Page 1 of Colton in the Wild
Chapter 1
Spence Colton was just too pretty for his own good.
This wasn’t the first time Hetty Amos had had that thought, and this likely wasn’t going to be the last time, but it was just as annoying every time.
And, just as usual, the client flirting with him now only cared about his good looks—she didn’t actually care abouthim. Hetty understood, to an extent. With his thick, dark brown hair and bright blue eyes, and that six-foot muscular form radiating a subtle power built by years of an essentially athletic sort of work—hiking, skiing, paddling—he was nothing short of eye-catching.
So, yeah, she understood. She just didn’t like it.
She’d watched the dance between him and attractive female clients so many times she should be numb to it by now. She didn’t know—not for sure anyway—if he ever took any of them up on their blatant offers. Didn’t want to know. Because, of course, she had absolutely, utterly, definitely no interest in the guy’s love life. None whatsoever. He was simply someone she had to work with. Had to put up with, even with his annoyingly juvenile habit of flirting right back at female clients…and maybe more.
Had to, because Spence wasn’t just the premier guide of her employer, Rough Terrain Adventures. RTA was the number-one tour company in Shelby, and one of the top-ranked in the entire state of Alaska. And Spence was also a part owner of the business. He was the son of Ryan Colton, one of the two founding brothers of the company. He was someone she had to get along with, since they often had to work together. As a pilot who specialized in getting to the more remote places—RTA’s bread and butter—she needed to stay on good terms with the star. And that required pretty much ignoring Spence outside of work.
Which was easy, because she had no interest in him outside of work at all. None whatsoever.
The denial rang hollow even in her mind.
“—be sure and look me up when you come to LA!”
“I’ll do that, next time I set foot there.”
Hetty wondered if the woman even noticed the undertone in his voice. Or maybe she was only imagining it, being the one here who knew Spence would hike to the Bering Strait before he’d set that foot in Los Angeles.
The unquestionably lovely blonde finished sending her phone number to Spence’s cell phone from her own, smiled brilliantly at him, lifted the phone to snap a final photo of him and actually giggled as she turned away and headed for the car waiting to pick her up and her thankfully much more reserved girlfriend.
Spence was grimacing now, but Hetty was certain he’d look great in the photo. Because he always did. Other people looked silly when caught off guard, or had some unflattering expression on their face—she tended to a brow-furrowed, mouth-twisting, wry expression herself—but not Spence. Never Spence. No matter the angle, the lighting, or the situation, he always managed to look like he’d stepped off the cover of some men’s magazine. Something about the bone structure of his face, especially when lit up by his signature flirtatious grin, got almost any female thinking appreciative—and often racy—thoughts.
But not her. Never her. All he did for her was spark her temper, which was already on a short leash.
Still, she watched as he ran a finger down a page then signed off on the paperwork for the enamored client and put it in a folder for Lakin to get to when she could. Which would be soon, Hetty was sure; Lakin Colton was her friend and Spence’s cousin—not to mention her brother’s girlfriend—and Hetty knew she was both quick and efficient.
Then he went back to his phone, fingers swiping it open then tapping on the screen. And out of nowhere the snark arose and the words were out before she could think better of them.
“Going to call her already?”
She saw his fingers pause. Then he went back to tapping and, without looking at her, said flatly, “Deleting.”
She felt her cheeks heat and she hated herself for giving in to the urge to make that wisecrack. But then it struck her to wonder if that was what he always did when one of those female clients—and for all she knew maybe a few males, too—insisted on giving him their number.
Deep down, she wanted to believe it. To believe that all this silliness and flirting was just on the surface. To believe that underneath all that, he still had the depth of the Spence she’d known in school. The Spence she’d once worked with so closely but could now hardly stand to be in the same room with.
The Spence who had needed her then but now saw her as merely another RTA employee.
The fact that she missed the days of him needing her was like salt poured over an open wound. She had everything she’d ever dreamed of. She’d worked hard, studied, gone to flight school as she ached to do ever since, as a child, she’d looked upward to see float or seaplanes traversing the wide-open Alaska skies. Since the state had more registered pilots than any other, it happened often. The family story was that, from the first, as a toddler, Hetty would reach toward the aircraft, as if she wanted to snag one for herself.
And now she had. True, she didn’t own the Cessna 206. RTA did. But she was the only one who flew it, except for Will Colton occasionally. Spence’s uncle had been RTA’s fixed-wing pilot back in the early days, flying his old single-engine Beaver, and still kept his hand in by taking flights now and then. But for the most part, the Cessna was hers and she saw to it with the intensity of the experienced pilot that she was, who loved the plane that let her fly.
And if that meant she had to put up with the irritation to her soul that Spence Colton was, then so be it.
* * *
She hated him.
She hated him, and the sooner he admitted that, at least to himself, the better. Spence didn’t blame her. And in fact, he should count it a success. After all, didn’t he go overboard with attractive clients for precisely that reason? Sure, he’d always been a bit of a flirt, he admitted that. It was a skill he’d developed early in his life when he’d seen it work. It diverted people. Kept them from pushing into areas he preferred to keep well-hidden.
Now, he also did it because he knew it annoyed Hetty. And he needed to keep that safe distance between them.
But the safe distance he’d wanted had turned into a gulf he doubted could ever be bridged. And he hadn’t anticipated how much that would bother him.
