Where the Heart May Lead: A Clean Romance (Harlequin LP Heartwarming)

by Elizabeth Mowers

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHARLIE HANDED PAIGE a headset and motioned for her to place it over her ears.

  “Can you hear me?” he asked through the microphone on his own headset.

  “Loud and clear.”

  “Your seat belt buckles like ones on a regular airplane,” he said. “Well, if you ever fly on a commercial flight, this will look familiar. Just unlatch the metal clasp to loosen it.”

  She followed his instructions, cinching the belt. He could tell she was nervous, and it made her even more endearing to him. The fact she was willing to go up for her first airplane flight with him made him smile with satisfaction.

  “What are you doing now?” she asked, her eyes darting to follow each movement of his hand like a cat stalking a dangling string. “You’ll tell me before we take off, won’t you?”

  “Just the preflight checks,” he said, working to keep his voice as calm and soothing as he could. “I’m going to crack the throttle. We’re priming the engine by flowing fuel into the cylinders right now.”

  Paige grabbed his hand, throwing him off guard. He wanted to tell her he couldn’t hold her hand during the takeoff process, but then she pressed it to her chest. His face perked in surprise.

  “My heart’s beating out of my chest, Charlie Stillwater.”

  Her voice crackled through the headset speaker as her eyes wildly flashed up at him. She kept his hand firmly over the spot, an area of her body he’d never touched before. He wanted to slip off his headset and kiss her there, slowly and delicately just as he’d imagined. He’d draw a cursive line with his lips until she invited more. The sun flickered off the water, making a golden backdrop behind her, lightening the hair around the crown of her head like a halo. She was nearly hypnotizing.

  “You’re going to be all right, you know,” he said, reclaiming his hand to keep his wits about him. “Will you do me a favor before we take off?” She nodded eagerly. “Look out your window as far back as you can see. Tell me if any boats are heading our way.”

  Paige jostled in her seat, craning her neck to look.

  “I don’t see any.”

  “Good. We have a clear runway.”

  Every time he fired up the engine, the loud puttering was sweet music to his ears. How could he give up his plane? Even if he couldn’t support himself giving tours around Roseley the way he had been able to along the ocean shore, he couldn’t part with this sound, this experience. He had wanted to fly his whole life, and he was too young to give up on his dream just because someone else had ruined his first attempt to make it a reality.

  “You look like you’re doing something,” Paige said.

  “Water rudders...right tank has a good supply of fuel...check.” Charlie noted each of his flight checks in the exact same order he always practiced. Now was not the time to get distracted by his pretty copilot or he could miss something crucial. “Elevator track...lower flaps...clear on both sides...we’re going to idle out on the water.”

  “Is this it? Are we taking off?”

  Charlie cracked a wide grin. “Don’t you love this feeling?” he said. He pulled back on the wheel a bit to smooth it out.

  “I’ll let you know once I return home alive.”

  “You’re doing great. We’re about ready. Avionics...beacon...landing...strobe lights...headsets on...ready for flight.”

  “This is it!” Paige said, clasping her hands. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into this.”

  “You’ll be thanking me in about thirty seconds.”

  Charlie scanned the lake again for boats on either side of them before skimming his eyes over the horizon. He needed to get the prop away from the water and spray, to get the best pickup.

  “Is this what a regular plane sounds like?” Paige asked over the noise and momentum of the aircraft speeding across the water.

  “This is much louder. Your seat is only a couple feet off the water. It’s more like the intensity of a speedboat, but not for long.”

  Through the windshield, a view segmented into three triangles because of an inverted brace bar in front of them, the coast on the opposite side of the lake was very distant but getting closer by the second as they sped toward it. He loved the speed, the element of excitement that was always present. He couldn’t control what Crystal had done or what Paige might do down the road, but he knew how to fly a plane.

  Paige threw a hand around the brace bar and looked to Charlie for affirmation that that was okay. He nodded as the pitch of the engine changed. In a matter of a few seconds the friction of the plane against the water ceased and they officially pulled up into the air, taking flight.

  “Oh!” Paige called. “Here we go!”

  Boats disappeared into water bugs skimming the lake below them. The brilliance of the neat green lawns cozied up against a sapphire-blue lake briefly gave Charlie something to admire more than Paige.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” he said.

  “I’ve never had a view like this before. Everything below is so small it looks fake.”

  Charlie chuckled. “It always does. I think that every time I fly.” He slowly banked to the right before straightening them out to follow the shoreline.

  “I can see why you love this now.”

  A small satisfaction came over him as he watched her enjoy the view. “I think I hooked you. You’ll be going for your own pilot’s license in no time, Freckles.”

  She let out a whooping laugh. “I wouldn’t rule anything out, Charlie.”

  * * *

  THE SKY HAD begun to turn to orange and pink, oil paint streaks covering as far as they could see, when Charlie aimed the plane toward the sunset. Every time he banked one way or the other, Paige’s stomach floated up into her chest, suspending her breath for a few delightful moments. She felt as effervescent as champagne bubbles lifting off from the bottom of a fine-stemmed crystal flute, and with Charlie secured by her side, she wasn’t sure she ever wanted to come back down again.

