Playboy Pilot (8 page)

Cautiously, she stepped out. “What are we doing, exactly?”

I couldn’t have staged it any better than it happened. Just as she finished her question, a glider soared above the edge of the mountain. It was a tandem glider, just like we’d be doing. I pointed, even though she had already seen it. “That.”

CARTER WAS INSANE.
I’d suspected he had a few screws loose, but thinking I was going to fly off the side of a cliff with a few scraps of metal and a flimsy piece of polyester, confirmed he was certifiable.

“I’ll watch you do it.”

We’d been standing alongside the Jeep for the last ten minutes arguing. “You’re one of those, huh?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re a sideliner.”

“Elaborate.”

“You sit on the sidelines and watch your life happen. If you don’t play in the game, you can’t get hurt. Spectators are safe.”

“In this case, I prefer safety to hurtling to my untimely death at twenty-four.”

Carter rubbed the back of his neck and stared at me for a moment. “Every spectator who watches an event is watching it because they want to
be
the player. But they either don’t have the talent or the balls.”

“Well I certainly don’t know how to fly a hang glider. So in this case, you’re right. I don’t have the talent.”

“You don’t
need
any talent for this. You fly in tandem, with a trained and experienced glider. No talent necessary. You know what that means?”

“What?”

“That you’re a spectator because you don’t have the balls.”

“I have plenty of balls.” I stood taller.

“Yeah. When was the last time you took a risk?”

“I’d say two days ago when I got on a plane to Brazil at the recommendation of a crazy person I met in a bar.”

“Alright. I’ll give you that one. That did take some balls. But when was the last time you had a real adrenaline rush? The kind that pumps through your veins so powerfully that it makes you think you haven’t really been alive before then?”

I knew the answer to that. When
you
got in that cab yesterday. Only I didn’t have the
balls
to say that either. “I don’t remember.”

“It’s an experience you’ll never forget. I promise.”

“You do this often?”

“Hang glide? Not so much anymore. I used to do it all the time though.”

“I didn’t mean hang glide. I meant do things that give you an adrenaline rush?”

“I still get one every time I take off. When I’m barreling that plane down the runway at a hundred and eighty miles an hour and I pull back on the yoke to lift the nose and we break from the ground…it’s like the first time, every time.”

“So you’re a thrill seeker.”

Carter shrugged. “At times. Life without a little thrill is boring, beautiful.”

I really like when he calls me beautiful
. I couldn’t believe I was even considering doing this. But he was right. The last few years of my life
had
been pretty boring. And this trip was supposed to be about finding me. Getting answers. He could tell I was reconsidering.

“Come fly with me.” He held out his hand.

“That’s Frank Sinatra, not the Beatles.”

“I know, but I figured it would be more convincing right now than
In Spite of All the Danger
.” He smiled, and I actually felt goosebumps break out on my arms when I put my hand in his.

THE REQUIRED PRE-GLIDE
training class lasted an hour and a half. My instructor really seemed to know what he was talking about, and it put my mind at ease. Well, as much at ease that was possible when you were about to jump off the side of a mountain. And I do mean
jump.
It was probably best I had no idea that we literally
ran
off the side of a mountain to take off when I agreed to this craziness. That crazy run was what I was about to watch when Carter came and sat next to me. He hadn’t needed to do the training class since he’d been here plenty of times.

“Nervous?”

“I’m afraid my legs won’t move when it’s time to run off the platform.”

He smiled and put his hand on my thigh. “They’ll work. You got this.”

I
really
liked his hand there, so I smiled back. Together, we sat on a patch of grass about ten yards away from two people who were about to take off. When they raced the seven steps and literally ran off the side of a mountain, they disappeared from view immediately. I shot up to look at what had gone wrong. Carter chuckled. “They’ll pop up in a minute. Relax. That’s how it happens.”

Thirty seconds later, the two were flying high above our head in the distance. My instructor called over, waving for us to come. “Vêm aqui mulher bonita. Come.”

