Page 72 of Falling for the Playboy Pilot

My chest clenched, but I adjusted course. We banked and dove, inched toward the ridge line while keeping speed steady and staying high enough to avoid getting lost in the billowing white smoke. Below us, the fire leapt into a fresh wave. The trees behind it flickered red then darkened black as they burned. The forest looked alive. Like it was fighting and losing a war.

“Shit,” I muttered.

Laser snapped directions into the headset. “Drop a few hundred feet. Adjust. Slow us to ninety knots. Watch the updraft.”

My arms burned from holding the plane steady in the current. My face was slick with sweat. Every fiber of my body was alive. I realized I was a little afraid to drop in altitude. But I quickly dismissed the thought. I was here to do exactly what I was doing.

I swallowed down the fear and used it to focus. Cheryl asked me not to kill her. I would do my best.

The plane shuddered again. I tightened my grip on the controls, my knuckles whitening. My heart was still racing, but it wasn’t just from the fire or the turbulence. It was from the realization that I was exactly where I was meant to be. For the first time in a long time, things felt like they were falling into place.

I glanced at the instruments, my eyes flicking between altitude and airspeed. The fire below was a living, breathing monster, but I wasn’t afraid of it. Not anymore. I had trained for this. I had fought hard to get the job. I was doing something I loved with people who were starting to feel like family.

Cheryl’s voice was calm and steady as she relayed information to base. I adjusted our course slightly, keeping us steady despite the updrafts that threatened to throw us off balance. My instincts kicked in. Years of flying had prepared me for this.

As we banked around another plume of smoke, my thoughts drifted to Dalton. He was on the ground waiting for us to finish our job so he could do his. I could imagine him glaring at everyone, arms crossed and grilling Gabriel over and over about the drop doors. Some people would see him as an asshole, but those of us that knew Dalton knew he was tough for a reason.

He wasn’t perfect. Far from it. But I could see the man he was before he lost his friend and got hurt. Of course he would demand perfection when anything less could get people killed. And of course he threw up protective walls around himself. Getting close to people led to pain and heartache in this line of work.

But maybe things could be different for him. Maybe we could be together and give things a real shot. I wanted to believe I had made a difference in his life. He did tell me he had never taken anyone to his cabin. That had to mean I was special.

Or maybe that was just me thinking I was someone important.

“I think I see more smoke down at the foothills, but I can’t tell from up here,” Laser said, her voice cutting through my wandering thoughts. “Get us in close so we can see what we’re working with. If these flames are jumping around, we need to get the tankers in here.”

My stomach dropped. Getting in close meant dropping altitude, which meant more turbulence, more heat, and less room for error. But Laser was right. We needed eyes on the situation before it got out of control.

“Copy that,” I replied, pushing the stick forward and beginning our descent. The plane responded immediately. As we lost altitude, the smoke grew thicker, and the heat radiating from below seemed to seep through the belly of the plane.

I reminded myself it was all in my head. We were safe.

At eight hundred feet, the updrafts hit us like they were trying to throw us out of the sky. The plane bucked and rolled, and I had to fight to keep us level. My palms were slick with sweat inside my gloves, but I kept my grip firm on the controls.

“There,” Laser said, pointing toward the eastern slope. “See that gray plume? That’s not just smoke—that’s a new ignition point. The fire’s definitely jumping.”

I banked left to get a better angle, my heart hammering. The plane shuddered through another pocket of turbulent air. Below us, orange fingers of flame licked at the dry brush, spreading fast. The sight was both terrifying and mesmerizing.

Cheryl was already calling it in.

“Tankers inbound,” she said. “This is going to be a long day. I hope you’re properly caffeinated.”

“I’m plenty awake,” I said.

I was playing a huge part in something that really mattered. It was everything I had wanted. I didn’t get to fly fighter jets and protect our county with the military, but I did get to protect the country in a different way. My way.