Mile High Love (13 page)

              
“You’d better re think this flying issue, my friend.”  It wasn’t a threat,
but it wasn’t just a simple request either.  “I have no problem with you
and Cassie dragging each other through the mud on your free time, but when you
start making business decisions based on personal issues, I have no choice but
to get involved.” 

              
“Look, Wesley.  I told you when we first got into this that I didn’t want
to give up stunt flying, and I would only consider flying some routes for you
if you absolutely had no one else.  I brought in a big company to make
sure that I was pulling enough weight, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to
fly the
love
plane for Cassandra.  So just what is it I’m supposed
to re think, friend?”

              
“You know as well as I do that if the FAA issues one more citation, they’re
going to pull you up in front of a committee and yank your license.”  He
paused to see if any of this was making a difference.  “A little bit of
stable commuter flying on your record would go a long way towards credibility
if you do get cited again, and it would really help the business as well.”

              
“Just because this makes good business sense to you doesn’t mean that I see it
the same way.  Thank you for your concern over my license, but I’m just
not interested right now.”

              
“Well you’d better start getting interested,” Wesley slammed what sounded like
his brief case closed.  ‘Cause if you continue to be so pig headed about
this, I’ll pull out completely and you and Cassie can destroy each other and
our new company with your petty bickering.”  The door slammed shut and
Cassie moved quickly to keep from getting caught.

********

“Hi
John, it’s me Cassie,” Cassie sat at her desk in the tiny home office she’d
managed to pull together, and switched over to the intercom so she could move
freely around the room.  “I need to ask you a favor.”

              
“Something wrong with the plans?”  John’s rich full voice nearly ruptured
the speaker.

              
“No, no,” Cassie ruffled through some papers in front of her.  “The plans
are brilliant, in fact, we’re all set to start in September.  I even have
some pre booked reservations already.”

              
The sound of his laughter filled her place.  “Leave it to you to come up
with something out of the blue, and manage to make an instant success of it.”

              
“Yeah, well, just keep your fingers crossed.  The pilot I thought I would
have sort of fell through so I’m having to run adds like crazy to come up with
a replacement in time.”

              
“Is that what you need some help with?”

              
“No, actually,” Cassie sat down and started doodling on a blank piece of paper
in front of her to ease her nervousness.  “Um, do you remember when Ben
and I had that pilot that got into trouble with the FAA , and you had a friend
that was working there at the time that was able to give us some helpful
information?”

              
“That would be about a year ago?”

              
“At least.”

              
“Yeah, I remember.  I don’t know that I’d call him a friend, but I have
seen him around a couple of times since then.  “What’s this about
Cassie?”  He sounded concerned.

              
“I don’t really know,” Cassie began scratching out the picture she’d just
drawn.  “I have a friend, well one of my partners to be exact that seems
to have gotten himself in some hot water.  I was wondering if it would be
possible to do some checking, you know, to see just how much hot water we’re
talking about without getting him into more trouble.”

              
“Let me guess,” she heard a hint of annoyance in his tone.  “This would be
the same partner who I did not have the pleasure of meeting that day?  The
one you share a past with?”

              
“That’s the one.”

              
Cassie looked around guiltily and finally whispered.  “Gunnar. 
Gunnar Rosswell.”  As soon as the words left her mouth she felt like she
was betraying an unspoken trust, since she wasn’t supposed to have heard any of
Wes’s conversation to begin with.  “John?”  Her voice was still
shaky.

              
“Still here,” he answered.  “Just jotting his name down.”

              
“I need you to understand that I just want some information.  I don’t want
to cause him any trouble, so you have to be as careful as possible.”

              
“I’ll do my best.”

              
“I know you will,” she breathed a sigh of relief.  “You always do.”

              
“Hey, on a brighter note, how’s the pumpkin head?”

              
Cassie was grateful for the change of subject.  “She’s doing just
fine.   I’m due to go pick her up at her new preschool in a half
hour.  Lonnie got stuck at the dentist.”  She looked at her
watch.  “In fact, I’d better go so I can get there a little early.”

