Denali Dreams (22 page)

“One of the worst.” Deline flicked that long dark hair out of her face. “But hey, Roger Bender just left, so …”

David held up his hand for a high five. “Any day without him is a good one.”

Even though she tied it back with one of those elastic bands, her hair always seemed to defy the constriction. Logan wished his heart would. And he hated the way fear smothered her delicate features when Roger Bender came into the picture. He had firsthand knowledge of that man’s meanness.

“I’ve got another hour here, then heading up.”

“Tours after this insanity?” David asked, waving around the standing-room-only café. “That’s a long day,” he said as he snagged a bowl of bread the other waitress delivered. “How many tours you doing?”

“Four that I know of, but Curt said there might be another.” Deline took their orders. “How’d you two manage to avoid Base Camp this week?”

Jolie smiled.

“I think I can answer that one without getting in trouble.” Logan laughed. Then realized he was the one now in trouble, but David had been smart enough to hide his smile.

“Anyway,” Jolie said with a glowering look at Logan, “David got his schedule arranged so he can take a few weeks off for our wedding.”

“Oh, wow. That soon?”

“I figured I’d better get him tied down before someone else tries.”

“What? David? Why would anyone want him?” Deline winked and headed back to work.

Was she flirting with David? Right in front of Jolie? Confusion tightened Logan’s chest. Arms folded on the table, he watched out of the corner of his eye as she moved through the restaurant with grace and speed. She’d been here her whole life. The regulars and locals greeted her by name. Asked about her dad, and she shared he was still in the hospital but much better.

She hadn’t been flying much since taking care of her dad and the café became her priority, but she said she was going up today. How had he missed that?

Logan stood and excused himself. He headed for the restrooms and plucked his phone from his pocket. Dialed.

“Talkeetna Flightseeing and Air Taxi.”

The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious.
And why shouldn’t it be? It is the same the angels breathe.
M
ARK
T
WAIN

E
asing her Jeep up to the rustic cabin structure that served as the office for her flightseeing tours and glacier landing business, Deline eyed the group of five playing basketball off to the side. Comfy in her lightweight thermal jacket, jeans, and boots, Deline stepped into the brisk afternoon. Eyes closed, she inhaled and smiled. Shut out the rowdy guys and just focused on the unpolluted, raw power that was Alaska. Her home. Her heritage.

“Hey, baby!” a guy called from the group.

Moment of silence severed, Deline rolled her eyes and made her way onto the boardwalk. Though tourists paid her way into her business, sometimes she was so over them. Especially the reckless adrenaline junkies.

“Going up to the glaciers? We got room in our tour. Want to j”—he pitched forward with a grunt, then spun around—“Hey! Watch it.”

A tall, muscular guy in a bright blue jacket broke through the group. “Sorry.” His electric blue eyes hit hers, and Logan shrugged. “Guess I tripped or something.”

Hiding her smile, Deline stepped into the building. The new ranger was all right. Quiet, a bit geeky or nervous or something, but he was nice.

“Hey, boss!” Shawn Graves, her business manager, reached to the side and lifted a clipboard from the cluttered desk, scanned it, then smiled at her. “Got a full complement today.”

“Thanks.” Deline took the schedule then headed to the office. She rapped against the jamb. “Knock knock.”

Salt-and-pepper hair belied Curt’s age. He looked up from his computer. “Hey, Deline.” Curt eased back in his chair and pointed to the monitor. “Drawing up the final papers. Met with the lawyer via conference call about an hour ago.”

Glee streaked through her. “Seriously?” She eased in. “So, you’re still good with everything?”

He frowned. “Yeah. Aren’t you?”

“Yes!” On her toes, she bounced. “Definitely. I just know that with the way … certain people …”

“Bender isn’t going to get this business as long as you and I are alive.”

