The sign over the building brought Kari up short

Bus Station.

What business would the girl have there? This morning, none of the D’Angelos had mentioned a family member coming or leaving town.

A vague, uneasy feeling stole over Kari. She went through the glass door. The station was a small, functional place, and in no time she saw Tessa standing near the bus bay. With a boy. Luggage around their feet.

They didn’t see her approach. Both were absorbed in the contents of the bag Tessa held. They looked like kids exclaiming over Halloween treats. They were kids!

“…should be enough snacks to hold us until we get to Albuquerque,” Tessa was saying as Kari reached them. “I got those chocolate-covered raisins you like.”

“Tessa?”

The blond boy looked up, and Tessa swung around. Her features went dead-white, and her eyes moved like a trapped rabbit’s. “Oh, K-Kari,” she stammered out. “Oh, hi.”

Dear Reader,

A long time ago this born-and-bred Florida girl spent a couple of years living in Colorado. What a shock that was! Snow instead of sand, mountains instead of beaches, and for neighbors, wild animals instead of tourists.

Eventually, circumstances brought me back to my home state, but I’ve never forgotten Colorado’s beauty. So when I started thinking of new places to set my next book, I couldn’t help remembering a terrific little family-run resort I’d found on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park.

The Daughter Dilemma, the first of the HEART OF THE ROCKIES series, is based on those fond memories.

This book introduces you to Nick D’Angelo, the oldest son. Nick has his hands full running Lightning River Lodge, piloting helicopter tours, keeping his teenage daughter out of mischief and fending off his loving family’s determined efforts to see him remarried. When Kari Churchill literally drops out of the sky and into his life, he can’t wait to see the last of her.

As for Kari, she has her own busy career and her determination to learn more about her late father’s final trip into the wilderness. She’d be only too happy to oblige Nick and catch the next plane out of the mountains.

But neither of them stands a chance once the rest of the D’Angelo family decides they’re meant for each other.

I hope you enjoy Nick and Kari’s journey as much as I’ve enjoyed writing about them and this fun, energetic family. In books to come, Nick’s siblings will find their own Happily Ever After. These strong men and loving women typify the characteristics I so often found in the people who live in those mountains in Colorado—commitment, courage and an endless capacity for love.

Regards,

Ann Evans

The Daughter Dilemma
Ann Evans

www.millsandboon.co.uk

It’s long past time to say a special thank-you to fellow Superromance author Kathleen O’Brien.

You convinced me to take the leap off the cliff, and only your professional insights, unending generosity and dear friendship keep me from crashing on the rocks below.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER ONE

NICK D’ANGELO was one hour and fifty-seven minutes into Angel Air’s deluxe two-hour helicopter tour. One hour and fifty-seven minutes into showing the Pattersons the beauty of Colorado’s Front Range the way birds saw it. One hour and fifty-seven minutes into a pounding headache that made him wonder if, at thirty-four, he was getting too old for this job.

Years ago he’d been a chopper pilot in the war, picking scared army grunts off sand dunes no bigger than a pitcher’s mound, bullets drilling holes into the side of his Black Hawk. No sweat, that.

But the Pattersons—both the rich, obnoxious father and the spoiled-rotten daughter—were making him crazy.

Dwayne Patterson, seated in the copilot seat of Raven One, was the kind of guy who’d die before he’d admit he was scared to death to fly. Every time Nick put the R-44 into a sharp bank, Patterson’s white-knuckled grip dug a deeper furrow into the seat’s leather. Nick didn’t mind that. Hell, plenty of people got nervous once they climbed into a helicopter. If this guy lost his lunch before the flight was over, Nick would clean it up—then charge him double through the “unforeseen incidence” clause in the release form.

No, the nerves didn’t bother him. It was Patterson’s constant chatter over the cabin’s “hot mike” that drove Nick nuts. Nick had smiled and nodded in all the right places, glad that his sunglasses hid his boredom. But the guy wouldn’t shut up.

As for the man’s daughter, Hannah, a more unlikable teenager Nick had yet to meet. Whenever he looked back over his shoulder to see how she was doing, she invariably threw him a pouty, petulant, hurt-baby face. As though the past two hours had somehow been Nick’s idea and not Dwayne Patterson’s pitiful attempt to bond with his kid.

Hannah Patterson wasn’t much older than Nick’s daughter, Tessa, but she was miles apart in temperament. Surly. Jaded. Easily bored. In the past couple of weeks Nick had been at odds with Tessa, but nothing in her contrary behavior even came close to this girl’s attitude.

And he’d been trying so hard to be agreeable to these people, too. He had to. The summer season had been off this year. Too much rain. Too many tourists tightening their belts instead of spending money. But sometimes, Nick thought, you played your best hand and it still wasn’t enough to win the pot.

He’d flown these two over some of the prettiest country God had ever created. It was going to be an early autumn—already the aspen were spreading golden blankets across the green velvet slopes. They’d swooped down over abandoned mines and ghost towns. Followed the winding river through the canyons—so close you could make out the bullet-shaped trout in the crystal streams below. Surely that kind of ride beat anything the theme parks were offering.

But neither of the Pattersons seemed the least bit impressed. Hannah just yawned and rolled her eyes occasionally. Daddy should have spent some of his computer software money on charm school.

He felt a fingertip jab hard into his shoulder and turned his head to find Hannah thrusting forward in her seat.

“How much longer?” the girl shouted, though Nick had explained twice that the cabin radio picked up every word and delivered it right into each of their headphones. “I have to pee like a racehorse.”

Nice mouth, Nick thought. But Dad Patterson didn’t seem to mind.

Instead of answering, Nick pointed out the front right windscreen. Angel Air’s heliport was in sight now, the landing pad a stark blue-and-yellow scar against the mountainside. The small office and hangar looked like a Monopoly house, the company’s other copter, Raven Two, like a kid’s toy.

Somewhere inside the office his sister, Adriana, would be waiting for their return. Probably fuming, if he knew Addy. Which he did.

He pressed the radio switch on the side of the cyclic column that allowed him to talk to the office or any other flight service he might need to raise. “Base, this is Nine-Zero-One-Bravo. Coming in from the west.”

“Roger, Nine-Zero-One-Bravo,” his sister’s voice came through the headphones. “I’ll be waiting.”

One hour and fifty-nine minutes into the tour now. It would be over soon enough, thank God.

He supposed it wasn’t really the Pattersons’ fault that he was in such foul humor. It had been a lousy week. Tessa behaving like a royal pain in the butt over some silly dress. Addy pestering him all the time about wanting more flight time now that she had her license.

It didn’t help that for the past two days Nick and Tessa had been forced to move into one of the two-bedroom guest suites up at the main lodge. Their own cabin was off-limits right now. Tessa had left the back door open and a skunk had meandered in, then scurried out. But not before getting the hell scared out of it and doing what skunks did best. A good three days, the fumigators had said.

He must be going soft. Over the years he’d slept in barracks cots, hammocks, sleeping bags and once, in a three-foot sand coffin with an Iraqi camel parked on top of him. Now Nick mourned the loss of his own bed. That sag in the middle fit his six-foot, three-inch frame like a suede glove.

Lord, he really was getting old.

Rolling his shoulders to work out some of the tension, he thought about how moving back home five years ago had seemed like an answer to a lot of problems. No—in spite of the grim circumstances, it had seemed like the answer.

He hadn’t expected it to be easy. From the moment he’d returned to Colorado he’d known there would be a heavy load of responsibility. Samuel, his father, had suffered a massive stroke. It had thrown the entire family into a tailspin, forcing Nick to take over running Lightning River Lodge—the family inn and tour company. Everyone had quickly grown to depend on him and eventually they’d weathered that crisis. Most of the time he was confident he could handle anything thrown his way.

Except when he had a week like this one. This week, it seemed as though ten of him wouldn’t have been enough to go around.

He eased back on the throttle to cut his airspeed for the landing, frowning at the vibration that passed through his fingertips. One of the main rotor blades might be out of trim. Just as well that the Pattersons were the last tour scheduled for the day. Tomorrow he’d take Raven One off-line and check it over.

In deference to Dwayne Patterson’s stomach, he set the skids down especially easy on the pad, then cut the rotor. The blades had barely stopped making their whoop-whoop noise before Addy was at the chopper door, helping Hannah Patterson find her feet.

“Well, how was it?” she asked no one in particular. Bright enthusiasm was Addy’s idea of good customer service.

Hannah lifted one thin shoulder. “We saw mountains. Big surprise.”

The girl pushed past Addy as though she were parting drapes, heading for the office’s small bathroom.

Addy smiled at Dwayne Patterson as he stepped out. “What about you? Did you like it? Did Nick point out all the abandoned silver mines? Those are some of my favorites.”

“Very nice,” the man said absently. He was already consulting his guide book, eager to find the next thrill. “If we take this road, can we get to Estes Park before nightfall?”

While Nick continued to shut down the engine, Addy helped Patterson with his map. She then headed toward the office, presumably to make sure Hannah had managed all right.

Nick came around the front of Raven One. Dwayne Patterson looked slightly uncomfortable, as though he didn’t know what to say while they waited for sullen Hannah to emerge.

“Certainly a beautiful day for a flight,” Patterson finally said. The clouds bunched along the Front Range were almost purple in the late-afternoon sunlight.

“We’ll get a thunderstorm later,” Nick said. Addy would lecture him if he didn’t make nice with the customers.

“You really think so?” Patterson frowned up at the sky as though he could find an argument for Nick’s statement written across the blue canopy. “I hope we can make Estes Park tonight.”

Estes Park sat at the east entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. “You and your daughter plan to blitz the Rocky Mountains in one weekend?” Nick asked.

“Actually, I think Hannah would rather be home with her mother,” the man admitted. “Anywhere away from me. I’m recently divorced, and we were supposed to spend the summer together. It didn’t happen, and she’s still sulking over it.” When Nick didn’t respond right away, Patterson added quickly, “I needed some time to myself. But I’m making it up to her now. That should count for something, right?”

Personally, Nick didn’t think that counted for anything. The guy wanted credit for shouldering his responsibility now? After he’d already made it clear to his daughter that she came second in his life? Fortunately he was saved from making any kind of polite answer. Hannah and Addy emerged from the office to rejoin the two men at the helicopter.

The girl headed in the direction of Patterson’s rental SUV. When she found the doors locked, she cupped her hands and yelled, “Are we going or not? Come on!”

The car keys quickly appeared in Dwayne’s hand. He turned toward Addy and Nick once more, his features sheepish. “Kids,” he said, as if that one word explained everything. “You know how they are.”

I thought so, Nick wanted to say. But I guess I’m still learning. If he’d been really savvy, last night’s argument with Tessa might not have happened. “Hard to know what’s in their heads,” he agreed. “But then, I guess that’s the way they intend it.”

Patterson nodded, then stuck out his hand to say goodbye.

“Come back again,” Addy encouraged. “There’s plenty more scenery around here, and next time, see it from the back of one of our horses. Lightning River Lodge has a really fine stable.”

The man gave her a noncommittal smile and went off to join his impatient daughter. In another few moments they would be gone, heading back down the winding mountain road and onto the fastest route to Estes Park.

With his arms crossed over his chest, Nick stood beside Addy and watched them go. His sister waved—the quintessential tour guide sending her chicks off to explore new territory.

“Smile,” Addy said without glancing his way. “Pretend you’re happy.”

“I am happy,” Nick replied. “Happy to see the last of them.”

“Well, you didn’t have to take them up. I told you I could handle it.”

“I wouldn’t be so cruel.” He turned toward his sister, cocking his head at her speculatively. “The lodge has a really fine stable?”

“I haven’t given up on the idea. You and Dad need to hear me out about expanding.”

“You want to run the stable or fly?”

“I don’t see why I can’t do both. Especially since you don’t seem willing to let me do much flying.”

