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Marcus rubbed his hands on his thighs while he thought, as if feeling the texture of the fabric with his fingers. “If you had someone else flying, and you were in a parachute as well, so you could go down with him if he chose to jump, it might work. I think it’d need to be an up and almost right back down trip the first time, immediately followed by a five-minute flight, and if he handles it okay, a ten-minute flight.”
“I think I’d rather pilot him, and have someone I trust handy to jump with him. They could be outfitted for a tandem jump, so he won’t need any training. Is my logic good? It would give him an escape, so if there were problems with the helicopter he had a plan B — another option. And if he felt claustrophobic, he’d have a way out.”
“It just might work.”
And now for the question she hadn’t expected to find an opportunity to ask, but the conversation had worked around to give her an opening, so she’d take it.
“I’ve wondered — is it possible Kyle’s fascination with me has to do with the fact I’m involved in search and rescue? That I’m one of the people who sometimes pull people out of small plane crashes? I mean, this was such a pivotal point in making him who he is, and he’s found someone to love who could have been one of the people who....” She stopped talking. She couldn’t completely vocalize the thought.
“Were you in uniform when he met you at the hospital that first time?”
“Yes. We’d just brought someone else to the hospital, and I went to check on someone we’d rescued a few days earlier out of a wilderness area. She’d fallen from a cliff and broken her leg, and I went in with a ’copter, dropped someone down to her, and pulled them up. She was a real trooper on the flight back, and I wanted to check in on her. They had to do surgery to set the bone with pins; it was a nasty break.”
“And Kyle had sewn her face up while they fixed her leg, so he was there checking on his handiwork at the same time you were checking on yours.”
“He put thirty-two stitches in her face and she doesn’t have a single scar to show it. He’sreallygood. Do you think he’s attracted to me because I sometimes do the search and rescue thing?” She wasn’t going to let Marcus change the subject without giving his opinion.
“I think it’s possible it may have gotten his attention at first, but I don’t think it has anything to do with the relationship you formed later. The two of you have chemistry — anyone who’s around you sees it. Even before you started officially dating, we all saw it.”
“And you all wondered why I kept him at arm’s length. Now you know.”
“You were afraid you’d lose his friendship if the sex thing didn’t work, and since it hadn’t worked with anyone else, you were determined not to let it go past friends. Now that you know your libido works just fine, are you going to need to experiment around with other people before settling down?”
“I love Kyle, and you’re growing on me. I can’t see myself…” She shook her head. “I know I brought it up, but do me a favor and wait to shrink me when I’m not in the pilot seat. I can talk about other people and fly, not so sure I want to talk about my own issues while flying.”
Marcus laughed. “Fair enough. Tell me about the controls. Show me what you’re doing and why?”
Chapter 18
As Heather prepared to land in the field near Marcus’s house, she was amazed at the view. She went through the shutdown procedure before she admired it too much though, and she noted Marcus watched her with an odd look on his face while she went through the three-minute process.
When it was finally time to get out, she reached for her seatbelt and saw Marcus reaching for his. “Like I said, it’s not like just turning off a car.”
“What would happen if you didn’t do all of that?”
“The rotors are spinning pretty fast when we land. I have to safely get them slowed down, but the problem with that is the bird wants to flip over if you don’t do it just right. That’s why I asked you to keep your seatbelt on until you saw me taking mine off.”
“Probably best you word that a bit differently should you ever instruct Kyle to keep his seatbelt on for that part of the ride.”
“Right. You’re sure no vandals are going to come along and do something to it here?”
“I own twenty-nine acres up here. There are some rental cabins below us, but this house is fenced in with a privacy fence, and that includes this lot. I like to host clothing-optional parties, and I don’t want people stumbling upon my outdoor guests.”
“You said you could get someone to mow this field, and it looks like they did — who has access onto the property?”
“The management company that handles the rentals has access so they can handle the maintenance for the house, and so their cleaning staff can enter. Dinner and some groceries should be in the fridge; we’ll just need to pop dinner in the oven and we’ll be good to go.”
“What are we eating?”
“There’s a mom-and-pop Italian place in town, family run, and their food is beyond delicious. I had them put together a lasagna, ready for the oven, and the management company had someone pick it up along with my groceries. They usually bring flowers too, though I never ask for them.”
Heather shook her head. “We could’ve brought groceries, so you didn’t have to pay your management company to shop and run errands for you.”
“But then I’d have had to do the grocery shopping before I met you, and I went straight from the office to the airport. I have someone who does my shopping for me at home, too. It isn’t a chore I enjoy.”
“Did you grow up with a lifestyle of maids and chauffeurs?”
She saw a muscle in his jaw tighten. “Yes.”
