Authors: Susan Mallery
“Okay, now I’m bitter,” Patience said cheerfully. “So who do you like? Not Justin Bieber, please. I worry about him.”
“One Direction?” Bailey asked. “I like their music. And I can’t help it. I love Taylor Swift.”
“No one here is surprised,” Consuelo told her.
“I like Cody Simpson,” Starr said. “For pop music. I’m more into country, though.”
Destiny froze in the act of swallowing. Was Starr going to out them? But her sister didn’t say anything else.
Destiny waited to see if anyone would pick up on the country part, but Shelby only said, “I know he’s kind of old but I have a thing for Matt Damon. He’s just so sexy and nice.”
Madeline laughed. “And married. I like to crush on the single guys. You want to talk about hot? What about Jonny Blaze? OMG, he’s incredible. That body, those dark green eyes. The way he moves.” She used her hand to fan herself.
Starr giggled. “He’s pretty cute.”
“I love him in all his movies,” Larissa said. “He’s an action star with a brain. And the muscles don’t hurt.”
Consuelo made a fist with her thumb up. “He gets the fights right. The hand-to-hand stuff. Most movies don’t even try, but he’s into the details.”
Madeline leaned close to Destiny and lowered her voice. “Consuelo used to be in Special Forces or something. She teaches the most amazing classes at the bodyguard school here in town. She started with self-defense, but now she does these killer exercise classes. I’ve been taking them since the first of the year, and I now have muscles in places I didn’t know you could have muscles. But every now and then she scares me. I swear, she could kill someone with a paper towel.”
“I’m impressed and intimidated,” Destiny admitted.
“Tell me about it. Let me know if you ever want to go to class with me. It’s hard, but it’s fun.”
“Thanks. I will.”
Jo arrived with two big platters of nachos. Starr laughed at something Larissa said. Conversations at the other tables in the bar flowed just as freely.
Destiny had to admit that she was more than a little surprised by Fool’s Gold. She generally had a good time on her assignments, but she’d been worried about this one. Mostly because of Starr. But from everything she’d seen so far, Fool’s Gold was welcoming and an easy place to live. She already felt as if she’d been here for months instead of only a week. There was a sense of connection she wasn’t used to. Belonging. She liked the women she’d met and was grateful they were being so nice to her and Starr. Not that she was looking for permanent, but it would be nice while it lasted.
* * *
F
AMILY
M
AN
A
IR
C
HARTERS
was housed in a hangar by the airport. Finn Andersson, a tall man in his midthirties, leaned back in his chair while Kipling explained about Miles and the helicopter. Aidan Mitchell sat in the other visitor’s chair and listened.
“Helicopter time isn’t cheap,” Kipling explained. “But it offers a unique perspective.”
Aidan and Finn glanced at each other.
“Interesting,” Aidan said. “Finn and I have been bouncing around the idea of getting something permanent going for the tour company. A helicopter would offer some interesting advantages.”
Finn nodded. “Right. We could take people up into the mountains, and they could hike down. Or into the backwoods that are too remote to reach any other way. How long is Miles around?”
“Two months,” Kipling told him. “The mapping should be done by mid to late July.”
“Enough time to see if there’s interest,” Aidan said. “Because if we move forward with a helicopter, that’s a big investment.”
“I could get my helicopter license.” Finn sounded excited by the prospect. “It would have to make business sense, but that would be a fun challenge.”
Aidan chuckled. “Any excuse to fly.” His expression turned thoughtful. “You know, we could talk to Mayor Marsha about the city going in on the helicopter with us. You and I could buy it, and then the city could contract with us when there was an emergency.”
“I can talk to Destiny about how a helicopter fits in with the STORMS project,” Kipling offered.
“This is good,” Aidan said.
“I agree,” Finn added. “We should have thought of this ourselves. We’ll be in touch with Miles and see if he wants some extra work while he’s in town.”
“Happy to help,” Kipling told them. “I hope it works out.” Because he enjoyed solving a problem when he encountered one.
When the meeting finished, he walked toward his Jeep. The mountains seemed closer today, which wasn’t possible. But he felt them all the same. Looming. Insistent. Taunting.
He hurt. The places where the bones had shattered were the worst. Most of his joints knew when it was going to rain two days before the local weather guy. He reminded himself he’d survived. That he was walking, and the odds had been against him ever getting out of a wheelchair. He should be grateful.
When he reached the Jeep, he glanced up at the mountains and imagined them covered in snow. If there was snow, he could take them, he thought grimly. Or he had been able to. Once. Just not anymore.
* * *
“T
HEY
’
RE
INTENSE
,” K
IPLING
SAID
.
Destiny watched the two tech guys work on the computers. They wore headphones and typed intently. She would guess they had no idea there were other people in the room.
“They’re the best,” she told him. “They’ll get everything up and running, work out the bugs and disappear into the night. When we’re near the end of the training, they’ll come back and put in all the customization we’ve figured out you’re going to need for your program. Then we test it, and you’re good to go.”
They headed outside. The day was warm and sunny. To the side of the office was a small garden with a few tables and benches. A good place for volunteers to collect, Destiny thought. And for them to get updates and rest before heading back out on a call.
Other arrangements would have to be made for the winter, she thought. Maybe they could meet at the nearby fire station. Not that it was her problem to solve, she reminded herself. When she was finished with her job, she would move on. No matter how much she enjoyed a particular location, she never came back.
