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“Today, not only did he spot the missing tourists, but Bjørn came up with an idea to rescue them I’d never seen anyone actually execute.” Dad shook his head in amazement. If Dad was impressed, then Bjørn must be the real deal. Nothing ever impressed her father. “It would’ve taken us hours to get that couple off of the mountain without his quick thinking. Having him there saved that man’s life today.”
Man, Dad laid it on thick. Was he really that impressed, or was the speech to make sure the recruit stuck around? Bjørn held up his hands in surrender, then looked behind him in expectation.
“I can’t wait to meet this guy you’re talking about.” Huh. So, the hero’s head hadn’t inflated with all that hot air Dad had spewed? “I’m just glad I was around to help. I know how precarious life is in these situations. I’m all in, however I can help.” He shrugged. “I’ll also wrangle my brother to volunteer, though he lives outside of town a bit. He’s a retired pararescueman, so this stuff is right up his alley.”
Wow. Two siblings with extreme careers? That must have been a competitive family growing up. Maybe his parents were like Sadie’s, not letting her and Violet slack or shirk responsibilities. Sadie glanced at Violet, glad they both loved being a part of SAR. Her sister tilted her head toward Bjørn, wiggled her eyebrows, and fanned herself. Sadie rolled her eyes. On second thought, maybe having her sister around wasn’t so great.
Bjørn sat back down. His chest heaved like the attention had made it hard for him to breathe. She liked that he didn’t have the cocky, I-am-god mentality she’d come up against lately. Okay, that wasn’t exactly fair. It was just that one jerk from Anchorage, but he’d left a bitterness she’d have to root out.
Sadie cocked her head to the side as she stared across the room at Bjørn. An idea formed in her mind. Would he be willing to help her with her training? She had been racking her brain to come up with a way that she could acclimate the dogs to flight, but hadn’t thought of anything that wouldn’t take hours of driving and thousands of dollars. Would her small budget be enough to entice him to fly her and the dogs around?
He glanced across the room, his gaze snagging on hers. His smile built slowly, the left dimple popping out a second before the right. She smiled back before she realized she’d been staring. She bit her bottom lip and turned her attention back to her dad. Shoot. Could the meeting get any more embarrassing? Should she even ask him now that he’d caught her gawking like a lovesick high schooler?
She chanced a peek back at him, thankful that he had bent sideways to talk with Kemp and didn’t see her. Dad ended the meeting, and everyone stood to leave or chat. Should she suck it up and ask or sneak out before she added on another layer of humiliation? Any other day, the attention wouldn’t have bothered her. So why did Bjørn’s presence change that?
Sadie stood and pulled her shoulders back. It didn’t change a thing. If she wanted to move North STAR Kennel forward, she’d have to do hard things, like talk the Nordic masterpiece into taking her flying. She just had to remember she wasn’t what guys wanted and keep her feet on the ground.