Addy headed toward the office, a trim, dark-haired beauty who had boundless energy and about a million ideas to make the family businesses run better. Some of them were even pretty good.

Nick loved her dearly, but he also knew his younger sister could be foolishly stubborn, shortsighted and impetuous. Only recently had she seemed to settle down, deciding that she wanted a career flying helicopters. Two months ago she’d passed all the tests, accrued enough flight time. But would she stick it out, Nick wondered, when things got boring and a little too routine?

He followed her inside. The office furnishings were pretty sparse—Nick liked things clean and uncluttered. Military style. There was a waist-high counter that created a friendly barrier between staff and customers, a water cooler and a couple of utilitarian chairs. Through the back door lay the hangar area, where both R-44s would be wheeled in tonight before they locked up.

Nick had moved a second desk into the back area for Addy in an effort to show that he took her seriously as a fellow pilot. Not surprisingly, the top of it was nothing but a haphazard pile of clutter.

She plucked a handful of pink slips off a spindle. “As usual, I’ve been playing secretary.” One by one, she handed him the messages. “Leo Waxman says the estimate for rewiring the spa area is ready, and you should be prepared for a shock because it needs major work. Mr. Yokomoto called and wants you to call him back as soon as possible.”

She grinned as she handed him the last one. “Aunt Ren said to tell you that there was a wolf wandering near the back door when she took out the trash this afternoon and she’s not going back outside until you do something about it.”

Aunt Renata and Aunt Sofia, his mother’s widowed sisters, had come from Italy to help out after Nick’s father had suffered his stroke. Somehow they’d never left. Aunt Sof loved the Lightning River area and considered the breathtaking mountain vistas a little slice of heaven. Aunt Ren, on the other hand, still didn’t believe Colorado had ever won statehood. She’d yet to come to grips with the region’s abundant wildlife.

“A wolf?” Nick remarked absently as he fingered through the slips. “Probably Leo Waxman’s German shepherd. The dog goes everywhere he does.”

He frowned at the message from one of their best clients, Kiyoshi Yokomoto from Genichi Tech. Every other week for the past year G Tech had sent a handful of execs to Lightning River for R and R. Part of their stay always included a lengthy helicopter tour. Nick liked them. It was steady, easy money from people who appreciated the beauty of the Rockies.

He settled into his chair, pulled the phone closer and punched in Yokomoto’s office number. Kiyoshi seldom called, and Nick felt a nagging sense of doom that sent his headache rippling across his eyelids with renewed force.

“Don’t look so worried,” Addy said as she plopped into the chair behind her own desk. “He probably just wants to book a couple of extra guests.” She went suddenly upright in her chair. “Hey, if that’s what it is, we could both take up a Raven. Fly in tandem. That would be fun.”

Nick waited for the call to connect. With a scowl, he yanked off his sunglasses and wagged his hand toward the towering pile of paper perched haphazardly on Addy’s desk. “Do something with that stuff before it’s everywhere.”

Addy ignored that advice and reached to pick up the framed picture of her pilot’s license that sat proudly on one corner. “You’ve got to let me take up G Tech next weekend, Nick. See this?” she said, pointing to the license. “This says I’m perfectly capable of handling it.”

A huge, colorfully painted sign hung on the back wall of the office. It depicted a winding river between towering mountain peaks, bisected by a jagged lightning bolt—the family logo. Angel Air, the sign read. And below it: Nick D’Angelo, Owner/Operator.

Nick pointed toward it. “And that says I’m still the guy who makes that decision.”

His sister sighed in exasperation. Then the call went through and Kiyoshi was on the line. Nick listened to the man’s excellent English for a few minutes, made a couple of sympathetic comments, then placed the receiver back in its cradle.

Seeing the look on his face, Addy frowned. “Bad news?”

“Kiyoshi’s canceled everything for the next month. The head execs are flying out tomorrow because of some trouble in the Tokyo office.”

“Ouch. That’s a big one to lose.”

“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking.”

“Well, at least that will give us a little breathing room to concentrate on the Graybeal wedding,” Addy said with her usual optimism. “We’re going to need all the help we can get to be ready for that one.”

Chuck Graybeal, the busiest dentist in three counties and an old family friend, had booked the entire lodge for his daughter’s upcoming wedding. The resort had never catered such a large, complex function before, but if everything went as planned, Nick could envision a whole new world of opportunity opening up for the family business. But first, they had to get through this latest hiccup.

He scraped a hand across his jaw, quickly calculating what the lost revenue from G Tech would mean. “The lodge will still be booked pretty solid, but this means Air is going to be hurting for business next weekend.”

“We can make it up. Vail’s got its big aspen festival coming up. That’ll mean lots of tourists checking out the I-70 corridor. Some of them are bound to be looking for a fun way to kill a few hours.” Her voice took on more enthusiasm as ideas started to pop. “Maybe we could do a flyer. Blitz the parking lots and shops with a two-for-one deal on an hour flight.”

“Pretty short notice.”

“You know I’m good at mobilizing, Nick. I can do it.”

That was certainly true. When Addy set her mind to something, she was like a laser on a target. “Let’s talk about it with the family tonight at dinner.”

“Fine,” she conceded, but Nick could see the wheels still turning in her head. “Talking about this will be tons better than listening to you and Tessa argue.”

“The arguing part’s over,” Nick said, balling up the messages and lobbing them into the trash can that sat between their desks. “The dress goes back. And you aren’t to encourage Tessa to any further rebellion.”

Addy shook her head at him. “But—”

He scowled at her and she subsided.

His daughter was fourteen and turning into a lovely young woman that any father would be proud of. But sometimes he wasn’t sure he and Tessa were connecting at all. After years of trying so hard, coming so far in their relationship…

“She’s growing up, Nick.” Addy cut quietly into his thoughts, as though she could read them. Maybe she could. Addy had a way with people.

Nick smiled at her. “I can accept that. But she doesn’t need to show everyone just where she’s growing. That dress was indecent.”

“You’re such a prude.”

“I’m her father. She’s too young. You weren’t allowed to wear anything that sexy to school dances.”

Addy’s mouth quirked in derision. “How would you know? You’d already married Denise and left home by the time I was fourteen.”

Nick couldn’t resist laughing. “Are you kidding? Between your escapades and Matt’s overachieving and Rafe getting into trouble all the time, my mailbox was full of letters from Mom and Pop, and I memorized almost every word. The night of your first Sadie Hawkins dance you wore a modest yellow dress with daisies along the neckline.”

Addy straightened in surprise. “How do you know that?”

“Because Pop kept asking Mom who Sadie Hawkins was, and she described the dress very vividly to me. Said it looked like melted butter on you.”

Addy settled her chin on her hand. “It was pretty,” she said with a sigh. Then she gave Nick a sly sideways glance. “Too bad I didn’t wear it. I switched it for a midnight-blue slip dress with a plunging back. That was the night I let David McKay kiss me for the first time.”

Nick thought she looked a little dreamy, maybe even sad, but he gave her a glance that said she was completely hopeless. “No wonder Mom and Pop spent so much time threatening to lock you in your room.”

“So is that how you want to handle Tessa? Threaten her with punishment all the time? Make her quake with fear instead of having her respect? Is that the way to raise children?”

“It worked for us.”

“Did it?”

He knew what she was getting at. The four D’Angelo offspring—Nicholas, Matt, Rafe and Adriana—had been raised by Samuel and Rose, people with strong values and a belief in exercising firm, loving control over their children. As parents, they had been tough, but devoted. Demanding, but fair.

Nick had always known what was expected from them, where he stood. So had the easygoing Matt, who was now a skilled surgeon living in Chicago. And though she’d been in and out of mischief for most of her growing-up years, Addy had done all right, too.

The real problem had been Rafe. The youngest son had been a black-eyed, black-tempered hell-raiser. As a teenager he’d always been at odds with their father and, after one particularly bitter fight, he’d run away from home.

He hadn’t been back since.

“I miss Rafe,” Addy said, jogging Nick out of the past.

He made a noncommittal sound in his throat. She and Rafe had been close. He suspected Addy was still in touch—she received mysterious phone calls and the occasional postcard. She’d probably forgive him anything. But he and Rafe had never seen eye-to-eye and he was still resentful that his brother had not returned—even for a visit—during his father’s health crisis.

Addy turned to give him a direct look. “Do you think he’ll ever come home?”

Personally, Nick didn’t think so. His brother seemed content to ricochet around the world without a care for anyone. But he could hear the hope in Addy’s voice and a protective instinct rose up in him in spite of his belief that blunt truth always served a person better.

“He’ll come home someday,” he said. “When he finds the right reason.”

That seemed to satisfy her. With a thoughtful nod, she started sifting through the pile of paper on her desk. At least she no longer seemed interested in giving him a hard time about the way he managed Tessa.

He began paging through the log book of upcoming tours.

It looked grim. One no-show today. Only three flights scheduled for tomorrow unless someone made a last-minute booking. Enough to give Addy some flight time but not the usual tourist crush that would keep both choppers in the air full-time.

A year ago Nick had added Angel Air to the family business, building the heliport only a mile from the lodge. He’d told himself that it wasn’t just that he’d missed flying. Helicopter tours were a natural fit for Lightning River Lodge’s well-heeled guests. More and more vacationers wanted to explore the less-familiar wilderness areas that hadn’t been overrun by tourists. But so far, this part of the business had yet to turn a real profit.

The phone rang and Addy picked it up. A moment later his sister put the call on hold and motioned toward him.

“It’s Mom,” she said. “And she sounds out of breath.”

What now? Nick thought as he punched the button. Their mother was pretty self-sufficient. After their father’s stroke, she’d had to be. With Aunt Sof and Aunt Ren’s help, she kept the lodge running in tip-top shape. The front desk, the small restaurant, the fourteen rooms and two suites. If she’d been reduced to calling Nick, God knew what problem she’d run into that she couldn’t handle.

Unless it’s Pop.

He snatched up the phone. Rapid Italian chattered in his ear. She wasn’t speaking to him, but to Aunt Ren in the background. “Mom, what is it?” he cut in. “What’s the matter?”

His mother shushed Aunt Ren. There was immediate silence. “Nick, can you come up? I need you. Ah, Madonn, I’m surrounded by crazy people here.”

“It’s not Pop?”

“No, no, no,” she reassured him quickly. “Although, if he doesn’t stop getting in the way, I may put him back in the hospital.”

“I’m only trying to help,” he heard his father mumble in the distance. Since the stroke, Sam D’Angelo depended on a wheelchair to get around, but after years of therapy, his speech was almost normal again.

“Running over my toe with your chair?” he heard his mother scold. “That’s your idea of helping?”

“You have big feet,” his father replied.

Another string of Italian. No phrase you’d find in a guide book. Nick pinched the bridge of his nose. Without even looking at Addy, he could tell she was grinning.

“Mom…”

His mother must have realized that Nick’s patience today was wearing thin. “The stove. It’s broken. How can I cook tonight for our guests?”

That was what this was all about? “So call the repairman.”

“You think I don’t know to do that? I did call. The stove isn’t working because there’s a leak. From the bathroom in Number Five.”

Nick frowned. That was the guest room directly above the kitchen. Not great to have a leak moving from one floor to the next, but still, the problem was manageable. “Then call the plumber. See if you can get Tom Faraday. He won’t charge a fortune for coming up the mountain at night.”

“The leak in Number Five is coming from the bathroom in Number Ten. Sofia said she went in there to make up the room and the water was three inches deep. She had to build a dike with every spare blanket we have to keep it from escaping into the bedroom.”

Number Ten was above Number Five. If the water leak encompassed all three floors, they were looking at the possibility of serious damage. “Did you turn off the water valve in Number Ten?” Nick asked quickly.

“That’s why I’m calling you. We’re like weak little birds! Sofia and Tessa went to town to return that dress. Renata and I, we turned the knob a little, but we need a man’s strength.”

