Page 55 of Chocolate Cherry Cabin

He chewed thoughtfully, then replied, “I wasn’t actually smirking. I thought maybe you were rebelling. You know, about to change up your life. I was curious.”

“Change it how?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Tell me.”

His eyes got a faraway look as if he was lost in his thoughts, and Hannah wondered if teenage Louis had thought she was about to dump Calvin and find a way to become a doctor.

Louis’s focus returned, and he said cheerily, “I was going to bail you out if your parents didn’t.”

Hannah shifted toward him, taken off guard by him changing the subject. But she didn’t know what to say. Bail was not exactly a teenager’s part-time-work kind of money. Not that her parents had needed to post it. Instead she’d gotten a lecture from every adult she knew, and had spent the next morning making things right again.

To think that Louis had been there to make sure she was okay was touching.

Especially since she’d spent every minute inside that jail cell thinking her parents weren’t going to come, that they’d be too humiliated to claim her. She’d honestly believed they were going to let her sit there to learn the lesson she already knew: going with the flow and being a bit mischievous could land you in jail. Don’t break the rules. Don’t be anything beyond ordinary and steady.

She inhaled to steady herself. “Thank you,” she said to Louis.

“I didn’t do anything.”

“But you were there.” She clasped her hand over his, giving it a squeeze.

“I’m glad your parents came and got you.” He turned his hand over so they were palm to palm, his fingers twining with hers. “It would have been pretty awkward when you rejected my help.”

She laughed, knowing that was likely how it would have played out. “As much as I balked about today, I appreciate you convincing me to come.”

“I’m glad you came.” He looked at the sky, then at her taco. “You want to finish that in the plane? Because it looks like we have a storm to beat.”

* * *

Louis wasn’t one to panic, but at the moment he was feeling pretty uncomfortable. The clouds were roiling and the storm was shifting, picking up to the point where flying back to Sweetheart Creek was no longer an option. At least not for another few hours.

He’d messed up.

He’d finally wooed Hannah into giving up control, into trusting him, and he’d mucked it up.

He checked the weather radar on his phone again. “You seeing this, too?” he asked, showing his screen to one of the other pilots near the hangars.

“That wasn’t predicted.” The man gazed at the sky. “You gotta head west?”

Louis nodded.

“Might want to wait a few hours.”

“That’s what I was thinking.” Louis checked the screen again before looking up at Hannah.

“Are we stuck here?” she asked, her face growing pale.

“Anywhere you need to be today?”

She shook her head.

He checked the weather map again as drops of rain sprinkled over them. “Good. How do you feel about going with the flow and coming to a hockey game?”

* * *

Hannah barely had time to wrap her mind around their weather predicament before they were climbing back into the air, the increasing wind buffeting them as Louis banked away from the dark scary clouds. Lightning could be seen in the distance, toward Sweetheart Creek. There was no going home by plane until that storm was finished, and that wouldn’t be for several hours. Hours Louis didn’t have.

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