Match Made In Paradise

by Barbara Dunlop

  “That’s one option,” Brodie said and started to walk to meet them.

  “Would it impact the delivery times?” Raven asked, going along with him.

  “Hi,” Silas said to Mia in an undertone, pulling her attention from the conversation.

  She looked his way and he moved closer. “Haven’t seen you for a couple of days.”

  “We’ve all been busy.”

  “I heard you were feeding the bridge workers.”

  She shrugged. “A few sandwiches is all. Raven’s place was closest.”

  “No more heavy equipment operating?”

  She smiled at that. “Turns out you need some kind of a license.”

  Her phone rang suddenly, interrupting them. “Ah, cell service. I do love cell service.” She put it to her ear. “Hey, Marnie.”

  Silas knew he should back off and give her some privacy, but he didn’t want to go anywhere. He wanted her to finish the call so they could get past this awkward back-and-forth and have a real conversation about them and their relationship and where it might be now.

  “How did that work?” Mia asked, sounding both shocked and happy. She listened again. “Just like that?” She shook her head. “I can’t believe it.” She laughed. “You sure earned your retainer today.”

  Mia’s smile grew wide as she listened to Marnie. “I will. You bet. Later today, probably. Thanks, Marnie.” She ended the call.

  “Good news?” Silas asked.

  “I won.”

  “Won?”

  “Everything. The judge threw out the case. We’re not even going to trial; Alastair’s personal lawyer backed Marnie. The judge concluded Alastair was of sound mind when he wrote the will and that there was no evidence I had any undue influence on his decisions. An age gap alone is not grounds to contest a duly authorized will.” She laughed again and all but squealed in happiness.

  “That’s great news.” Silas tried to sound enthusiastic. He knew it was the best possible outcome. He also knew it meant Mia would be leaving Paradise.

  She looked at him then, the real her, not the aloof acquaintance she’d pretended to be earlier. “So . . .”

  “Yeah,” he said. “So . . .”

  “I’ll be looking for a ride to the Fairbanks airport.”

  “Sure. You bet.” He didn’t want to know, but he made himself ask. “When?”

  She bit her lip. “Today.”

  His disappointment was acute.

  “Or tomorrow.” Her gaze moved over to Raven. “I should probably leave time to say good-byes.”

  “That’s a good idea.” He wanted to slow her down, even if he had no right to do that.

  Raven looked over at them then, and Mia waved her phone.

  “What?” Raven asked as the little discussion group broke up and she headed back their way.

  “We won.”

  Raven looked astonished. “The lawsuit?”

  Mia nodded. “As of this minute, I am sole owner and CEO of Lafayette Fashion.”

  “That’s fantastic!” Raven’s reaction was honest and enthusiastic as she grabbed Mia for a hug.

  Silas felt like a jerk for his lukewarm response. He also kicked himself for not using the moment as an excuse to hug her. His arms felt empty as he watched the two women embrace.

  “Great news!” Even Brodie did a better job of it than Silas.

  “I guess certain people are getting fired,” Raven said with a gleam in her eyes.

  “I can’t fire the twins,” Mia said. “But that’s fair. Alastair wanted to take care of them. Besides, they’re never around. I can’t see them suddenly starting to meddle.”

  “What about their enablers?”

  “I have to figure out who they are first,” Mia said. “I don’t want to be vindictive, but I don’t want them sabotaging me either. Somebody signed the cancellation order for London and Milan. It won’t take much of a detective to work that one out.”

  Silas couldn’t help but be impressed by Mia’s confidence and decisiveness. On the other hand, he’d really loved the uncertain, slightly klutzy Mia, the one who tried new things, made mistakes and tried again.

  He didn’t want her to change. He didn’t want anything to change. He wanted Mia to stay here in Paradise, talk with him, laugh with him, make love with him. He wanted the impossible, but he knew better than to go after it.