  “I wish I could live up here,” she said, without giving a second thought to how silly it sounded. The joy of cruising high above everything had momentarily suppressed her usual filter.

  “You can,” he said, the static of the headset doing nothing to mask the warmth in his voice. “I’ll take you up anytime you want.”

  She believed him. He smiled with the happiness of a person whose passion had been understood and appreciated, and it made her wish for something like it too. She’d never had something of her own to love as much as he loved flying.

  “I envy you this, Charlie. This passion of yours.”

  “Don’t you have one?”

  She shook her head as her eyes found his.

  “I don’t have much, Charlie. That’s why I’m so scared of losing the few things I do have.”

  She thought of Lucy. Since she had found the girl and met her, how could she walk away now? It was hard to imagine a time when she could safely reveal her relationship to Lucy, but perhaps she could still be in her life somehow. Couldn’t she be the kind of friend who becomes so close to the family, over time, everyone begins to call her auntie? She could be Aunt Paige. She could feel satisfied her entire life as Aunt Paige, couldn’t she?

  And then there was Charlie. It had been so vital in the past to push people away and not let them get close for fear they would ask the wrong questions or lead the wrong people to her. But Charlie had charmed his way into a date and then another, and if she was honest, it was because she had fallen for him the first time they’d met; it didn’t have anything to do with Lucy. So maybe her life was finally falling into place. Maybe it was time for her to finally get the things she had desired her entire life.

  “Do you want to see where the Water Dancers perform?” he said, snapping her out of her daydream.

  “Remind me who they are again.”

  Charlie banked the p
lane toward the shore.

  “The Water Dancers Ski Club has been around for eighty years. They’re kind of the club to join on Little Lake Roseley. They perform every Wednesday night in the summer right over there.” He pointed to a long beach where a floating dock displayed their large banner.

  “I’d love to see that show.”

  “Their first show is tomorrow night. I’ll take you, if you’re still around.”

  She could tell his friendly invitation had more intention behind it. He wanted to know her timeline, whether she planned to stay. She wanted to know that too.

  “So, if this is Little Lake Roseley, where is Lake Roseley?”

  Charlie pointed. “Nine miles that way. It’s almost four times as big as this one.”

  “Why not run a tour guide company and include both lakes? Could you get enough business from both?”

  Charlie sat in silence, staring out over the water as he prepared for landing. She thought perhaps he hadn’t understood what she’d said until he turned to her.

  “It’s not the same as touring oceanside, but it’s something worth considering.”

  “There has to be something else you can do with this plane. You cannot get rid of it.”

  He laughed. “I’d love to hear you say that in front of Mara. I half expect her to slip a for-sale sign on the windshield when I’m not looking.”

  “You listen to me, Charlie,” she said, her voice firm. “Don’t you dare sell this plane. Roseley needs it even if you don’t know why yet.”

  He chuckled. “You have no idea how much I want to believe you.”

  A booming voice bursting through the dashboard radio made Paige jump, and by the confusion on Charlie’s face, she figured it didn’t happen often, at least not when he wasn’t giving tours.

  “Cessna 206 Chuckie, this is Squad Car 27. Do you copy?”

  Charlie side-glanced at Paige before responding.

  “I copy, 27. Tully, is that you?”

  “Yes. I’m here with Officers Randall and White.”

  Paige’s face instantly tightened at the sound of Tully’s voice. If Tully had run her name in the police database, he’d be waiting at the dock in his squad car by the time they landed. She couldn’t believe she’d let herself get cornered like this. It was so unlike her. So rash, too reckless.

  “How’d you know I was up?”

  “A squad car spotted you. Do you have a passenger?” By his tone and directive, she knew this wasn’t a social call.

  Charlie smirked at Paige. “I do, and she’s a lot prettier than you. Jealous?”

  There was silence over the radio. Every second that ticked by without Tully’s response made Paige’s stomach roll in nauseous waves. What on earth did he have to say, and why wasn’t he saying it? Was he afraid he’d tip her off? Did he already know what she’d done?

  Finally, Tully’s husky voice barreled through the line.

  “We need your eye in the sky. What is your location?”

  Charlie instantly straightened.

  “Pier thirty at twelve hundred feet.”

  “Head toward pier one-twenty. Look for a speedboat.”

  “Make and model?”

  “Jet boat. Fifteen-foot Scarab with red hull. She’ll be racing.”

  “Copy that.”

  Charlie tipped the nose of the plane slightly toward the open water, descending for a closer look.

  “What’s going on?” Paige asked through bated breath. She wasn’t completely certain Tully wasn’t pursuing her. Maybe it was meant to distract her until they landed.

  “Not sure. Might be a theft or the police might be looking for a person of interest. I’ve gotten calls like this before in North Carolina. Never had one here.”

