Page 182 of Modern Romance Collection March 2025 (1-4)

But their household was an expensive one, and everybody else was still in school.

And Stevie wanted them to finish school. She didn’t want them to end up like her. Not that she didn’t enjoy her life. She loved piloting. Flying planes was the closest thing to being free as far as she was concerned. And she really valued that freedom.

But taking over her father’s shipping company had been a necessity rather than a dream, and while it was something she loved, if she’d had the whole world of choices in front of her…who knew what she’d have done?

It didn’t matter. She did love to fly.

For a few blessed hours at a time, she was flying above her problems. Flying above everything. Stevie might never be a powerful or important person in the world, but she had the ability to escape in a way most people didn’t.

She valued that. She appreciated that ability in herself.

She thought that she was pretty amazing actually. Though, with her flight grounded, she wasn’t feeling particularly amazing.

It was freezing in Bozeman, and only getting colder.

Her only hope was that there was a small break in the wind so that she could take off. And as soon as she got the all clear, she was going. She meandered into the bar, and took off her puffer jacket. Her ponytail snagged in the hood, and she wrinkled her nose. She tried to fix her hair as she walked up to the bar.

“Hey, Stevie,” said Frank, the bartender.

“Hey. Can I get a coffee?”

“You think you’re going to fly out?”

“As soon as the wind breaks. If they let me take off I’m going to. I’ve got a get this cargo to Boston.”

She was pretty sure that the final destination for the gear she was carting was Martha’s Vineyard. Very fancy. Some royal wedding.

“Well, be safe. It’s nasty out there.”

“Nasty doesn’t worry me. Not making my deliveries worries me.”

And that was when she saw him. Sitting in the back of the bar, in a corner booth, black hair pushed back off of his forehead, a large hand wrapped around a glass of whiskey.

He was looking at her. Right at her. His gaze was intense, and it made her want to turn away from him.

But she found she was unable to. All she could do was stare.

She swallowed hard.

The bartender looked at her, and then raised his eyebrows. “He’s been here for hours,” he said. “Not the usual clientele.”

“No.” She sighed. “He wouldn’t be.”

“Wonder what his story is.”

She tore her gaze away from the stranger. “I don’t have time to wonder about things like that.”

Her phone buzzed. A notification letting her know that the blanket grounding all flights had been lifted for now.

“I gotta go.”

She knocked her coffee back and turned away from the stranger. She slipped her coat back on as she walked through the terminal, headed toward the corridor that would take her outside to where her plane was parked.

“Stop.”

The voice was commanding. Deep. And she found herself agreeing, even if she couldn’t figure out why. She turned slowly. It was him.

“I’m in a hurry,” she said.

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