Page 11 of Love at First Flight

Even worse, it gave their mother some kind of hope. So much so, she broke away from her all-consuming baking to give opinions and get giggly as her sisters flicked through potential dating options on an app. It was the happiest Selah had seen their mother in a while, which was why she ultimately relented, even while being annoyed.

While jogging on the Smith Rock trailhead, Selah half listened to a true crime podcast in hopes of getting inspiration on how she could fake her own disappearance before her date tonight or how to commit the perfect crime when doing away with one’s sisters. Either situation was on the table.

Listening was made more difficult by her left earbud stubbornly refusing to remain lodged in her ear. She’d already stopped twice to rescue it from wiggling out completely. It was extra aggravation on top of an already aggravating day. Plus, it was continuing to get hotter, so on top of it all, she was overheated, sweaty and her curls were refusing to stay in a ponytail—

Another woman with two energetic dogs bounded around one tight corner, almost colliding with her. “Oh, excuse me,” Selah said, doing a quick sidestep to the left to avoid them. The woman offered dirty looks as though Selah should have known she was coming. Unfortunately, bouncing unexpectedly to the side brought her foot onto a small jagged rock, making her nearly lose her balance, and she barely managed to keep herself upright. She may have saved herself, but the same couldn’t be said about her left earbud as it flew through the air, landing somewhere in the off-trail brush.

“Dammit,” Selah said. “I lost my earbud.”

If she had any hopes the woman with the two dogs would take this as a request for help, she would have been disappointed. The woman continued on the path without another word, leaving Selah by herself.

“So much for Oregon nice,” she said under her breath grumpily before wading through the tall, dried out, early August brush. Using a hand to sweep aside the wild grass, she bent over as the true crime podcaster continued droning in her right ear.

The earbuds weren’t expensive. She supposed she could get by with a single one or buy herself a new pair. Except it was the last birthday gift given to her by her dad, and he’d been excited about it, wrapping it himself in some old red bandana of his. It was too bad he’d purchased a standard black pair instead of something more eye-catching, like purple or pink. But that was Robert, always the practical guy.

“Ma’am, I’m going to need you to return to the designated path,” said a voice behind her.

“What?” She turned her head, peering over her shoulder while bent over at the ass. Did he just call herma’am? Did her ass in joggers look like ama’amto him? This guy had better watch himself because she was already not in a good mood.

The man in the park ranger uniform had one hand on a hip. The other hand did an impatient flick with his fingers, motioning her to approach.

As she straightened, Selah recognized Dex immediately. Even at his place of work, she never expected to run into him again. She’d visited Smith Rock many times and never noticed any park rangers on the trails. She assumed, like chameleons, they were good at blending in with the environment. Of course, she’d run into one now and it would be him.

It wasn’t that she hadn’t thought about him. There’d been many times during quiet hot-air balloon tours when she’d wondered how he was. She’d been terribly embarrassed about how that particular flight had ended.

The problem with hot-air balloons—they didn’t always cooperate a hundred percent of the time. Some things were completely out of Selah’s control, like people who arrived late for launch days and missed the golden hour. Case in point, landing. While ninety-seven percent of the time, the whole ride from takeoff to landing went without a hitch, there was always a small chance something could happen. This was why she liked to warn people ahead of time to prepare them.

Hot-air balloons, like fate, also had terrible timing. Of all the days she needed the basket to land smoothly so everyone could go on their awkward way, she didn’t get her wish. She had fallen right smack on top of Dex, and as she suspected, his arms were warm and protective as they had wrapped around her. When she should have sprung away from him and apologized, she didn’t.

Sheknewit was wrong. It wasn’t an appropriate way to treat a passenger, but she couldn’t help it. Maybe she needed more hugs these days because, since Robert died, there was one less person in her life giving them. Getting an accidental one from Dex seemed like a good substitute at that moment.

She got the impression she wasn’t going to get a repeat hug today. In fact, Dex stood on the trail, looking different from the last time they’d met. His features were sterner, his eyes duller, and he sported a few days’ scruff. Although, even with the grumpy expression, the scruff and longer hair made the guy more attractive, not less. This wasn’t good for her determination to forget about him.

“Oh, hi!” she replied cheerfully as she scrambled to pause the podcast. “It’s good to see you.” In spite of everything, it was nice to see his familiar face and perhaps he’d help her locate the missing earbud.

“Are you going to come out of the brush, ma’am?” he said.

He didn’t recognize her. This was both disappointing and also put her in a bit of a quandary. The first part because, while she didn’t think she was as eye-catchingly gorgeous as her younger sisters, she also didn’t think she was average enough to be forgettable. Although, in her current disheveled state, with half her curls springing from the captivity of the hair tie, perhaps this was a good thing. And, to be fair, when she’d met him at the balloon launch, she’d been wearing large aviators and a hat.

Selah wasn’t sure she wanted to remind him of that day or how to go about it.Hey there, remember when your girlfriend rejected your marriage proposal? Yeah, funny story. I was there too.It was awkward, to say the least, and perhaps him forgetting her face was for the best.

“I’m not going to ask you again,” he said flatly.

“I’m sorry, I can’t.”

He must not have been expecting any pushback, as a brief expression of confusion passed across his features before switching to a sterner look. “Ma’am—”

“I lost my earbud and it’s here somewhere. Maybe you can help me find it?”

“You can go up to the visitors center and file a note with a ranger up there. If it ends up in the Lost and Found box, someone will reach out to you.”

She peered to the top of the steep hill, which was always a bear to climb since it must have been close to a forty-five degree angle to get to the visitor center yurt. “No one is going to find it and bring it to the lost and found. It’s around here somewhere. Just give me five minutes. It looks just like this.” She pulled the second earbud from her right ear to prove its existence.

“No. Come out of the brush now.” His response was hard and unyielding.

Whatever positive thoughts she had for the man based on their past interactions flew out the window at this point. Dex wasn’t as nice of a guy as she had originally thought. Sure, he had a job to do, but—Why was he being so stubborn? Her heartbeat increased, indicating a possible internal freakout, at the knowledge she was about to lose her earbud from Robert, which now felt like a precious family heirloom.

In a move she knew was childish and demanding, Selah crossed her arms. “No. I’m going to find my earbud, Dex. If you want me out of the brush faster, then you can help me. I’m not leaving this spot until I find it, so go ahead and try to drag me out. See what happens.”

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