Taking Flight (A Devereux Novel) (11 page)

“Very well,” Derek replied.
What else could he say? He wanted to get out of there. “I suppose I came for
nothing then. Keep me updated on any further developments I should know about.”

He retreated. It didn’t feel
like anything less. The meeting hadn’t given him the answers he desired, only
filling him with a faint unease.

It had given him a lot to
think about.

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” Sara said. “Why
the hell did I agree to this?”

Becky drove—Sara
didn’t trust herself not to turn right around when they got too close.

“Because you like the guy,
you need to get closer to him for your story, and you have to confront your
fears over planes,” Becky said. “Simple. Good reasons.”

“Beck, could you just…
Okay?”

The redhead’s mood had been
unquenchable ever since the club. The level of interest she’d seen over her
dress was the boost she’d needed, but with all the things Sara had to worry
about since then it had been impossible to deal with in good spirits. Still,
she hadn’t wanted to dampen her friend’s mood, so she suffered in silence as
best as she could.

“Sorry roomie, but you
aren’t getting off the hook that easily. I want you to feel as good as I do,
and the only way that’ll happen is if you finally get some
strange
, girl!” Becky slapped her thigh, and Sara jumped.

“God, Beck! I’m not a lonely
spinster desperate for attention, you know.”

“Could have fooled me, the
way you stare at your phone when you’re waiting for a message from Derek.”

Sara blushed. She may have
got a little too hooked on the short texts they exchanged. But that was because
she had to plan the rest of her day around when she could get close to her
primary source of information. At least, that was her excuse, which she didn’t
bother wasting on her roommate.

“Whatever. Let’s just get
this over with.”

The rumble of an engine
roared by overhead, and Sara felt her gag reflex hit her
hard,
enough that she almost couldn’t choke it back.

Becky threw on her turn
signal to get into the airport’s parking lot. It was sparsely
populated—Derek had said the place only filled up on race days, although
there were almost always a few spectators out to watch the pilots go through
their paces, even if it was only coaches or family and friends.

Several bleachers were
positioned by the parking lot, rough facilities for practices and for those who
couldn’t afford to buy a ticket into the air-conditioned lounges used during
races by the well-to-do patrons of the sport. A handful of people sat there,
watching as the planes looped through the gates and pulled daring
maneuvers
. Sara kept her eyes on those people, careful not
to look over to where she might see a plane cartwheeling through the air,
crashing to its doom.

This is awful.
Her phobia had grown to ridiculous proportions. All because Michael…

“Let’s go, Sara. I want to see
if we can spot Derek’s plane. Do you remember what he said his colors are?”
Becky skipped across the grass, nonchalant and not a care in the world. Sara
wished that she could share the same enthusiasm.

Derek had extended the
invitation, framed as a way to help her get over her fear of heights without
having to face any herself. It was a valiant goal, but she couldn’t see it
working. If anything, it would give her a heart attack. Aerobatic flying was a
whole different breed, and she had trouble even thinking about a passenger
plane doing a standard
takeoff
or landing.

“He said his brother would
be here, right?” Becky asked. “I need to get me a Devereux man of my very own.
We could be sisters-in-law! How amazing would that be?”

Sara choked back laughter. “Us?
Sisters-in-law? Can you imagine?” It was funny to think about. Family
gatherings would be an insane affair if they were together. It was a good thing
the Devereux brothers had no parents who could disapprove. “Anyway, I’m only
seeing Derek to gather research for the story, and you are way too old for
Gary. Unless you’ve taken up cradle-robbing.”

“For him? I would rob the
shit out of that cradle. Besides, he’s twenty-three, that’s plenty old enough.”

Sara treated her roommate to
a long, disapproving stare as though she were Becky’s great aunt Meryl.
“Hollywood’s changed you. You’re a hit at one party, and suddenly I don’t know
you anymore.”

“Oh, shut up,” Becky
laughed. “Oh, look! There he is!”

With her heart pounding in
her chest, Sara turned. Despite the subject of their conversation, she expected
to see Derek’s statuesque face, immaculately put together as usual. Instead she
saw a younger, scruffy version wearing faded jeans and a band t-shirt. It was
surreal, like she glimpsed what Derek might have looked like as a youth. She’d
never seen him in anything other than buttoned up shirts and slacks, usually
with a jacket. He would look amazing in the morning with nothing but sweat
pants and a t-shirt.

Gary Devereux turned in
their direction and caught them staring. He gave a wave. “Ladies. I presume you
are the much talked about Sara and her friend, Becky?”

“That’s us, hot stuff,”
Becky said. “Your brother told you about us?”

He flashed a brilliant
smile. The good looks ran in the family. It wasn’t fair.

“Of course. How else was I
supposed to recognize
who
I should sit with?”

“Well, we’d recognize
you
.” Becky sat down on the bench to his
side. “Although I have to say you look even better in person than you do in
your pictures, and that’s saying a lot.”

Oh, dear. She really is trying to rob that cradle. Can’t say I blame
her too much. He’s very attractive and as wealthy as his brother. If I hadn’t
already seen Derek and kissed him, I might have been tempted to make a fool of
myself.

