Neither the turbulence nor the bumpy landing was to blame for Jeremy Sinclair’s hankering to get out of the plane. Even before the seatbelt sign turned off, Jeremy already took out his phone and turned off airplane mode. No signal, still. Neither mobile data nor Wi-Fi. Dead. Kind of like what would happen to Jeremy should he show up late for the wedding he should have been around to plan. He was, after all, the best man, though he wasn’t feeling particularly best at anything, at the moment.
Why was this plane meandering along the tarmac like it had all the time in the world? Jeremy sure didn’t.
He grunted as he ground the back of his teeth. He then quirked his jaw to the side. Speaking of teeth, he needed to squeeze a dentist appointment into his schedule before flying back out of the country a week from then. He scrolled through his contacts for his dentist’s name. He stopped and rolled his eyes. Right. There was no signal. And what was he doing making a dentist’s appointment when he should be laser-focused on getting to his best friend’s wedding to no other than their friendly childhood dinosaur, Jenna Marquez?
Despite his building impatience, Jeremy smiled. Max was marrying Jenna! He had seen it coming way before everyone else had — even before Max! Jeremy should be a matchmaker. The world would be a better place. More romantic.
After breaking up with Rachel Petersen, Max had eyes only for Jenna, even if he had insisted multiple times that she had been just a friend. Jeremy had tried his best not to roll his eyes at Max’s denial when it came to his attraction to Jenna. Then again, could Jeremy blame his best friend? Rachel was his ex, and her looks proved to be a worthy distraction to many a man. Now, she was their maid-of-honor. How ironic.
Not as ironic was how much trouble Jeremy had gotten himself into when he had agreed to be their best man. It made sense for him to be the best man. He and Max had been best friends since childhood, but the wedding had been on such short notice, he was perhaps the most absentee best man to ever exist on planet earth. Thank God Rachel had covered for him countless times by fulfilling not only her maid-of-honor responsibilities but also his best-man obligations. He needed to make it up to her and beg her for forgiveness, while hoping her mother wouldn’t join in on the piling on him. After all, he did travel halfway across the world to get to this wedding. That counted for something, no?
Ugh. Jeremy stretched his neck to peek outside the window, which was an aisle and three seats away from where he sat — a middle seat in the center row of four seats, where it was impossible for him to see anything outside. The plane’s digital clock up front ticked six o’clock. The wedding was at ten, and the venue was at least two and a half hours away. Why was this plane so slow?
He already owed Rachel a leg, an arm, and at least one postcard from every country he had been to and planned to go to in the future. Jeremy couldn’t afford to be late on the day of the wedding. Rachel must be going nuts by now, not having heard from him since he had boarded the plane. After all, he had told her his plane would land at four o’clock, not six. Jeremy shrugged. Was it his fault he had already been on the plane and without a network connection when the captain had announced the delay?
The airplane slowed down, and the sign to remove their seatbelts turned on with a ding. Jeremy’s brain raced to figure out a way to get out of there quickly, but he had gone through this process countless times before. There was simply no way to get out. Not until the woman to his left and the old couple to his right stood up to give him space to get his backpack out of the luggage compartment and get out of there. Neither of his seatmates were budging. In fact, the woman beside him was still snoring. How she could sleep through all that turbulence was worthy of Jeremy’s envy and admiration. It was a talent he didn’t have. Then again, he wouldn’t want to sleep through most of life. No way. He preferred to keep his eyes wide open, so he wouldn’t miss anything. Like the way this old man was looking at his wife — wide-eyed and almost mystified — as she listed down all the belongings they needed to check before deplaning.
“Where are my glasses? I can’t find them, Cody. I’ve looked everywhere.” She stirred next to Jeremy and spread her knees to check if she had dropped them on the floor. “What if I crushed them while we were sleeping?”
He stretched his neck to check the top of her head and brushed her silver hair, the corners of his eyes wrinkling as he chuckled. “Are you sure you didn’t leave them on your head like you always do, Lena?”
“Don’t be silly, Cody.” A double chin formed as she bowed her head and rubbed her neck. “They’re not hanging on me. I should have brought that other eyeglass leash. The one that doesn’t make my neck itchy.”
Jeremy started looking too. Might as well help the old woman. He stood up to better check their surroundings. Ah, there her glasses were. Out of the pocket of her beige cardigan, hanging on the arm rest between them, a pair of glasses peeked out. Jeremy frowned at the cardigan in disapproval, because all the lady’s shimmying to try and get it off herself had woken him up in the middle of the night. He would have to catch up on sleep on the taxi ride to the venue. He cringed. That would be an expensive taxi ride! He shook his head. Whatever. It was Max’s wedding today. All of this was worth it.
Jeremy gently tapped the old lady’s shoulder. “Excuse me, Ma’am.” Jeremy pointed at the glasses. “Is that what you’re looking for?”
The old lady jolted at the sound of his voice and looked up at him as if it was the first time she realized he was even there. She then glanced at her cardigan and saw what she was looking for. “Oh! Wonderful! They’re right here. Thank you, sweetheart.”
“You’re welcome.” Jeremy sat back down.
“They’re right in my cardigan’s pocket, Cody. This young man found them.”
“Good, good.” Cody nodded in approval as he stroked his wife’s back. “We wouldn’t want you walking around the airport, bumping into things without those glasses of yours, Lena.” He smiled at Jeremy. “Thank you for the help.”
“No problem.”
People were lining up in the aisle to disembark. Jeremy needed to get out of there and give Rachel a call lest the poor woman lose her mind. He wrinkled his nose at the woman who was still sleeping in the seat beside him. His bag was in the compartment on her side of the aisle. He scratched his head.
