When I nodded off in the makeup chair, I still slept with one eye open.
We’d been shuttled to a small private airstrip just outside Charleston to film our big plane scene, where Holden, a pilot in training, takes Melody on a romantic sunset flight over Seafolly. We’d be going up in an old vintage crop duster, a “Stearman Kaydet PT-17 two-seater biplane” to be exact, or so said Captain Gary, the retired military pilot who’d been hired to do the actual flying. The cockpit of the plane had been retrofitted with camera equipment to be operated remotely by our cinematographer, while Ryder and I would be in the second seat behind Gary, simulating the flying. It was a carefullychoreographed sequence we’d been prepping for, and like every other day on set, I woke up pinching myself for my good fortune. How was this my actualjob?
Ryder didn’t seem to share my giddiness, though. He’d been quiet all day, and the closer we got to our call time, the more agitated he appeared. It was sweltering outside, and since the plane wasn’t air-conditioned, we were waiting inside the airport’s small, glass-walled lounge until the last possible second. I’d been sitting around, chatting with the beauty team as they touched me up and fussed over my hair, but Ryder couldn’t seem to sit still, pacing around the room like a caged tiger. Knowing how he felt about Jason and I messing around between takes and the focus he liked to maintain before a scene, I gave him his space. It struck me that I’d begun to read his moods without him having to say a word.
As soon as we hit the golden hour, Nate ushered us out to the plane. The tight configuration of the cockpit and the instrument controls required me to sit in Ryder’s lap, the bulk of my weight resting on his right leg. As the stunt coordinator triple-checked our safety harnesses, I heard Ryder’s short, shallow breaths in my ear, felt them heating the back of my neck. Captain Gary was running us through a final checklist, reminding Ryder which switches to flip and demonstrating how to pull back or push forward on the steering column, called the yoke, to look the most realistic. Judging by his quiet grunts and the dearth of his usual follow-up questions, I wasn’t convinced he’d heard a word of it.
I waited until Gary had hopped out to confer a final time with Nate before speaking up. “Hey Ry—you good?”
There was no reply beyond his erratic Lamaze-esquebreathing, so I twisted around to peer at his face. It was white as a sheet.“Ryder.”
“What.” It was uttered so quietly that I wouldn’t have heard it unless I was staring at his mouth.
“What’s wrong with you?”
His brow was sheened with sweat. “I…have problems…flying.” Getting the words out seemed to require superhuman effort.
“And you’re just sharing thisnow?” I exclaimed, incredulous. “You’re playing a fighter pilot!”
“The Lost Letterisn’t exactlyTop Gun, okay? I didn’t think we’d actually be shootinginthe air. I assumed they’d just use a green screen or something.” His words were coming out halting and stilted, slurred even. I wasn’t a doctor, but it didn’t sound good. “You know how it is—when you’re at an audition and they ask if you can sing, you say yes. If they ask if you can juggle, you learn how to juggle.”
I stared at him in disbelief. “I mean, yeah, we’ve all fudged a few things, but this is a little different, don’t you think?”
His eyes were glassy on mine. “This isn’t helping.”
NowIwas starting to panic. How the heck were we going to pull off this scene if Ryder was seconds away from passing out over the controls? I couldn’t do this alone. Also, this plane was a literal hotbox, blazing sunlight ricocheting off every metallic surface. We were slow-roasting inside an oven, which surely wasn’t helping matters. Captain Gary had said it would be better once we were in the air, but we needed to get there first. “What’s your specific issue? Heights?”
“Heights, enclosed spaces. Crashing.” He swallowed heavily and closed his eyes. “I thought I could power through it, butafter seeing this rust bucket, I don’t think I can. Are we even sure it’s safe to fly?”
“Of course it is. They wouldn’t let us up in it if it wasn’t.”I don’t think.“What do you do when you fly normally?”
He made a pitiful noise. “I usually drug myself into oblivion. Can’t exactly do that here.” One eye slit open. “I took a couple shots in my trailer to try to calm down, but I can’t even feel them.”Oh geez.Guess that explained the glassy eyes.
If this had happened a week ago, I would’ve pointed at him and laughed. I would have delighted in his distress, relishing the rare, golden opportunity to undermine him in front of Nate. Now I was in overdrive trying to save him from himself.
Think. I eyed Captain Gary outside, in a huddle with Nate and our cinematographer. In a minute, he’d be back in here and we’d be taking off, and Ryder’s meltdown would be exposed in humiliating fashion. We were seconds away from this turning into a much bigger debacle.Think.
My mind shifted into problem-solving mode. “Listen, these are mostly reaction shots, so this shouldn’t take very long. You only have a couple of lines.”Which there was no way he could deliver in his current state,though I kept that thought to myself.
