8 "Is this your first time up?"

But after he dropped Danny at Mrs.Huddleston's house, the pledge spun like a merry-go round through his mind as he drove towards Lee Tait's pier. She was shoving a box into the cargo hold of the seaplane, and the morning sun forged her thick ponytail into coils of copper.

"Good morning," she called when he climbed from his truck.

"Morning." pocketing his keys, he remembered how, twelve hours before, she'd appeared out of the night like a forest sprite. Jeez, Rogan what the hell's got into you? He strode down the wooden Dock as she lifted a box of packages. "Let me get those."

"Thanks, but I've done this a time or two, Mr Matt."

"Not while I've been in the vicinity." setting down his briefcase, he stepped beside her on the pontoon, and pushed the box unto the plane. Planting her hands on hips nicely encased in a pair of black slacks, she canted an icy green gaze up at him.

"Okay," she said and the sexy look of those aviator sunglasses perched on her head zapped through his veins. "let's get one thing Straight here and now. I'm not a helpless female in need of rescue. I've logged over ten thousand flying hours in ten years, and in that time I've transported luggage, snow and ski gear, fishing and hunting gear, vehicles and engines part, medical supplies, animals in cages----you get the picture?"

Despite his woozy belly at the thought of getting into a plane for the first time since the crash, he chuckled. "yes, ma'am. You are quite capable of loading your plane alone."

"Thank you. Now, why don't you leave your briefcase here with me and climb aboard." she gestured to the cockpit. "We'll be talking off in five minutes."

A lump bounced into his windpipe. The seat appeared narrow, constricted.... sized for a ten-year-old. "you want me to..."

"Settle yourself into the co-pilot's chair. Unless you'd rather sit behind me in the passenger seat."

Somehow the thought of her not beside him made his mouth go dry. He needed to see her face, the astuteness in her eyes, the calm she would offer when he no doubt lost it a mile up in the clouds.

A small crease staged itself between her fine auburn brows. Was she assessing him, wondering if she could fly him after all? Come on. Get in the damn plane before she figures out you're a candy-ass flier.

With epic effort, he stepped towards the door. His shoes felt bulky as cement, his legs as if they were chained to the dock's planks.

"Rogan." she touched the sleeve of his suit Coat. Her eyes held compassion. "Have you flown in a small plane before?"

He swallowed. "Not recently."

Her eyes narrowed. "Is this your first time up?" she asked.

"I've flown in commercial jets." Where there were center seats, broad aisle and hundreds of passengers. "I'm fine," he said when her hand dropped away. Biting his tongue, he climbed into the plane, squeezed his big body between the front seat, and landed on the co-pilot's cushioned chair.

The front windshield exposed a propeller, and dual bands of blue: one of the sky, the other of the ocean. Sweat popped from his pores.

The plane swayed and rocked gently on the water as Lee finished loading her cargo; then she scrambled into the pilot's seat and pulled the door shut.

Her brows knitted. "Need something to settle your stomach?"

"Took it with breakfast." he replied

"Good. Put on the headset," she instructed, back to business. "That way we can talk to each other."

"I'm not much of a talker when I'm in a plane."

He glanced over, tried to smile. She had a modesty he rarely saw in women. A modesty that had nothing to do with her green eyes and kinky ponytail or her freckled hands on the controls, all of which seemed at odds with the white V of blouse between the panels of her black flight jacket. A modesty that went hand in hand with her practical demeanor.

The entire package attracted the hell out of him.

She pushed the headset into his hands. "put it on anyway."

"Do you mind if I close my eyes?" yeah, that's what he'd do. And then he'd contemplate all Lee Tait's assets, including that wild red hair and those slim hips and---- The plane's engine roared to life.

"You can do anything you want." Her voice glided along his senses. "long as you remain buckled, and don't touch the controls."

"Got it." Touching the controls? God forbid. Pinching his eyes shut, he folded his arms, tried not to clutch the fabric of his suit coat.

Perspiration dampened his forehead. His stomach whirled.

Nothing will happen. Danny won't be left behind. But the image of his family wavered behind his eyes.

He tried not to think of what they had gone through when their plane crashed into the mountain forest, breaking branches and small tree trunks, swathing a path of demolition and death.

He tried not to think of his little boy alone in the world, crying for him. Or of Johnny attempting to console Danny. Raising Danny.....

"I'm right beside you," Lee said into the headphones when the plane began to move.

He listened to her voice while she ran through a list of checks---rudders, flaps, fuel gage---and gave their co-ordinates to the Renton tower before the plane skimmed the ocean, lifted, buzzed into the sky.

He heard the tone of her words more than their meaning. That assured tone. The quiet, steady tone.

And when he bit the inside of his cheek, he felt her fingers curve around his forearm. "You'll be okay with me."she promised.

And, in that moment, he believed her. He really did.

Lee kept her word and landed with barely a bounce on the south end of Lake Seril near Renton's seaplane base. Still, as he climbed out of the craft, Rogan could've bowed to the floating dock, so grateful was he to be earthbound again.