  Mia belonged in the fashion business, where she was accomplished and influential. She deserved her dream as much as anybody else. She belonged in city and she always would, just like Silas belonged in the skies.

  * * *

  * * *

  Mia thanked Raven profusely for taking her in and saving her sanity. She promised both Raven and Breena that she’d keep working on the matchmaking project from LA.

  Brodie had had a sudden change of heart. He had some conditions, but they weren’t unreasonable. And he’d offered to fly twelve women from Fairbanks into Paradise free of charge.

  Mia was convinced he’d done it to keep peace with Raven. Brodie and Raven were an enduring team. Right now, it was professional because that was important to both of them, and neither of them wanted to mess it up. But Mia was sure their feelings went deeper, and she couldn’t imagine Brodie would let a rift come between them.

  She’d taken Silas up on his offer to fly her back to Fairbanks, and they lifted off the airstrip now, circling back over Paradise to head west.

  She felt a hitch in her chest looking down at Raven’s cabin, the new bridge, the Bear and Bar, the Co-op and everything else all nestled in the crisp green valley surrounded by burbling blue rivers, pockets of wildlife and craggy mountain peaks. She wondered for a minute where they grizzly bears had gone.

  She caught sight of Silas then and remembered their lovemaking. In his headset, a WSA cap and smoky sunglasses, his profile was strong as ever, sexy as ever. She couldn’t imagine ever meeting a man like him in Los Angeles.

  She suddenly wanted to stop, to turn back, to land in Paradise and just spend the entire week with Silas. LA could wait. Lafayette could wait. They’d lasted these past few weeks without her. They’d last one more. She wasn’t ready to say good-bye to Silas.

  “You feeling okay?” he asked over the intercom, his voice making her want him more than ever. “Not airsick, are you?”

  “I’m not airsick.” She was lonely. She hadn’t even said good-bye to him, and she already felt so alone.

  She watched the rivers, mountains and glaciers disappear behind them one after the other. And far too soon, the city of Fairbanks came into view. Silas was on the radio with air traffic control. Then they were descending, gliding onto the runway amid the din of commercial airliners, private planes and service vehicles of all sizes.

  She felt like she’d been dropped unceremoniously back into civilization.

  Silas taxied swiftly and efficiently from the active runway to the FBO parking.

  He shut down the engine and ran through procedures, unbuckling his harness and removing his headset. When he opened the door, the rumble of motors and the shriek of jet engines filled the air. He hopped out and pushed up his seat to gain access to her bags in the back.

  Mia unbuckled and hooked her headset above the doorway. She remembered how to unlatch the door and let herself out, firming her legs under her after the motion of the airplane, meeting Silas on the tarmac.

  “Here we are,” she said, gathering her hair against the wind.

  “Don’t forget your stored bags,” he said as he turned, luggage in hand, for the FBO entrance.

  She’d completely forgotten about her bag and was surprised he’d remembered. Her mind was far too full of Silas to leave room for anything else as each step brought her closer and closer to their final good-bye.

  It was quiet and peaceful inside the FBO. Mia let out a breath of relief and released her hair, f
inger combing it back.

  “Hey, Becky,” Silas said with a nod.

  It was the same young woman behind the counter.

  “Your bags,” she said, giving Mia a smile. “I’ll be right back.”

  “Looks like this is where we came in,” Silas said.

  Mia met his blue-eyed gaze, thinking it might be for the last time. Her chest tightened and her heart hurt. “Silas, I don’t want this to—”

  “Don’t,” he said, putting two fingers gently across her lips. “It was great, I mean great, meeting you, Mia.”

  Excuse me? Meeting her? Was that how he summed it up?

  He smoothed her windblown hair and stepped closer. “I’m going to miss you.”

  She relaxed then, anticipating his embrace.

  But he cupped her shoulders instead and gave her a kiss on the cheek. On the cheek? “Have a good trip back.”

  No way. That couldn’t be it. “What if I visit?”