Instead of taking a jab at her
friend, Sara sat down beside her and let the redhead embarrass herself, if that
was what she wanted to do.

“You didn’t have a problem
finding the place, I take it?” Gary asked. “It’s not too bad to get to,
although Derek loves to race down the back roads on the way here from his
place. I swear I’ve almost worn through the handles in his car from trying to
keep myself in the seat.”

“No, not that bad. Except
for Sara trying to convince me to turn around.”

“Beck!” Sara exclaimed. “I
didn’t do that!”

“No, but I could tell you
wanted to. Don’t even pretend like you didn’t.”

She stared at her friend.
There wasn’t anything she could say to that.

“Derek told me a little
about your problem,” Gary said. “I can’t even imagine what you are going
through, I want you to know you are brave coming out here like you are. I know
it looks like these guys are inches from disaster, but they are the best in the
world at what they do. Derek likes to push himself, but you’ve met him. I know
no one who has greater control and mastery over himself and what he’s doing
than my brother.”

Now on the bleachers, it was
more difficult for Sara to ignore the planes taking turns dipping and swirling
through the course laid out in front of them. She kept her eyes on Gary and
Becky, but let her focus drift more and more to her peripheral and the
gracefully rising and falling shapes that hovered at the edges of her vision.

“Thank you, Gary. I’m not
sure how much Derek told you, but it’s not something I’m proud of. I want to
get over it, but…” She held out her arms to the side, feeling helpless. “It’s
just so overwhelming.”

He nodded, eyes gentle. “I
get it. I do. Derek and I have always been close, more so than with either of
our other brothers. I don’t know why, but he’s always had a death wish. Ever
since we were young, he would seek the hardest, most difficult things he could,
just to prove he could do it. Back then it was rock climbing and cliff jumping,
but as he got older, the stunts got more sophisticated.
He’s
just hardwired to seek that thrill, the adrenaline.
I don’t think it’ll
ever go away.”

Sara nodded. She’d already
gotten a sense of that from him. He was so precise and controlled, and it
extended to everything he did. It made sense the precision was born out of
necessity. He couldn’t do the things he did without being spot on in the
execution. She liked hearing more about him and how he grew up—it would
be a lot more difficult getting him to talk with the same openness and honesty
about his past and upbringing.

“I’m afraid Derek hasn’t
told me much about when he was younger. He’d mentioned your mother dying when you
were all young, and how your father became enveloped in his work after that,
but he didn’t go into details.”

Gary’s face grew whiter.
“Ah, yes. Well, none of us like talking about that, to be honest. I don’t know
if you still have both your parents, but it’s not the most comfortable subject
in the world.”

Sara felt like an ass. How
could she be so insensitive? They were Gary’s parents as well. “I’m so sorry! I
shouldn’t have brought it up. Please forgive me.”

“No, I understand the desire
to learn more about Derek. He doesn’t make it easy on people,” Gary said. “The
truth is our mother died… well, she died giving birth to me.”

She hadn’t thought she could
have her foot more thoroughly inserted in her mouth, but she’d been wrong. “Oh,
Gary! I’m so sorry. That must be a tremendous burden to bear!”

Becky mumbled her own
sentiments and dropped a hand to pat his knee.

“I’ve gotten used to it,” he
said wryly. “And I’m the only one of us who didn’t know her, although Stephen
was only four when she passed away. Father never forgave me for taking Mother
away from him. I didn’t have the best relationship with him growing up. Not
that any of us did, but it was like a business transaction every time we spoke.
I proved I did well in my studies, and he passed judgment on whether it was
good enough.”

“That sounds horrible,”
Becky said. “I don’t mean to criticize your dad, but what a terrible way to
treat his own son! It’s not like you can be blamed for it!”

He shrugged. “It’s in the
past. It’s all I knew growing up, and while we had each other, we didn’t have
the chance to make many other friends, so I didn’t know any better.” Gary shook
his head. “I’m sorry, I was supposed to tell you about Derek when he was
little, and I only talked about myself. That was selfish of me.”

He is way too polite for his own good.
Sara couldn’t imagine Derek
apologizing for talking about himself.
He
wouldn’t talk about himself in the first place.

“No, Gary, it was good to
hear. Please, talk about whatever you want.”

He leaned forward in his seat
then, gaze on the
air strip
. “Oh, it looks like
Derek’s about to take off!”

“You mean he wasn’t in the
air this whole time?” Despite herself, Sara turned to look out over the runway.

A blue and black plane had
lined up and accelerated down the tarmac.

I’ll only watch until it lifts off the ground, and then I’ll look away
before it gets too much.

It rolled faster and faster,
the plane roaring as the capable engines pushed it along the length of the
paved runway. Sooner than she expected, the wheels lifted off the tarmac and
the plane took a sharp bend upwards.

“Oh!” She was caught by
surprise and watched as the plane’s upward progress continued.

The plane rolled a few times
almost immediately, the wings seemingly almost brushing the ground although it
was already at least fifty feet in the air.