Up, Up, and Away

That evening, he and Morgan spent the evening alone at his place. They ordered take out, watched an old movie, and made love again, but it was somehow different, and the only reason he could think of was that Morgan had put up a kind of protective barrier to keep herself from being hurt, too.

When he said goodbye to her at the ABQ airport, he came very close to tearing up when she did.

"I've never been in love before," he told her just before she left to go through security.

"It's pretty amazing, isn't it?" she replied with tears in her eyes.

"I don't know what the future holds, Morgan, but I'm hoping that mine has you in it."

Her eyes were darting with his even as she blinked away tears as she listened to him speak.

Her own heart was breaking as she kissed him one last time then said, "Take care, Zayn."

As he watched her walk away, Zayn swallowed hard and blinked several times himself before turning around and going the opposite direction.

When he got to his car he said to himself, "Whoever said 'tis better to have love and lost' doesn't know what the hell he's talking about."

He'd missed two flights on the last day of the festival, but right then, money had no meaning to him. He did take up the rest of his scheduled passengers that day, but his heart wasn't it. It wasn't because it was with someone near Seattle. It was with the only women he'd ever loved; a woman he felt sure he would never see again.

Hank was already waiting to board when a teary-eyed Morgan found him.

"You really like our young captain, don't you?" her brother said understandingly as he watched his sister dry her eyes.

She looked over at him and as she tried to speak, nothing came out. Nothing but tears, and her brother held out his arms then just held her.

"What about you and Cheryl?" she asked once she could talk.

"Oh, no. Uh-uh. That's over."

"Really?" Morgan asked, now very concerned. "I thought you two really hit it off."

"Last night she started in about...marriage. And children. And you know how I feel about both."

Morgan did know, and now it all made sense.

"I'm sorry," she told him with genuine sympathy.

"No. Don't be. It was a lot of fun. This whole week was a lot of fun."

"It was, wasn't it?" Morgan said as she mustered up a brave smile.

Hank looked at his sister then said, "You don't need me to give you advice, but I do have to ask."

He paused then asked, "Do you love him?"

The tears that fell answered his question, and Hank didn't say anything else other than, "We should be boarding here any minute."

On the flight back, Morgan felt as lonely as Zayn although neither of them knew how much the other was hurting. For her, the last time she'd felt like this was the night she learned her family had been taken from her in an instant.

Just as she had then, she felt...hollow...inside, and although it made no sense to her that she could have really fallen in love in less than a week, it was hard to imagine feeling this way if Zayn had been nothing more than a fling.

Morgan closed her eyes and willed herself to think about something else or even nothing at all, but no matter how hard she tried, all she could see in her mind's eye was his very handsome face and the smile that made her go weak inside.

****

One month later.

"You have a 10am flight tomorrow and a first lesson at 2pm," Katharine reminded him when he walked in that morning.

He thanked her almost perfunctorily, and she asked him if he was still thinking about her. She'd mentioned her name a few times, but the last time she did her brother glared at her like he'd never done before.

"Is it that obvious?" he asked as he did his best to smile.

"You've been home every night since she left," his sister reminded him.

"Not every night," he countered.

"Hanging out at my house until 2am watching old movies doesn't count," Katharine reminded him.

Zayn sighed loudly when Katharine said, "Are you going to call her?"

"Why? What's the use?"

"Well, what if she's sitting there moping around like you and telling herself that you'd call her if you really cared?"

"She made it pretty clear she's not interested," her brother said, the disappointment in his voice coming through loud and clear.

"Call her, Zayn," Katharine said before welcoming a customer who walked up to the counter.

He had almost two hours until his first flight. Business always fell off dramatically after the festival, and he'd had to let two of the other temporary pilots go until things picked up again.

As he sat in the office, he looked at his phone for several minutes before finally convincing himself that Katharine was right. He had to know, and if she said she wasn't interested, then he'd have his answer.

In this case, too, there was something else he didn't know. Katherine had been exactly right.

Morgan had talked with her former therapist in detail two different times since returning home, and in the end, she believed that if she really mattered to him, he would call. Maybe it was the fact that she was a more traditional woman who had never called a man before. At least not to ask him out. But that didn't mean that she wasn't still feeling almost as bad as she had on the flight back to Seattle.

So when her phone rang that morning, her heart leapt into her throat when she saw his name show up. Her heart was hammering as she swiped 'Accept Call' then said, "Hello?"

"Morgan? Hi. It's...it's Zayn. From New Mexico."

She could feel the nervousness in his voice, and that made her smile.

"Oh. So it's not one of the other Zayns I know?" she teased.

"Sorry. Right. There aren't a lot of us around, are there?" he replied, not quite as nervous but close to it.

"How have you been?" Morgan asked.

"Me? Good. I'm good," he told her even as he shook his head at himself for lying.

"Oh. Well, that's good," Morgan said as she chided herself, too, for sounding like a fool.

"Actually, I'm not all that good," Zayn told her.

"Oh?"

"No. You see, there's this woman. She's...well, she's the most amazing, funny, beautiful woman I've ever met. And I can't stop thinking about her."

