Unbound (12 page)

So I told him about Grandfather’s situation. I spoke slowly, taking the time to think out each word. I tried my best to not make it sound as if he was doing me a favor—although I guess that’s really what it boiled down to.

“
That sounds perfect,” he said. “It’s not too far and seems like a nice little test run. I have a mechanic coming by to check the plane out tomorrow. As soon as he gives me the a-ok to go, we can leave whenever you want.”

“
Sounds good,” I said. “I need to place these orders and hope they can get here within forty-eight hours. I’ll keep you posted.”

“
Great.”

“
Thanks,” I said flatly.

“
Thank
you.
”

I hung up before any of our usual silences could surface. I let out a sigh and threw the phone down.
God, why did he infuriate me so much by just talking?

I got up from the desk, heading for another beer. But before I did, I stopped and looked down to the last page of the contract, still sitting by my computer.

I picked up the pen like it was a knife and scrawled my name across the signature line. I stared at it for a moment and, very briefly, allowed myself to feel the slightest bit of excitement.

12—Devlin

I still couldn’t figure out Mac. Even as I watched her coming down the pier towards the float plane, she was a blank slate. It was obvious that she was trying to hide
something
—
whether a severe disliking of me or some sort of awkward crush, it was impossible to tell.

The really frustrating part of the whole ordeal was that I had initially liked her quite a bit. But ever since that first dinner when she had come off as being this spoiled little local girl, she started to rub me the wrong way. I wondered if she was taking this partnership thing to her head. Did she think I
wanted
to do it?

Honestly, that wasn’t a fair question because I
did
want her helping me out… in a way. She had the local connections and I had checked around and found that The Pine Way was a highly respected business with a deep-rooted family tradition. It made good business sense for me to align myself with her.

But if her current attitude over the last few days was any indication, I wasn’t exactly sure how long the partnership would last.

Truthfully, that’s why I had agreed to this trip. It was a practice run of sorts to see how well we worked together—to see if she’d maybe drop the attitude once we were up in the air and she realized that I was doing her a pretty big favor. Hell, I’d ever tipped the freight company that had delivered her equipment one hundred bucks. I’d lend a hand, making sure that she wouldn’t have to do any heavy lifting.

And still, not so much as a thanks from Mac.

I sighed as she drew closer. I was wiping down the plane’s windshield, perched carefully over the water. The plane was still parked behind Tanner’s Fresh Fish Market, as I had paid a bit extra to park it there until I found a better place.

“
It looks nice,” Mac said as she approached the plane. “You’ve washed it?”

“
And waxed it.”

She nodded slowly. It could tell it pained her to pay me or the plane any sort of compliment.

“
I also had the
one
mechanic in Sitka that knew anything about planes to look over it.”

“
Nelson Britt, right?” she asked.

“
Yeah.”

“
He’s good. Well known with the locals.”

She said
locals
as if it made her much better than me. She very badly wanted me to feel that I was the outsider that had swooped in and stolen her dreams.

“
Anyway,” I said, determined not to let her get under my skin, “he tweaked a few things and gave it the a-ok. So we’re good to go. All of your stuff is loaded up in the back and we’re ready to fly.”

“
Good.”

Good,
I thought.
Still no
thanks.

I reached up and opened the small cockpit door for her. “Ladies first,” I said, doing my best to sound genuine and chivalrous.

She looked into the plane as if she was inspecting a questionable melon at the super market. She took a step closer, as if she intended to pull herself up and crawl inside, but then hesitated.

“
What is it?” I asked.

You’re sure you can fly?”

I rolled my eyes. “Yes. My pilot’s license is on board. If you like, I can give you the phone number of my flight instructor. He may even be able to email us his notes and the results from my tests.”

The jab annoyed her, which was evident by the menacing look she gave me. She said nothing and pulled herself up by the small metal bar installed along the edge of the floor. I had secretly been hoping that she would struggle with it, but she was pretty agile. She climbed over the pilot’s seat and into the passenger seat. When she was sitting as comfortably as she could get, she looked out of the window, into the water. I saw something pass across her face—something that might have been fear.

Oh, this is going to be fun,
I thought.

I climbed into the cockpit and strapped myself in. She followed suit, taking great care to watch me, making sure I was following all the proper steps. I then reached between the seats and handed her a clipboard.

“
This is your invoice. Everything is present and accounted for. It ended up being pretty heavy, so the fuel cost for this trip is going to be more than I expected. I’d appreciate it if you could chip in…
partner.
”

“
Yeah,” she said.

As I started the engine and checked all of the panels, it occurred to me that things were beginning to feel strange between Mac and I. We’d never really gotten along since the whole ordeal with the plane. But still, there had been that lurking fact that we had been fairly timid and borderline flirtatious with each other before it had happened.

But now there was nothing but angst between us. It felt thick and sharp into small interior space of the cabin.

