Wild Montana Skies by Susan May

Author:Susan May
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Women air pilots—Fiction;Helicopter pilots—Fiction;Rescue work—Montana—Fiction;Man-woman relationships—Fiction;Christian fiction;Love stories;FIC042040;FIC027020;FIC027260
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2016-09-13T16:00:00+00:00

8

A new day and a fresh perspective could change everything.

In fact, if Ben got the words right, he and Kacey might find their way back to becoming friends.

Ben sat in the copilot seat of the PEAK chopper, strapped in; the rotors hummed through his helmet as Kacey dipped down into the gorge carved out by the Mercy River, following it upstream. A moraine blue and edged with cut-ledge rock on one side and shaggy evergreen on the other, the wide, overflowing river glistened under the wink of sunshine high and bright.

After an hour of flying up the middle fork of the river, they’d unearthed nothing but an occasional fisherman. Now, Kacey flew a route upstream to Lake McDonald, headed for Avalanche Creek deep into the mountains.

“I don’t know how Dante’s body would make it all the way from Avalanche Creek through Lake McDonald, then into the Mercy River.” Kacey spoke through the headset.

Indeed, the route seemed improbable, and Ben had pointed that out to Ian, who had met them this morning with such dark circles under his eyes he resembled an extra from The Walking Dead. “We promised him we’d be thorough,” he said. Ben looked out the side, scanning the shoreline.

Nothing but tree debris, frothy residue, and jagged granite boulders spilling down into the river.

“What’s that song you’re humming?”

He glanced at her, but she didn’t look over.

“I like it.”

He hadn’t noticed he’d been humming but realized now that he’d also been tapping his finger on his jeans. “Nothing. Just something I woke up with.”

“It’s nice. Catchy.” She picked up the tune, and something stirred inside him, filled his chest with warmth.

She angled the chopper toward a falls and hovered there as he surveyed the pool of water until he shook his head. She continued upstream.

“What happened, exactly?” she asked into her mic, through the headset.

“With Esme?”

“And Dante.”

“Well, no one really knows. Esme and Dante were on a hiking trip to Avalanche Falls. My dad was leading it, along with Sierra and a couple other leaders from Mercy Church. Esme and Dante sneaked off during the night—or that’s the word. The next morning they were both gone, and no one could find them. Vanished without a trace. Speculation was they ran off together, but Ian couldn’t accept that. He spent all summer searching the park for them and the past three years hunting every hint of a lead.”

“Sad. It’s hard to hold out so much hope for something.”

He tried not to let her words find roost, and instead nodded.

“What did he mean when he said for you to retrace your steps?”

“I was in the original search three years ago.”

“You came back to Mercy Falls? Why?”

Oh. He didn’t expect the sudden rush of heat.

The answer gathered right there, sticky on his tongue. He’d come back, success in his grip, and in the back of his head, regardless how unlikely, and the fact he knew she’d moved away, he harbored the dream that he might find her again.

But she couldn’t know that. Not when she’d so clearly moved on, forgotten him.

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