Page 4 of Colton in the Wild
“Enjoy,” Spence said. Then, a little warily, he asked, “Do I need to check in on Mom and Aunt Sasha while you’re gone?”
“I believe they’re planning to enjoy this as much as Dad and Uncle Ryan.” The words came from behind them as his cousin Parker entered the room.
Spence laughed at that. Parker was probably right. The two women were very close. They had no shortage of things to talk about in that way women did, which seemed never-ending to him.
Parker shoved back his longish, shaggy, dark brown hair. He’d skipped the morning shave again, and Spence knew his always clean-shaven uncle had finally resigned himself to the fact that the stubble was likely going to be a permanent feature.
“You’re back early,” Spence said.
“It was an easy trip, and my people were quick to settle in at the fishing camp. I’ll go back and get them in three days.”
Although they specialized in the more remote trips, RTA didn’t turn their nose up at more local jaunts if requested. The customer was the one spending the money, after all.
“Nice milk run,” Spence said with a grin.
“Yeah, yeah,” Parker growled it out in mock irritation. “But I’ll take that over your next one.”
Spence rolled his eyes. His next scheduled trip was to a remote lakeside fishing spot most easily accessible by floatplane. Which meant more time with Hetty, although that wasn’t why he rolled his eyes. He did that because it was a honeymoon trip. He’d made a few of those before and they’d always been a little too…gooey for his taste. All that lovey-dovey stuff seemed a bit over the top to him.
Dealing with it in the closed-in space of the plane cockpit with Hetty was something he didn’t want to think about.
“Hetty’s pretty excited about getting back into the air again,” Parker said.
“Yeah,” Spence said noncommittally. Going for a quick subject change, he asked his cousin, “You have all the supplies lined up?”
They were going to restock the permanent campsite they had set up at the lake, which had gotten a lot of use last year. He’d already checked the big, sturdy, wood-framed tent they used for that location, one that fit neatly onto the permanent foundation they’d built so it was a bit more solid than one that just sat on the ground. The still chilly ground.
“It’s all ready and waiting in the storage building,” Parker said, nodding toward the outbuilding that sat about fifty yards from the main office building they were in now.
“Good. I want to get it loaded on my truck, so I can get it aboard the plane early.”
Parker grinned at him. “You just don’t want to hang around the newlyweds any longer than you have to.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Spence muttered, not looking at his cousin.
Later, as he headed out to the storage building to gauge how many trips it would take him to get everything to the dock where the floatplane would tie up, he thought about how true Parker’s jab was. He really wasn’t looking forward to that aspect of this trip.
And you are not going to waste time analyzing why.
Order to himself given, he pulled open the big sliding door and made himself focus on the task at hand. Parker hadn’t lied, it was all here, neatly stacked. The restock supplies, plus the state-required equipment for any flight, food for each person for a week, signaling devices, fishing tackle, an ax/saw combo, fire starter, mosquito nets—the old jokes about bush planes being taken down by a squadron of mosquitos seemed a lot more believable when you spent some time fighting off the huge Alaskan variety—and personal locator beacons.
True, he’d have to figure out what order to put it in the plane’s cargo space, and track the weight for load capacity purposes, but he was used to that. Numbers were no problem for him.
He picked up the clipboard that sat atop the stack of boxes and crates and saw the individual weights already listed next to each item, in his cousin Lakin’s careful hand. He silently thanked her. That would make up for any extra time he had to spend making sure he was reading the item description right.
And not for the first time, he was thankful for this place, this work, and most of all, this family of his.
Chapter 3
“Want some help?”
Spence looked up to see his sister Kansas standing in the doorway. She wasn’t in uniform today, although her long, dark hair was pulled back as usual. She said it was because it got in her way when she was working. Kansas was a state trooper assigned to the search and rescue unit, and if there truly were jobs some people were born to do, his sister had been born for that one.
“Shouldn’t you be out rescuing someone?” he teased.
“I am. You,” she shot back. Spence laughed. Kansas smiled and shrugged. “Seems everyone’s being careful out there today.”
“First time for everything,” he said wryly.