Morgan's heart beat even faster as she said, "She's a very lucky girl. Does she know you feel that way?"

Zayn paused for a moment then said, "I guess I thought she did. I did my best to let her know how I felt when we were together. Here. In...New Mexico."

"Maybe she's the kind of woman who needs to be told more than once," Morgan said very sweetly.

Zayn could hear her smile as she added, "Or even twice."

"I'd tell her every day for the rest of my life if she'd give me the opportunity to do so," he told her as sincerely as he'd ever said anything before.

Morgan had the confirmation she'd been hoping and praying for, and her heart sang as she spoke her reply.

"I haven't been able to stop thinking about this amazing, intelligent, handsome man I met last month, either. In New Mexico."

"No?" a very-heartened Zayn replied.

"No. But he's quite a bit younger than me, and I think that scared me to the point where I wouldn't let myself believe that there was something very real between us."

Now she could hear Zayn smiling as he used her words on her.

"Does he know the way you feel?"

"No, but if he'd ask me to come back, I'd tell him every day for the rest of my life."

"Morgan?" she heard the man she loved say.

"Yes?"

"I love you. And...and I want you to come back. Here. With me."

Tears fell again, but this time they were tears of joy.

"I love you, too, Zayn," she told him, her voice choked with emotion.

"I don't want to live without you another day," Zayn told her.

She smiled then said, "It'll take me a few days to tie up loose ends here, but if you can make it another week or so..."

"I could in Seattle tomorrow. To help you. Tie up loose ends."

Morgan was so happy she couldn't stop crying or speak.

"Is that a 'yes'?" Zayn asked, knowing why she was crying.

"Yes!" Morgan choked out. "Please come and be with me."

"I will," Zayn promised. "And then please come and spend the rest of your life with me."

"I...will," Morgan told him. "I promise."

*****

Ten days later, Morgan's house was on the market and had multiple offers the first day. Most of her things were in storage, and Hank promised to have them shipped whenever she was ready.

Saying goodbye to her brother and the best friend she had was the third hardest thing she'd ever had to do. Losing her family was by far the worst, and saying goodbye to Zayn had been gut-wrenchingly awful. But in this case, she knew Hank could come and visit, and she could do the same.

She moved into Zayn's swanky apartment the day they arrived home. Home in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the man she loved had grown up; a home that now included her.

Zayn gave 30 days notice on the apartment, and by the time her house closed in the Seattle area, they were ready to close on a beautiful home of their own in a quiet subdivision Morgan loved.

That first evening in their new house, after a long day of moving numerous boxes Hank had shipped a few days before, Zayn lit some candles at the table as they got ready to share a pizza. Morgan's hair was in a ponytail, and some it was hanging loosely around her face. She was only wearing an old shirt and some jeans, but Zayn told her she was the most beautiful woman on earth.

"Hey. I'm a sure thing, you know," she teased, loving the compliment even when she looked her worst.

He just smiled back at her as he reached for something behind him. Once he grabbed it, he turned back around then got on one knee in front of her in the dim candlelight.

Morgan was exhausted, but when the younger man she loved asked her to marry him, she felt more alive than she could ever remember as she happily told him she would.

They'd only known one another for eight months when they married at the home of Zayn's mother, a simple woman who fell in love with her daughter-in-law to be the first time they met. But they both knew that they were meant to be and more time wouldn't have made that any clearer.

Hank flew in to give her away, and one of Zayn's closest friends from active duty came to town to be his best man. Morgan paid to have Ann fly in, too, and be her Maid of Honor.

It was a simple ceremony, but Morgan had had the big wedding. This time, all she needed was the man she loved, and when it came her turn, she told that man, "I do," with tears in her eyes and without any doubt in her mind.

Over the course of the next year, Morgan earned her pilot's license and Zayn became her instructor to become balloon certified. On their final flight, Morgan told him how much she loved him then said she had a surprise.

"Hey. Are you asking me to join the mile-high club with you?" her handsome, younger husband asked with a devious smile.

"Oooh! No, that wasn't it, but I think that's a wonderful idea!" his beautiful wife bubbled.

"Then what's the big secret?"

"Well," she began before putting her arms around him as they drifted over the desert surrounding ABQ. "I...WE...are going to have a baby."

"What? Really? Are you...are you serious?" Zayn stammered.

"I am," his beautiful wife told him.

There wasn't a lot of room in the basket, but Zayn still grabbed his wife, picked her up, and spun her around.

"Does that mean you're happy?" Morgan asked, knowing that he was.

"Happy? I'm...over the moon!" he told her before picking her up again.

"We don't have to go down just yet, do we?" his beautiful wife asked with that look in her eye.

Zayn checked the propane level then wriggled his eyebrows.

"Nope," he told her.

She turned the nozzle on and the propane ignited providing the needed lift before putting her arms around her husband and smiling deviously.

"Up, up, and away—in my beautiful balloon!" Morgan sang as she got ready to take her husband on the most amazing ride of his life.