“If you’d just listen to me—” Nick heard his father complain in the background.

“Samuel, I know you can shut it off,” his mother said to her husband. “But how am I to get you up there? Carry you piggyback?”

His father’s movements were confined to the downstairs part of the lodge now, and most of the time it wasn’t a problem. While his parents argued, Nick imagined the entire third floor turning into one big disaster zone.

“What about George?” Nick interrupted, referring to the fellow who acted as both front desk clerk and bellman.

“George left early today. His parents’ twenty-fifth anniversary is tonight and he has to pick up decorations. He’s such a devoted son…”

“Mom, focus!” Nick said in the sharpest tone he could ever use with his mother. “Who else is around?”

“The Binghams. I think they’re in the hot tub. No one else.”

“That’s perfect. He’s probably still in a bathing suit and barefoot. Ask him to go upstairs with you and try turning the valve.”

His mother gasped. “I can’t do that. They’re guests. You don’t ask paying guests to do maintenance. What are you thinking, Nicholas?”

“I’m thinking that unless he wants to find his own room flooded, it doesn’t hurt to ask. It’s turning off one valve, not cleaning up after Mardi Gras. Look desperate. If he balks, tell him we’ll comp his room for one night. I’ll be up there as soon as I can.”

He hung up the phone before his mother could say anything else. Damn, damn, damn, he thought. Can this week possibly get any worse?

Pulling the keys to his Jeep out of his desk’s top drawer, he hurriedly explained the problem up at the lodge to Addy. He was just jerking into his worn leather jacket when he noticed a car pull into Angel Air’s parking lot.

A young woman got out and hurried toward the office. The afternoon sunlight was still strong enough to reveal that she had a lanky body—lithe and long—with an athletic swing to her walk. She was dressed for hiking, with khakis and boots and a heavy-looking backpack slung over one shoulder. Her blond hair had been stuffed under a baseball cap and spilled out the back in a long, swinging ponytail.

“Who the hell is that?” he wondered out loud.

Addy shrugged. “Could be our ten o’clock that didn’t show, I suppose.”

“She’s too late if that’s the case.”

The woman reached the office door, stuck her head in first and smiled at both of them. “Hi,” she said brightly.

This close Nick could see that she was passably attractive—with a dainty arch to her nose, a charming smile and pretty teeth that indicated somebody had paid a dentist a bucketload of money.

When she looked at him there was a certain sparkle in her green eyes that made his gut take a wild, stray turn. He didn’t like the feeling and banished it pretty quickly. After a day like today, he wasn’t in the mood for foolishness.

Honey, don’t bother, he thought. Whatever you’re selling, I’m not buying.

CHAPTER TWO

TWICE SHE HAD ALMOST turned around and headed back to the interstate.

Kari Churchill was a Florida girl, used to the flat, undemanding landscapes of Palm Beach. At home, the closest thing to mountains were the sand dunes she could see from the balcony of her oceanfront condo. But here, all the roads twisted and turned back on themselves, and if you thought you could figure out where you were by watching the sun, you had another think coming. These darned mountains. Beautiful and awe-inspiring, but always in the way.

But she was here now—two years and thousands of miles from the moment she’d made the decision to come. She’d carved out some time at last, though not much of it since her last assignment in Philadelphia had unexpectedly run longer than she’d planned and the next one in New Zealand was right around the corner. Snaking mountain roads, missed highway markers and fluttering nerves were not going to prevent her from keeping the promise she’d made to herself.

No more excuses. No turning back. No matter what.

Right now, however, Kari could see that she might have one last obstacle standing in her way. This man in the Indiana Jones bomber jacket, the strong chin and the tight-lipped smile that practically shouted “Welcome. Now please go away.”

From the moment she’d opened the door to Angel Air, she’d sensed a slight tension. The woman, a little younger than the man and a lot more friendly looking, had immediately approached the counter. The man hadn’t so much as moved a muscle.

“Can we help you?” the woman asked with a salaried-receptionist smile.

She had the kind of great looks that didn’t call for much makeup and a tumble of black hair that sifted prettily across her shoulders every time she turned her head. The name tag over her left pocket read “Adriana.”

“I’m Kari Churchill,” Kari said, extending her hand. “I was supposed to be here this morning for a flight. I know I’m dreadfully late.”

“By seven hours,” the man said.

She looked at him more closely as he approached the counter with a slow rippling of muscles. She couldn’t help noticing that he was almost offensively healthy looking. As darkly handsome as the woman was beautiful. Kari had a feeling these two were related, but she’d also bet their personalities and management styles were completely different. Adriana looked sympathetic and eager to please, while the hunk here seemed to be silently willing her to vanish.

She stopped focusing on the woman and concentrated on winning over the man. He was obviously the one in charge.

“I know,” she said. “And I’m so sorry. First my plane was late, then I got lost. I took my chances that you’d still be open and able to take me to Elk Creek Canyon before nightfall.”

“We close at five,” he said. Nobody in the room had to look at their watch to know it was nearly that now.

Rule followers! Why did she have to run into one today? Kari suspected flirting would be wasted on him, and she was too tired to try. But it couldn’t hurt to be…well, agreeable.

She pulled the ball cap off her head, letting her ponytail swing over her shoulder. She looked up at him and tried to appear both contrite and sweetly feminine. “I know it’s getting late. But all the way up the mountain I’ve been hoping—praying, really—that there would still be time.”

“We’re not a taxi service, Miss Churchill.”

“No, of course not. But—”

“Sorry. Elk Creek Canyon is thirty minutes flying time there and back. Unless it’s an emergency, we don’t go up after dark.”

“This is an emergency.”

Dark brows lifted as he crossed his arms over his chest. His mouth moved in a fascinating way and she got the feeling she’d amused him. “Ah. What kind of emergency would that be?”

She bit her lip, aware that she’d made a misstep. “Well, maybe not an emergency, really. Not life or death. But it’s rather important.”

“Then you should have gotten here on time.”

It surprised Kari how quickly she could lose ground. What a hard case this guy was! Probably divorced a few times and completely soured on women. She began to feel stubborn.

“You’ve made your point,” she said. “But sunset isn’t for—” this time she did look at her watch “—one hour and forty-three minutes. I know because I had to check in with the Park Service on the way up here to let them know where and when I was going into the national forest. If I don’t get there before dark, I’ll have to re-check-in with them tomorrow. They’re very strict about that.”

“Yes, I know.”

Her cheeks hurt from trying to hold back any outward sign of frustration. “So I’m here now.” She pointed out the wide windows. “And I do see a couple of helicopters just sitting out there doing nothing.”

“Which is where they’ll stay. I’m afraid you’ll have to reschedule. We can probably slot you in tomorrow. Nine o’clock. Sharp.”

She didn’t want to wait until tomorrow, but she’d never be able to explain to this guy why she wanted to go today. “I can’t do tomorrow.”

“Then I’m afraid you’re out of luck.”

“Is there another helicopter tour company in the area?”

“Nope.”

“Is there another way to get to Elk Creek Canyon?”

“You could hike in. You’d probably get there by Tuesday. If you didn’t get lost.”

She frowned at him, refusing to accept that her window of opportunity could be slamming so firmly shut. “Look, can’t we be reasonable about this? I’ve come so far—”

She broke off as he came around the counter and moved toward her. He seemed so full of hard control and dark warning that she wondered if he might be about to physically escort her out of the office. Instead he went past her and flipped the Open sign in the window to the reverse side.

He gave her another tight, meaningless smile. “We’re closed.”

Kari took a breath and went on recklessly, “I’m prepared to make it worth your time.”

Bad idea. Instantly she watched his dark eyes flicker over her—and not in a good way. A cold, jittery, hollow feeling filled her where confidence had once been. Her breath moved inward with slow care. “I mean, I’ll gladly pay more.”

His voice was calmly nonnegotiable. “Sorry. Next time you might want to give yourself more time to get here. Give up those thirty extra minutes of beauty sleep.”

Angry and embarrassed, Kari moved toward him. “I didn’t sleep in. I told you, my flight was delayed. And I took a wrong turn—” She broke off, realizing she’d already explained. This guy was just being difficult. She scowled at him, frustrated beyond courtesy. “Just for the record, you have lousy customer service skills.”

He tossed a smile toward his office mate, who hadn’t said a word in so long that Kari had practically forgotten she was here. “So I’ve been told. Doesn’t change anything. If you still want to go to Elk Creek Canyon, you’ll need to come back.” He opened the door. “Addy, close up as much as you can, will you? After I get done, I’ll come back to help you tie down.”

“Nick…” Adriana began.

Kari had come this far—she just couldn’t give up now. Refusing to let this stubborn man stand in the way, she caught the edge of the door. He was so close, she noticed that his eyes were the darkest brown she’d ever seen. Nearly black. “I don’t want to drive all the way back to Denver.”

“Then stay in Broken Yoke.”

“That wide spot down by the interstate that seems to be auditioning for ghost town status? You’ve got to be kidding.”

“There are two motels in town. Either one of them would be happy to take your money. Or we can even offer you a room up at the lodge.”

“Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot—”

“I could take her, Nick.” The woman he’d called Addy spoke up.

Kari swung around quickly. Ah, bless you, she thought. “You could fly me out there?”

“Yes.”

“No,” Nick said sharply.

“Why not?” both women said at the same time.

The man ignored his co-worker and continued to address Kari, his features doing a good impression of a gargoyle. “Addy works for and answers to me. She sure as hell doesn’t fly one of my birds unless I tell her she can.”

“Hey!” Addy protested, and when Kari looked at her, she could see the woman was now almost as furious as she was. Through the open neckline of her shirt, red splotches marked her skin.

“I have to go. We’re closed,” Nick said one last time. “Have a nice evening.”

Without a look back, he left. There was a long moment of uncomfortable silence as both women watched him disappear. Kari’s father had tried to teach her to live by the motto IIPP—Intelligence, Industry, Persistence and Plan. The way to accomplish anything, he’d said. But what should she do when IIPP didn’t seem to have any affect on a hard-headed man?

Finally she turned back to Adriana. “What cave did he just finish hibernating in?”

The woman gave her a sheepish look. “He’s usually not that bad. I feel I should apologize.”

“Are you two related?”

“My older brother, Nick. As you can see, I’m the tolerated baby sister.”

“You have my sympathies.”

Adriana laughed. “Yeah, sometimes I want to choke him. But you have to take the bad with the good. You know how it is between siblings.”

“Can’t say that I do,” Kari said absently as she glanced around the sparsely furnished office. “I was an only child.”

An idea was starting to take shape in her mind. Maybe Kari couldn’t win with big brother, but Adriana seemed like a reasonable person. Kari just had to find the right words, the right buttons to push. Her father would have found a way to make this trip happen. So could she.

She moved to the wall where Angel Air’s business license was proudly hung. They’d only been in business a little over a year. Nick D’Angelo, Owner.

Ha! Nick D’Angelo, Jerk, was more like it.

She looked back over her shoulder at Adriana. “Does he always order you around like that?”

“When he thinks he can get away with it. He can’t help it. Nick’s ex-military. And when it concerns his choppers, he’s like a hen with baby chicks. I think they’re just hunks of metal and Plexiglas. Nick thinks they…breathe.”

Kari gave her a commiserating smile. “But you’re both licensed pilots, aren’t you?”

“Oh, yes.”

“Then I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I. But believe me, I’m going to be addressing this issue with him tonight. No matter what kind of mood he’s in.”

“Men,” Kari complained. “They just won’t believe women can do just about everything they can.”

“Sometimes better.”

They continued to discuss men’s shortcomings and what to do about them, laughing over the fact that there seemed to be darned little. Another fifteen minutes went by. Kari discovered that she liked this woman. Adriana D’Angelo was smart, witty and enthusiastic. And, Kari suspected, a bit of a rebel. A trait that might definitely work to Kari’s advantage.

