The Spiral Down (The Fall Up #2)(82)

I sucked in an eager breath, realizing Evan was a straight-up genius. Then the landline started ringing on the nightstand. I groaned, rolling from his arms to retrieve it from the charging base.

Very limited people had the number to my lake house, considering I’d changed it the day we’d arrived so no one could interrupt us. And, by limited, I meant: Levee.

“Hello, beautiful,” I crooned.

“Nope. It’s me,” Sam said.

“Oh, hey, Sam. I was just about to call you.” I winked at Evan. “We were naked in bed and having the age-old debate about whether you’re a boxers or briefs kind of guy. See, I say—”

“I’m at the hospital. Levee’s water broke.”

Ice flooded my veins as I shot straight up in bed. “Is she okay? I didn’t think she was due until next month!”

“She hit thirty-seven weeks yesterday. Looks like Bree will be here tonight. I’m gonna need you to get your ass back here STAT.”

My heart was thundering in my chest as I felt Evan’s hand land on my back. Concern painted his face as he moved in front of me.

“Sam, answer me. Is she okay?”

Evan instantly pulled me against his chest, his arms wrapping around my shoulders so snugly I couldn’t have fallen apart if I’d needed to.

“She’s fine,” Sam assured, but it did little to slow my pulse. “She was in a lot of pain on the way here, but she’s getting an epidural now. Just hurry up. She’ll want you here.”

I smiled weakly. “Then I’m on my way.”




“It’s going to be fine,” Evan promised, squatting beside my seat on the plane. “I’ll get you there safe and sound. It’s a short flight back to San Francisco.”

I glanced out the window at the rain pouring down around us. My hands trembled in my lap as he kissed my shoulder. His eyes flashed around at Robin and Carter as though he had been pleading for help.

I tried to put my game face on for him, but it was a worthless effort. It was raining. My terror level had peaked.

“Ready when you are,” Javier, Evan’s short-notice copilot, called from the cockpit.

Evan had vouched for his experience, but I wasn’t all that convinced. However, we didn’t have time to wait for Baez if I wanted to get to Levee in time.

“Coming,” Evan replied. Then he grabbed the back of my neck and pressed his forehead to mine. “I will get you there safely. I swear.”

I swallowed hard and nodded. I was going to flip the f*ck out—no way around it. But, if it meant I would be there for Levee, I’d suck it up and do what I had to.

“Let’s go,” I mumbled.

It was his turn to nod unconvincingly.

But, minutes later, he was gone and the door to the cockpit was shut behind him.

“It’ll be okay, Cookie,” Robin soothed, dropping her hand into my lap and intertwining our fingers.

She was probably right, but try telling that to my tweaked-out nerves.

When I felt the plane begin to accelerate down the runway, I closed my eyes and did my best to envision Evan in his element.

His rough hands wrapped around the controls the same way they held my jaw when he’d kissed me the first time. “Five.”

Those captivating blue eyes that owned my soul gazing out the windshield as the rain pelted down. “Four.”

His confident grin he would no doubt be sporting the same way he did every time he so much as talked about flying. “Three.”

His heart racing in his chest for no other reason than he knew I was in the back, scared without him. “Two.”

My stomach lurched into my throat when the wheels lifted off the ground.

“You okay?” Robin whispered.

Prying a single eye open, I looked at her. “I screwed up the countdown.”

She grinned and shrugged. “Or maybe he knew you’d freak out at one.”

It was impossible. Evan couldn’t have predicted when I would have started counting. But a laugh slipped from my throat because she was right. That was exactly what he would have done.

And it was exactly why my heart slowed well before the plane had leveled out.

I trusted Evan. And, while I could sit there and fret over an act of God sending us crashing to the ground, I couldn’t help but remember him saying that my act of God had been having John Wyatt as my pilot on that fateful night.

In that moment, I realized he was wrong.

The true act of God had been finding him because of that horrible night.

If I hadn’t been on that flight, I never would have met his dad.

And, if I hadn’t met his dad, I never would have been using Jackson to find my pilots.

And, if I hadn’t been using Jackson, I never would have had Evan step in to take my flight.

That was my act of God.

And, suddenly, flying wasn’t so scary anymore.

Well…until all hell broke lose.

Robin gasped as the plane suddenly jerked, giving us all that dreaded feeling of our stomachs dropping.

My hand convulsed around hers, my other slamming down on the armrest.

“What the f*ck is he doing up there?” Carter snapped.

“It’s okay,” I forced out in a shaky voice. “I’m sure it’s nothing,” I lied, trying the power of positive thinking for once.