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"Uh-huh."
"It's just business," Alex said, hastily clearing her breakfast dishes and dumping them in the sink. She pulled aside a piece of egg-soaked toast and tossed it into Luna's waiting mouth. "The way I see it, if it will keep one more gun from being aimed at the area wolf packs, then I'm more than happy to pert Kade with an in-country day trip."
When she came back to the table to wipe it down, Jenna stared hard at her. It didn't take Alex's uncanny inner lie detector, or even Jenna's years of training as a cop, to read the plain and obvious fact that Alex was smitten. Turned inside-out by a man she'd known only a couple of days. Tempted to let this man who was a hundred confusing shades of gray into her tidy little black-andwhite world.
"Be careful, Alex," Jenna said. "I'm your friend and I love you. I don't want to see you get hurt."
"I know," she said. "And I won't."
Jenna laughed under her breath and waved her hand dismissively in front of her. "Well, why are you standing around when you need to get ready for this nondate? Go on. Luna and I will handle breakfast cleanup detail."
Alex grinned. "Thanks, Jen."
"But when you get back from this nondate," Jenna called after her as she raced down the hall, "I'm gonna want this guy's last name and social security number. And a full medical history, too. You know I'm not kidding!"
Alex did know that, but she was laughing anyway, floating on a welcome, if unaccustomed, feeling of excitement and hope.
Chapter Thirteen
Kade hadn't realized how much he was looking forward to seeing Alex again until he was watching her through the frosted glass window of her front door as she came to let him in. Tall and lean, dressed in dark jeans and a citrus-green fleece with a white turtleneck underneath it, her warm blond hair collected into a pair of braids that just cleared her shoulders on either side, she looked fresh as spring in the dead of the frigid winter. She smiled at him through the ice crystals clinging to the window, her naturally pretty face enhanced with only a bit of mascara and the sudden blush that rose into her cheeks.
"Hi," she said as she swung the unlocked door open for him. "You found me." He inclined his head in a nod. "I found you."
"Let me guess," she said, her smile lingering. "You walked all the way here like you did the other day in the bush?"
He smirked and gestured toward the snowmachine he'd parked in her yard. "I decided to ride today instead."
"Ah, of course you did." She held the door open for him. "Come in. I just have to grab my boots and gear and we can be off."
As she disappeared around a corner of the living room, Kade walked inside the cozy little house, letting his gaze roam over the simple furnishings and the inviting, casual feel. He could smell Alex in this place, could feel her in the clean, unfussy lines of the sofa and chairs, in the rustic, dark woods of the tables and the earthy greens and browns and creams of the woven rug under his feet. She came back into the room with laced-up Sorels on her feet and a thick khaki-colored parka draped around her. "Ready if you are. Leave your sled where it is. We'll go out the back and take mine to the airstrip."
Kade paused a couple of steps behind her. "The airstrip?"
"Yeah," she said matter-of-factly. "No snow in the forecast for the next couple of days, so why waste time sledding out when we can fly there?"
"I didn't realize we were going to fly." He felt a momentary twinge of uncertainty, something wholly foreign to him. "It's dark outside."
"My plane can't tell the difference between day and night," she said, a playful light dancing in her soft brown eyes. "Let's go. That is, unless you're uncomfortable with a little darkness, Kade." She was goading him, and damned if he didn't enjoy it. He smiled, more than up to any challenge she wanted to toss his way. "Lead on."
With Alex in charge and Kade happy to be riding behind her on the sled, if only for the excuse of wrapping his arms around her, they sped through the frozen back lots of town to where her single-engine plane was tethered at Harmony's joke of an airstrip. Aside from the hangar where the bodies of the Toms family still rested in temporary storage, the airport consisted of a short strip of hard-packed snow and family still rested in temporary storage, the airport consisted of a short strip of hard-packed snow and landing lights that barely cleared the tops of the highest drifts.
Alex's de Havilland Beaver had one neighbor for company, a small Super Cub that was rigged with fat tires instead of straight skis like Alex's. A wind gust rolled through the cleared land of the runway, pushing a cloud of powdery snow across the ground like a tumbleweed.
"Bustling place, eh?"
"Better than nothing." She parked the snowmachine and they climbed off. "Go ahead and get inside. I've got to run the system checks before we're ready to take off."
Kade might have balked at being ordered around by a female, if he hadn't been so intrigued by Alex's confidence in what she was doing. He climbed into the unlocked cockpit of the plane and closed the door. Even though the Beaver was the workhorse plane of the interior, Kade was struck immediately by the claustrophobic fit of the cockpit. At six foot four and 250 pounds without weapons and clothing, he was a large male by any standards, but sitting in the passenger seat of the single-engine plane, the curved metal panels and narrow windows felt like a tight cage.
Alex came around to the pilot's side and hopped into the seat behind the wheel. "All set," she announced cheerfully. "Buckle up and we'll be airborne in no time." This far remote in the Alaskan interior, it wasn't surprising that there was no traffic control, no tower to radio in to for clearance before takeoff. It was all on Alex to get them off the ground and headed in the right direction. Kade watched her work, impressed as hell by the way she took charge of the aircraft and set it moving on the pitifully brief runway. A minute later, they lifted off into the darkness, climbing higher and higher into a morning sky devoid of light except for the distant blanket of stars that glittered overhead.
"Nice job," he said, glancing at her as she leveled off their ascent and steered them through a few short patches of bumpy, gusting wind. "I take it you've done this once or twice before." She slid him a little smile. "I've been flying since I was twelve years old. Had to wait to get my official training and license until I was eighteen, though."
"You like being up here with the stars and clouds?"
"I love it," she said, nodding thoughtfully as she checked a couple of the gauges on the plane's dashboard, then looked back out at the vast nothingness in front of them. "My dad taught me to fly. When I was a kid, he used to tell me that the sky was a magic place. Sometimes when I'd get scared or wake up out of a nightmare, he'd take me up with him--no matter what time it was. We'd climb high into the sky, where nothing bad could reach us."
Kade could hear the affection in her voice when she spoke about her father, and he also heard the sorrow of her loss. "How long since your father passed?"