“Well,” she said at last with a disappointed sigh. “I suppose I’d better head down the mountain before it gets dark.”

“Why don’t you stay up at our place?” Adriana suggested. “My family owns Lightning River Lodge, just a mile up the mountain road.”

“And take the chance of running into your brother? No thanks.”

“I’m really sorry you two clashed like that. Reschedule and I promise I’ll take you up to Elk Creek Canyon myself.”

Kari gave her a doubtful look. “That would be lovely, but do you really think big brother will let you? He doesn’t seem to take you very seriously.”

That struck a nerve. Adriana colored again. “He will. Please come back.”

Kari sent her voice lower, sent her lashes drifting down, too. “I don’t know…I had really counted on this…” She let the words float off, hoping that her demeanor spoke volumes.

“I’m sorry. But tomorrow—”

“Will be too late,” Kari finished for her. Then she gave the woman a smile filled with friendly regret. “Don’t worry about it. It’s my fault, really. I should have tried to get on a flight yesterday.”

“Is it that crucial to you, getting there today?”

“I’m a freelance journalist and my down time between assignments is pretty small sometimes. But this isn’t an assignment. It’s personal. Your brother would probably laugh, but this is sort of a pilgrimage I just have to make.”

“Oh.” As Kari had hoped, the woman looked thoughtful, her imagination clearly trying to envision what kind of personal journey this trip could be.

After a suitable silence Kari added, “I don’t blame you for being hesitant about flying after dark.”

Adriana actually looked distressed now and Kari felt the first stirrings of guilt steal over her. Yes, she wanted to get to Elk Creek today. But was it really fair to trade on this woman’s empathetic nature? In spite of her father’s best efforts to teach her otherwise, hadn’t she always tended to rush into things? For her, hadn’t the weakest link in his IIPP motto always been the “plan” part?

“You know what?” Adriana suddenly said in a tone of firm decision. “I think I can get you to Elk Creek Canyon before sunset.”

Kari’s glance flew upward. “What about your brother?”

“Nick will just have to accept that he can’t dictate to me anymore. We’re supposed to be in this together. It’s time he started treating me like we are.”

“He’ll be furious.”

“Not half as furious as I’ll be at myself if I don’t stand up to him.” She came around the counter, looking so determined that Kari didn’t think she could have talked her out of this even if she’d wanted to. “I’ll rev up Raven One. You go get your stuff.”

TEN MINUTES LATER they were airborne. Stowing her sizable amount of camping gear and her duffel bag in the back, Kari settled into the copilot’s seat and slipped on a headset that would allow her to communicate with Adriana through the cabin radio—the “hot mike” as she called it. The tiny Angel Air office dropped quickly out of sight as the helicopter climbed and swung away.

Kari’s stomach lurched, but this woman seemed to know what she was doing. Her movements on the controls and rudder pedals were precise, sometimes barely perceptible. She no longer looked like an office receptionist, but a confident, capable pilot.

“I really can’t thank you enough, Adriana,” Kari said when they’d leveled off.

The woman smiled at her. “If we’re going to fly in the face of my brother’s wrath together, I think you should call me Addy.” She pointed out the front windscreen, where in the distance a rambling three-story building was barely discernable among the tall ponderosa pines. “There’s our resort—Lightning River Lodge. My brother’s up there right now playing the little Dutch boy with his finger in the dike.”

Addy explained about the plumbing problem. “Since our father’s stroke, Nick’s been the one everyone goes to. And we tend to rely on him for…well, for just about everything.”

Guess he’s not into delegating, Kari thought. Control freak. Out loud she said, “You know, if he’d just let you take me to begin with, we could have saved some time and hassle. He needs to lighten up.”

Addy gave her a look that said that wasn’t likely. “He’s not usually that cranky, but the week started off badly, and it’s been a horrible day. I think you were the last straw. And truthfully, I suspect he just didn’t like the idea of me going up after dark.”

“Do you like flying?”

“It’s great. I’m pretty good, too, but I’ll never get better if Nick doesn’t stop trying to protect me. Of course, everyone in my family’s that way. I’m the youngest.” She made an infinitesimal adjustment with the pedals so that the helicopter tilted slightly to the right. “Look there,” she said, pointing out the side windscreen. “Elk.”

Kari watched a small herd leap away from the noise. “They’re beautiful. We don’t have much wildlife left back home in Florida.”

“This whole area, from Denver to Vail, is some of the prettiest country in Colorado. The area we’re flying over right now is the Lightning River Basin.” She jerked her chin downward and to the left. “Down there by the river is where my family originally settled when they came here. My grandparents were looking for someplace that would remind them of their home back in the Italian Alps.”

“Italian pioneers.”

Addy laughed. “That’s what my father claims, but I always thought they stopped here because facing the trip over the Rockies looked too intimidating.” She tilted her head at Kari. “So what’s so special about Elk Creek Canyon?”

“I don’t know. I’ve never been there.”

Addy turned her head to see if she’d heard correctly. “What?”

“Are you familiar with Madison Churchill?”

“The writer? Sure. I loved Strange Disguises.”

“He was my father.”

“No kidding,” was all Addy said.

The magic of that famous connection received a brief ceremonial silence. Anyone Addy’s age probably knew of “Mad” Churchill. He’d been compared to Hemingway, and his books were that rare thing in the publishing world—both popular and well-respected. His stories were vivid, imaginative and bold. All his heroes were the kind of sexy, noble adventurers that men wished in their hearts they could be and women wished they could find and marry.

Well, all but the last one. The hero of Hours of Ice hadn’t been anyone’s idea of a Madison Churchill protagonist.

“Wow,” Addy said at last. “All those places he wrote about. You must have had some pretty fantastic vacations, traipsing around the globe.”

Kari ducked her head a moment, formulating her response. People often assumed that. You’d think she’d have gotten used to it by now. “Actually, no. My mother hated traveling, so we stayed home most of the time.” Waiting.

“But I remember reading that he was a stickler for research. That he liked to spend weeks and weeks in the places he wrote about…”

As though realizing that long absences from a husband and father could hardly have meant an idyllic home life for Kari, Addy stopped talking and began fiddling with a couple of the dials and switches on the pilot’s console.

“Elk Creek Canyon was the setting for his last book,” Kari said, trying to make the woman feel more comfortable.

“Hours of Ice.”

“You know it?”

“Of course. I have to admit, though, it wasn’t my… It was different than all his others.”

“That’s what a lot of people said.” And some had said much worse things than that, Kari remembered with a touch of bitterness.

“It sure made news around these parts. Not the book. I mean, what happened. That freak blizzard so early in the season. And then your father, such a famous guy, being lost all those weeks. Finally being rescued. Waiting must have been horrible for you.”

“I was out of the country at the time, working on a story. I didn’t even know he’d missed the date he was due back. My mother flew out here when the National Park Service called and told her that a full search was on. She had to go through most of it alone.”

“Poor woman,” Addy said sympathetically. “And then to lose him anyway. I mean, the fact that he…” Her words stumbled as she struggled with a better way to express herself. “It shocked everyone that he…”

“Never regained consciousness,” Kari finished for her.

Even in the fading light, Kari could see that Addy regretted bringing up the subject. Her cheeks were like twin beacons.

“I’m sorry,” the woman said. “Is it hard for you to talk about?”

Kari shrugged. “Not as much as it used to be. It’s been two years since he made the trip.”

“So you want to see where he got his inspiration for that book? Minus the blizzard, of course.”

“That’s one reason. There are others.” She grimaced. “I’m sure someone like your brother would find them foolishly sentimental.”

“Probably,” Addy agreed. “Nick’s not much for sentimental stuff.”

Kari could well imagine the truth in that statement.

“I’ve been to Elk Creek Canyon a couple of times,” Addy said. “I think you’ll be disappointed. It’s not very remarkable.”

“That doesn’t matter to me. I just want to see it. I had planned to have a long conversation with the park office first, get a better feel for my father’s itinerary and why he chose that particular place. But my last assignment ran longer than it should have and I had to rely on the newspaper reports I pulled from the Internet to pinpoint just where he camped.”

“So you’re a journalist?”

Kari nodded. “Magazine articles mostly, so I finally get to travel as much as he did.”

“No aspirations to be a novelist, too?”

“Unfortunately, I don’t seem to have my father’s flair for fiction.”

“Tough shoes to fill.” Addy smiled at her with kindness. “But maybe someday…right?”

“Maybe,” Kari said, wondering if she still believed that. She had a drawer back home full of rejection letters. It had been a long time since she’d tried to write her father’s kind of story. Or any fiction, for that matter. In the deepening silence between words, where the truth lived, Kari thought she suddenly knew the answer. No. I’ll never be good enough.

Dusk was settling, coming fast. Even if the helicopter compass hadn’t been positioned almost directly at eye level, Kari would have known they were flying north. The Rockies were a dark, jagged barrier to her left, and behind them the sun had stopped playing hide-and-seek and had disappeared completely.

Addy looked her way again. “So, if you don’t mind me asking, why did you wait two years to make this trip?”

A tremor went through Kari as she remembered the two years since her father had died. How unbearable her mother had found the idea of her coming here. There had been so many tears. Countless arguments. And through most of them, Kari suspected that her mother’s fears had nothing to do with her at all. Forgiveness. Acceptance. Laura Churchill had never been able to find any of that in her heart for the man she’d loved, the man she’d lost long before that final, fatal trip.

Kari cleared her throat. “My mother passed away six months ago. I couldn’t have gone before then. She was pretty…frail…after Dad died. It would have upset her too much.”

Addy arched an eyebrow her way. “Are you sure you’re going to be all right out there? Even without a blizzard, the backcountry’s not a place to fool around, and Elk Creek Canyon is pretty remote. I guess you already know that, though, considering what your father went through.”

“I’ll be fine.”

“Still…I don’t want to be flying this chopper for search and rescue when you fail to check in on your due back date.”

“I’ll only be out there a couple of days. I have an assignment waiting for me in New Zealand that I can’t miss.”

“I assume we’re the ones picking you up.”

Kari nodded. “If your brother has forgiven both of us by then. Tuesday. Nine o’clock. Sharp.”

They both laughed at her attempt to mimic Nick D’Angelo’s inflexible instructions. “Oh, he’ll rant and rave for a while,” Addy told her. “But he’ll come around eventually. He doesn’t hold grudges.”

“I’ll count on you, then,” Kari said. She glanced out the left side of the helicopter to see ominous dark clouds rolling over and around the mountain range like boiling ocean waves crashing around a ship.

It occurred to her that she should have checked the weather report for the area. But as usual, she’d been running late. “Should we be concerned about those clouds?”

“There’s rain behind them. The weather service didn’t indicate the storm was moving so fast.”

“Is that a problem?”

“No. But it might make the flight a little bumpy. We can withstand forty knots easily. I should have checked one last time before we left,” Addy admitted. “Hold on a minute.”

Addy pressed a switch on her cyclic stick, which allowed her to radio the nearest airport. Through her headset Kari could hear the low response between ground control and pilot. The news that a storm was quickly coming over the Front Range gave Kari an unpleasant moment, but Addy didn’t seem overly concerned.

In another few minutes rain started to hit the windscreen in a steady pattern, and Kari could feel the wind begin to buffet the aircraft. Addy turned on the overhead cabin light. She made corrections on the controls constantly, seeming to know how to react to the slightest shift in their position. It wasn’t until they started to see lightning in the clouds that she looked at all worried.

Kari glanced at the numerous dials spread across the cockpit console, but in spite of all the traveling she did, she didn’t know that much about helicopters or how they operated. Nothing looked like a radar screen, or anything that remotely seemed as if it could pinpoint their location.

She gave Addy a hopeful smile. “I suppose you have radar or something to tell you where we are exactly? Just in case.”

Addy shook her head. “Sorry. We rely on V.F.R.”

“V.F.R.?”

