Fly

Fly Plot Summary

Introduction

The roar of engines fills the California air as Colton Wade prepares for another motocross shoot, his mind anywhere but on the blonde bombshell posing beside him. Back in Wisconsin, Taylor Jansen celebrates her twenty-third birthday alone, opening vintage Jane Austen books—a gift that took months to collect from cities across America. These two best friends have orbited each other for fifteen years, their connection deeper than blood, stronger than distance. But gravity has its own plans. When friendship crosses into forbidden territory, when Vegas lights illuminate secrets that small-town hearts can't contain, everything they've built begins to fracture. Colton's world of adrenaline and fame collides with Taylor's quiet dreams of escape. She's tired of waiting in the shadows while he lives in the spotlight. He's tired of pretending she's just another voice on his phone. Tonight, the rules change forever.

Chapter 1: Crossing the Line: Friendship on the Edge

Colton stares at Bria through the camera lens, her wet lips wrapped around a water bottle in ways that make his jeans uncomfortably tight. The ProFit athletic wear campaign promises to elevate his motocross career beyond the ramps, but working with his former hookup feels like slow poison. Bria isn't just another circuit bunny—she's the mistake he keeps making, the woman who wants more than he'll ever give. His phone buzzes with Taylor's name, that familiar smile lighting up his screen. She's opening his birthday gift, and her gasp of delight cuts through the studio noise like salvation. Three vintage hardcover Jane Austen novels, each one hunted down in different cities during his travels. Pride and Prejudice from New York, Sense and Sensibility from St. Louis, Emma from right here in LA. "You did good, Col. Real good," she whispers, and something tight in his chest finally loosens. Back in Maribel, Wisconsin, Taylor traces the worn spines with trembling fingers. Her badass motocross superstar best friend spent months searching old bookstores for these treasures. The same man who can't remember to buy Christmas gifts for his own family remembered her throwaway comment about shitty movie adaptations. The intimacy of the gesture catches her off guard, warmth spreading through her chest like whiskey. But evening brings different challenges. Taylor faces another dinner with her parents, where her father's brain injury has transformed the gentle man who raised her into a stranger full of rage. His accident three years ago didn't just steal her father—it stole her future too. She dropped out of college to help her mother manage his mood swings and violent outbursts, watching her own dreams shrink with each passing day. The confrontation erupts over chicken that's apparently too dry, words that cut too deep. Her father's anger turns on her mother, then on Taylor herself, questioning her worth, her choices, her very existence. She wants to scream that she sacrificed everything to come home, but the man who would have cared about that sacrifice died on a snowy road three years ago. What remains is a hollow shell that looks like her father but speaks only in cruelty.

Chapter 2: Vegas Lights and Hidden Desires

Colton arrives home unannounced, a surprise that sends Taylor's carefully constructed walls tumbling down. She launches herself into his arms in her kitchen, breathing him in like oxygen after drowning. Five months apart dissolves into nothing when he holds her, spinning her around like they're teenagers again instead of adults dancing around feelings too dangerous to name. The evening starts innocently enough—dinner, poker, wandering the strip with their fingers naturally intertwining. But tension builds when Trey, the circuit's platinum-eyed bad boy, makes his interest in Taylor crystal clear. Colton's possessive streak flares, his arm sliding around her waist with territorial precision. The other riders notice. They always notice when Country Boy gets protective. Then comes the helicopter tour, Vegas spread below them like scattered diamonds. The headphones make conversation impossible, but when Colton slides his hand into her hair and kisses her for the first time, words become irrelevant. Fifteen years of friendship culminate in that moment suspended above the city lights, her lips parting under his with an inevitability that terrifies them both. But reality crashes back when his agent calls with demands, contractual obligations, the machinery of his career grinding forward without pause. Liz wants him at a meeting about the ProFit campaign, about playing the perfect couple with Bria for the cameras. The same woman who answered his phone that night Taylor finally called back, her voice dripping with possession and promises. Taylor retreats to her hotel room, understanding flooding through her like ice water. This is his world—complications and contracts and beautiful women who stake their claims publicly. She's the friend who gets tucked away in fancy hotels while he handles business. The friend who waits.

Chapter 3: The Fall: From Ecstasy to Betrayal

The after-party pulses with dangerous energy, but Taylor insists on coming along. She's tired of being protected, tired of being kept separate from the parts of Colton's life that matter. Her shimmery blue dress and silver heels draw attention she's never courted before, and for once, she doesn't shrink from the spotlight. Trey finds her at the window overlooking the pool, silver flask in hand, watching Colton far below locked in conversation with Bria and another man. The whiskey burns when she drinks, but not as much as watching Colton suddenly pull Bria close and kiss her with an intensity that steals Taylor's breath. The contract negotiations have turned physical, public, real. Jealousy tastes like poison and poor decisions. When Trey's hands guide her toward the bed, when he offers pink pills to make the pain disappear, she almost says yes. Almost lets him erase the image of Colton's hands in Bria's hair. Almost becomes someone she doesn't recognize. Colton finds them before the point of no return, Tito restraining Trey while fury radiates from every line of Colton's body. The ride back to the hotel crackles with accusations and hurt, two people who love each other tearing strips from each other's hearts. But desire overrides anger in the limo's privacy. Taylor straddles Colton's lap, her dress bunched around her waist, fifteen years of careful boundaries destroyed in desperate kisses and whispered confessions. They make love with the city lights streaming past, claiming each other with an intensity that feels like salvation and damnation combined.

