The Great Gift (Contemporary Romance - Urban Life)

by WRIGHT, MISTY

  Kent lowered his gaze, his smile falling. "No. I'm sorry. If you smile, I'll take the plane off auto and you can have a real fly."

  She faked a grin. "How do I know you won't try to trick me?"

  "I'm not into tricks."

  "What are you in for?" asked Alyssa.

  "I'm not sure if I should say." Kent flashed her a puppy dog look.

  "Okay, okay," she said, chuckling. "I'm into watching romantic movies while sitting by an open fire."

  "Don't all ladies think that?"

  "Maybe."

  "What's your favorite dream?" asked Kent.

  "Dream?"

  "Where do you see yourself in ten, twenty years from now?"

  Alyssa sighed. "My dream is to meet a man who is honest and loves me for me. After making love under the stars I want to fall asleep in his arms. I hope my dream comes true before I've aged ten years." She saw her one opportunity and decided it was time to dig out Kent's thoughts. "What about you? What's your biggest dream?"

  Kent looked out the plane window. "I want to meet a lovely lady who I can spend the rest of my life with. And I want to find a way to save The Oasis."

  "You won't meet too many ladies out in the middle of Australia."

  "I've met a few. They come out from the big smoke from time to time."

  Alyssa looked away. She suddenly felt devastated. She wanted to be the lady of Kent's dreams, but there was no way she could ever contemplate moving out to the bush. And how could she expect Kent to move to the city? She exhaled, and slumped her shoulders.

  "Would you ever want to move to the city?" she asked.

  "I could never leave The Oasis," he said. His voice was stern and steady. For a few uncomfortable moments, the only noise in the plane was the engines. "If I have to go to the big smoke to find my partner, I will," he added.

  Alyssa looked at him. He was looking cross-eyed at her, but he had a twinkle in his eye. Was he playing games again? Stringing her along or was he on the level? She felt a smile forming on her face. Maybe there was a flicker of hope, a small flame that wanted to grow into a raging fire. She caught him studying her face and to hide her smirk she looked away.

  Kent's hand brushed against Alyssa's knee as he leaned forward. This time she didn't utter a word. "Ready?"

  "Ready for what?"

  "To fly the plane?" He flicked the autopilot's toggle switch to the off position and whispered. "You have the controls."

  Alyssa moved the wheel slightly to the right. She squealed and beamed in delight as the plane started to bank. She brought the plane back to level and glanced at Kent. "This is a wonderful feeling. I didn't know I'd fall in love with flying a plane. Thank you for the privilege."

  "You're welcome."

  The radio crackled to life in their headsets. Kent flicked another toggle switch and a voice boomed in Alyssa's ear.

  "Oasis to Victor Charlie Foxtrot four, do you copy?"

  Kent raised a hand held mike to his mouth and winked at Alyssa. "Victor Charlie Foxtrot four to Oasis, I'm reading you loud and clear. What's the problem? Over."

  "What's your ETA? And have you more than one package? Over."

  "I've only got the one package and I'll be landing in forty-seven minutes. Over."

  There was a long pause. Alyssa watched Kent as he stared at an imagined fixed object directly ahead of the plane at the edge of sight. His brows slowly started to point downwards. She saw him look down and look to his left.

  Alyssa leaned slightly toward him, causing the plane to change direction two degrees. "What's the problem?" she whispered, quickly bringing the plane back to level.

  Kent hunched his shoulders and gave her a blank stare. Without looking, he reached out and moved the toggle switch to engage the autopilot to the 'on' position.

  Alyssa wore a dismayed expression. This man was not just handsome, she mused. He certainly knew his way around the cockpit of this plane. She allowed her shoulders to slouch and she was thankful to be able to relax. She suddenly felt stiff in the shoulders and watched with renewed interest as Kent peered out of the side window again as if he was studying the landscape. His eyes were wide. She followed his gaze, wondering what had spooked him.

  At first, she saw only white clouds dotting the sky. Then she noticed his eyes were as big as golf balls. She frowned and looked at the horizon again. The white clouds had joined to form a solid white front. As she watched, the white front started to change to gray then to black.