“Visual Flight References.” She pointed downward and smiled. “We check out the ground and see what looks familiar.” Kari’s reaction to that comment made the woman laugh. She added, “Don’t worry, we won’t get lost. I know every light on the mountain.”

But suppose she couldn’t see them because of the rain?

“Why don’t we head back?” Kari suggested. “If it’s raining this hard, I won’t be able to set up camp anyway.”

“We could set down and try to wait it out.”

Just then lightning strobed the sky, flashing eerily into the cabin. When the thunderclap followed it, Addy muttered a curse as Kari clutched the side of her seat. She said nothing, her mouth suddenly too dry to utter words. She should never have pushed for this. Never have taken advantage of this woman.

After a few moments Addy said, “It’s probably better if we do turn back. I’m sorry, Kari.”

“No, that’s fine. I shouldn’t have been so insistent.”

The woman swung the helicopter in a sharp turn. How dark it was outside, Kari thought. In spite of the landing lights cutting through the night, there seemed to be nothing beyond the front windscreen. Not a flicker of light anywhere.

Except for the lightning that glimmered sullenly within the clouds.

CHAPTER THREE

WITH THE FLICK of a finger on his control box, Sam D’Angelo moved his wheelchair out of his son’s way.

They were in one of the lodge’s downstairs suites, Nick’s and granddaughter Tessa’s temporary lodgings until their cabin was habitable again. The plumbing crisis had been dealt with—at least to Nick’s satisfaction—but Sam, who had once handled these kinds of little emergencies, couldn’t help feeling the need to make sure.

“You turned off all the valves in Number Ten?” he asked for the second time. “Just to be safe.”

He hated that he couldn’t get up the stairs in his own home, his own business. When he’d come back from the hospital, he should have insisted that they put in an elevator. He could have seen the damage upstairs for himself.

Nick was bent over the sink, washing his hands to remove the grease he’d encountered from taking a look at Rosa’s stove. “I did, Pop,” he said without turning around. “Tom Faraday’s on his way. I think a crack in the tank is the culprit, but he’ll be able to tell us for sure. Stop worrying.”

“You know what water can do to wood when it seeps through tiny crevices?”

Nick straightened, wiping his hands dry. “Gosh, no,” he said with a grin. “Not since the last time you put me through Plumbing 101 class.”

Sam narrowed his eyes. “Your mother is right. You are becoming a very disrespectful son.”

“And you’re turning into a bigger worrier than she is.”

Sam gave him a severe look.

Nick grabbed the edges of his shirt and pulled it over his head, then slipped on a fresh white T-shirt. From his wheelchair, Sam watched in silent admiration. Nick had inherited Sam’s build. His torso was tanned, broad and powerful. A man’s chest, the way a man’s chest should be. The way Sam’s had once been years ago.

He couldn’t help it, a little twist of envy jolted through him. Bad enough that age took its revenge so soon. That sickness could whittle you down until there was almost nothing left of the person you had been. Sam had cheated death. It had whispered in his ear, but he had refused to listen. He had lived, and for that, he thanked God. But he was only fifty-eight. He missed that lost energy, that effortless strength. He wondered if his son understood how lucky he was to have it.

Nick went to the closet, pulled out his sneakers and sat on the bed. He was halfway through knotting one shoe when the lace popped.

He held the broken piece in front of him, shaking his head. “Perfect,” he said. “Just perfect.”

Toeing off the sneaker, he kicked them both out of the way and went to the closet to root around for another pair. “I’m telling you,” he said as he scooped up his hiking boots. “I don’t care if a whole family of skunks have taken up residence in the cabin. Tomorrow, Tessa and I are moving back in.”

Sam cocked his head. “Why are you in such a black mood?”

“I’m not in a black mood. Brown, maybe. You wouldn’t believe—”

He broke off as they both became aware that Tessa stood in the open doorway. Sam’s granddaughter was a beauty even at fourteen. Glossy black hair like Rosa’s had been when he’d first met her. And the eyes—like dark fire. Unfortunately the fire lately had all been directed at Nick. Even now, as she addressed her father, her eyes were smoldering.

“Nonna Rosa said to tell you that we’re all eating sandwiches tonight ’cause of the stove. Everything else is for guests. She also says the kitchen is closing early and don’t either of you touch the zabiglione in the fridge.”

“Donnaccia! We live under the rule of a petty tyrant,” Sam said dramatically, hoping to get a reaction out of the girl. Tessa was his pet, his favorite companion. Surely he could make her smile.

The child had no time for him. Tight lips declared her grievances against her father. She lowered her head, setting her chin. “Can I eat dinner in my room?” she asked Nick.

“I suppose.” Nick pulled on one hiking boot. “Still mad about the dress, huh?”

Now his darling grandchild’s eyes shot daggers. “I took it back like you told me. That doesn’t mean I think it’s fair.”

“Tessa…”

The girl flung herself away from the door and disappeared.

Nick sighed and looked at his father. “If I’m in a mood, would you really wonder why?”

“She’ll get over it. The young suffer a great deal, but their anger dies quickly.”

“Addy thinks I’m too hard on her.”

It was time, Sam decided, to say a few things that had been on his mind lately. “Sometimes you are. I think you need someone to make what you say to her more pal—” He stopped, trying to envision the right word in his mind. In spite of all the progress he’d made, sometimes the consequences of the stroke still plagued his speech, but Nick knew better than to help him.

The word wouldn’t come. After a frustrated moment he said, “To make what you say not such a bitter pill to swallow.”

“There are plenty of people around here sugarcoating every word I say to her.”

“You need more than that. You need a real mother for the girl. And a wife for yourself, Nick. A helpmate.”

There was a swift change in Nick’s expression. He stopped tightening the laces on his second boot and looked at his father as though he had suffered another stroke. “A wife! That’s the last thing I need.”

“Why? Look at your mother and me. So many happy years. Marriages are made in heaven.”

“So are thunder and lightning,” Nick said with a bark of laughter. He turned back to his boots, a touch of impatience in the set of his mouth. “I don’t think we need to have this discussion. Let’s go see if we can talk Mom out of some lasagna.”

Sam moved his wheelchair closer. “Don’t brush me aside. I’m serious. You think one bad marriage and it’s over? Just because you burn your mouth once does not mean you have to blow on your soup forever.”

Nick rose, raking a hand through his hair. “I don’t know where this is coming from,” he muttered. “I haven’t been this uncomfortable since our birds and the bees talk.”

“Your mother and I—we see you. You take on too much. You share nothing. Not even your thoughts anymore. This mountain is becoming your fortress. I know this is because of me.” Sam’s right arm was his strongest, and he let his fingers brush against the side of the wheelchair. “Because of this. You think we can’t manage without you.”

The discussion was sapping his energy. Sam could feel his head drooping a little. In a softer tone he said, “Well, perhaps you are right. Perhaps we can’t.”

Nick came to the chair and knelt in front of his father. He took his hand in his, massaging the long, bony fingers lightly. “I see improvement in you every day, Pop,” he said in a gentle voice. “You keep going, and I’ll be out of a job in no time. In the meantime, I enjoy looking after everyone here. I’d be bored without all this insanity.”

Sam looked his son in the eyes. “You are a healthy young man. Good Italian stock. You should date.”

Nick grinned. “I do. Didn’t I take Helen Grabowksi to Broken Yoke’s Fourth of July celebration?”

“Bah!” Sam said with a grimace. “That woman, she is…she has…” Again he struggled to find the word. When it failed to materialize, he settled on something easier. “Your grandfather would have said she has la malocchio!”

Nick’s Italian was pretty good, but he’d seldom heard that word. He straightened and placed his hands on his hips. “I don’t see how a woman who works at Becky’s House of Hair can have the evil eye.”

“She giggled all through the national anthem.” Sam didn’t bother to hide the acid in his tone.

“God help her if it had been the Italian national anthem. You’d have had her run out of town on a rail.”

“That woman is not your type.”

“Type!” Nick exclaimed with more laughter. “I was looking for fun and a little companionship. Not a blood transfusion.”

“Nicholas—”

“We can talk about my love life later. Much, much later. I have to get back to the hangar. I’m surprised Addy hasn’t called screaming bloody murder because I’ve been gone so long.”

He moved around to the back of Sam’s wheelchair, bending forward as he pushed his father out into the hallway. “If you and Mom want to work on finding someone a mate, start with Addy. Get her interested in a man and maybe she’ll stop bugging me about more flight time.”

ALL THE WAY DOWN the mountain in his Jeep, Nick couldn’t stop smiling.

Imagine his father and mother worried about his love life! What was that all about? Maybe he hadn’t been in the best of moods lately, but how did they figure getting involved with a woman was the answer? If anything, it would just make everything more…complicated.

He should have told his father not to bother. He was no damned good at the husband/wife game. Ask Denise, his ex. She’d have given Pop an earful, although Nick wasn’t sure she’d be completely impartial about where the blame lay. Some of the reasons their marriage had failed had been his fault. Okay, a lot of them. It probably didn’t matter now which ones. It was enough to say that their quarreling had corroded and eventually killed what they’d once had together.

A new relationship? These days he couldn’t find much reason to try. He was too tired. Too set in his ways. Too busy to blow the dust off the old male/female dance steps and find someone new to whirl out onto the floor.

Besides, who in these parts could even inspire him to try?

Pop was right about Helen Grabowski. Way too giddy. Ellie Hancock, the owner of Ellie’s Book Nook? Too timid. You had to work hard to get a single word out of her. Paulette Manzoni, the pretty ski instructor he’d met in Vail the last time he was there, had been a possibility. She had a great appreciation for the bed and was Italian, to boot, which would certainly please his parents. Only thing, she collected teddy bears, which was a nice little hobby—until Nick had discovered they took up every square inch of her house.

No. Definitely not.

Broken Yoke, the nearest town, didn’t offer much hope. The woman who’d shown up at Angel Air’s office today had been right. If something didn’t happen soon, the only inhabitants there would be ghosts.

Kari Churchill. Pretty name. Pretty lady, too, although she had one heck of a nerve expecting them to drop everything to fly her out to Elk Creek Canyon. He didn’t care for egotists who had so little respect for other people’s time. She’d put his back up right from the start with that attitude of hers, and Nick suspected the feeling was mutual.

Too bad, because they could have used the money. But if he was going to be tied up at the lodge, he hadn’t wanted Addy taking up that flight. Not in the last hour of good daylight. Not when his sister still didn’t know his birds like the back of her hand.

But he couldn’t say that in front of her. So he’d probably lost that booking and made an enemy of the Churchill woman for life. Sorry, Pop. Scratch that name off your list of potential mates.

Rain splattered the windshield of the Jeep. In the distance he heard the rumble of thunder. Those clouds he’d seen earlier hadn’t lied. He was getting pretty good at predicting storms. Soon he’d be like Great-Uncle Giovanni, forecasting weather with his big toes.

Addy was going to be furious. It took both of them to get the birds into the hangar, him pushing from the tail while she maneuvered the skid dolly. Now they might have to manage it in pouring rain.

He frowned as he pulled into the parking lot. The outside floodlights weren’t on and Kari Churchill’s vehicle was still sitting there. The lights in the office weren’t on, either, but what made Nick’s stomach drop right down to his toes was the chopper pad.

Raven One was gone.

Ramming the key into the office lock, he flipped on the lights and strode back to the hangar in less than a dozen steps. It was dark, too. No copter. Nobody in sight.

He ran back into the office. Not possible. Addy wouldn’t. She wouldn’t have taken the copter up with a storm coming in. She knew better.

Didn’t she?

His mind stretched back, trying to recall if she’d been standing there when he and Dwayne Patterson had shared that awkward conversation about the weather.

We’ll get a thunderstorm later.

You really think so?

Where had Addy been? On the pad, right? On the pad right beside him. No. Not there. Checking on that little witch Hannah Patterson.

