Fortune's Perfect Match by Allison Leigh

Author:Allison Leigh [Leigh, Allison]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-06-20T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

Emily had traveled by air countless times in her life. Commercial jetliners. Chartered, executive jets. But every time, it had been just a means to an end. A way of getting from here to there.

Sitting on the worn leather seat next to Max as he piloted the small plane, she wasn’t sure if she was more fascinated by the Texas landscape below them, or by Max himself.

He was so obviously in his element and it was sheer pleasure to watch him.

Before they’d taken off, he’d walked around the plane, checking this, checking that. Then he’d done the same thing while inside the plane before sticking his head out the window and yelling “Clear!” After a moment, the propeller had spun a few times, slowly at first, then faster and faster until it was a blur in front of the plane. The takeoff itself had been wholly exhilarating. Emily had laughed right out loud when she’d felt the little craft escape the hold of the runway and whoosh up into the air.

They’d been flying about an hour—an unexpectedly tranquil hour—when Max treated her to another rush. Barreling downward toward an impossibly narrow runway that was stuck out in the tall grass in what seemed the absolute middle of nowhere. She felt the pull of gravity as they smoothly landed, the press of motion against her as Max corralled the speeding plane down the runway and, in her opinion, masterfully slowed to a quiet, gentle stop well before they ran out of pavement.

She exhaled. Pressed her palm against her thundering heart and looked around as Max taxied the plane away from the runway and onto the field between it and the trees. Aside from the runway—faded and sprouting grass among the cracks—there was only one small building, a truck that she assumed carried fuel and a windsock blowing from a tall post. On the other side of the runway, she could see glimpses of the creek, glimmering beyond a stand of trees.

She didn’t know where they were. Didn’t particularly care. It felt like they were the only two people on earth right there, and she was simply enchanted.

“So,” Max cut the plane’s engine and the propeller slowly stopped spinning, “what’d you think?”

“I think it was fabulous.” She turned from the side window to look at him. She still held her daisies on her lap. “And I think you should be flying all the time.”

His lips tilted. “Yeah, but this little hobby doesn’t pay the bills. And it creates a bunch of new ones.” He reached right over her and unlatched the door beside her, then straightened to push open his own. After unfastening his safety belt, he climbed out, grabbing a set of wheel chocks from the cargo area behind the seats as he went. “Sit tight. I’ll come around and help you out.”

He climbed out and disappeared from view, reappearing a few moments later at her door. He pulled it open, and took her flowers in one hand while he held her hand securely in his other until she’d climbed out.

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