  Kent gulped. "Have to get moving." He leaned forward and turned the autopilot off. He wrapped his strong stubby fingers around the plane's throttle and pushed the lever all the way to its 'stop' position.

  Alyssa heard the plane's twin engines rev to an almost fever pitch.

  "Oasis to Victor Charlie Foxtrot four," came the same male voice through both their headsets. "Hurry up. It's raining buckets over The Oasis. You've got forty minutes to bed the plane."

  "The throttle is already fully open," Kent said through the radio.

  "Son, you might have to make the package push, over and out." Kent chuckled for the first time in five minutes.

  Alyssa could feel he was hiding something and started probing. "What does the voice mean you have to bed the plane? And why is he calling you 'son'?"

  Kent wiped the smile from his face. "There's nothing to worry about."

  "Are we running out of time? Are we late for dinner or something? Is our fuel low?"

  "No, but dinner might be late if we don't hurry."

  "You're not making any sense. I thought you outback people weren't afraid of anything. Surely you're not scared of rain?"

  "The voice over the radio belongs to Mr. Stanton. He suggested we hurry."

  "I take it I'm the one and only package?"

  Kent beamed at Alyssa's worried look. "You are, and I'm not about to make you get out and push."

  "You're a smart-mouthed jerk." She rattled the words off her tongue at lightning speed. "Is that the Mr. Stanton I'm supposed to meet?" She watched his smirk widen then watched his face breakout into a huge friendly smile that reached from shoulder to shoulder. "Why didn't you tell me you're Mr. Stanton's son?"

  "I didn't want to draw attention to myself. Every time I meet a woman, especially a beautiful one like you, they go all funny and start behaving like someone they're not."

  "Other ladies?" Alyssa felt a pang of jealousy starting to grow in the pit of her stomach. How could she feel that way? After all, he might only be an outback clown in a rodeo who could actually fly a plane. She hurriedly pushed the thought from her mind.

  "There's that echo again," said Kent.

  "Sorry, I don't understand."

  "My father, Earl Stanton, is a well-known business man. He's into cows and has the best breading stock in Australia. There's also a rumor floating around that there's gold under the ground The Oasis sits on. He's had many well-known celebrities come to the house for a visit and they've all said they'd buy the place. Dad has never said yes, and he never will."

  "Who started the rumor?"

  "My great-grandfather."

  "Is there any gold under the ground?"

  "No. At least, I don't think so."

  "What about the other ladies that you spoke of?" asked Alyssa.

  "I think I hear a slight case of jealousy in your voice."

  "You can't have, I don't know you well enough," said Alyssa.

  Kent put his hands up. "Okay. In case there is, you deserve to know more about me."

  "Finally," whispered Alyssa. "I didn't want to win the bet we made by default." The plane suddenly dived, swayed left and then right.

  Alyssa screamed and shut her eyes. She held the arms of the co-pilot's chair in a death grip and screamed again.

  "We're okay," said Kent, leveling the plane at the four hundred fifty meter mark. His words were coated with honey and he gently descended a further one hundred fifty meters.

  "What was that? And how can you be that calm? We nearly crashed!"

&n
bsp; "We were never in danger and that was just turbulence. By the look of the sky, it's already raining this side of The Oasis."

  Trembling from head to toe, Alyssa shook her head. She squinted in the bright sunlight as she studied the sky. "There's not a cloud in the sky out my window."

  Kent tapped her shoulder. She jumped, whirled around to face him and was confronted by an outstretched arm.

  "See the band of gray clouds directly ahead, near the horizon?" His voice was friendly, stern and had an authoritative tone.

  Alyssa squinted against the bright sun streaming through the window, then nodded. She hid her skepticism.

  "If you scan the horizon to my left, you'll see a solid mass of midnight-black clouds," said Kent. "I saw them before. They don't look like much of a threat."

  The plane changed direction seven degrees to the left and started to descend. Alyssa's eyes widened as she stared at the black mass approaching directly in front.

  "Tell me you're only trying to scare me," she said.

  "I'm not that cruel. They're bad storm clouds," said Kent.

  "Why did you change direction?" asked Alyssa.

  "The Oasis is to our left, right where the clouds are the darkest," said Kent.

  "Will there be lightning?"