“
Have you flown before?” I asked her.

“
Of course.”

“
In a small personal plane like this?”

“
Once… when I was ten.”

I almost said
I guess that’s why you look constipated right now, then
but I kept it to myself. I really did want to try to make it to Queen Charlotte Island without us blowing up at each other. While I
did
want to get under her skin the way she had gotten under mine, I didn’t want to
enrage
her.

Take off went smoothly and moment before we left the water, a few small choppy waves slapped the floats. I noticed Mac grow rigid in her seat and I didn’t feel at all bad when I took a great deal of pleasure from it.

****

We had been in the air for twenty minutes before either of us spoke. I hated the fact that I broke the silence. It felt like we were engaged in a childish Quiet Game and by speaking, I was essentially admitting defeat.

“
So your grandfather runs a business sort of similar to the Pine Way, right?”

“
Yes,” she said.

I waited before I said anything else. She was being short with me, but she was turned away and looking out of the window. The cloud cover was minimal, showing the pristine blue sky ahead of us. The sea sparked below, the coast barely visible to the left. I guessed that Mac was either deep in thought about something or uneasy about the height.

“
I assure you,” I said. “I’m a perfectly safe pilot.”

She only nodded, but she turned to me finally. She looked at me like I was a snake she had just found under an overturned log. I didn’t mind. She was sizing me up…trying to figure me out. I’d felt that same stare from several army instructors during my time in the service.

“
Let me ask you something,” she said.

“
Sure.”

“
What is it that made you come to Sitka?”

I smirked. “Are you genuinely interested or are you trying to figure out the path of events that led me to Sitka and eventually buy a plane that you would have otherwise ended up owning?”

“
Both,” she said with a sigh.

Everything came to the tip of my tongue then. I could have easily told her everything: who I really was and why I had left a so-called glamorous life behind. In fact, I
wanted
to tell her. I felt like I needed to tell someone. Before all was said and done, I was pretty sure the entire story would come up in a therapy session in the future.

But I wasn’t ready… especially not now. If I ever
did
spill the beans on who I was and why I was in Sitka, it certainly wasn’t going to be to Mac. So I fed her the ruse. As I told her, I realized it was the first time the topic had been breached with more than passing since I had moved into the cabin on Moose Hill.

“
Call it a midlife crisis,” I said. “I just got tired of the life I was living. I wanted something different. Something unique.”

“
What did you do for a living?” she asked. “You must have had a decent job if you could just drop money on this plane without batting an eye.”

“
I batted my eyes several times, actually,” I said. “And yes, my job paid nicely. But the weight that came with the duties and the paycheck just weren’t worth it.”

“
So you just ran away?”

“
In a sense. And… do I hear judgment in your tone?”

She looked away quickly, once again staring out to the endless blue ahead of us. It really was a gorgeous day. It would have been perfect if the mood within the cockpit was more pleasant. I hated myself for thinking such a thing, but I wondered how her tune might change if I told her who I really was—if I told her that she was actually flying with Devlin Stone.

It was so tempting. Of course, such a revelation coming at a little over twenty-thousand feet in the air while trapped in the cockpit together might be a bit much. I couldn’t help but smile at the thought.

“
What?” Mac asked.

“
Nothing.”

“
You’re smiling about nothing?”

“
Yes. I do it from time to time.”

“
Some might say that’s a sign of lunacy.”

“
Others might say it’s a sign that someone tries to make the best of an otherwise miserable situation.”

Mac opened her mouth to continue but snapped it shut. She let out a very loud sigh and then turned back to the immaculate view outside of her window.

An hour and forty minutes to go,
I thought.
This is going to be a long trip.

Five minutes passed before I decided to break the silence again. The hum of the engines was soothing but in tandem with the hostility between us, it was sort of foreboding. To the left, the coast had basically disappeared. There was nothing but the ocean beneath us. There was a string of small islands up ahead that I was expecting to creep into view at any moment.

“
My turn to ask a question,” I said.

She said nothing, and I took that as a '
sure... go ahead'.

Right.  Time to be blunt. 
“
Why do you hate me?” I asked. “Are we really going to try to pretend that we weren’t into each other the first two times we saw one another?”

“
I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said. But the slight redness in her cheeks indicated otherwise.

“
If you say so,” I said, turning back to the control panel. 

“
And besides… not that it matters,” she said. “But I don’t...
hate
you.”

I chuckled.  “That’s pretty hard to believe.”

“
I don’t. It’s just that… I don’t know… I get so tired of people coming form out of town and buying out these businesses that I have seen blossom and grow ever since I was a child. These big companies or hot shot millionaires come into town and just buy them up. I’m not saying you’re one of those people, but what you’re doing is pretty much the same.”

“
Uh... no. Not really. Not at all.” I actually thought it was a stupid comment and took great offense to it. But I wouldn’t let her know that.