Page 29 of Reckless Single Daddy

“You forget I’m here for a wedding, not to run off and do whatever I want,” she says.

I sigh in relief, nodding. After tonight, I’m not sure why my mind would assume the worst, but I can’t help it. Sometimes, the mind likes to play tricks on us.

“I understand,” I reply, looking away. I’m not angry or dismissive, just bummed.

I feel her shift in the seat next to me, and her hands stroke my face so I can look at her. She smiles lovingly at me. “I’ll figure it out,” she says softly before pressing a kiss to my lips in a slow, agonizingly warm embrace.

I sigh contently into the moment before pulling away. We exchange smiles once more before she pulls back and gets out of the car.

I sit there and watch her make her way back to the house, scanning the area to be sure that no one is around. Despite how well everything went tonight, I haven’t forgotten about that letter. Whoever sent it knows Sloane is in Rose Valley. This person could very well be in Rose Valley themselves.

All I know is whoever it is will have a tough time getting to her now that I’m around.

As I’m about to put the car in drive, I get a text. I pick up my phone, and a smile reaches my face.

Where are we going? - Sloane

I shake my head and leave her on read, allowing her to mull over our next excursion. It’s no private jet to Denver to see an exclusive art exhibit accompanied by a Michelin-starred meal, but I have a feeling it will please her.

…

The next morning comes, and I tell Sloane to meet me at the estate. I may have given her the tour of the important things, like the house and the neighboring pieces of it; however, there is one other place I never showed her: my private hangar and runway. Because Rose Valley and Meadow Falls aren’t accessible to any flight traffic, an airport was never built in the region. I’ve thought about buying land and building one myself, but I didn’t want to ruin the natural parts of either town, so I decided to build my own on my land.

It’s been better for me, anyway. I don’t have to overthink my flight arrangements or go through security. On top of that, I don’t risk ruining the beautiful ecosystems of Rose Valley and Meadow Falls through unnecessary construction.

I stand on the tarmac and wait for Sloane to arrive. I hope she likes what I have planned. I wring my hands nervously as the wheels of the car crunch the pebbles as she arrives.

When the car pulls up, the driver comes around and opens the door for Sloane. I wait for her as she gets out and walks over to me. I wrap my arms around her waist as she kisses me gently. It almost feels like we’ve been doing this for months, if not years.

I hold my free hand out to the helicopter beside me with my other arm still secured around her. “What do you think?”

She takes it in. I don’t expect her to have much of an opinion on the helicopter itself. Just the surprise I’ve planned for later.

“Are we going in that?” she asks, and I nod excitedly. “You know how to fly a helicopter?”

I nod again, and I’m glad she doesn’t ask me when I learned or how. Prior to starting my business, I was in a different line of work—work that afforded me to gain formal training, including piloting both helicopters and planes.

There will come a time when I know my past will come up, just like hers will. For now, I don’t want to ruin the good thing we’ve established, especially not after what we managed to work through last night.

I guide her to the door and pop open the cabin before helping her inside. I run around to my side and hop in, helping her secure the headphones over her ears so we can communicate as needed. She fastens her seatbelt with shaky hands, then nervously drums her fingers on her knees as if trying to find something, anything, to distract herself from thinking about going up in the air.

I’m reminded again that there is so much that Sloane doesn’t know about me, so every new discovery she does learn must be difficult to tie to the guy she once knew. I imagine as we dig deeper into her, she may begin to reveal who she is behind that facade, too. But I know it will take time.

I place my hand over hers and give it a gentle squeeze for support. She looks to me for guidance, and I nod to her as a sign that everything will be okay. Then I pull my hand away and start the engine.

As soon as we’re up in the air, Sloane’s nerves seem to dissipate as she takes in the massive landscape of the two towns below. Seeing them from this point of view makes everything feel a little less chaotic. The beauty of Rose Valley and Meadow Falls stretches on for miles, despite how small the towns themselves are. Between the open pastures and lake, the entire town holds such a special place for me—and I know for Sloane as well—that can’t be measured.

Seeing it from this view also reminds me of all I’ve done to keep it afloat. Everyone being appreciative of my efforts is what I doit for, not for the glory or the support, but simply because this town has always been there for me when I needed it. And since I have the means to give back now, I think it is only right to do so.

“It’s beautiful up here,” Sloane says.

I look over and note that her eyes haven’t left the view below us. That’s high praise, coming from an artist like Sloane, but I recognize that I could come off a little biased in agreeing with her.

“Sometimes I’ll take this out to come here when I need time to think,” I tell her as I return my focus to what’s in front of me.

“Most people have a place they like to go, like a park,” she says wryly. “Cade Hart likes to take his private helicopter into the sky.”

I laugh and shake my head. Sure, having the ability to take a private helicopter up in the sky to get away from the chaos on the ground is as “first-world problems” as it can get, but I remind myself every day that I earned this privilege. It humbles me and reminds me of where I came from.

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