Page 8 of Colton in the Wild
She had no argument. She should have checked the plane first, before she’d come here to the office, then she would have known and wouldn’t have embarrassed herself trying to talk him out of going with her on this first flight of the season.
“Oh,” she said rather lamely.
“You two go get that done, then we’ll be ready to go for the Radfords in a couple of weeks,” Parker said. He added, with a grin, “Then we’ll be back to all aircraft assigned and out, and Lakin and I can take the day off.”
She knew that was about as likely as…nothing.
“And we’ve got another reservation for next week, for the Soundview site,” Lakin put in. “After that, we’re booked pretty solid for the rest of the summer. You two are going to be working hard this year.”
And the brother and sister who essentially ran this place most of the time turned and walked back to their offices, unaware of the kick in the head they’d just delivered to their chief pilot.
Chapter 5
“Hey, where’s your passengers?”
Spence looked at Jake, the teenager who worked part-time maintaining the docking facilities. “They canceled, last minute.”
Jake frowned. “Oh. There was someone down looking at the plane, I thought it was your guy. Must have just been a tourist.”
“’Tis the season,’” Spence said. He glanced at Hetty, who wasn’t looking at either of them. “We’re going to make the trip anyway, to drop off the new season supplies, since I’ve already got them loaded up. Thanks again for the help with that, by the way.”
The boy grinned. “Thanks for the freebie at The Cove. It’ll smooth things over with my girl.”
Spence grinned. “Bring her some flowers, too. My mom said they just got a delivery in at the market in town.”
“Good idea,” Jake said.
The kid walked away, whistling happily. Spence smiled to himself. He wasn’t going to use that gift certificate a client had tipped him with anyway, so it might as well go to a good cause, smoothing over a tiff between young lovers.
“You gave him that certificate for a free dinner and dessert Mrs. Barnes gave you?”
He turned to find Hetty looking at him quizzically. He shrugged. “I wasn’t going to use it. Somebody might as well.”
“Why not?”
“Exactly.”
She blinked, figured it out and grimaced at him. “I meant why weren’t you going to use it?”
He shrugged. “I just wasn’t.”
He didn’t really want to discuss his love life—or decided lack thereof lately—with Hetty of all people. It had become almost a chore to keep up the lighthearted, flirty exterior in front of her. But he felt like he had to. It was a barrier of sorts between them and he needed it to be there. Why, he didn’t want to delve into, now or ever.
“Nice of you, then,” she said.
“It happens, despite what you think,” he said and immediately regretted the jab.
“I’ve never disputed that you can be a nice guy, when you want to be. When you’re not being—”
She cut herself off so sharply he was sure he knew what she’d been about to say. She had said it, more than once.When you’re not being a shameless flirt.
She’d been saying it since high school, when that flirting and his looks had been all it had taken to charm almost anyone on campus. Anyone female, that is. Well, except Hetty, who had apparently been immune then and clearly still was.
It had taken his prowess on a baseball diamond or his skill on skates and with a hockey stick to impress the guys. And his willingness to take a hit, if it would help the team. That was something he’d learned early on. Because his family—which to him meant all the Coltons, not just his own parents and sister, but Uncle Will and Aunt Sasha and his four cousins, too—was a team. A team with an unbreakable bond, who all pulled together under any circumstances. Because they’d paid the highest price once, for not doing just that.
And the aunt he’d never known, Caroline, had paid with her life for the lack of that bond back then.
Believe.
