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2. Gabriel

Chapter Two

Gabriel

A few hours earlier

“What?” I barked into my phone.

“I’m rerouting this afternoon to pick up Nora,” my friend and fellow pilot, Elias, repeated.

“Is she okay?” Worry churned instantly in my gut.

“As far as I know. I’m sure they’d have mentioned if she wasn’t.” His tone was way too relaxed.

“Let’s switch up our schedule,” I said.

Elias chuckled, and I didn’t even want to get into what he thought about my request. “Only if it means I get home earlier. When’s your last flight?”

I quickly recited my schedule, adding, “Your only motivation is to see Cammi sooner, not help a friend out.”

I could imagine my friend’s amused shrug. “Maybe so, but I’d help you out anyway. It’s just a bonus that I will get home earlier. On that note, I gotta roll, or I’ll be late for your next flight that’s now mine.”

Hanging up, I immediately dialed my next call.

“Nora’s at the supply stopover,” Flynn, my friend and my boss explained a moment later. “One of the tires blew out on the landing gear when she landed, and she clipped a wing on a boulder. Look at her plane while you’re there too, would ya?”

“Got it,” I replied, trying to keep my tone level.

“Also, if you don’t mind, could you give her a ride back home once you land on this side of the bay?”

“Sure.” I gritted my teeth and took a slow breath. “Something wrong with her car?”

“Nah. She rode in with Grant this morning. He forgot, and he’s already back out here.”

“Of course. Catch you later.”

Flynn hung up, and I let out a sigh. I wanted time alone with Nora more than just about anything. Yet if the past few months were any indication, I could count on her being radio silent. I was snatching this chance for some privacy with her, though, hoping maybe we could finally talk.

Worry spun like a whirling dervish in my thoughts, tightening in my chest. I’d f****d up with Nora worse than I could’ve imagined. I didn’t know if I could ever repair the jagged tear between us. But I could definitely fix whatever was wrong with her plane. I didn’t want to think about just how crazy I might’ve gone if she’d experienced anything other than a bumpy landing.

A few minutes later, I arrived at the airport in Diamond Creek, the one for small planes only. Two-seater planes dotted the Alaskan skies. Flying was a big business here, both for practical reasons and for tourists. I worked for Walker Adventures, owned by Flynn and his siblings. I still hoped my old friend didn’t know just how bad I had it for his sister.

Flynn was one of my best friends, and we’d been in the Air Force together. I had my reasons for telling Nora I could never commit. I just didn’t count on my heart already being a lost cause.

An hour or so later, my eyes landed on the blown-open landing tire on her plane. My gut clenched, and I tried to breathe through the ache in my chest. I forced my eyes up, only to collide with hers.

Nora had her hand curled just inside the open door by the pilot seat. I stepped closer, moving on instinct.

“Are you okay?” My words came out abruptly, the edges sharp like the blades Nora had been dragging across my heart for the past few months.

She squared her shoulders, and I discovered I was closer to her than I meant to be. That was pretty much the story of my heart and Nora.

Her brown curls were mussed, and her matching rich brown eyes were snapping. “I’m fine,” she bit out. “What the hell are you doing here?”

The sound of her voice felt like a bolt sliding into place inside me, but I forced myself to stay focused. “Flynn called me and said you had a problem with the landing. He wanted me to stop and check. Also, Grant forgot he needed to give you a ride home.”

I knew I should’ve stepped back, but I couldn’t bring myself to do so. The need to feel close to her, to soak in her presence ran so fierce that I couldn’t override it with my brain.

Nora blinked, her mouth falling open before she snapped it shut. “I don’t know why Flynn called you. I’m obviously fine. I can deal with it.”

I rested my hand on the open door, curling my fingers around it. The cool metal barely broke through the fiery heat scorching me. The voltage snapped between us in a nearly electric connection. Once upon a time, as recently as a few months ago, I’d convinced myself it was just desire and nothing more.

I was deeply aware of the folly of that thinking now. She’d taken it away—her touch, her laughter, her sweet lips against mine—but the grip she had on my heart hadn’t loosened, not one increment.

“I’m sorry,” I said finally, my words coming out raw and hoarse.

She blinked, and I saw the pain flash in her eyes. She shuttered it quickly, lifting her chin. “For what?” She threw that question at me like a dart.

“For telling you I didn’t want more. For saying I could never commit.”

My heart was pounding so hard, I could feel the hammering echo down to my bones. She stared back at me.

Because my body was always ahead of my brain and my heart when it came to Nora, I dipped my head, brushing my lips over hers. When I realized what I’d done, I braced myself, thinking she was going to shove me away and maybe even slap me.

She didn’t. I felt the little whimper in her throat like a jolt of lightning through my entire system. And then, I was folding her in my arms, breathing in her scent—earthy with a hint of something sweet and overlaid with the crisp smell of the ocean breeze.

She still didn’t shove me away, and I cataloged the feel of her pressed against me. She was already imprinted on every cell in my body—the sweet curve of her breasts against my chest and the dip of her waist where my palm landed. Her ragged breathing followed the rhythm of mine.

She let me hold her just long enough that hope unfurled in my heart like a banner across the sky with her name emblazoned on it. Then she stiffened. “I can’t.”