They sat across from each other at one of the tables.
“I talked to Miles this morning,” Destiny said. “He told me you’ve found him some part-time work.”
Kipling shrugged. “He said he got bored. I knew a couple of guys who might want to expand their business using a helicopter. It seemed like a win-win.”
“Shelby said you liked to fix things. I can see what she meant.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“No. It’s just an interesting trait. Is there a psychological reason, or were you born that way?”
He chuckled. “Which do you think?”
“I don’t know. I think how we’re raised has a big impact on how we act later in life.” She’d learned a lot of lessons watching her parents. Of course those lessons had mostly been about things she needed to avoid. But there had been positive lessons, too.
“I agree with you on that,” he said, then hesitated. “What Miles said about your parents. You weren’t happy.”
She resisted the urge to duck her head and bolt. “No. I don’t tell a lot of people. They ask questions that I don’t want to answer.”
“Or assume things that aren’t true.”
“How did you know?”
“Let’s just say I’m not a famous country singer, but I’ve been in the limelight before. It’s not all positive attention.”
“Of course. You’re that hot skier guy.”
One eyebrow rose. “You think I’m hot?”
Heat instantly burned on her cheeks. She cleared her throat. “I was speaking in generalities, not specifics.”
“So you don’t think I’m hot.”
He was teasing her. Flirting maybe. She almost never got to that point with any guy, so she wasn’t sure what to do. Destiny suddenly realized that her plan to find someone sensible and ignore everyone else had a giant flaw. She was twenty-eight years old, and she didn’t really know how to deal with a man outside of a work setting.
Miles was easy. She thought of him as a brother. The tech guys and her boss were colleagues. People she met as she went from town to town were kept at a careful distance. No one got close, which kept her safe, but what happened when she found the one? How was she supposed to get close to him?
“It wasn’t supposed to be that hard a question,” Kipling told her, his eyes twinkling with amusement.
“You know you’re very good-looking. You don’t need more compliments from me.”
“More implies there have been some. So far, you’re a disappointment in the compliment department. I was hoping for more.”
“Handsome is as handsome does.”
He frowned. “What does that mean?”
“I don’t know. It’s something my Grandma Nell used to say. But it sounds wise.”
“Or confusing. Is the flip side of that ‘ugly is as ugly does’?”
“I have no idea.”
“So who’s Grandma Nell?”
Destiny felt herself relaxing as she remembered the other woman. “My maternal grandmother. She lived in the Smoky Mountains all her life. She was wonderful. Loving and smart and an emotional rock for me, if a bit flirty when it came to men. No matter what happened, I could count on her.”
Destiny smiled as memories flooded her. “My parents were young when they had me. My mom was still eighteen, and my dad was only a few months older. Apparently, four weeks after I was born, they went off on tour and left me with her. I spent the first couple of years of my life with her. I don’t really remember. Then I was with my parents for a while and other family members. My early years weren’t exactly stable.”
“Was that hard?”
“Sometimes. I would go on tour and have a nanny. The guys in the band always looked out for me.”
Kipling studied her. “Didn’t you have a hit record when you were maybe seven or eight? I would swear I remember that.”
Destiny felt the second blush of the day on her cheeks. “Yes,” she said with a groan. “‘
Under the
Willow Tree
.’ I was eight, and the song did very well.”
She’d been nominated for a Grammy, which should have been a terrific experience, only that very morning her father had told her that he and her mother were divorcing for the second time. She’d been devastated, and it had taken all she had not to sob when walking the red carpet.
The reporters had wanted to talk to her. To ask about what it was like to be so young and so talented. She’d wanted to explain to them that she would give up all of it simply to have her parents stay together.
“Right after that, my parents split up again. There was a huge custody battle over me. I’m not sure either wanted me as much as they said. I think it was more about hurting each other.” She shrugged. “I went back and forth between them for a couple of years. They both married again and again. When I was ten, Grandma Nell showed up and said I was going to live with her.”
“Was that better?” he asked.
“Much. She had a small house. There was running water, but not much else. Electricity was spotty. We had a wood-burning stove, and we grew a lot of our own food. There were times I was lonely, but mostly I was so grateful to her for taking me in.”
As she spoke she was aware of Kipling watching her intently. She had no idea what he was thinking, but didn’t feel it was bad. From what she could tell, he was a nice man. He fixed things, which was an admirable trait. If her parents had been more interested in holding the family together...
But they hadn’t been. Which left her with a half sister she didn’t know and left Starr with no one else to take care of her.
“Tell me more about Grandma Nell,” he prompted.
She smiled. “She knew about plants and how to can and sew. She was a big reader. We would drive into town every Wednesday afternoon and go to the movies, then stop at the library and get lots of books. I was homeschooled until I was sixteen. She sent away for lesson plans, and she made me stick to a schedule.”
“What happened when you turned sixteen?”
“She said I had to go join the real world. That I couldn’t hide forever. I didn’t want to go, but she was right, as usual. I stayed with my father while I took college entrance exams and applied to different universities.”
She remembered how she’d been so scared that she wasn’t going to know enough. She should have trusted Grandma Nell. “I got accepted everywhere I applied. My scores were really high, and I ended up being able to test out of half my general education courses.”
Neither of which had made up for missing the woman who had taken her in and loved her like a mother.
“She visited me at college every semester, and everyone adored her,” she continued.
“I’d like to meet her,” Kipling said.