Chapter 4: Twenty-Six Days of Silence

The morning after brings harsh truths. Colton explains the ProFit situation, how his career depends on playing Bria's pretend boyfriend, how the marketing team wants authenticity that requires public displays of affection. He asks Taylor to wait, to accept the secret relationship while he parades around with another woman for the cameras. Taylor's response cuts deeper than any blade: "I deserve better." She kicks him out of her hotel room with those words hanging between them like a death sentence, the door closing on fifteen years of friendship and one perfect night that now feels like a lie. Twenty-six days pass in agonizing silence. Colton calls daily, texts constantly, leaves voicemails that grow increasingly desperate. His Vegas victory feels hollow without Taylor to share it. Every subsequent competition lacks the spark of knowing she'll be waiting for his call afterward. Taylor throws herself into preparations for her new life. She applies to the University of Wisconsin-Madison, quits her job at the newspaper, finds an apartment with a male roommate named Adam that she'll move into before summer classes begin. Each step forward is also a step away from the life where Colton was her true north. The final voicemail comes at midnight, Colton drunk on a South Carolina beach after another victory. His voice cracks as he sings "You Are My Sunshine" into the phone, telling her she's his light, his reason for riding, his biggest regret. The raw vulnerability in his words destroys her carefully built defenses. But when she finally calls back, Bria answers his phone with silky satisfaction. "I'm here and you're not," she purrs, the sound of Colton being sick in the background. The message is clear: Taylor may have his heart, but Bria has his body when it matters.

Chapter 5: Choosing Different Paths

Colton appears on Taylor's doorstep three days before she moves to Madison, looking like a man who's lost everything that matters. Twenty-six days of silence have carved hollows under his eyes, but determination burns there too. He's done waiting for her to forgive him. Tonight, they talk or everything ends. "Come on the road with me," he pleads, offering her California, offering her a life in his world if she'll just say yes. But Taylor has learned the cost of making herself small for other people's dreams. Her father's accident taught her that life can change in an instant. Her mother's sacrifice showed her what happens when women wait for men to choose them. "I've gotta do me for a while," she tells him, and watches something die in his green eyes. But she also sees understanding there, grudging respect for the strength he's always loved about her. For the first time in their relationship, she's choosing herself. They part as friends, careful and cordial and devastated. Text messages replace phone calls, polite check-ins instead of soul-deep conversations. The space between them grows wider with each passing day, filled with all the words they can't say and the future they're both too afraid to reach for. The moving truck arrives on schedule. Shane and Kara help load her life into boxes, each one a step toward independence. Matt tries to kiss her goodbye on the porch, another casualty of her refusal to settle for convenient love instead of the real thing.

Chapter 6: Unexpected Consequences: Life's New Direction

Madison welcomes Taylor with summer classes and a job at a quirky coffee shop on State Street. Her apartment near campus feels like possibility made manifest, even with Adam's belongings reminding her that this new life comes with complications too. Independence tastes like freedom and loneliness combined. But some secrets refuse to stay buried. When Casey asks Taylor to take a pregnancy test for comparison purposes, neither woman expects the result that changes everything. Two pink lines appear on Taylor's test—faint but unmistakable, a consequence of that Vegas night that neither she nor Colton saw coming. The timing couldn't be worse. Just as Taylor builds her new life, just as she and Colton find their careful friendship equilibrium, biology intervenes with plans of its own. The baby growing inside her is proof of what they shared, what they lost, what they might yet find again. Miles away, Colton continues his winning streak on the motocross circuit, unaware that their Vegas night created more than just memories. His phone stays silent now, respecting the boundaries Taylor set, giving her the space she demanded. But some distances can't be measured in miles. The pregnancy test sits on Taylor's bathroom counter like a ticking bomb. Soon, she'll have to make the call that will shatter their careful detente. Soon, Colton will learn that some flights can't be undone, that some landings change everything forever.

Summary

In the space between friendship and forever, Taylor Jansen and Colton Wade discovered that some lines, once crossed, remake the entire map. Their Vegas night promised everything and delivered devastation, teaching them both the difference between wanting someone and being ready to love them completely. Colton's world of fame and contracts demanded compromises Taylor couldn't make, while her need for independence challenged his desire to protect and possess. But love, like gravity, follows its own unbreakable laws. The pregnancy test in Taylor's Madison bathroom represents more than biology—it's the universe's declaration that some connections transcend choice, that some flights end exactly where they began. As summer fades into fall, both will learn that the greatest courage isn't in leaving or staying, but in finally admitting that home isn't a place on any map. Sometimes, it's simply the person whose voice you most want to hear, whose arms feel like the only safe landing in a world that never stops spinning.

About Author

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Molly McLain

McLain situates her storytelling within the vibrant tapestry of small-town life, weaving themes of personal growth and intricate relationships through her romance novels. Her narrative approach intertwines the emotional depths of steamy romance with relatable characters, while 80s ballads and 90s rock subtly echo through her prose, creating a familiar rhythm that resonates with readers. By exploring the complexities of second chances and family dynamics, she crafts a narrative that is both accessible and emotionally engaging, appealing to fans of contemporary romance seeking both escapism and reflection.\n\nIn her career, Molly McLain has established herself as a significant presence in the genre of romance fiction, connecting with readers through her River Bend series and other notable works like "More Than a Memory." The author actively engages with her audience through social media and reader groups, fostering a community around her books. This interaction not only enhances the reader's experience but also enriches her storytelling by incorporating everyday experiences and relatable scenarios. Her home base in Wisconsin adds a layer of authenticity to the small-town settings that populate her stories, where she writes amid the company of her family and two German Shorthaired Pointers.\n\nFor readers who immerse themselves in romance novels, McLain’s work offers a journey into emotionally resonant landscapes where love and life interconnect seamlessly. Her narrative style provides both an escape and a mirror, reflecting the nuanced layers of relationships. As this short bio underscores, her work is designed to captivate and comfort, providing an experience that is both thought-provoking and satisfying.

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