“I’m here,” she said, turning her face up to look at me.
There wasn’t a stitch of makeup on her skin.
Something visceral and entirely inappropriate punched me in the gut. She’d been pretty yesterday, all gussied up. But today? With no makeup and looking like she was ready to tackle the wilderness?
Yeah… The, “I’m an independent and capable woman,” look did it for me.
Hastily, I pushed away those thoughts. They had no place in what we were about to do.
“I see that,” I replied. “And you’re early.”
“You were pretty adamant about the time.”
“No sense burning daylight.” I tipped my head toward the hangar. “Let’s go find our pilot, Ms. Decker.”
“I’m flying off into the wilderness with you. You can call me Lana.”
I nodded once, then, not waiting to see if she followed, I turned and headed for the man door set into the side of the tan-colored hangar.
The door creaked as I pulled it open.
Inside, bright light banished the shadows from outside. I glanced around, looking for Walker.
He popped out from behind the Piper Navajo situated in the center of the hangar.
“Hey there. You guys are early.” Striding forward, a wide grin spread over Walker’s face, showing off his almost too-white smile, as his gaze landed on Lana.
“Hello.” He held out a hand to her. “I’m Walker Marlowe. You must be the wedding planner.”
Pink dusted Lana’s cheeks. “Lana, please.” She shook his hand.
My own tightened around my backpack strap. Of course she’d be charmed by Walker. People didn’t call him Hollywood for no reason.
“Are you about ready to take off?” I asked.
One of Walker’s brows rose at the gruff note in my voice. He let go of Lana’s hand and stepped toward the plane. “Pretty much. I just finished my walk around the exterior of the plane. I just have to do my cockpit checks, but I’ll do that once we’re all on board.”
“Let’s load up, then.” I looked down at Lana. “Did you get more information from your bride?”
“I did. Tina said Dustin planned to hunt the ridges east of the Lace River and maybe work his way down into the low country if he didn’t find anything up there. She said this isn’t his first trip to the area. He usually camps near some unnamed tributary she called the eastern fork. I had her show it to me on a map. I have it circled on one in my backpack.” She pointed at the bag hanging from her shoulder.
“Well, that makes the drop zone a little easier to pick out.” Walker motioned us toward a table set up along the wall. “Let’s spread that map out and take a look.”
We followed him over, and Lana removed her pack, quickly finding the map hiding inside. She opened it up and spread it over the table. It was a laminated one, meant for harsh weather. On one side, circled with a grease pencil was an area that still felt too large to search.
Walker let out a low whistle and stated what I was thinking. “That’s a lot of ground to cover.”
“Yeah.” Lana sighed. “Tina also said he texted her Saturday to tell her he found fresh sign and was moving camp. He said he’d let her know when he stopped, but she never heard from him.”
“What’s this guy do for a living?” I asked.
“Construction. It’s how I ended up planning his wedding. He knows my brother.”
“And your brother is a construction worker?” Walker asked.
“Sort of. He’s an architect, but we both grew up helping our dad with his construction company. Luke’s in charge of that now, since Dad retired. Dustin works for the company.”
“Well, hopefully, that gives him some wilderness skills.” I folded up the map and handed it back to Lana, then looked at Walker. “Did you file our flight plan? Are we ready?”