I forced myself to step back. The effort ran against every instinct clamoring in my body. Finally having Nora in my arms for the first time in months reminded me of just exactly how right it felt when we were together.

When I looked down, her brown eyes stared back at me. I thought I saw a teardrop glittering in her eyelashes, but a punishing gust of wind struck us, and her hair blew wild. By the time she brushed it away, the teardrop was gone.

“You know we’re probably gonna have to stay here tonight, right?”

“What are you talking about?” Pink crested on her cheeks.

I waved vaguely in the air. “It’s windy as hell.” I gestured toward the wind sock on a pole mounted above the shed. As if to demonstrate, another brutal gust of wind lashed the poor wind sock, sending it into a furious spin before it held straight as the wind blew steadily.

“Unless the wind dies down real quick, we’re not gonna have time to get back across the bay before it’s too late.”

Nora blinked at me before looking away, her chin set in a stubborn line. I knew she was grinding her teeth because I saw the muscle tightening at the back of her cheek. I wanted to pull her into my arms again and tell her I knew how much I’d screwed up. I didn’t.

She slipped between me and the door, rounding to the other side of the plane and opening the small compartment in the plane’s belly. A moment later, she closed it, slipping her arms into the bright purple windbreaker she’d pulled out.

“How long should we wait?” She stopped beside me, surprising me with her question.

Nora had been giving me the silent treatment for months now. It was crazy to realize how much I could miss her when she was right there. Every day. We worked together and lived at the resort together.

“Let’s radio over to the other side of the bay and see how things look there.”

I was surprised, yet again, when Nora followed me over to my plane. We climbed in the front. A moment later, Skylar Bridges, who ran one of the other flight businesses in Diamond Creek, answered, “Yep, what’s up?”

I wasn’t using the official channels for this call. I wanted a quick, preferably blunt answer. “How’s the wind looking over there?”

“It’s windy as hell,” she replied.

Nora wrinkled her nose, her mouth twisting to the side. I chuckled. “Okay, so it sounds as bad over there as it is here at the supply station.”

“It’s probably worse over there because it’s at a higher elevation. All of our planes are on the ground now. If you’re smart, you’ll sit tight. You set to stay for the night?”

I risked another glance at Nora. She was staring out the window to the side, but I could see the tension in her shoulders. My eyes shifted down to land on her hands, which were laced together tightly.

“I’m always prepared. It’s summer, so it shouldn’t be too bad as far as the temperature,” I replied.

“Make sure to call in your flight update.”

“Of course. Catch you later.”

I ended that call and then went through the official channels to notify them that Nora and I would be remaining at the supply station until tomorrow morning. After I set down the radio receiver, silence fell around us.

Wind buffeted the plane, and my eyes lifted to see how the wind sock was faring, a simple yet effective indicator. It blew wild and twisted with another gust of wind. Trying to fly in wind like this was a fool’s game.

“How are you doing as far as food goes?” I asked.

“I always have something on hand,” she said quietly. “What about you?”

“Same.”

She glanced at her watch, and as if on cue, my stomach rumbled. Her eyes flicked to mine, and then she laughed, just a little bit. My heart felt split open as swiftly as a log fell in two pieces with a single swing of an ax. That was how it was when it came to my heart and Nora. She had no idea. I hadn’t even known it until I ruined the best thing I’d ever had.

“I even have a little camp stove,” she offered.

I chuckled. “Of course you do.”

“Why, of course?”

“Because you’re always prepared. It’s one of the things I like best about you.”

“Let me see what I have. We can sit in the airport.” She rolled her eyes at that. It was a running joke amongst the pilots who came out this way that the shed was actually referred to as an airport. “It’ll keep us out of the wind.”

A while later after we made sure both of the planes were situated for the night, Nora was sitting cross-legged on the floor in the shed. She had a lightweight portable propane camp stove set up and was presently preparing macaroni and cheese out of a box. I’d propped up a makeshift barrier in the doorway to keep the wind to a minimum. The wind hadn’t eased up at all, and it was past eight o’clock. The sun was sliding down the sky, which we could see through the opening outside. It was a splashy sunset, the sky a swirl of reds, oranges, and golds. Darkness wouldn’t come for more than another hour.

Nora was being polite to me, and being with her like this had my heart aching.

A few minutes later, she handed me a small plastic bowl with a spoon. “Dinner is served. It might not be as good as Daphne’s cooking, but it’ll do.” We’d lucked out when Flynn fell in love with Daphne. She happened to be a kick-a*s chef and now handled all the meals for the resort.

“It’s better than my energy bar,” I said with a chuckle.

I got a slight smile in return, which was remarkable. I took a few bites, then paused to sip water from a bottle. When I looked over at Nora and felt that now-familiar thread of tension between us, my heart lurched uncomfortably.

“I’m sorry.” My words startled me. Not because I didn’t mean them. I felt them down to my bones. As sorry as I was, I felt stuck, unsure how to repair the rip I’d torn in our relationship.

Nora’s mouth fell open. She’d been in the process of lifting a spoonful of the pretty freaking good macaroni and cheese into her mouth. She’d added extra cheese from a few cheese sticks in her backpack, so it was nice and gooey and didn’t have the distinct flavor of packaged food.

My heart thrashed in my chest in a messy, unsteady beat that echoed with thundering kicks.