Fly with Me: a novel by Andie Burke

chapter 9

Olive knew her legs wouldn’t actually fall off. She was a nurse, after all. The muscles and bones were all still attached to one another. But with every limping stride, her medical knowledge seemed less certain. The ground didn’t seem soft, but the idea of lying down on it was more and more appealing.

Hoping to distract from her limping, Olive turned to Stella, reaching to touch her arm but then thinking better of it. “Thank you for coming today. You didn’t need to feel obligated, though. But with all of that…” She pointed backward in the vague direction of where the camera crew accosted her. “You saved me.”

“I took a short nap in my hotel room and then woke up all excited to come to Disney World. When I ran my marathon a million years ago, I would’ve been really upset if no one had come to see me. My dad came then, and it was really nice to see a friendly face at the finish line. He practically had to carry me to the parking lot. Speaking of which, where are we walking?”

The corners of Olive’s mouth twitched. Stella spoke in paragraphs, not sentences. And fuck did she like that about her. “The shuttle. I’m sorry. I should’ve asked where you want to go. My brain’s not functioning very well right now.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No, just rethinking all the life decisions that led to running a half-marathon.”

Olive had expected Stella to laugh at that. Not that what she’d said was funny. It wasn’t really funny at all. Olive was completely out of funny at the moment.

Her phone began vibrating, which meant it was one of the few numbers that could bypass do not disturb. She grabbed it from her fanny pack.

“Shoot. My brother’s hospital.” Olive had given them several other numbers in case of emergencies for while she was down here. She paused her walking.

“Do you need to answer it?”

Derek had demanded she take a mental break this weekend. He’d threatened to block every hospital number and her mom’s number if she didn’t agree to let other people take over care decisions for a few days.

“Um. No, I don’t.” She put the phone away. It was pathetic how hard it was to start moving again after the short pause.

As if sensing this, Stella linked arms with Olive, taking a bit of the strain off Olive’s legs. “You ran the race for your brother?”

“Yep.” She was still very conscious of being sweaty, but she couldn’t pull away. It felt soft and safe to have Stella so close beside her. The scent of her and the way Olive’s head could lean into her shoulder at exactly the perfect angle. It was addicting.

“He’s—well, that is to say, there was the implication … but I don’t want to overstep or make assumptions because that’s none of my—”

“He was going to run it with me. It’s a long story.” And she wasn’t sure she could tell it today without completely losing it. “He just … can’t run anymore. He’s at a long-term care facility. Paralyzed. Traumatic brain injury.” There. She said it without crying this time. Maybe coming here really was a good decision.

“I’m sorry.”

Olive fumbled for a follow-up question that would deflect from a discussion about Jake. “D-do you have any siblings?”