  He drew back. “Why would you do that?”

  “Because that’s what people do. You and me—”

  He was shaking his head.

  She didn’t know what he meant. “You just said you’d miss me.”

  “I will.”

  “I’ll miss you too.”

  He gave a sad smile then. “You know as soon as you get to LA, your real life is going to scoop you up like a tornado. You’ll be far too busy to miss anyone.”

  But Silas wasn’t just anyone. He was Silas. Silas, the sexiest, toughest, smartest, most exciting man she’d ever met. Her first real lover; she knew that now. What she’d had with him was beyond anything she could have imagined or dreamed.

  “Just because I’ll be busy doesn’t mean I won’t miss you,” she said.

  He looked like he didn’t believe her, like he was humoring her.

  “I’m coming back,” she said with determination, knowing he couldn’t stop her.

  “Don’t do that.” He gave her a chaste kiss on the forehead this time. “Just let it be what it was.”

  “I don’t want that. I want more.”

  “You think you do. You’re an LA girl, Mia. It’s what you know. It’s where you thrive.” He was saying she was soft. He was saying she was wimpy. He was saying she wasn’t good enough for Alaska. Or maybe he just meant she wasn’t good enough for him.

  She was suddenly embarrassed.

  He was politely brushing her off, and she was clinging to him like a lovesick teenager.

  She straightened, her throat closing in. “You’re right. You’re you and I’m me, and that’s that.”

  “Afraid so.”

  She gave him a nod, not trusting her voice any longer.

  Becky reappeared behind the counter. “Two bags. One small roller bag, one garment bag.”

  “That’s them,” Mia said brightly.

  Becky stacked them on a luggage cart. “Are you going over to the main terminal?”

  Mia nodded.

  “I’ll call the shuttle driver.”

  Silas transferred her other bags to the luggage cart.

  “You don’t have to wait,” she told him as he turned back to her.

  “Okay. Good luck out there. I know you’ll knock them dead.”

  She barely got a thank you out before he turned and headed back out the glass doors.

  “Good-bye, Silas.” she whispered to his back.

  * * *

  * * *

  Silas landed on the Paradise strip, gliding over the newly smoothed patch from the creek washout before taxiing down the access road to park the Navajo. He shut things down and then sat there, staring at the trees.

  He should have told Mia to come back for a visit. He should have begged her to come back for a visit. Cold turkey was a stupid idea. Most things in life were easier to give up if you weaned yourself off gradually, and Mia was easily the hardest thing he’d ever had to give up.

  He delayed getting out of the plane, clinging to the scent of her perfume, which still lingered in the air. He spied the source: her multicolored scarf in the space beside her seat. It must have fallen from her tote bag somewhere along the trip.

  His first instinct was to rush it back to her, use it as an excuse for a do-over of their good-bye. This time he’d hold her close, kiss her deeply and tell her yes, yes, come back to Paradise just as soon as she could.

  But it was a ridiculous instinct. She was in the air by now on her way to Anchorage. The thought brought his mood down even further.

  He tucked the scarf into his pocket and pushed open the airplane door. He climbed out and tied the Navajo down. The hangar’s bay door was wide open, and Cobra was inside working on Papa-X-ray. Silas wandered that way.

  “Problem?” he asked Cobra, nodding to the plane.

  Cobra pulled back from the engine. “Nope. Hundred-hour service. Everything looks good. You can put it on the books for tomorrow.”

  “I’ll tell Brodie.”

  “You dropped her off okay?”

  Silas gave a nod. “She’s on her way back to the big city.”

  Cobra chuckled. “I think the whole town is in mourning.”

  “Not you too.” Silas hated to feel like just another guy in the crowd. He knew his relationship with Mia was special. Then again, according to Brodie, a lot of the guys felt that way.

  “Nah,” Cobra said. “I barely met her. Most of the other guys barely met her too. But that doesn’t keep them from dreaming.”