  Kent nodded as the plane ducked and dived on its way toward the ground. "We're almost there. The wind is picking up. Three minutes and we'll be standing on the ground."

  Alyssa managed a wintry day smile as she watched the clouds loom closer. The black swirling mass was moving incredibly fast. The clouds looked like giant charcoal-colored cotton balls that had been dipped in black ink and hung low in the sky. Lightning lit up the shortened horizon like fireworks. Visibility was diminishing. She felt like a tiny insect that was about to be squashed. She gulped and clutched at the seat. She watched the ground coming up to greet them, but what was supposed to look friendly and inviting looked desolate and barren. The trees were stripped of their bark and had been left to dry where they once grew. The wind was sweeping across the ground and she marveled at the dust storm that was about to swallow the plane.

  They flew low over a dam and circled a house several times before the plane lined up perfectly in the middle of a dirt road. Weeds grew right up to the path's edge, and dried bracken tumbled across their path in the strengthening wind.

  "I hope you're up to some hard work," said Kent, noticing her doubtful expression. Alyssa gasped, recovered and squared her shoulders. She sighed as the plane bounced a few times on the hardened clay road before it was steered toward a blue weatherboard house. The thought of giving up and letting Kent win the bet flashed into her consciousness. She had barely enough time to gather her wits before Kent opened the plane's door and was yelling over the noise of the wind to encourage her to hurry.

  The plane had stopped not more than ten meters from the old two-room cottage that had seen better years. Alyssa screwed up her nose at the broken steps leading up to the main door. Someone who wasn't very good at carpentry had boarded up the broken glass panel on the front window, and she wondered why Kent had let The Oasis fall apart, seeing how he was supposed to adore the place. She didn't understand why he thought The Oasis was perfect.

  Alyssa decided bush folk and city people had two different ideas on what were sustainable lodgings. 'Oasis, home sweet home,' she thought. If anyone could live in this place out in the middle of who knows where, she could. She'd treat it as a two-week working holiday. She dug her heels into a dried weed and was filled with relentless determination to win the bet.

  "After all, it's only for two weeks," she mumbled.

  She glanced at Kent and wondered if he really would live in the city, the 'big smoke' as he put it, or if he was stringing her along just so he could win the bet. Alyssa clapped her hands together and walked towards the front door of the house.

  "Where are you off to?" Kent yelled over the wind.

  Overhead, the black clouds billowed. The first thunderclap roared above the wind. Alyssa stood on the first rotten wooden step and swiveled on her heels. "Inside. I don't want to get wet, and, looking at the state of this house, it'll take hours to find and plug all the holes."

  "There's no time. We have too much work to do outside," said Kent.

  "I bet there's more work to be done on the inside. The house probably hasn't had a woman's touch in fifty years."

  Kent chuckled and then broke into a deep belly laugh. Alyssa fumed at being laughed at and stormed toward the plane.

  "What's so funny?" she said.

  "I can tell you think this place is The Oasis," said Kent. The deep pitch of his voice was calming. He placed his hand on her shoulder and gave a caring, whispered laugh.

  She glanced at the house and began to doubt if the dwelling was even inhabitable. Kent's hard, calloused hand sent electricity throughout her body. She quivered at his manly smell which was nearly too much for her. She shook the thoughts away.

  "If this place isn't The Oasis, then what is it?" she snapped.

  Kent stopped laughing and looked seriously into Alyssa's green eyes. "This land is part of The Oasis, but where we live is eighty kilometers farther from here. We had to land here to check the fences of the holding pen, the water pump, and drop off some food for the hungry gang when they arrive."

  "Hungry gang, out here?" she craned her neck and tried to see through the wind. "I don't see anything or anyone."

  "Come, I'll show you around the place as we start our check," said Kent.

  "Shouldn't you close the plane's cargo door?" questioned Alyssa. "I don't want to see you get upset when it fills with sand or rain water."

  Kent looked back at the plane. "It'll be okay, the door's facing away from the wind." Alyssa walked next to him as the wind slammed grains of dirt into their ankles. Her exposed arms and face couldn't escape the constant barrage of flying grains, either. She shielded her eyes against the flying dust with her hands.

