The more they hung in the air, the more the city unfolded to them. There were more sites to point out, more mountains and forests and tall granite peaks. Built up the sides of a hill was one of the country’s largest favelas, a slum that Suzi explained was being bought up by wealthy landowners. The corrugated tin roofs sparkled in the sunlight, and Julia wondered about all the lives being lived below her, the different heartbeats drumming around.

As she took huge gulps of the cool air rushing by, she felt her own heart begin to normalize and her breathing slow until the panic, panic, panic alarm ringing inside her was replaced with an exhilarated hum. The wing dipped and Suzi steered them toward the ocean. The white foam where the waves crashed looked like a thin broken line snaking along the shore.

The water came closer, the white sand beaches extending until the city ended in the point of the peninsula and curved around on the other side of the hills. It was a different feeling to be over the sea. Even though Julia knew the land wouldn’t protect her, it was scarier to have nothing below them but endless, unforgiving blue so bright it almost hurt, a light clear turquoise in the shallow parts toward land.

They circled over the water, slowly losing altitude, until after what felt like an eternity but also way too soon Suzi was telling her it was time to prepare to land. Julia had forgotten everything she was supposed to do, but suddenly there was no time. The glider was pointed out over the beach and heading straight down like it was coming in to a landing strip. The lazy circles were gone; every movement was purposeful as Suzi steered them in. The beach rushed up faster and faster until Julia could see the peaks and crests in the sand and the waves were no longer snakes of white but large breathing things that swelled and crashed beside them.

They were coming in fast, so fast, something had to be wrong—

“Lift up and run,” Suzi instructed, and before Julia knew it her body was swinging forward, pulled upright once again. When they touched the ground, she felt a little kickback from the glider but then she was running behind Suzi, and it only took a few steps for the whole thing to slow, brought in to such a smooth landing it seemed impossible that they’d been flying so fast.

Suzi unhooked her harness, asking how she felt. Julia was breathless and giddy and relieved and amazed, and all she could do was laugh and keep saying how great everything was. She had jumped, she had fallen, but instead of crashing and breaking into a million pieces, she felt more whole than ever before.

They moved out the landing area and Julia watched Blake’s glider circle overhead, so high she couldn’t tell it was him. She wondered if she had looked like that, a small dot suspended effortlessly in the sky. Then they circled down for their landing, and she spotted the sun-kissed curls and those tanned, strong arms she would recognize anywhere now.

They landed like she had done, coming in fast and then suddenly standing up, Blake shouting and cheering as soon as he caught sight of her on the beach. When he was unhooked he ran up and enveloped her in a giant bear hug, rocking from side to side and refusing to let go.

“How was it?” he exclaimed, brushing the loose strands of hair from her face.

“My legs are shaking,” she said, and it was true. She was trembling like she was even more terrified now that it was over because she couldn’t believe that she’d actually done that, jumped off the tall, sheer peak towering above them.

But she was laughing, too, and kissing him and so exhilarated she thought she might burst. From the beach they couldn’t see the rest of the city anymore. It was mind-boggling how much she might have missed if she’d stayed with her feet planted firmly on land.

They thanked their guides whole-heartedly, leaving generous tips and wishing Suzi good luck on her studies. Blake kept his arm wrapped tight around her shoulder as they walked along the beach away from the peak they’d jumped from, São Conrado, and the landing strip. Every so often they looked back to see the cliff as it faded from view and the gliders circling like birds in the sky.

“Are you mad that I took you there?” Blake asked.

“Mad?” she said, surprised. “I was pretty shocked, but definitely not mad.”

“You seemed really terrified.”

“I was really terrified!”

“I’d thought you weren’t afraid of heights.”

“I have a healthy fear of the insane, Blake!” she cried.

“But it was worth it?”

She linked her arms through his. The ground still felt wobbly and strange after being in the air. “Some day my legs will start working again.”

“You could have said no and that would have totally been okay,” he reassured her.

She stopped walking and faced him, taking both of his hands in hers. She could feel the sand solid yet shifting beneath them, the steady swish swish of the ocean all around.

She grazed his lips. “Sometimes don’t you have to take a risk and fall?”

Chapter Seventeen

Blake’s knees were still knocking as he and Julia made their way down the beach, splashing their toes through the water, marveling at what they’d just done. They were north of the more crowded city beaches. Here on the outskirts of the wealthy Barra de Tijuca neighborhood the sand was fine, the color of pale straw, and there was hardly anyone around. They walked hand in hand, laughing and breathless, hearts beating a mile a minute after such soaring sights.

“How on earth did you think of doing that?” Julia asked, still shaking her head from the rush.

“I’d heard of people doing it when I was here before, but it seemed, uh, a little crazy.”

“A little?”

“I was going to do it. Really. I was halfway down the street and trying to make myself hail a cab when I just…oof, I was chickenshit.”

“You?” Julia raised an eyebrow incredulously.

“Maybe if I’d had some peer pressure, but it was only me and I…I couldn’t.” Blake shrugged. He might not have wanted to admit to just anyone that his nerves had gotten the better of him, but Julia wasn’t just anyone. Seeing how scared she’d been made it easier to admit that it had felt like a risk for him, too.

“So you got your second chance,” she smiled.

“It’s your fault really.”

“Me?”

“If you hadn’t been talking about how badly you wanted to do something new and different and exciting, something you’d always remember—that is an exact quote, is it not?—then I might have let the whole thing go.”

“No way, you had this planned from the start. You knew you’d get your second chance in Rio, and this time you’d make me do it so that you didn’t chicken out.”

Blake lifted his palms to the sky. “Guilty?”

“It’s okay. I won’t tell anyone about failed attempt number one if you don’t tell them how loudly I screamed as we were taking off.”

“Deal,” he said.

They shook on it.

Julia was right, of course. As soon as she’d said she wanted to try something new and put the day’s plan in his hands, he’d known what to do. The whole thing had felt like a sign. Deciding to return to Rio meant he had the opportunity to do it over again, only this time better, deeper, without holding anything back.

Sometimes it’s good to get second chances, he reasoned, and then wondered if he was talking about hang gliding, or Rio, or perhaps something else altogether.

“Second chances, birthdays, the new year…” Julia mused. “Sounds like a time for a lot of new beginnings.”

“I was hoping that when you said you wanted to try something new, you weren’t talking about fresh pineapple juice or something.”

“Already tried it, so it’s not on the list anymore.”