“You’re too cocky.” Ray, who would be going up with him as spotter, was usually quieter than the other two, but now wore a frown even deeper than Linc’s. “This is way riskier than the tandem jumping. I’m with Linc on this one. We’ll let the other groups go ahead of us. You need another run-through. Start by showing me your gear. Each part of the deployment bag assembly.”
Fuck. This was typical of the past few days—the instructors gave them work and then his crew gave him double on top of that. All the rookies had stuff like extra inventory and hauling gear, but his guys in particular seemed to delight in keeping him busy. But he couldn’t complain—he’d wanted this, and while he hadn’t asked to be on Linc’s crew, there were no guarantees that anyone else would be easier.
He started again, labeling the static line sleeve, pack opening loop, sliding sleeve, safety wire and other gear components. Then Garrick had him demonstrate cutting a line from a piece of old rigging—like Jacob couldn’t use an emergency knife on his own. But whatever. Finally, finally he was in line for the plane. And the good thing about being irritated at the others was that there wasn’t a lot of room to be nervous about his first time jumping solo.
“Do good work,” Linc said, clapping him on the shoulder. Seeing as how he usually avoided touching Jacob when not strictly necessary, that was nice. It was weird—when they’d tandem jumped together, for those few minutes, Jacob had never felt closer to anyone, but most of the time, he felt further away from Linc than ever despite working right next to him. And then Linc had to go and ruin the warm tingle from the contact, leaning in to add, “Don’t fuck this up.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” He glared at Linc before following Ray to the airstrip.
“I’ll be working your deployment bag,” Ray reminded him as they waited for the plane to return from the previous batch of trainees. “Just keep a clear head and listen to your comm set. You’ve got this.”
“Glad someone thinks so,” he grumbled.
“Hey now. You need to stop butting heads with Linc. No one’s making you be here.” Tone impatient, Ray scanned the sky.
“I know. But it feels like you guys are just waiting for me to tap out. And that’s not happening, no matter how much work you pile on me.”
“Good to know. And hell, I’d say it’s nice to see you treating Linc normally instead of that crush you had on him several years back, except all this snapping is getting old quickly. You gotta find a happy medium, kid. Figure out how to work together for the season or else you’re both going to be miserable.”
“I...what?” Jacob’s jaw was currently taking up residence on the tarmac. He hadn’t thought anyone had picked up on that crush, except maybe him at nineteen had been way less subtle than him at almost twenty-five. Because his feelings hadn’t changed one bit even if apparently his behavior had. But fuck a duck on Ray noticing anything. “I didn’t...”
“Sure you did.” Ray shrugged. “And you’ll find some guys here with issues with you being out. God knows your brother ran his mouth enough. But not me. I’ve got a cousin. Married to a SEAL. Good guys. But Linc’s not like that...” He made a dismissive gesture with his hand that Jacob had no idea how to interpret. Linc wasn’t what? Out? No shocker there, but Jacob was never entirely sure who knew what with Linc—Wyatt had known or suspected something, but he didn’t know about the rest of the friend circle. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to be the one to out him so he said nothing as Ray continued on. “Anyway, what I’m trying to say is don’t go letting yourself get hung up on him again, but maybe stop with assuming he—or any of us—are out to get you. We just want to keep your ass alive for the season.”
“Thanks.” Jacob wasn’t sure what else to say. Definitely didn’t want to make things worse, protest too much, or reveal that his crush persisted like moss on a shady roof, never truly gone. And he couldn’t promise to do better, not when Linc drove him up the side of the mountain with a single look.
Luckily, he didn’t have to say much more because the plane arrived back at the airstrip and it was their turn to go. Even though he knew the dangers, he wasn’t particularly nervous—more like the pre-fight jitters he’d had in MMA or the giddy anticipation of Christmas as a kid. It was another step closer to his ultimate goal, and with any luck, jumps like these would be routine soon enough. But he wasn’t stupid either—he listened to Ray and the other flight crew, pushed out all other thoughts, including all those inconvenient ones about Linc, until he was leaping out into the perfect light blue spring sky, high above the world.