just as she was about to move her attention to that thick head of dark hair, he turned, catching her in mid-stare. “You okay?”
“Oh, uh…yeah.” She scrambled for an excuse. “Just seeing if the view from the side is as horrible as it is from the front.”
Ack! That hadn’t come out right. “I meant the view outside the plane. I wasn’t talking about you.”
Maybe trying to explain herself wasn’t the way to go.
She caught the flash of white teeth as he turned to face the weather again. “Well, that’s a relief.”
Forcing her attention back to the front windshield, she noted that the wind was calming a bit, along with her stomach.
Thank God. Maybe it was almost…
Suddenly, like a bullet exiting the barrel of a gun, they shot through the clouds and came out on the other side. The fierce turbulence vanished as quickly as it had started.
The contrast between dark and light was so startling, she was forced to squint as the sun peeked in at her and glinted off the nose of the plane. Once she regained her equilibrium, she sat up and drew a slow, careful breath, making sure she was still in one piece. Still alive.
She exhaled just as slowly. The second breath she took, however, was in reaction to the beauty surrounding her.
“It’s gorgeous,” she whispered. “I’ve never seen skies so crisp and blue.”
“It’s pretty amazing, isn’t it?” Blake’s voice had gone soft as well.
She glanced to the side and caught him looking at her. Her stomach tightened. Why had she ever thought his eyes were cold? Right now they were warm and alive, and looking at her like…
She shook herself. He was glad they’d broken through the clouds. Just like she was.
That shivery look he’d thrown her meant nothing more than that.
She leaned forward as several land masses came into view. Some of them stretched toward the sky like the volcanoes she knew them to be. “The Aleutians.”
“Yes.” The reverence behind the single word made her take a closer look below. Her father had loved the islands, despite the treacherous conditions she constantly heard about in the news reports. She’d never understood why someone would willingly live in a place where fog, wind and icy conditions were almost constant companions.
Until now.
One of the distant island peaks wore a thick covering of clouds like a top hat. It brought a smile to her face.
“My father loved it here.”
“I know.” Blake’s hands loosened on the wheel. “He told me.”
Molly’s mother had often complained he loved the islands more than his own family. Why else would he take a job most pilots chose to avoid? He could have had a nice cushy job as an airline pilot, and been better paid for his trouble. He’d turned a deaf ear to his wife’s protests and as the years had gone by, her clinginess and grumbling had taken a toll on their relationship. If he hadn’t been killed, Molly doubted their marriage would have survived another year.
It was one of the reasons she’d wanted to take the job, to try to see the islands through eyes that weren’t tainted by bitterness.
The turbulence of the last half hour had made her rethink that decision. But the second they exited that storm, well, she’d been blown away.
The experience had been breathtaking. Magical.
She’d never seen anything like it in her life.
The plane banked slightly, heading toward the islands. She listened as Blake called in their position and requested permission to land.
As they descended, she craned her neck but couldn’t see anything that looked like a landing strip. The mountains seemed to take up every inch of surface space. “Where’s the airport? Is it on the other side of the island?”
“Nope, we’re heading right for it.”
All she saw was a short road bisecting a narrow pinch of land. The pavement went nowhere, both ends dumping into the…
Ocean.
“You’re kidding me. That?” She wedged herself into her seat as Blake pushed the yoke farther in, increasing their rate of descent. Oh, Lord. “You’ve landed this before, right?”
“Many times. Relax.”
Easy for him to say. If they set down too early or too late, they’d be swimming instead of flying.
Or worse.
As the plane continued to descend, the turbulence picked up again. Molly tried to remain calm, but ended up back in her original takeoff position, both hands gripping her seat, fervently praying she’d live to see another day.
Down, down, down they went. Just when she was sure the wheels were going to trail through the whitecaps below, the landing strip reached for them, grabbing them to safety.
Or so she thought.
Nothing could have prepared her for the bone-jarring conditions of the asphalt as they hurtled down the strip and toward what looked like the end of the world.
Her fingers tightened with each yard they gained, the brakes of the plane throwing her against her shoulder harness. She pressed down with both feet, hoping the plane would intuitively figure out that she wanted it to S-T-O-P. Now!
What seemed to take forever was, in all probability, over in a matter of seconds. They slowed to taxi speed, with several yards of runway to spare. Okay, so it was more than that, but when you were landing on something the size of a small driveway, any extra room between you and disaster was a welcome sight.
“Are you all right over there?” Blake turned the controls, and they powered toward a building that stood at right angles to the landing strip.
“Yeah. Fine.” She hoped he didn’t notice the way her voice cracked from one word to the next.
“See? We made it all in one piece.” He squeezed her wrist and, as if he’d pressed a switch, her hands released their hold of the seat. “You did great, by the way. The first time is always the hardest. But, believe me, once you get used to it, you’ll find yourself wanting to do it every chance you get.”
CHAPTER THREE
HAD he really just said that?
Blake jerked his hand from hers. Any hope that she’d missed his unfortunate choice of words flew out the window when color flared along her cheekbones.
Serve him right if she took off to find a new pilot, especially after the way he’d acted on the flight. He’d been angry when he’d realized how afraid she was of flying. Leave it to him to be attracted to women who were the worst possible match for someone like him. First Sharon and then Molly.
He’d always thought Sharon would come around, but she hadn’t.
And now he’d unintentionally compared flying to sex with the next girl who came within range of his radar. Two for two. Yeah, he was in rare form.
Shutting off his internal critic, he went about his after-flight check. Molly unhooked her restraint harness and turned toward him.
“Thanks for getting us down in one piece. I know I probably haven’t been your easiest passenger.” She paused as if expecting him to heartily agree. “But I appreciate you not turning around and hauling my butt back to Anchorage.”
“Would that have been before we entered the storm, or after we came out?”
She tried on a smile. “Just so you know I didn’t set out to deceive you. I never claimed to be a seasoned traveler.”
“I