“You ready?” Carter asked with an unexpectedly serious tone.

I took a deep breath in and out. “Now or never.”

He smiled. “That’s my girl.” And took my hand to walk over to the prep area. In that moment, I realized, with Carter holding my hand and calling me his girl, there wasn’t much I wouldn’t try. The thought was comforting, yet scared the shit out of me at the same time.

Instead of my instructor helping me suit up, Carter did. He helped me step into my harness and checked the connections on my suit by pulling at them a few times. He then suited himself up. “Which one of us is going first?”

Carter’s brow furrowed. “Going first?” We go at the same time?”

“You’re
my glide pilot.” I had assumed the instructor that did my training was taking me up in tandem. Couples would be in the air at the same time, but were always with an instructor.

He saluted with two fingers to his forehead. “Captain Carter Clynes, at your service.”

“But…but…are you experienced enough?”

“I’m very experienced.” He wiggled his eyebrows.

“Seriously. This is my life we’re talking about.”

“And you’re about to put it in my hands. You’re a lucky lady.”

I was near panic. “Carter. Be serious for a minute. You’re trained to fly that thing? You’ve flown it by yourself before?”

He put both his hands on my shoulders and spoke into my eyes. “I would never let anything happen to you.” Then he surprised me by pulling me against his chest for a long hug. After my breathing calmed from being in his arms, he spoke. “You good?”

“I think so.”

He kissed my forehead. “Let’s fly, baby.”

MY LEGS WERE STILL RUNNING
, even though there was no longer ground beneath my feet. When we immediately dipped and started to lose altitude, I dug my nails into Carter so deeply, I might have punctured his skin. “Carter!”

“I got you. Hold tight. Here we go.” And just like that, just like the instructor had explained, we picked up a gust of wind and began climbing back up. My heart was beating out of control, and I was holding my breath. My harness was fastened slightly higher than Carter’s, so I was leaning partly on his back and clinging to him while he held the long metal steering bar.

After a few seconds, I took a sharp, very needed breath, and Carter began to circle us around, flying higher and higher above the mountain we had just launched from. My grip around him loosened slightly as we began to soar. Catching small gusts of wind, we glided smoothly through the air.

“Oh my God, Carter. We’re flying! I feel like a bird.”

His entire face smiled at me. “Feels incredible, right?”

“Yes!” It was an indescribable feeling. Looking down at the sparkling turquoise Atlantic, miles of sandy beach shoreline, and the lush green mountains around us was completely breathtaking. I was glad Carter had talked me into it. And I was even more ecstatic that I was experiencing it
with
Carter.

As we flew around, Carter was whistling. Even though we were right next to each other, it was sometimes difficult to hear because the wind was filling our ears. But after a while, I caught on to the song he was whistling.
Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.

“You sang that song on the flight, over the PA system after you turned down the lights. I almost forgot. Is it your flying song or something?”

“Something like that.”

For more than two hours, we glided around the sky of Rio de Janeiro. I don’t think the huge smile left my face once. We saw everything I wanted to see—Sugar Loaf Mountain, the Christ the Redeemer statue, Tijuca Forest, giant waterfalls, the favelas, beaches, extraordinary landscapes. We didn’t
see
Rio, we experienced it. I felt like if there was a canvas in front of me, I would be able to bleed the beauty from my veins. It was the most incredible, invigorating experience of my life.

When we had seen everything I wanted to view and more, the wind began to die down, and Carter said it was time to land. We touched down on a beach with only the slightest of bumps. My legs were wobbly when I attempted to move on the sand.

“Careful. You have air legs. Takes a minute or two to get your vertical balance back.” A team of guys from the glide company unhooked us and then made us drinks on the beach.

I was still smiling as I sipped my Caipirinha from a hollowed pineapple. “I’ll admit, I definitely can see how you can get addicted to that feeling. Is that what it feels like every time you’re sitting in the pilot’s seat?”