If she hadn’t known about the coming storm, then she might have gone up. When he’d pulled out of the parking lot, had there been anything but pretty blue sky overhead? He couldn’t remember. Would she really have let the Churchill woman talk her into something? No! She’d check the weather service. She knows the drill. She knows it…

His legs felt as though they were filled with water as he dropped behind his desk, knocked everything aside and pulled the base radio to his chest. He had to swallow hard.

Focus. Don’t lose control.

Oh, damn it, sis! Where are you?

“BASE TO Nine-Zero-One-Bravo. Where the hell are you?”

Ground radio transmissions were normally more difficult for a passenger to hear, nothing more than muffled signals, but Kari didn’t miss a word of the angry male communication that practically made her ears ring. And it wasn’t difficult to figure out just who was trying to reach them.

She and Addy exchanged a look.

Addy pressed the radio switch. “Nine-Zero-One-Bravo to Base. Who wants to know?”

“Damn it, Addy! Where are you?” Nick demanded again. At what had to be the top of his lungs. “I don’t think this is funny, Adriana. If you get down here in one piece I’m going to break every bone in your body.”

Kari threw Addy a worried glance, but the woman only grinned and gave her a look of mock terror. She pushed the radio button again. “Stop acting like a raving maniac. I’m not hurting your bird. We’re flying.”

“I don’t give a damn about the bird. Are you aware there’s a thunderstorm on your tail?” There was a moment of hostile silence. “And who’s we? It better not be who I think it is.”

“She can hear every word, Nick,” Addy said patiently. “That’s not the way to talk to our paying customers.”

“She wasn’t supposed to be a paying customer. Not today. Get down here.”

“Soon, big brother. We’ve been watching the storm. I think we’re outrunning it.”

“You think?”

“We’re getting a little wind. But stop worrying. We’ll be down in about five minutes. I can see the power station lights up on the ridge.”

“Okay. Okay,” Nick said, sounding a little more calm. “Keep your airspeed up. And don’t overdo your cyclic. Pull back too hard and she’ll plant your tongue to the roof of your mouth.”

“I know that,” Addy said in a put-upon voice. “Now leave us alone. You’re making me nervous. And you’ve got to promise to be civil when we get down. No yelling.”

“I want you to check in with me every minute until you touch down. Base to Nine-Zero-One-Bravo. Out.”

Inside the copter cabin and over the dull whipping of the rotor blades, there was nothing but dead silence for a few moments. Kari’s ears were tingling in her headset, but Addy still seemed unfazed. Maybe she was used to going toe-to-toe with her brother. Kari, on the other hand, had a feeling that if she ever did get to Elk Creek Canyon, it would be another flight service that would take her there.

Addy sighed. “Nice to know he cares.”

“I notice he didn’t make any promises about not yelling.”

The helicopter started to drift and rock as the weather worsened. It seemed to be at the mercy of a giant’s swinging hand, picked up and pushed sideways, then dropped and pulled back in the other direction. Kari began to feel slightly queasy, but Addy seemed determined and calm.

Rain was falling in silver sheets. Kari’s eyes were riveted by the sight of it sliding down the windscreen, where it was violently flung away by the wind. They both became silent, tense. Addy was concentrating and Kari was simply too nervous to speak.

In the next moment lightning zigzagged across the front of the helicopter. There was a sizzling crack, so loud and close that Kari couldn’t hold back a small yelp of surprise and fear. The aircraft bucked and took such a swooping dive that Kari felt her rear end come up off the seat.

“Son of a—” Addy muttered, both hands moving on the controls to correct their descent. “I think we just took a hit!”

She jerked her chin toward the top of the cabin. Over Kari’s head was a small paned opening, like a car sunroof. “Look up there and tell me if you see anything. Sparks. Fire. Anything.”

Kari rose as much as her seat belt would allow. At first she saw nothing but darkness. Then a stray flicker of light from one of the exterior lights revealed that the blades were still turning. Surely that was a good sign. “Nothing,” she said.

“Something’s wrong.”

“Are we going to crash?”

“Not if I can help it.”

The wind seemed stronger, rising and moaning eerily. Kari watched the sure movements of Addy D’Angelo’s pale hands. Up. Down. Back again. Correcting constantly.

A heart-deep fear rose in her. Please. I don’t want to die.

And then the engine failed.

It lasted only a moment or two. Like a misfire in an automobile. But it was enough to send the helicopter plummeting further still, sinking like a bird dropped out of the sky by a hunter’s rifle.

Addy was on the radio instantly, shouting through the headphones. “Base, come in. Springs Flight Service, come in. Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! This is Nine-Zero-One-Bravo. We have engine failure from a lightning strike. Two on board. I think we can make Columbine Meadow. I repeat…”

There was no answer. Was the radio dead?

Kari was numb with fear now. She squeezed her eyes tight for a moment, listening to her own rattled breathing and the woman beside her, who muttered and cursed and talked herself through every movement.

“Autorotate, Addy…. Not enough airspeed and height, but you know how to compensate. Easy. Easy. Nose up. Glide in, glide in. You can do it.”

Kari gripped her own hands hard. A flicker of lightning lit up the cabin. In that one brief moment Addy’s face looked both beautiful and terrible.

It couldn’t end like this. Not like this, Kari thought in anguish.

Father. I’m so sorry. Now I’ll never know…

Addy swung her head to look at her. “Columbine Meadow’s less than five miles from Angel Air. We can make it.”

The helicopter shook as though it was coming apart. Although she couldn’t see anything out the front windscreen, Kari knew the ground was coming up fast in spite of all Addy’s best efforts. “Oh, God,” she whispered. “Oh, God.”

“Hang on,” Addy warned her. “Hang on.” She had pushed back in her seat, bracing, both hands tight on the controls. “Flatten the glide path, Addy. Raise your collective. Keep your nose up, damn it!”

The earth rushed toward them.

Addy shouted at her through the headset. “If we hit hard enough to split the skids, then our bodies are going to take the force of the impact. Get ready.”

The helicopter landed suddenly.

Nothing could have prepared Kari for how crushing it was, how loud, how completely terrifying. Her spine jolted. Her teeth came down hard and cut into her lip, filling her mouth with blood. Something struck her against the right temple. Beside her, Addy D’Angelo gave a short yelp of pain. Above them, the rotor blades still turned, but things banged. Rattled. Screeched in protest.

There was a moment of absolute stunned silence as both of them realized that they hadn’t been instantly killed. That they might even survive this.

Then Addy moaned.

“Addy,” Kari said, reaching out to touch the woman’s arm. “Are you all right?”

Addy jerked away from that contact with a gasp. “Got to shut down. Get us cooled off.” She sounded disoriented and when she reached for the switches, she moaned again. “Oh damn, I think my arm’s broken. Maybe both of them.”

“Tell me what to do.”

“Get out. Leg it out of here.”

“No!” Kari told her. “Tell me what to do.”

With her chin, Addy motioned toward the floor on Kari’s side. “The fire extinguisher. By your right foot. Do you know how to use one?”

Kari reached for it immediately. It looked no bigger than a bottle of shaving cream. “I’ll figure it out.”

“I’ll shut down what I can up here. Can you move? Get out and go to the back of the fuselage. The engine’s below. Don’t touch it. Just spray the hell out of it until the canister’s empty. Understand?”

Quickly, Kari unfastened her seat belt and slipped the helicopter’s door latch. The ground wasn’t flat and it took a moment for her to find her feet. The craft sat slightly cock-eyed on a scattered field of rocks, but at least it seemed to be in one piece. From what Kari could see, in spite of what Addy had feared, the landing struts hadn’t separated from the fuselage.

It was still raining lightly and Kari shivered with cold. Or maybe it was shock. She realized her hands were shaking, too. So badly she could hardly pull the pin out of the extinguisher. Setting her teeth, she did as Addy had told her. Yellow chemicals sprayed out to cover the engine. When the can finally emptied with a dribbling hiss, she tossed it away. By the time she managed to stumble back inside the cabin, her hands weren’t the only part of her that trembled.

She slid into her seat, hearing the quick rise and fall of her own shallow breaths as they competed with the pounding of her heart. “I did it. Now what?” she asked, though she hoped the answer required no more than the strength she possessed right now.

“Good,” Addy said. “Just give me a minute.”

Kari looked at her companion. She held both her arms against her body like a surgeon who’d just scrubbed for surgery. Her face was pale, but there was no blood anywhere, thank God.

Twisting in her seat, Kari leaned closer. “Let me help you.” Addy’s left arm looked normal, but there was a good-size knot just past the wrist of her right one. “Do you really think they’re broken?” Kari asked with a grimace.

“I don’t know.” Addy frowned at her. “Your forehead is bleeding.”

Gingerly, Kari touched her temple. She could feel a lump forming—it hurt like hell—but when she brought her hand away, there was only a little watery blood on her fingertips.

“I’ll survive,” she said. “Looks like we both will.”

“I can’t believe we crashed.” Addy’s voice sounded sketchy and a little wild. “And that we didn’t die. Although we might as well have. Nick’s going to kill me.”

“After what we just went through, we can deal with him.”

Kari leaned across the back of the seat, trying to ignore the throb of pain that suddenly stabbed along her spine. Her camping equipment lay all over the rear seats. She unzipped her pack and dug into the contents, pushing through nylon and tin and packages of freeze-dried food.

“What are you doing?” Addy asked.

When Kari finally found what she wanted, she settled back in her seat. She held up the tent stakes and masking tape she’d rescued from her gear. “I think we should try to splint your arms. Okay?”

Addy gave her a faint smile and nodded.

As gently as she could, Kari placed a tent stake against Addy’s right forearm, then wound the tape around it to hold the metal in place. The woman was a trooper. She set her jaw and didn’t make a sound except for one hiss of pain that escaped her dry, pale lips.

“So now what do we do?” Kari asked as she worked. “Do you think your brother heard you?”

“Even if he didn’t, the airport would have heard the Mayday. Assuming that the radio was still working. It’s definitely not now.”

“So we’ll just sit and wait to be rescued,” Kari said, trying for a lighter tone that might keep Addy’s mind off the pain in her arms.

The woman closed her eyes and let her head fall back against the seat. She suddenly looked so much younger, smaller. The cabin seemed to swallow her up.

“I’m so sorry, Kari,” she said in a thin, quavering voice. “My fault. Not rechecking the weather service was such a stupid mistake. It’s basic.”

“What are you talking about?” Kari reproached her. “You were magnificent. We’d never have survived this if you hadn’t been so calm and in control. Besides, it’s really my fault. I’m the one who took advantage of your kindness.”

Addy gave her a faint smile. “Don’t be so hard on yourself.”

“No, I’m to blame here. My father was the most spontaneous man you’d ever want to meet, but even he used to complain about how impulsive I am, how disorganized. I could have planned this whole trip so much better. I could have come up here when I had more time to devote to it.”

“So why didn’t you?”

“Because…” Kari hesitated, then decided to tell the truth. After what she and Addy had just been through, the woman deserved nothing less. “Because today is the two-year anniversary of the day my father hiked into Elk Creek Canyon. I wanted to experience the same set of circumstances he did. Know exactly what he saw. It just seemed important somehow. A way to help me understand…how he could have died there.”

“I’m sorry,” Addy said again, sounding a little woozy.

“It’s all right,” Kari reassured her. Lightly she pressed the final piece of tape around her splint. “This is the best I can do under the circumstances. Let’s just rest now. There’s no point in beating ourselves up for what’s already done.”

That seemed to help a little. They settled back in their seats. Addy kept her eyes closed. Kari just kept staring out the front of the helicopter. Her temple throbbed. Muscles in her back began to protest. The only sounds were the soft exhalations of their own breaths, calmer now, no longer quick and charged with panic. They were cocooned in a puddle of light inside the aircraft, but outside everything looked as black as a deep well. At least the rain had let up.

Help will be here soon. Just rest. Wait for it.