The old man grinned at his predicament and signaled for a flight attendant to approach. Once Cody had caught one attendant’s attention, he pointed at the sleeping passenger. Unfortunately, the stewardess couldn’t get to them, given all the passengers crowding the aisle.
Lena must have gotten impatient, because she reached across Jeremy and tapped the sleeping woman’s shoulder. “Wake up, honey. It’s time to go. This young man has places to go and shouldn’t be stuck inside this flying tin can.”
Jeremy laughed. “Flying tin can. I like that.”
“Oh, that’s what it is.” Lena’s brows met as this incredulous expression covered her face, like that’s what airplanes should have been called in the first place — flying tin cans.
“Where are you off to?” Cody asked.
“My best friend is getting married,” Jeremy said, even if in the back of his mind, something was demanding for him to get out of the plane and get himself to Max’s wedding. That something was Rachel yelling at him — in that sweet way only she could pull off — to hurry up. Jeremy winced. “I’m the best man, and I’m running late.”
“Oh!” Lena clapped her hands before shooting her husband an affectionate gaze. “Do you remember our wedding day, Cody?”
Cody smiled, his eyes glazing over, like a memory had somehow pulled him out of that moment. He then patted the back of his wife’s hand. “It was a beautiful day, wasn’t it, Lena?”
She nodded slowly.
Both their eyes moistened. The man’s grip on the woman’s hand tightened, and a bittersweet smile appeared on both their faces.
“I wouldn’t trade a single day spent with you for anything, Lena,” Cody said, his voice choked up.
Something about the scene unfolding in front of him told Jeremy this was a story he couldn’t afford to miss, and the urge to find out more about Cody and Lena overpowered the voice of Rachel in his head, urging him to “Please, Jeremy. Please, please, please don’t be late.”
“God, help me,” he whispered as he cleared his throat and extended his hand toward Cody. “I’m Jeremy Sinclair.”
“Cody de Leon. This is my wife, Lena.”
The woman who had been sleeping was now fully awake and attentive to what was going on around her. She was even giving Jeremy and the couple curious looks as she stood up to retrieve her bags. That meant Jeremy could make his way out of there now, but the world today rarely made couples like Cody and Lena anymore. Not in his generation, and something about the two reminded him so much of his own father and mother. Sam and Aida Sinclair could have ended up this way if only— Jeremy choked up. It took him a moment to recover from the sudden bout of melancholy. He had to get it together. This was a beautiful day. No need to dwell on heart aches.
“Seeing you interact, I can’t help but be curious about your story,” Jeremy said to the couple. “I have what is called a vlog, which basically means I post videos online, usually about stories of people I discover in my travels. Do you mind sharing your story with me for one of my vlogs? Something tells me it’s going to be interesting.”
The couple’s faces lit up.
“God really does hear our prayers, doesn’t he, Cody?” Lena squeezed her husband’s arm.
That was enough to confirm to Jeremy he had an interview and a prayer that God would somehow extend the time or take him to the wedding venue faster than was humanly possible. After leaving the plane, Jeremy spent an extra thirty minutes taking a video of Cody and Lena. As the old couple’s story unfolded, Jeremy pushed away any regret or doubt over his decision to stop and take a moment to listen, because it would have been a shame to miss out on hearing about the powerful lives of Cody and Lena de Leon. By the time they finished, Jeremy had brand-new, possibly viral, content for his channel, an idea for his best man’s speech, and a ton of missed calls from Rachel and whoever else. Mostly Rachel.
Jeremy definitely had a lot of making up to do, and he couldn’t have been any more aware of this, as he rushed out of the airport, hoping that by some miracle, he would find a ride soon. He was about to pray for a helicopter to miraculously swoop in and take him to the wedding, but all he got instead was a familiar face waiting for him at the arrival area.
Knox Cartier was waiting outside the airport, leaning on the classic Ducati Jeremy used to drool all over as a teenager.
“Knox!” Jeremy jogged toward his friend to give him a bro hug. “What are you doing here?”
“Rachel begged my wife to send me here to fetch you, because one, Rachel is a hundred percent sure you’ll find a way to be late.”
Both men shrugged.
“Accurate.” Jeremy nodded.
“Two, we’ll get there faster by motorcycle.”
“I can’t believe you brought the Ducati!” Jeremy exclaimed as he secured his backpack on his shoulders. “Haven’t seen this beauty in years!”
Knox grinned. “Thought you might appreciate me taking this baby out of hiding. I’ve been riding it lately just for nostalgia and to keep it travel-ready.” He tossed Jeremy a helmet. “Get on.”
“I’m so up for this.” Jeremy secured the protective gear on his head before getting on the back of the motorcycle behind Knox.
Before driving off, Knox said, “Rachel says you owe her a lot more than one, and she plans to collect.”
“You have no idea.” Jeremy chuckled. He had no objections to owing Rachel anything. Whatever she asked for, he would have to give her, after how much she had covered for him in preparation for the wedding. He could worry about that later, though.
For now, Jeremy leaned back and drank in the exhilaration of the speed and the scenery, all the while wondering if he would ever find someone who would love him the way his mother loved his father, the way Lena loved Cody. What did it matter? Jeremy had love right where he was — it was alive and bustling all around him, and he longed to revel in every minute of God’s extravagant love.
So, blessed by what he believed to be a divine encounter at the airport and relieved to be on the fastest possible way for him to get to his best friend’s wedding, Jeremy enjoyed the motorcycle ride and trusted that, late or not, he would get to his best friend’s wedding at just the right time.
This is the first chapter of Christian love story, The One Who Shot Away.