Page 145
“STUFF!?”
“Also yes.”
“Are you kidding me?”
Mary Sue walked past both of them without breaking stride. “Lets go, girls. I’ve always wanted to ride in one of these.”
“Me too!!” Annie said running past as the pilot helped her inside.
Sage stared at Mary Sue’s retreating back. She stared at the helicopter. She stared at Annie, who was already buckled and grinning, her hands pressed over her mouth, her eyes bright.
“I’m—” Sage gestured broadly at everything. “Is this — did Cal—”
“This one’s not Bear,” Isabelle said, and something moved in her expression — quiet, warm, private. “This one’s mine. Come on sis…”
ISABELLE
The helicopter ride was forty minutes.
Forty minutes of Sage pressing her face against the window like a golden retriever experiencing its first car ride, narrating everything she saw to Annie, who was doing the exact same thing from the opposite window. Mary Sue sat next to Isabelle smiling but trying to pretend she wasn’t.
“Mountains,” Sage announced. “Annie. Mountains. Look at those.”
“I’ve lived here twenty years,” Annie said.
“But from up here—”
“Yeah,” Annie said, looking. “Yeah, okay. Yeah.”
Isabelle watched them from the far seat, her coffee cup held in both hands. She wasn’t looking out the window. She was looking at Sage — at the open, unguarded delight on her face, and was just feeling it. All of it. The helicopter and the mountains and the morning and the sheer improbable fact of being taken somewhere beautiful by people who loved her.
Her phone buzzed with a text from Michael.
Hi Isabelle. Bear keeps bugging me, so I need to ask. How is it going?
Isabelle typed back.
She has chocolate on her chin, is smiling so wide I think her face might cramp, and if she pokes Mary Sue one more time to show her something, I fear for her life.
Three dots.
Cool…Bear is nervous. He never gets nervous. Today is going to be awesome.
Isabelle smiled as she looked at Sage, who had her forehead pressed completely against the glass.
Yeah. Yeah, it is.
SAGE
“Izzy! Stop slapping my ass!”
Sage’s voice echoed off the marble locker room walls, half laugh, half genuine scold. Isabelle just grinned, utterly unrepentant, and gave her another playful swat for good measure.
“Why? It’s a nice ass.”
“Because I—“ Sage stopped, then felt heat flood her cheeks. “…It is?”
Annie, who already looked a little nervous, nodded. “Yup. I’m both jealous and happy for you. Maybe more jealous than happy, but only ‘cause you’re gorgeous.”
