Susan Mallery - Only Mine

“You’re quite the tough guy,” Dakota told him. “Is that an Alaska thing?”

“Maybe.” He took a deep breath and looked into her dark eyes. “Thank you for talking me off the ledge.”

“I’m a paid professional, it’s my job.”

“You’re good at it.”

“Thank you.”

He continued to stare into her eyes, mostly because he liked it. She was easy to be around. And his body couldn’t help but be aware of the smoothness of her skin, the shape of her mouth.

“I need to get going,” she said. “Can I trust you to stay here on your own?”

“Sure.”

“Have a little faith,” she said, stepping back. “It’s going to be okay.”

She couldn’t know that, he thought. But for today, he was going to believe her.

He waited until she had left before walking out of the sound studio. After pulling his cell phone out of his pocket, he dialed the number for his office in Alaska.

“South Salmon Cargo,” a familiar voice said.

“Hey, Bill, it’s me.”

“Where the hell are you, Finn?”

“Still in California.” Finn shifted the phone to his other ear. “Looks like I’m going to be stuck here for a while. They both got on the show.”

A couple of thousand miles away, Bill sighed. “We’re going to get busy soon. I can’t do this by myself. If you can’t get back here soon, we’re going to have to freelance a couple of extra pilots.”

“I know,” Finn said heavily. “Go ahead and start looking. If you find somebody good, hire him. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“I need faster than soon,” his partner told him.

“I’ll do my best.”

The business mattered, he thought as he ended the call. But his brothers would always be more important. He was stuck here until he finished the job he’d come to do.

THE AIRPORT AT THE NORTH END of Fool’s Gold was typical for its size. There were two runways and no tower. Pilots were responsible for staying out of each other’s way. Finn was used to flying under those conditions. It was the same in South Salmon but with a lot worse weather.

He got out of his rented car and walked to the main office of Fool’s Gold Aviation. He’d been told this was the best place to find out about renting a plane. He was also going to talk to the owner about picking up some extra work. There was no way he could stay in town for any length of time without doing something more productive than flying show contestants a couple of times a week.

He knocked on the open door and stepped into the two-room office. There were a couple of battered desks, a coffeepot on a rickety table by the window and a view of the main runway. An older woman sat at the larger of the desks.

When he entered, she looked up. “Can I help you?”

“I’m looking for Hamilton.” He’d been given a single name and little else.

The woman, a pretty redhead in her fifties, sighed. “He’s out with his planes. I swear, if he could sleep with them, he would.” She pointed to the west. “That way.”

Finn nodded his thanks and went around the building. He saw an older man bent low over the right tire of a Cessna Stationair.

Finn was familiar with the plane. It had a 310 fuel-injected horsepower engine and could cruise for nearly seven hours. The rear double doors made it easy to load cargo.

Hamilton looked up as Finn approached. “Thought I felt the tire go when I landed last night,” he said, straightening. “Seems fine now.”

He walked toward Finn and held out his hand. Hamilton had to be in his seventies, with wild white hair and a permanently lined face.

“Finn Andersson,” Finn told him, shaking hands.

“You a pilot?”

“On a good day.” Finn told him about his cargo business up in Alaska.

“That’s wild flying,” Hamilton said. “We don’t get weather like that here. We’re below twenty-five hundred feet, so we miss the worst of the snow and wind. There’s some fog, but nothing like what you deal with. What brings you to Fool’s Gold?”

“My brothers,” Finn admitted and told Hamilton about the twins and their involvement with the show.

“They’re going to use me to fly people around. I guess to save money.”

“I don’t care who rents my planes as long as they know what they’re doing. Sounds like you do.”

Finn knew the old man would need more than his word, but confirming credentials would be easy. “I’m stuck here for a few more weeks and wondered if you needed a pilot. I can fly cargo or people.”

Hamilton grinned. “I do have some extra business. I hate to turn it away, but I’ve only got one set of hands and can only take on one flight at a time.” He sighed. “There’s plenty to be done. Rich people like to fly back and forth to town. Makes ‘em feel special. The restaurant at the lodge is all fancylike and I fly in their fish. I have contracts with a few delivery companies, that kind of thing. Just tell me when you want to work and I can keep you busy.”

“I’d appreciate that,” Finn told him, relieved to know he wouldn’t have to spend his day sitting around and watching his brothers.

“Let’s go back to my office and see what’s on the schedule. I guess I’ll need to make it official and check on your license. We can go for a flight when we’re done with the paperwork, if you have time.”

“I have time,” Finn told him.

“Good.”

Back in the building, they went into Hamilton’s office. It was smaller than the front room, but tidy. There were pictures of old planes covering the walls.

“How long have you been here?” Finn asked.

“Since I was a kid. Learned to fly before I could drive, that’s for sure. Never wanted to do anything else. My wife keeps bugging me to move to Florida, but I don’t know. Maybe soon.” He glanced at Finn. “The business is for sale, if you’re interested.”

“I have a business,” Finn told him. “Although you could do a lot here.” Not just charter and deliveries, he thought. Air tours could be lucrative. And there was that idea of his about teaching flying.

Dreams for another day, he reminded himself. When he knew for sure his brothers were grown-up enough that nothing bad would ever happen to them.

“If you change your mind, let me know,” Hamilton told him.

“You’ll be the first.”

IN HER REGULAR LIFE, Dakota spent her days working up curricula for math and science programs. In theory, a year or two from now, students from around the country would be able to come to Fool’s Gold and spend a month immersed in a math or science program. Dakota and Raoul worked hard to solicit donations from corporate and private benefactors. It was work that excited her. It was work that made a difference. But was she doing that important work now? No. Instead, she’d spent the past hour on the phone with various hotels in San Diego, negotiating room rates so reality show contestants could have a dream date.

The door to her makeshift office opened and Finn stepped inside. She hadn’t seen him in a couple of days, not since the contestants had been announced. She half expected to read an article in the local paper saying that two twenty-something twins had gone missing. But so far, Finn seemed to be holding it all together.

“Am I interrupting?” he asked.

“Yes, and I’m desperately grateful.” She tossed the papers she’d been holding. “Do you know I have a doctorate? I can make people call me doctor. I don’t, but I could. Do you know what I’m doing with that degree right now?”

He took the seat across from her desk. “Not loving your job?”

“Not today,” she said with a sigh. “I tell myself I’m doing the right thing. I tell myself I’m helping the town.”