“Right.” It was almost too good to be true. “Well, I’ll be praying nothing happens to you or me, then. Or that Roger doesn’t get any strange ideas.” She nodded, wishing she could shake off the disbelief that taking over at TFAT would really happen. “Okay, send me those documents when you have them.” Her dream was coming true! “Well, I’d better get up there.”

“Yep, take care. And stop worrying about Bender. He’s an old coot, but he wouldn’t do anything stupid.”

Deline smiled. “You’ve always seen the good in people.”
Even when there isn’t any.

“Hey, Dee,” Shawn hollered and waved her back over. His eyes twinkled with mischief. “You’ve got a last-minute add-on. And here he comes.”

The door squeaked open. A familiar scent and thud of boots flooded into the small office. Deline didn’t have to turn to know who’d come in. She dropped her gaze to the clipboard but could feel Shawn’s knowing smile.

Shawn smiled as he bounced his eyebrows at Deline then looked toward the door. “Well, look here. It’s Ranger Knox again.”

Why the man kept coming on the tours she didn’t know. He told her it was for the view, and she got that, she honestly did, but the cost was too much. “Logan, I am sure there are better ways to spend your money.”

“Hey.” Shawn swatted her arm. “His money’s the best kind—it comes from the mountain. Besides, he practically pays your check with as many trips as he makes. Don’t discourage paying customers, boss.”

Again, she rolled her eyes. “He does
not
pay my check.” But his frequent visits went a ways in keeping things consistent. “You sure you want to do this again, already?”

“Of course I am. It’s a perfect day.” He grinned that lopsided grin that made him a little geeky and a lot handsome. “You know I couldn’t resist. Besides …” Logan bobbed his head toward the door. “Seems you got a rowdy one on this trip. I might be able to help.”

“By throwing him out as we fly over the Great Gorge?”

Steady and unwavering, his eyes pinched. “It’d be a soft landing. All that snow …”

Deline laughed and started for the door. Most certainly would
not
be a soft landing from that height and with the jagged, brutal terrain. “Back in a bit, Shawn.”

Out in the sun again, she slid on her sunglasses and stalked toward the first of five flights for the day. First, she carried out her preflight check of the DeHavilland Turbine Otter, verifying her baby was fit for the run. Finally, she waved to the tourists hovering a safe distance away but clearly anxious.

“Morning, everyone.” Deline walked toward the Otter and started opening the doors. She set her clipboard on the pilot’s seat then turned to her tourists.

“Wait,” the guy from earlier squawked. “You’re our pilot?”

After the morning she’d had, she
so
did not want to mess with this guy.

“Brent, hush.”

Deline stifled a smile. “Okay, once the engine’s on, the intercom system will be working.” She held up a headset, going over the instructions as she had dozens of times. “Put this one so the thick part of the band sits squarely on your head and”—she pointed two fingers to her mouth—“adjust the microphone so it’s directly in front of your mouth.”

Brent muttered something and earned another shoulder jar from Logan.

“Hey, dude,” the teen said. “You need to learn how to walk.”

Logan nodded and pursed his lips as he trudged to the rear of the crowd. He leaned against the plane, hands tucked in his jeans pockets, and set his gaze on hers. As if to say,
Rowdy’s under control. Carry on.

When the passengers were tucked inside and belted, Deline shut the doors, tested them, then climbed into her seat. Engine running, she adjusted her mic, verified they were clear for takeoff, then aimed her Otter down the runway. The lift was smooth, and soon they were sailing over the varied landscape.

She began her spiel. “First, let’s be clear.” She pointed to the mountain hovering over them. “That is Denali, the High One. If you want to call it Mt. McKinley, I’ll drop you at the summit and let you fight it out with the mountain.” She winked at the crowd. “I promise Denali will win.” She went on to mention that it held the great distinction of being the tallest peak in North America at 20,323 feet. Telling them the Talkeetna River flowed into the Susitna River. “The railroad came through in 1914, and in 1972 the highway made it out here. Talkeetna was a miners’ town and a mecca for tourists. There are sixty miles between Talkeetna and Denali, and in that distance you’ll find thick pine forests, rivers draining the mountain, boggy wetlands, lakes, grasslands, foothills, and of course—the mountains.”