  Paige scanned the shoreline. “It might be docked somewhere.”

  “Possible. But by the sound of it, someone is on the run.”

  “With so many boats, I’m not sure how we’re going to know which one is our winner.”

  “Just look for anything suspicious.”

  Paige leaned closer to her window. She wanted to spot the boat and do something helpful for Charlie before she slipped out of his life forever. The sick gut-wrenching turn that had happened because of Tully’s voice had revealed to her a sad truth. She couldn’t stay in Roseley after tonight.

  “I love this,” Charlie said as she turned to admire the ruggedly handsome lines of his profile. “I could do stuff like this all day.”

  “Are you an adrenaline junkie?”

  “I never considered myself that before, but there is something fun about the rush of it all, don’t you think?”

  Paige turned back for her window. Maybe it would be more exciting if she wasn’t worried Tully was waiting for her when they landed.

  Just then, Paige spotted a small dot on the horizon. Even at a distance she could tell the blur was racing. She could barely make out that it was a boat, let alone what color or model it was, but she knew.

  “That’s it, Charlie!” she said pointing straight ahead. “I know it!”

  Charlie nodded and lined up the nose of the airplane. Without hesitating, he went for the radio.

  “Squad Car 27, we’re tracking a boat that might be your suspect. It’s southwest of Caribou Island, heading east.”

  “Copy, Chuckie. Please pursue.”

  “Copy that.”

  “Do you think it’s a criminal?”

  “Hard to say,” Charlie said. “This lake is so safe, it’s hard to imagine anything truly sinister happening here.”

  “That’s exactly what people say on the news after there’s a gruesome murder.”

  “Hmm, I suppose...”

  “People are people, Charlie,” she said, sadly recalling Tully’s prior observation, which had rung so true with her. “There are villains everywhere even if you don’t recognize them at first.”

  “Whoa,” he said. “I didn’t know you were so cynical. Have you known a lot of villains in your day?”

  Paige shrugged. She’d known one.

  “I only meant it might be exciting to think you and I are chasing a serial killer or something. It could happen.”

  “If we catch a serial killer tonight, Paige Cartman, I’m getting you on the eleven o’clock news.”

  “No need for that,” she said sharply, but Charlie just jerked his head toward the lake. They approached the speeding boat, and much to Paige’s delight, she spotted the bright red paint reflecting in the setting sunlight. “I think we’ve got our man!”

  “Squad Car 27, suspect heading north between Caribou Island and shoreline.”

  “Copy, Chuckie.”

  “Chuckie?” she asked.

  Charlie turned his head at the amusement in her voice.

  “It’s the name of my plane,” he said, circling north.

  “Is your legal name Charles?”

  “Nope. My dad’s name was Charles, but he never liked it. After he died, my mom wanted to name me after him, but chose Charlie for my legal name.”

  “That was sweet of her.”

  “She’s a sweet person, much like you.”

  “I don’t know how sweet I am.”

  Charlie flashed his signature grin at her as he directed the plane lower toward the boat.

  “You’re sweet, Freckles. Trust me.”

  “Where is your mom now?”

  “She and Glenn moved to Florida a couple of years ago. The humidity helps Glenn’s asthma, but they’ll be up for a visit in a few weeks.”

  Charlie’s statement hung in the air. She knew she wouldn’t be around to meet them and was grateful when Tully interrupted.

  “Chuckie, can you get a view?” Tully asked.

  “Copy, 27. We have three suspects on board.”

  “They look kind of young,” Paige
said. “Their bodies are scrawny like children or teenagers.”

  “You’re right. This is bad.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they’ve probably stolen that boat and don’t know how easily they can hit the wake off another boat and flip themselves.” Charlie got on the radio. “27, suspects look to be teenagers. What is your location?”

  “We have two boats northbound, over.”

  “Copy that, 27.”

  Paige perched at the edge of her seat and grasped the brace bar with both hands for lack of anywhere else to channel her concern. These young men had no idea how dangerous a situation they had put themselves in. They might not understand until they were adults or in a worst-case scenario, until they flipped the boat and had to deal with whatever the outcome. What did teenagers know about the long-term ramifications on the future and how their choices at this tender age could impact the rest of their lives and the lives of others? She hadn’t known squat when she had been their age, but she’d lived with the consequences of her actions, and Trudy’s actions, every day.

  “These kids are going to kill themselves, Paige. We have to get them to slow down, but I’m afraid lowering the plane will spur them on.”

  Paige studied Charlie, whose face had contorted into a road map of lines, some from worry, some from frustration. They had to do something, but what?

  A surge of resolution flooded Paige’s veins as she furiously unfastened her seat belt. Her hands flailed over the piles of gear on the back seat and floorboard, searching for something, anything that could help them.

  “Put your belt back on, Paige!” Charlie called through her headset speakers. “I don’t have time to worry about you too.”

  She didn’t pay him any attention. She was after something, and she’d only know it when she spotted it—