  “I guess.”

  “Not like you,” Cobra said.

  “What about me?”

  Cobra gave him a look that told him to quit bullshitting. “I practically live here, remember?”

  Silas tried to figure out what Cobra might have seen.

  And then it hit him. The day they’d come back from Wildflower Lake, he’d pretty much lifted Mia down from the airplane. He’d hugged her tight, hating the fact that their interlude was ending and trying to hold onto it a few moments longer.

  And the ride in the loader. There was no way Cobra could have seen what had happened between them. They were too far away. But he might have seen them leave and seen them come back.

  “Anybody else know?” Silas asked.

  “Need-to-know basis,” Cobra said, wiping down his ratchet handle with a cloth. “Nobody needed to know.”

  “Well, she’s gone now,” Silas said.

  “Sucks, I’m sure.”

  “It really does.” Silas was surprised at how much he wanted to talk about it. “I wish she’d come back.”

  “Will she?” Cobra placed the wrench back in the toolbox.

  “I told her not to.”

  “Why?”

  Silas shrugged. “Seemed like a bad idea . . . at the time.”

  “And now?”

  “Now I wish I’d gone with her.”

  Cobra chuckled. “You? In LA? Man, you’ve got it bad.”

  “I’ve got it bad,” Silas agreed, then considered Cobra’s apparent empathy. “Ever happen to you?”

  “Fall in love?”

  “I’m not in love.”

  Cobra looked unconvinced. “Maybe not.”

  “We’re talking about you now.”

  “Yeah,” Cobra said. “I fell for someone.”

  Silas as intrigued. “And?”

  “She fell for someone else. An investment banker. Well, in the end, he was an investment banker. We were all in high school at the time. I was taking shop classes. He was taking advanced calculus. They went off to college together, and I joined the Air Force two days after graduation.”

  “You regret losing her?” Silas asked.

  “Not since high school. I wouldn’t have made her happy in the long run.”

  “Same,” Silas said, knowing it was true. He wasn’t about to repeat his fathe
r’s mistake.

  “So, what next?” Cobra asked.

  “I’ve got planes to fly.” Silas might struggle to get over Mia, but at least he still had his life’s passion.

  “And I’ve got engines to make hum,” Cobra said.

  Silas clapped him on the shoulder. “Nobody appreciates your skills more than I do. Hey, you ever want to meet new women?”

  Cobra didn’t miss a beat. “Why? You got some?”

  “Maybe,” Silas said and chuckled. “It’s a thing Mia and Raven were working on, coming out of that silly poker game.”

  “I’m not gambling for women.”

  “No, no. Nothing like that. Maybe a meet-and-greet, with some of Mia’s friends from California.”

  “You are a sucker for punishment.”

  “No, I think it could really work.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Mia sat behind Alastair’s big mahogany desk, feeling like she’d been swallowed by the size of the room and the furniture. The place needed a makeover before she’d feel at home here. She’d get rid of the heavy curtains, maybe go for sleek blinds. They’d take up less space, so she’d get natural light from the entire window instead of just the middle section.

  The dark brown leather sofas were also on the hit list. She’d prefer armchairs; leather was okay, fabric even better, and a lighter color—cream, she thought. And the wood tones needed to be lightened up too.

  There was a tap on her door.

  “Yes?”

  “Ms. Westberg?” Alastair’s assistant, Veronica, cautiously opened the door.

  It was clear Veronica was nervous. Everyone in the company was nervous, and for good reason. The lawsuit had failed spectacularly, so whatever Henry and Hannah had promised the senior managers was off the table. Mia was in charge now, and quite a few people seemed surprised by the turn of events.

  “Here are the contracts you asked about.” Veronica stepped in with a file folder.

  Alastair had spoken glowingly of Veronica, but Mia didn’t know her particularly well.

  “Thanks,” Mia said.

  Veronica crossed to Mia’s desk and set the folder down before turning to go.