Though she let her mouth and brain go on autopilot giving the official tour as the half-hour trip ticked down, she let her mind drift to her father and the doctor’s concerns. What they said—
he’ll be fine
—did not match the worry on their faces. She knew that was because most of the doctors had either grown up in the tribe with her father or knew her father from helping him through her mother’s illness and death.

The old, familiar raw ache thudded against her conscience.

She blinked as her body navigated the plane automatically. “That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Great Gorge of the Ruth Glacier. Granite walls around it are five thousand feet tall. That’s a vertical mile of relief. The ice on that glacier is 3,400 feet thick.”

Gasps and whispers of awe and excitement filled the headsets. Deline smiled. She loved when others saw and experienced what she did. Though wanting to give up the café felt like selling her soul, she loved Talkeetna, loved Denali.

“If you think that’s impressive, you should’ve taken the deluxe tour to see the Wickersham Wall. That’s 14,600 feet of vertical relief.”

“It’s also over five hundred dollars!”

Laughter trickled through her headset, but Deline remained undeterred. “But I promise it’s an experience you’ll never have anywhere else.”

“We heard from friends you were the best because you’re native.”

“You heard right,” Deline said, her modesty gone for the sake of her business. The oil pressure gauge caught her eyes. Her heart tripped. That couldn’t be right. She’d checked the plane over. The pressure had been fine.

She double-checked. Tapped the gauge. Her heart thunked against the realization. They wouldn’t make it back to Talkeetna airfield.

Gripping the edge of his seat, Logan dug his fingernails into the cushion. Muscles taut, he forced himself to look out the window. When he did, the familiar cold swirled through his gut. Face the formidable with ice clinging to his nose hairs. No problem. Hover over the beast of a mountain in a plane—

Logan jerked back, grateful he wasn’t up front with Deline, where he had to pretend to like flying.

Something sifted through the fog of dread. The fear of heights.

Kahiltna Glacier?

“Okay, folks, I’ve got a surprise for you,” Deline’s voice crackled in his ear. Her tone sounded sweet.
Too
sweet. “Since it’s such a beautiful day and I need to make a stop, you’ll get an upgrade on your tour.”

Upgrade? Since when? Deline needed the money to seal the merger with Curt.

The woman and her preteen daughter in front of him spun toward each other, gleam lit in their eyes. Rowdy beside them gave a
whoop
of approval.

Something’s wrong.
Logan felt a nudge to let Deline know he knew something was up. But … what if he was wrong? What if she’d been sincere about that generosity?

Logan nearly snorted. It wasn’t that Deline wasn’t a sweet girl. She was. But she had a lethal will. “Perfect day to see Base Camp,” Logan spoke into his mic.

He noted the slight lift to Deline’s chin. “That’s right, Ranger Knox. I thought you might be lonely for some of your fellow rangers.”

The engine was still running. No sputtering as far as he could tell. But what did he know about planes? Besides the fact he didn’t like them.

They circled Kahiltna once more. Logan pushed his spine into the seat. The feeling of descent threw a wave of hot-then-cold chills over him. Man, he hated this part. He could almost tolerate every other aspect, but the descent … It didn’t help that he’d heard somewhere that the majority of accidents happened on takeoff and landing.

He fixed his gaze on the back of Deline’s head, trusting her, not the Otter, to glide them down to safety.

Ha. Safety. She was landing on a glacier. The Otter glided down as Deline made her approach. Smooth and without a hitch, the landing spoke of nothing other than Deline’s supposed generosity. Anticipation ran high among the tourists.

Logan took a death grip on his seat again. Prayed harder than he had when he first climbed in here today.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of …

Okay, enough with the death references. He wanted to live. Had to live if he ever intended to ask the Aleutian beauty out on a date.