A few minutes passed. Kari dozed.

The next thing she knew, the helicopter seemed to be shaking again. Her eyes flew open. She felt disoriented. In the darkness beyond the helicopter there seemed to be bright lights everywhere. For a moment she thought the lightning was back. Then she realized that the lights were the twin white beams of car headlights.

Shouts. Movement. We’ve been rescued.

Someone tugged on the door next to Addy. It held stubbornly for a moment, then gave with a squeal of protesting metal. Kari squinted, trying to give features to their rescuer’s face, but all she could make out was the silhouette of a man.

Please, please let it be a policeman, she thought. A paramedic. A fireman. Anyone but—

“Addy, talk to me!” Nick D’Angelo demanded. His tone was tart, frantic.

No such luck. Big brother Nick had found them.

Kari had a feeling the crash was only the beginning of her problems.

CHAPTER FOUR

“JUST TELL ME you’re not mad,” Addy pleaded around another sniffling sob.

“I’m not mad,” Nick repeated for the third time.

Addy’s face crumpled and she bit her lip. “I don’t believe you.”

Oh, brother. Somebody get me out of here.

Addy looked pale and miserable against the stark white environment of the emergency examining room. Nick hadn’t left her side since the ambulance had brought both women into the small hospital. His fear for his sister’s injuries had subsided and his heart no longer beat as if he’d been running. But his nerves—his nerves were still jangling.

He almost wished the doctor would order him out of the room and back to the anonymous safety of the waiting area. Not much chance of that. The fresh-faced resident looked pretty meek, no older than Tessa’s biology partner in school.

His sister, usually relentlessly upbeat, was an emotional mess. She didn’t seem to mind the pain of a broken left arm and a sprained right wrist. She hardly looked at the nurse slipping an Ace bandage over her fingers. But she’d been crying off and on for five minutes—five long minutes—and nothing Nick said seemed to help. Frankly, he was running out of reassuring words and sympathetic looks.

This is all that Churchill woman’s fault.

The doctor had told him that the woman was going to be fine. Lucky lady, the doc had said. No more than a small bump on the head.

I ought to go down to the end of the hall and throttle the life out of her.

He wouldn’t do it, of course. How could he when his own guilt was eating away at him like battery acid? Because when it came right down to it, he was the one responsible for this latest disaster.

He should have known his headstrong sister would be looking for any excuse to take up one of the Ravens. All it had taken was a little friendly persuasion from a smoothie like Kari Churchill to push her into defying him.

He should have brought Addy along faster in the business. He should have made her understand that all the “ground school” flying time in the world didn’t mean diddily if she couldn’t read the sky, didn’t know how to smell a stormfront just by sniffing the air. Her instincts needed to be honed until they were razor-sharp.

But he’d been dragging his feet. All the annoying little problems he’d had to deal with lately, plucking at him like greedy children. Zapping his time and energy. It had been easy enough to fall into the comfortable pattern of treating Addy more like a secretary than a fellow pilot. No surprise that she’d gotten tired of waiting and jumped at the first opportunity that presented itself.

With nearly tragic results.

“I know you’re mad,” Addy croaked. “That’s why you look that way.”

“What way?”

“Like you’ve been sucking lemons.”

Nick blew air through his cheeks. He rolled his eyes in the doctor’s direction, but the man just gave him a sympathetic smile and continued scribbling on Addy’s chart.

“All right,” Nick said in a firm voice. “I am mad. Don’t think you’re getting away with this stunt. You and I are going to have a long, serious conversation about who’s in charge at Angel Air.” He softened his words by running the back of a quick, affectionate finger down her flushed cheek. “But not right now. Not until you’re healed and feeling yourself again.”

Sobering momentarily, Addy nodded. “I understand. I take full responsibility for what happened, Nick.”

“Oh, believe me, there’s plenty of blame to go around.”

“You mean Kari?” his sister protested. “She’s not at fault here. It was my idea. After we were up and saw the first signs of rough weather, she even suggested we turn around and come back.”

Addy had misunderstood just who he really blamed, but right now, it was easier to find fault with their customer’s pushy approach than to admit his own part in tonight’s near-catastrophic events. “I’ll bet she did.”

“I’ve ruined everything,” Addy said, looking very young and vulnerable again. Like a child, she ducked her head to wipe her nose against the shoulder of her hospital gown.

The doctor caught Nick’s eye and gave him a reassuring smile. “The meds will kick in soon.”

Thank God.

He leaned closer, taking Addy’s face in his hands and turning her head to make her meet his eyes. Beneath his hands, her bones felt small and fragile. He realized once again how incredibly lucky they were that she hadn’t been seriously hurt. A warm tear slipped beneath his fingers and he wiped it away as gently as he could. “Come on, Addy. Quit crying. You know I can’t take weepy women. Everything’s going to be all right. Mom and Pop will be here soon.”

“I can’t seem to help it. You know how your whole life is supposed to flash before your eyes when things like this happen?”

“Yours didn’t?”

“It did.” She grimaced. “And it was so boring, Nick. My life has been one big snooze fest. I’ve made one bad choice after another. I’m nothing but a small-town girl with small-town ideas, and I’m destined to live and die a small-town life. David was right.”

“David who?”

“McKay,” Addy said with a put-upon voice. “Who else would I mean?”

“Your old boyfriend from high school?” Nick frowned. God, if she was going to dredge up ancient history from ten years ago, they were going to be here forever. “I thought you hated him.”

Addy started to sob again. In an effort to sidetrack her, he touched the edge of her bandaged arm. Her fingers stuck out from the end like undercooked sausages.

“I don’t know why you’re crying,” he said in a lighter voice. “This is going to keep you out of work at the lodge for a few weeks. We’ll all be waiting on you hand and foot.”

“I must have been bracing too hard for the crash. How bad is the damage to Raven One? Tell me the truth. Did I split the skids?”

“Harry’s going to tow it over to the airframe techs tonight. I’ll get a better look in the morning.”

“What are you going to do about the rest of the week’s tours? Me out of commission, and down one chopper?”

“Let’s not worry about it right now.”

She shook her head. “Why did I think I could actually fly your birds? Maybe flying isn’t my forte. Maybe I don’t even have a forte.”

“Of course you do. If you’re going to criticize your ability to fly, then you’re criticizing my judgment to take you on as a partner.” He reached out to flick a stray tear off the end of her nose, giving her a smile. “And I’m never wrong about things like that, am I?”

“No.”

“You’d have been fine if you hadn’t taken that lightning strike. I was listening on the radio, remember? You were outrunning it. Doing great.”

“I did have everything under control up until then…”

That was more like it. The old Addy was returning. Nick ran a hand over the top of her head. Her hair was a tangled mess. “What you haven’t got under control is your ability to keep people from taking advantage of you. I know that sob-sister played on your sympathy to get you up there.”

Absently his sister shook her head, then sniffled around a yawn. “She didn’t. Not really.”

They both watched the nurse work on her arm a few minutes. Finally the woman tucked the last bit of bandaging into place. “Did you know Kari is Madison Churchill’s daughter?” Addy asked.

“No, and I don’t care if she’s related to Winston Churchill.”

“She was awfully calm after we crashed. Didn’t panic. She handled the fire extinguisher when I realized I couldn’t. She even found a way to splint my arms.”

“Which wouldn’t have needed splinting if she’d taken no for an answer in the first place.”

“You should talk to her.”

“Not in the mood I’m in.”

“She’s just down the hall.”

“Good. She should stay there.”

She gave him a frowning glance. “You’re being completely unreasonable.”

Nick didn’t need Addy to tell him that. But every time he thought about trying to talk to that woman, he could feel his blood pressure take a leap. He grunted. “I get that way when people put my family in danger.”

Addy just looked at him in rueful silence. The nurse’s eyes flitted back and forth between them. He could tell that even she thought he was being unreasonable.

He rubbed the back of his neck with one hand. “The FAA reports I’m going to have to fill out, the cost of repairs, the lost revenue… If I don’t end up suing her sorry ass for her involvement in this, she should consider herself lucky.”

His sister ducked her head and swallowed hard. Then her dark eyes found his once more. “Have you considered the possibility that she could…that she might be the one to—”

“Sue us?” he finished for her.

Hell, somewhere in the back of his mind he hadn’t been able to think of much else. For all her youthful inexperience, Addy was an adult. An employee of Angel Air. The company had a responsibility to its passengers to keep them safe.

The Churchill woman could probably make a case if she wanted to—no telling what missteps Addy had already admitted—but he wasn’t willing to think about that right now. Addy would open a floodgate of fresh tears if she thought there might be that kind of trouble ahead for the family.

“Adriana!”

“My baby!”

“Adda-girl!”

The family had arrived. He’d hoped he and Addy could get out of here soon, but he should have known better. The D’Angelos—Mom, Pop and both aunts—surged into the room to descend on Addy like a wave. Nick stepped back. Even the nurse stepped back. You didn’t stand in the way of a D’Angelo tidal wave.

“I thought we’d never get here,” Nick’s mother cried. She pressed both her hands to her daughter’s face as though feeling for fever. Aunt Renata and Aunt Sofia were like bookends on either side of Addy, full of commiserating sounds at the sight of her bandaged arms.

Unable to get any closer because of the cluster of people and his wheelchair, Nick’s father settled for placing his hand along Addy’s blanket-covered ankle. “What happened?” Sam demanded. He touched the nurse’s arm. “Get the doctor. I want to know about my daughter’s condition.”

Nick stood back and listened while Addy briefly described the circumstances of the crash. The resident came in and explained about her injuries. The family gasped and made little worried sounds throughout it all, but were finally satisfied to hear that Addy wouldn’t even have to spend one night in the hospital. Now that the medication had taken the edge off the pain, she had stopped being so weepy, thank goodness. She would, however, find it difficult to use anything but the tips of her fingers for a few weeks.

“You’re sure it’s nothing more than that?” Sam asked the doctor, obviously making no effort to hide his frowning assessment of the younger man.

“She’ll be back up in the air before the month’s out,” Nick said for his sister’s benefit. Addy gave him a hopeful smile.

“This other woman,” his father continued. “She’s all right, too?”

It was a surprise to Nick, but evidently no one in the family seemed to find the Churchill woman’s part in the accident objectionable. “She’s fine,” he said in annoyance. “Women like that always land on their feet.”

His father’s brows shot upward. “That’s a pretty strong statement. What’s got you so wrought up?”

“None of this would have happened if she hadn’t been so pushy.” Nick turned his attention back to his sister. He nodded toward her bound forearms. “Looks like those are going to make things awkward for a while.”

“Don’t you worry,” Aunt Renata said to Addy. “We’ll feed and dress you, and even bathe you if we need to. Won’t we, Sofia?”

“Just like when you were a little baby,” Aunt Sofia told her.

At that promise, Addy threw a look of desperation Nick’s way. He just grinned and shook his head at her. She deserved it after scaring the hell out of him.

“Who’s watching the lodge?” Nick asked. He glanced at his watch. Nearly nine-thirty. The hired help would be long gone by now.

“Tessa’s at the front desk,” his father replied. “It was quiet when we left. This may be a good time for her to get more involved in the business. Perhaps she can take on some of Adriana’s responsibilities. The dining room, laundry…”

Aunt Sofia glanced at Nick. “She could clean late checkouts after school and do turn-down service in the evening.”

Nick frowned. “I don’t want her doing anything that interferes with homework.”

“We’ll need some temporary help,” his mother said. The consummate field marshal, she was already planning ahead.

“Clay Watts at Eagle’s Rest owes me a favor,” Nick said. “I’ll see if he can send over a couple of housekeepers tomorrow until I arrange something with a temp service.”

Nick had started to head out of the room when he nearly collided with one of the nurses. He thought her name was Sharon—a roommate of one of the nurses he’d dated a few years ago. She’d previously come in to tell them that Kari Churchill was doing just fine down in Exam Room One.

