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“Of course I am.” She tuts at me, then leans in close, grazing my ear with her lips. “Wet ones.”
She laughs as I curse and help her down inside the basket, then I climb in, joining her and Seth, who is already inside and adjusting the burner that’s inflating the balloon.
The heat it’s giving off is impressive, and I can’t help but gaze up at the giant balloon above us.
“Envelope’s good to go,” Seth says, reaching over the side of the basket and releasing some sandbag weights that are connected. He says something to his assistant, a guy called Trevor, who is helping to release the ropes. Seth said they work together because it’s not like he can turn the balloon around when the passengers have had enough. He’s got to fly with the wind direction and land somewhere suitable. These guys know the area and have agreements with local landowners to use their fields where necessary. Trevor keeps an eye from the ground, and follows along with the truck and trailer, ready to meet Seth at the landing site and then pack the balloon up. I’ve learned a thing or two about ballooning already since meeting them both.
“You ready?” Seth asks Rose. She nods her head and clasps her hands in front of her face as the final rope is undone and the basket wobbles and lifts from the ground.
There’s a cheer from Jasmin and Logan as we rise, and Rose grips onto my arm, sucking in a breath as we climb higher.
“Now’s not the time to tell me you’re scared of heights.” I chuckle as she loosens her grip on me and leans forward to peer over the wicker side at the rapidly retreating ground.
“I’m not,” she breathes. “It just made my stomach go funny.” She squeezes my arm and then lets go, stepping forward and wrapping both hands around the side of the basket as she gazes down at the estate below. “Dax, it’s incredible. It looks like a toy.” She turns to me, beaming, and my heart swells to at least twice its size as the sunlight catches her blonde hair, making it shine like gold.
Seth’s busy firing more flames into the balloon as I move behind to Rose, caging her in between my arms as I hold onto the basket either side of her.
“You like it, Sunbeam?”
She nods, a look of pure joy lighting up her face as her eyes dart left and right at the rolling fields on the horizon, and then down to the ground far below.
“Look at those sheep.” She points at miniature white dots inside a field, so small they look like maggots on a leaf.
I press a kiss to her neck beneath her ear as she points out one thing after another after another, her voice never wavering in its excitement.
But other than a quick glance, I don’t see any of them.
I’m too busy looking at her.
“This is about as high as we’ll get.” Seth smiles at me as I look at him over my shoulder. He looks at Rose’s back, his eyes full of warmth. I told him this was important to me. That coming up here would mean a lot to Rose. Seth is married and has a daughter. He understands.
He tips his chin to me as he turns his attention out over the view to the other side, giving us some privacy. Rose shivers inside my arms as I turn back around and follow her gaze to the clouds around us. I wrap one arm around her upper body and hold her against me. It’s cooler up here, but something tells me that’s not why she’s shivering. Or why she’s gone quiet, and her face is now emotionless.
I rub my hand up and down her arm, warming the skin beneath her off the shoulder sweater she’s wearing.
“He used to tell me to look for the silver lining.” Her eyes shine as she stares straight ahead. “You know, in the clouds.”
“I know.” I dip my head and kiss the exposed skin on top of her shoulder softly. She sighs as I press another kiss to her skin. “You told me the night of the gong bath.”
“Right. At the bonfire.” Her focus is still somewhere else, somewhere in front of us, not fixed on a particular thing. Just on space. Air. A memory. She drops her voice to a whisper, the hidden pain in it so heavy that I don’t know how my heart falling to my feet doesn’t bring us and the entire balloon crashing back to earth. Weighted down by the gravity of the grief and regret held in her words. “He didn’t tell me how to do it though.” She draws in a shaky breath, her chest shuddering. I tighten my grip around her, afraid that if I let go she won’t have the strength to stay on her feet. “He didn’t tell me how to do it if he wasn’t here,” she sobs, clasping a hand to her mouth as she squeezes her eyes shut.
“Hey,” I soothe, pressing my nose into her hair and just holding her as she wipes away invisible tears and stares out at the clouds. “I’ve got you.” My chest tightens and I kiss her temple and keep holding her. Because what else can I do? I can’t say anything to take away her pain. I can’t bring her dad back. I can’t do anything other than be here for her now. And the knowledge that it isn’t enough to heal her kills me.
Her shoulders straighten as she exhales slowly, gaining composure. “I could hunt my entire life. What if I never find it?”
“You will.”
“How can you say that?” She pulls her brows together, turning in my arms to face me. “How can you be sure, Dax?”
She looks at me with wide, shining eyes and more than anything I pray that she will listen to my words. Really listen. Let them reach her soul and truly sink in.
She has to.
“Because I believe in you. Because you are strong, and you’re capable. You’re Rose Jacobs. The girl who came from New York and crashed into my world like a meteor.” My lips curl into a smile as her face softens. “You can do anything. You can find every silver lining, in every cloud, in a whole world of stormy skies. And you’ll be stronger for it. You’re a warrior. You show up day after day, always hunting for that beauty. For that magic. But it’s in you. It’s always been in you.”
“Day after day... Like the sunrise?” Rose’s eyes narrow as she regards me thoughtfully.
“Yeah.” My chest buzzes with warmth. I push her hair back from her face and cradle her cheeks in my hands as I pull her to me for a kiss. “Like the fucking sunrise.”