              
“Give her a kiss for me when you see her and tell her I said hi.  Other
than that I’ll call you when I know something.”

              
“Sounds great,” she said, and hung up.  She switched the intercom off and
grabbed her keys.  The last thing she wanted to do was be late.  In
fact, she could hardly wait to get to see Abby.  She was envious every
time she watched Lonnie cart her off, doing all of the things that she was
supposed to be responsible for.  “Oh well,” she sighed, knowing her sister
was going to have to go back home soon and she was going to have more than her
fair share of responsibilities.  From the look of things, more than she
could probably handle.

              
Cassie pushed the last well- manicured bush out of her way and peered into the
school window.  She found Abby instantly by the wondrous smile that was
planted on her lips.  The teacher was reading and asking questions, and
Abby nearly came off her bottom two or three times with her hand raised high,
itching to get to say the answer.  Cassie wiped at her eyes, and silently
thanked her sister for being so adamant in enrolling her in some sort of
program before starting kindergarten in the fall. 

              
“My little bear,” she barely breathed the words as she watched, mesmerized by
how quickly things change.  She was afraid to let her child out of her
sight most days, let alone leave her at a school where just about anything
could happen.  Cassie felt her heart constrict as she thought of all the
dangers out in the world that awaited her child, contrasted only by the obvious
joy her daughter was experiencing at discovering a little more of who she was
in her new surroundings.

              
“You know, I could be wrong but I think the police frown on people who lurk
outside children’s preschools.  Especially ones that climb all over the
meticulously sculpted gardens the maintenance man has to work so hard to keep
perfect.”

              
Cassie was still angry at him, but she knew that Gunnar had a fairly good
point.  “You mean the very same bushes that show how well our education
dollars are being spent?”

              
“The very same,” he helped her climb back over the last row of cut bushes and
on to the grassy area that lined the entrance to the school.

              
Cassie knew she still had about twenty minutes before Abby would be ready, so
she found a tree directly opposite Abby’s class, and made a seat of one of its
large exposed roots.  “Why are you here?”  She finally asked once
Gunnar sat down beside her.

              
“Lonnie called the office and left a message for you that she couldn’t pick up
Abby.  I tried your cell phone but it’s-”

              
“Off,” Cassie finished for him.  “Dammit.  I swear to you that I
leave it on for weeks and not one phone call.  Then, I decide to put it on
silent and it’s like a magnet for people trying to reach me.”  She took
her day planner out of her purse and gave it to him to hold so she could get to
her phone.  “There,” she turned the ringer back on, “See, nothing.” 
Cassie jumped and nearly dropped it when it started ringing.  She answered
it and assured Lonnie she had gotten her message and that everything was okay,
and snapped the phone shut again. She looked over at Gunnar and they both burst
out laughing.  “Not one word.  I mean it,” she pointed at him. 
“Not even one.”  He caught her finger and kissed it before she could pull
it away.

              
“Here,” he released her and handed her planner back, stopping only long enough
to get a look at the picture tucked beneath the plastic cover.  “So that’s
what a family looks like?”  Gunnar lifted his eyes to Cassie.

              
“Nope,” Cassie took it back slowly, running her hand along the smooth
surface.  “This is what a family used to look like.”  Her eyes met
his, before turning and looking back towards the window, to where Abby was.

              
“You know, I was so overwhelmed when I first had her.  I was used to hard
work, but I never expected to use so much energy and effort on one little
being.”  Cassie shoved her planner back into her purse, and stared at the
ground between her feet.  “I didn’t get it.”  She slowly shook her
head.  “Until Ben was taken from us I had no idea what it was really all
about.  You see, she’s everything.  The memories, the reality, the
key to having it all mean something in the end.”  She glanced sideways,
knowing she was rambling but not able to control it.  “And that’s why I
stand outside windows, terrified if I turn my head or so much as blink,
something terrible will happen to her too, and I’ll be left with nothing. 
It is one thing to lose something when you’re ignorant, you know, when you have
no idea what its’ worth.  It’s completely different though if there’s even
a remote possibility you could lose something, when you know just how valuable
it really is.”  She put her hands to her mouth, trying to breathe through
the tears that threatened to break through.

