Total pages in book: 18
Estimated words: 16767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 84(@200wpm)___ 67(@250wpm)___ 56(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 16767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 84(@200wpm)___ 67(@250wpm)___ 56(@300wpm)
“There’s a movie called Edwina? With the lady from that Netflix show?”
Pete closed his eyes and sighed, not a thing you really wanted your pilot to do mid-flight. “All of Me,” he said.
I opened my mouth to make an inappropriate comment when he quickly added, “The movie was called All of Me. My grandpa had it on VHS.”
“A VHS tape? Jesus. You know there’s new stuff now in the modern world, right? Streaming.”
Pete’s face crinkled in confusion. “You mean, people don’t watch movies on their VCRs anymore?”
I stared at him before noticing him roll his eyes. “Oh. You’re fucking with me,” I muttered.
After a few moments of awkward silence in which Pete seemed to have zero regrets about trolling me, he finally did the courteous thing of asking me what I was doing in Alaska.
“I’m writing an article for a website,” I said.
“Imagine that.”
I stared at him again. It wasn’t a hardship, but figuring him out certainly was. “What do you mean by that?”
“Nothing. Good for you. If you need a guide for anything, let me know. You can find me at the bar.”
Great. He was the local pilot and the local drunk.
It figured.
I began to pay close attention to how he was flying the plane in case I needed to take over, but it didn’t take long for the scenery to distract me.
“This is amazing,” I said, staring out at the never-ending layers of steel-blue mountains capped in white, meandering silver rivers and the varied green of summer trees.
“It’s not bad,” Pete admitted. I could hear the affection in his voice.
“How long have you lived here?”
“Born and raised. Moved to California for a couple of years and hated it.”
I pointed out a startlingly blue alpine lake in the distance. “What’s that?”
“The runway,” he said.
I closed my eyes and prayed.
CHAPTER TWO
PETE
He was certainly the sexiest greenhorn I’d seen in a while, I’d give him that. But the kid wasn’t at all prepared for how rough life was out here. His shoes were too clean and his clothes too perfect. The man actually had an Apple Watch.
“Did you bring a parka?” I asked, peering at his fashionable puffy vest.
His hands stayed white-knuckled in his lap as he swiveled his head to look at me. It was kind of cute. The panic in his face when he thought he was going to accidentally fly us into the trees had been a little funny.
“It’s June,” he said.
I shook my head. There should be rules before Outsiders are allowed in here. “Doesn’t matter what month it is. We’re expecting late snow this weekend.”
“You’re just trying to scare me,” he said, turning back to the view of the lake. He’d been keeping a keen eye on it as if it was going to suddenly froth with deadly, plane-eating piranha.
“Suit yourself,” I said before calling Poke on the radio to let him know I was coming in for a landing.
“Sure, man,” he said in his lazy drawl. “But watch the southeast shore for that grizzly and her cubs. Don’t forget what happened to Jesse.”
“Got it. Tell Maggie to save me some soup.”
“Tell her yourself. We’re not speaking at the moment.”
I laughed but refrained from giving him hell about his sister. She’d already told me about the fight they’d gotten into when we opened the bar this morning. Poke had tried setting her up with one of my brothers. Again.
Poke and Maggie had grown up next door to my family. They’d helped my brothers and me take over Knockwood Bar, Aviation, Tackle, and Hotel when my aunt and uncle had decided to retire down in Mexico. They were honorary Valentines, and if Poke had his way, Maggie would be a real Valentine one day soon.
It didn’t matter which of my brothers Maggie decided on. According to Poke, she just needed to pick one and get on with it. “It only makes sense, Pete,” he’d said a million times.
Despite the fact at least three of the five of us were gay.
“It kind of matters which one,” I always said in response. “And it’s also kind of creepy when Maggie’s like our sister.”
“If she doesn’t marry a Valentine, she’s going to end up with Nate Norwood. I hate that guy.”
He wasn’t wrong. Sometimes living in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere sucked.
“She’s sleeping with Jayko Natatok,” I’d told him once. “So I don’t know why you’re worried about Nate.”
That lie had earned me a drunken black eye I’d deserved. Now, when the subject came up, I noped out as quickly as I could.
Poke’s familiar voice came back over the radio. “You tell that greenhorn about the blizzard coming?”
I saw Jonah’s body tense. He could hear the radio transmissions in his own headset, which was the whole point, honestly.
“Yeah. He says he’s fine,” I assured him. “Came prepared. This guy knows what he’s doing. Don’t worry about it.”