  "In seven days, the five acres before us will be full of cattle," said Kent, gesturing at the windswept clay. "One hundred cows, to be exact. The trucks will roll up. The cattle will be loaded and we then bolt for The Oasis to bring the next hundred cows, and so on till all the cattle have gone." He power walked in the direction of the dam. Alyssa had to run into the wind to keep up.

  "Sounds like you're getting rid of all your cows," she said.

  "We are."

  "Why?"

  "Like I told you before, my family is in a tight financial spot. That's why my father needs an extra hand for the next two weeks. He was hoping to have five blokes turn up at the airport."

  Alyssa stopped and gazed at Kent. Her eyes welled up with tears. For the first time, she thought all of what she'd gone through was on the level.

  Kent took a step and was pushed into Alyssa by the wind. They wrapped their arms around each other to stop the wind from pushing them into the ground. For a long moment, they stood there in the wind staring into each other's eyes. Kent leaned his face close. Alyssa copied him, tilting her head. His warm breath swept across her cheeks, fanned by the wind. She smiled. Kent smiled. Their bear hug tightened.

  "Strange place to start a romance," she whispered, grinning.

  Kent raised his eyebrows. Their lips brushed. Alyssa closed her eyes and was desperate to melt into the moment. As the wind surged about them, it threw both of them off their feet. Alyssa fell backwards. She closed her eyes tighter and waited for the pain. She felt the thud, but there was no pain. She opened her eyes and saw Kent wince in pain. He had twisted underneath her to cushion the fall.

  "Are you okay?" she questioned.

  "I'll be fine if you kiss me."

  Alyssa lifted herself off him, only to be pulled back down. She was a prisoner in his strong arms. He lifted his head. Alyssa dropped hers, and, right in the middle of a storm, in the middle of the Australian outback, kilometers from anywhere, she knew something was about to happen.

  Lightning pierced the charcoal-colored sky directly above their
heads. The deep thunderclap was lagging behind, but only by a few seconds. Alyssa didn't care. Love had started to germinate. She wanted time to speed up so the urges she felt might quickly grow and blossom.

  "You only want to win the bet?" She had said the words as a test of his loyalty. She had to find out all about his secrets if love had a chance to grow. She wanted to make sure before committing herself to a man yet again. Then there was the fact that she had to have the perfect gift. Without it, their love would never stand a chance.

  "Forget the bet," said Kent. "I surrender."

  "I'm not sure that I'm convinced."

  He pushed her off and gently lowered her to the ground. He stood and held out his hand. "It's urgent we start work."

  She sighed and knew that the moment had passed. She wondered if the way she was feeling could be a mistake.

  Alyssa allowed him to pull her to her feet. Almost immediately, the wind tried to knock her over. She lost balance and tightened her grip. Kent leaned into the wind and pulled hard. She was back in his arms. He grinned. The electricity that was arcing between them was indeed hard to resist. Had he felt it? He must have felt something. She mentally cursed the stupid, childish bet they had made. It was getting in the way, causing a stumbling block between them. If only they hadn't made that bet.

  The wind swirled forcing their bodies to move closer. The thin splinter of light between them abruptly vanished. Alyssa gagged on the dust in her mouth.

  "Kent, about that bet?" she started. "You want to back out? Renegotiate?"

  This was an awkward time and certainly the wrong place to bring up the subject, but somebody had to be brave and humble enough. She had to be strong to allow the seed of love to grow. Kaite's father used to say the same thing. 'Be brave,' she heard him say over and over. 'To let a shy person know how you felt, you had to be brave. Take the initiative and be first. The worse thing they might say is no.' She cleared her dry throat and swallowed a mouthful of dust.

  "I've been thinking," she said.

  Kent looked at the sky and shook his head. "The storm isn't about to wait. We can talk later."

  "I really have something that I need to say," said Alyssa.

  "It'll have to wait. That storm is approaching fast. We don't have much time." Alyssa watched him walk off into the wind. She felt how she looked: devastated. He had conveyed the answer to her question on how he may feel about a long-term relationship. Who was she kidding? She had come to the outback wanting to forget about men and how they had hurt her, and here she was making goo-goo eyes at a man she barely knew, hoping that he might be Mr. Right. Her eyes narrowed to slits. Fortunately, she had quickly discovered that he was definitely Mr. Wrong.