              
Gunnar moved in front of her, and captured her face between his hands. 
“Cassandra,” he encouraged her to open her eyes and look at him.  “Hey,”
he tried again and she was rewarded with a pair of tear filled eyes that
mirrored her own.  He kissed her gently, a feathery kiss meant to heal the
personal anguish she’d let him see.  “You are the loveliest woman I have
ever met,” he admitted freely, kissing her forehead and pulling her into his
arms.  “Ever since the first day I finally got you to talk to me, I knew
how much you were going to mean to me.   I absolutely love the way
you see things,” he stroked her hair, rocking her as she continued to cry.
 “That little girl in there is the luckiest little person for getting
you,” he continued to sooth.  “Don’t ever be afraid of loving someone that
much.  Most of us go our whole lives and never come close to feeling that
kind of connection.  I should know.”

              
Cassie let his words calm her down.  She was embarrassed at how quickly a
photograph could make her fall apart, and for showing him just how vulnerable
she still was.  “I’m sorry,” she wiped her eyes dry, and slowly moved away
from his embrace.  “None of this is your problem,” she stood up and
brushed herself off.  She didn’t want to offend him, but she needed to
pull back a bit, to salvage at least some of her pride.  “I’m grateful
that you showed up here in case I couldn’t make it, but Abby and I aren’t your
responsibility.  I don’t want you to feel obligated to be around when
you’ve already made it quite clear that you like your life the way it is or
rather was before I came back into it. And besides, I thought you were busy
being mad at me again.”

              
“Well, let’s see.  To be fair you did just re-purpose a plane we needed to
accommodate the commuter services I just acquired, so of course that made me
angry,” he watched her bristle and get ready for battle and held up his hand in
time to stop her assault, “at first. But you were right when you pointed out
that I may have left out the details of my venture until the last minute which
didn’t help things either.”

              
Cassie eyed him suspiciously. He was saying all of the right things but she
didn’t trust his quick change of heart.  “Well, I should go,” Cassie
pointed towards the entrance.  “Through the front door this time,” she
laughed nervously.

              
“Good idea,” he smiled at last, but he didn’t move. He stuffed his hands deep
into his pockets and couldn’t quite keep from sounding a little hurt and
confused at how quickly she’d cut him off.

Cassie couldn’t tell if he was
waiting for her to invite him along or not, but when she didn’t he reached for
her hand.  “Will you be at the office later?”

              
“I don’t think so.  I need to go to the air strip and spend some more time
going through the plane.  I haven’t seen it yet, I mean, other than on
paper.”

              
“Oh,” he sounded disappointed.  “Well then I guess I’ll see you tomorrow
then, Cassandra.”

              
She just stood there soaking up the warmth of his touch before reluctantly
letting go.  It was amazing really, just how easily he could make her want
him.  She smiled to herself, loving the way he always spoke her name as if
it was far more magical and intriguing than the shorter version most people
used for her.  She secretly ached for the next time he’s say it. 
When he’d let the s roll off his tongue and draw out the vowels to make it
sound like he was saying so much more.  Just as he always did for her,
make her out to be so much more than she ever really felt when he wasn’t near.

              
“Mommy, mommy,” her daughter was running towards her, only slowing down long
enough to be swept up into Cassie’s arms and twirled around. Cassie gave her a
kiss on the top of the head, and almost stopped when she caught sight of
Gunnar, still standing where she’d left him, taking in the scene.

              
“What did you do today, bear?”  Cassie asked as she put her back on the
ground and offered her hand.

              
“I played dress up, and we made a puppet, and read a story, and-what
else?”  Abby paused to think as they walked to the car and then continued
jabbering about her adventure filled day.

              
Cassie listened intently, taking in everything her daughter had to tell her,
and only getting distracted once, when she noticed Gunnar still hadn’t moved,
even after they got into the car.  It wasn’t until they drove almost
completely out of sight before she saw the outline of his frame finally turn
and walk away.