Flyguys and Flygirls

“Nate?” I ask again.
“Hey Tara,” he says.
I cringe at the use of my first name. And it doesn't go unnoticed.
“Sorry. I forgot you didn't like people calling you that. It's been a while. How have you been?” He asks.
“Yeah, it has. I've been busy with hockey and the horses.”
“You still do both?” He asked surprised.
“Yeah, Grant has been great. And I've been working with Longmarsh Prince Pegasus. Do you remember him?”
“How could I forget about him…” he says with a roll of the eyes and a forced laugh.
“Yeah, he's been doing really well. We have a combined show coming up in a month.”
I look at him and see the puzzled confusion written across his face.
“Jumping and Dressage, and I also signed him up for a handling class.” I say trying to clear up his confusion.
“Thats cool, I'm happy for you.”
“Thanks,” I say with a smile.
I can tell he's trying to think of the right wording for a question when the flight attendant announces the boarding of flight U242 to Halifax.
“Well thats me,” we both say at the same time.
“It was nice seeing you.” He says with a genuine smile.
“Yeah, I'll see ya around.” I smile one last time then head for the boarding line.

I wait behind an older couple and their granddaughter. The granddaughter kept saying she wanted a pony for Christmas and her grandparents kept saying maybe next year. They were trying to figure out where their seats were when the attendant asked me to see my ticket. I handed it over, and then boarded and found my seat. I was sitting by the window in the very back of the plane. I saw the grandparents struggling to calm their granddaughter down and then saw Nate walk up to her and offer her an autograph and his hat if she listened to her grandparents. The grandmother caught my gaze and smiled. I decided I could help make their trip a little easier and went up and introduced myself, found out they were from Halifax, but had to come get their granddaughter as their daughter was going through a messy divorce. I told them that I was originally from around Halifax and moved to the states for my parents work. I then told the grandmother that I over heard her granddaughter talking about horses and that I had some of my own. I said, “if you don't mind I could have her sit with me and I could tell her all about the horses I own and ride.” The grandmother looked grateful for the offer and said “If she's any trouble just bring her up.” I smiled and introduced myself to the young girl, then lead her back to my seat and got her situated. I was buckling my seat when someone sat down next to me. I looked over and saw a rather large man. He then leaned closer to me as I tried to move a little farther away.
“Excuse me, if it isn't too much trouble, I was wondering if I could sit there,” Nate said as politely as he could with a smile, seeing my discomfort. And people say Knights only exist in fairy tales. Right then he was my Knight in shiny armor.
The man looked up at him, and Nate continued on, “You see that's my girlfriend and our niece. And I'd feel better being close to them. And would really appreciate it.”
“Whatever,” the guy said as he got up. I secretly thanked Nate in my head as he sat down, and I smiled at him to say thanks. He nodded. I turned my attention back to the little girl and pulled out my phone. She looked over and saw the screen filled with a collage of horse pictures.
“HORSEY!” she stated loudly.
“Shh, I'll show you the pictures but you have to be quiet and listen okay?” I asked and received a nod.
Nate leans over and asks, “Whats your name?” she looks at me for permission to answer and I smile.
“Elleana.”
I open up my gallery of photos on my phone and open the first picture up. We take off and as soon as we are airborne I start showing her the pictures, I get halfway through my album of horse photos when she is sound asleep. I grab my headphones but before I put them in Nate asks me “can I see some of those photos?”
I nod and hand him my phone.
He scrolls through, and starts tapping and typing away.
“What are you doing?” I ask and he hands me back my phone smiling.
“Nothing.”
“Nate.”
“Nothing,” he says with a mischievous grin.
“Nathan MACKINNON, what did you do!?!” I whisper-yell.
“Just got your number and sent a cute picture of you and 3 horses and a dog, I didn't know you had three horses and a dog. When did you get the new horse?” he asks changing the subject.
“The barn got the new horse, LC, and she was too hyper and wild for them and they tried selling her, then were about to put her down and I couldnt watch that so I bought her. Her name is Luckey Chance. And you could have just asked.”
He smiled then put in his headphones. I followed suit and soon fell asleep.
I wake up and look to my left, where Elleana should have been and notice she's not there. I frantically realize I could have lost her, when Nate comes back, followed by Elleana. I sigh and calm myself down.
“You missed it! Nate showed me pictures of you online, you so pretty. And horses nice. I wanna horse, my Grammy says maybe one day I can ride.” Elleana says as she sits back in her chair. I look at Nate and he smiles and shrugs. The announcement is made saying that we will be landing soon.
We land and I decide to wait for everyone else to get off before getting up. I walk up to Elleana’s grandparents and say “she was really good. And I think I can make her dream a reality.” They look at me amazed. And Nate comes up and stands behind me
“I know a barn in Halifax, I can give them a call and she could go ride a horse. It's a friend of mines horse, and they won't mind. They would love to help. If it's okay with you of course.” I continue.
“How does tomorrow work?” the grandfather asks me.
“Sounds great. I'll give you my number and the address. We can meet there, does 1 pm work?” I say as I grab a pen and paper and quickly scribble down my name, number, and the address of the barn.
“Yes, we will see you then,” the grandmother says as she takes the piece of paper. Nate and I wave goodbye once we are all off the plane. I go to grab my luggage and see Taylor with my bags. When she sees Nate her face drops. I go to walk towards Taylor when a pair of arms engulfed me from behind. The last thing I see before darkness is Taylor's frightened face.

Notes

Oh no. What is going to happen? Who is it and what do they want?