Now she tapped the chart in her hand. “Miss Churchill’s going to be discharged in a few minutes. She’s asking to see your sister before she goes. Or you.”

Nick shook his head. “Tell her that’s not necessary.”

“Nick!” Addy exclaimed with some of her old spirit. “Don’t you dare speak for me.”

Nick ignored her. “Tell her if she wants to leave an address, I’ll see to it that her stuff on board the chopper gets sent to her.”

“After what she’s been through, that’s no way to treat a customer,” his mother scolded.

“And I want to see her,” Addy said.

His father looked at him sharply. “You have a responsibility to make sure she’s all right, Nick. You know that.”

Aware that every eye in the family was on him, Nick lifted his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Fine. I’ll check on her before I call Clay.”

Dead silence followed. Before anyone could comment, Nick stalked out.

He glanced down the corridor toward Exam Room One. He didn’t want to go there. “Play nice with the customers,” his sister was fond of saying, but he didn’t feel like coming face-to-face again with the woman who had helped bring such trouble to their door.

On the other hand, if he didn’t, there could be consequences. The family counted on him to put things right. In all the years the business had been operating, there had never been a single lawsuit brought against the company. His father was especially proud of that fact.

Muttering a curse under his breath, Nick wove down the hall, past harried nurses and around complicated-looking equipment.

Civil, but not subservient. Solicitous, but not admitting to any culpability. He knew how to handle women like Kari Churchill. He scrubbed a hand over his face, annoyed with his own need for an internal pep talk. Come on. Just get it over with.

When he walked into the room he didn’t see her right away. The doctor was busy giving last-minute instructions. “So don’t be surprised if you have an occasional headache over the next few days.”

“All things considered, if that’s all I have to deal with, I won’t complain,” Kari replied softly.

Nick moved into her line of sight, positioning himself at the end of the gurney. She turned her head in his direction as the doctor moved away.

He realized suddenly that he hadn’t remembered her right. He mentally cataloged her appearance all over again, searching for the hard, tough broad he’d built her up to be in his mind. Right now all he saw was a woman who looked pale and tired and a little shaky. Probably trying not to think too much about what a close brush she’d had with death this night.

She sat up straighter, and he noticed.

Nervous? he wondered. Good. He stopped seeing how sweetly appealing she looked lying there and thought about how pleased she must have been when she knew she’d successfully manipulated Addy.

“Hello,” she said, her voice full of wary restraint.

He gave her a short nod of acknowledgment, crossing his arms over his chest. He knew his features were too stern, but his willpower was in full force. “You asked to see one of us?” he stated.

“How’s Addy?”

“She’s tough. She’ll mend.”

“Her arms…?”

“The left is broken. The other one’s a sprained wrist.”

“Oh, thank goodness,” she said. “I mean, I hoped it would be nothing more serious than that.”

The look of relief in her eyes was touchingly real. He indicated the small bandage covering Kari Churchill’s right temple. “I hear you’re going to be all right.”

She fingered her forehead as if she’d already forgotten the injury. “Yes. It’s nothing, really.”

“Good.”

There was an awkward, tense silence then. He didn’t know what she was thinking, but he knew his own thoughts were more charitable than he liked. It had been easier when he’d thought of her purely as Satan’s sister.

She licked her lips and offered him a small smile. “We were both very lucky.”

“Yep. Definitely a lucky day, I’d say.”

As he’d intended, she caught the sarcasm. “Look, I don’t want you to think…I realize you didn’t want…I guess what I’m trying to say is…I apologize.”

He narrowed his eyes and cocked his head at her. “Why would you feel the need to do that, Miss Churchill?”

Her cheeks went a pretty shade of pink under the harsh hospital lighting. “You know perfectly well why,” she replied.

“You mean, because you managed to talk my sister into taking you up? Because your determination to get your own way nearly got the both of you killed? Yeah, that might be a reason to apologize.”

The pink turned to red, twin flags of annoyance. “Now wait just a minute,” she said. “I admit I shouldn’t have coerced your sister into taking me. I feel horrible about that. But she’s a grown woman. I didn’t trick her into anything.” She chewed her lip a moment, then, as if deciding what she’d been thinking deserved to be said, she gave him a hard, hostile look of her own. “Did it ever occur to you that if you weren’t such an overbearing dictator, Addy might not have felt the need to prove herself? She did great up there. Even after the lightning hit us, she was in control. You underestimate your sister, Mr. D’Angelo. If you treated her with a little respect, she might surprise you.”

He stared at her, letting the words settle in his gut. It would serve no good purpose to heave into further argument. Truthfully, he couldn’t say that he totally disagreed with her. But that didn’t mean he had to like it.

Expelling a slow, deliberate breath, he came around the end of the gurney and approached her. She watched him move without flinching, chin tipped up, and if it hadn’t been for her white-knuckled grip on the sheet, he’d have bought this defiant, steely charade.

“I’m not here to talk about my relationship with Addy,” he said in a quiet, terse voice. “I’m here to make sure you’re all right.”

“Yes, I can see you’re eaten up with anxiety,” she snapped.

He counted to ten and tried to wrangle his patience under control. “As the head of Angel Air, I’m naturally interested—”

“Oh, I think I understand what you’re interested in,” she cut in, giving him a narrowed glance. “What you’d really like to know is if I intend to take this little accident any further. Like to court.”

“Do you?”

She looked away for a moment. He had to admit, she had a damn fine profile, all haughty elegance and sleek lines.

“I don’t think…” She took a deep breath, turning back to look at him with cold disdain. “I like your sister very much. I don’t want to hurt her by causing trouble for her family. My injuries are minor, so there’s no reason to blow this out of proportion. Accidents happen. Why don’t we leave it at that?”

The words were flat, though heat wove through them like a thin ribbon. He stared at her, wondering if he could believe her. No way to tell, really. As sneaky as she’d probably been with Addy, he wasn’t sure her signature in blood would suffice.

And then she did a strange thing. She laughed.

Nick frowned at her.

She shook her head. “You know, I don’t think I’ve ever met a man as openly skeptical as you are. If I told you the sky was blue, would you insist on going outside to check?” Without waiting for a response, she waved a slim hand toward the outer corridor. “Find a lawyer out there. As busy as this place is, there’s bound to be some ambulance-chaser hanging around who can draw up an affidavit for me to sign.” She cocked her head at him. “Just tell me one thing. Are you like this with everyone, or is it just me?”

It was crazy, considering the fact that he was being insulted, that he felt the urge to smile. In spite of the fact that she’d been trouble from the get-go, she had a lively, sharp assertiveness that made him realize that her strong chin and intense gaze weren’t to be taken lightly.

Definitely not a desirable response. He searched through the debris of his anger to find a more comfortable reaction. He knew one thing. He wasn’t about to discuss his character traits—good, bad or otherwise.

“Let’s just agree that this entire experience has been…unpleasant for everyone concerned,” he said, trying for a reasonable tone. “But it’s over and we can all move on. My company will take care of the hospital bill, of course. If you’ll leave word where you’d like your things sent, I’ll have them delivered to you first thing in the morning. Will that suffice?”

She looked as if she might object, then took another deep breath. “Fine.”

“Good. That should be about it, then.”

“Any reason why I can’t stop in to see Addy before I leave?”

“I’m sure she’ll want to say goodbye. But not too long, if you don’t mind. She’s very tired.”

She frowned, clearly annoyed that he would think her that insensitive. “Of course.”

He held out his hand. “I hope the rest of your trip to Colorado is enjoyable, Miss Churchill. Good luck.”

She lifted her chin again and took his hand. “Thank you, Mr. D’Angelo,” she replied in a tight tone that bore no warmth. Not a flicker. “I’m sure whatever happens during the rest of my stay, it can’t possibly compare to what I experienced today.”

Nick had a feeling she was referring to more than just the accident, but he wasn’t about to comment. He nodded and made his escape.

KARI HAD JUST SLIPPED into her jeans when the nurse came back to the room. Except for a killer headache and some stiff muscles in her back, she felt fine. Maybe a little drained from the ordeal she’d been through, but who wouldn’t be? The fact that both she and Addy D’Angelo had managed to come out of the crash in one piece was pretty amazing.

Even more amazing was the fact that she’d kept her conversation with Nick D’Angelo semi-civil. If ever there was a man who could make a woman scream in frustration, he was it.

Of course, she had to concede that he had some right to be angry with her. She had taken advantage of Addy, and that knowledge had left her struggling with enough guilt to choke a horse. Her mother had always complained that she was too much like her father. When Madison Churchill set his sights on something, he went barreling in and damned the consequences. Kari had certainly inherited that trait.

The nurse who’d assisted the doctor came into the room. She handed Kari a prescription for a muscle relaxer and a mild pain reliever. “You’re all set to go,” she said. She handed Kari a third piece of paper. “Nick said to give you this. It’s the phone number for a couple of motels down by the interstate.”

Kari slipped the prescriptions and the phone numbers into the back pocket of her jeans. She realized suddenly that the nurse, a pretty brunette about her age, had used D’Angelo’s first name. “You know Mr. D’Angelo?” she asked.

The woman had already begun to strip the hospital gurney of its sheets. She glanced back over her shoulder. “Everyone around these parts knows Nick. He’s been baby-sitting Lightning River Lodge for his family for five years now.”

“Has he always been so…”

“Sexy?”

“No!” Kari nearly gasped. That thought hadn’t entered her mind. “I was going to say…dictatorial.”

The nurse’s eyes flickered with honest amusement. “Honey, you’d better have the doc check you over again. Make sure your brain didn’t get scrambled. Every woman in the Lightning River area would like to lasso Nick D’Angelo. Myself included.” She dumped the soiled sheets into a hamper and smiled at Kari. “I haven’t seen him look this grim since his dad had his stroke. You certainly seem to have gotten on his bad side.”

“Oh, you mean there’s a good side?” Kari said. “I sure didn’t see it.”

“Nick’s just protective of his family. He takes his responsibilities very seriously. But he can be a real sweetie.”

“I must have missed the sweetness in between all the yelling and threats,” Kari said with a laugh. “In fact, are you sure we’re talking about the same Nick D’Angelo? The guy I know is the most arrogant, annoying, rock-headed man I’ve ever met.”

“One and the same man, I’m afraid.”

That slightly rough-voiced response came from behind Kari, and she started. She turned to find an older man in a wheelchair parked in the doorway. His features were worn and tired-looking, but a spark of vibrant life burned in his dark eyes.

Kari swallowed hard. This had to be one of the D’Angelos. He had the same direct way of looking at a person that Nick had. The same commanding presence in spite of whatever illness had put him in that chair.

But did they share the same temper, too?

The man moved his chair forward, until he sat right in front of her. “I’m Sam D’Angelo,” he said in a calm voice. “Nick’s and Adriana’s father.”

She’d been afraid of that.

She wet her lips. “Mr. D’Angelo, you have a perfect right to be upset about what happened. I’d like to explain—”

He held up one hand. “That isn’t really necessary. I think I have a clear picture. Adriana shouldn’t have taken you up, but she can be very…single-minded and impetuous sometimes.” He grinned. “She gets that from her mother’s side of the family, I’m afraid.”

A little of Kari’s anxiety settled. This man wasn’t nearly the ill-tempered grouch his son was.

But then he tilted his head at her, as though seeing a very unusual bug for the first time. “Besides, I wanted to meet the woman who has my son in such an uproar. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen him like this.”

“Like what? You mean, angry enough to drop me from the nearest cliff?”

“Yes. That’s one emotion you seem to have brought out in him. Perhaps there are others.”

She frowned, not sure what he meant by that. “I’m dreadfully sorry about all this. I really wish I could turn back the clock twenty-four hours. Addy told me everyone in your family is working double-time in preparation for some wedding your resort is catering. Will you be terribly short-handed without her help?”

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