Page 18 of Love at First Flight

“Shhhhhh,” he implored the bird, bringing his hand to his pounding head, only to be met by something gross. “Son of a—Seriously, Harper?” In protest at not being let out at a reasonable hour, Harper had taken a big crow-size shit in his hair. It was a good thing he didn’t have to go to work today. The day was getting worse and that was before the memories from the previous night flooded into his mind.

Oh God.

If he didn’t want to crawl into a hole and disappear before, he certainly did now. It was funny how the lack of alcohol in his system made his once heroic actions now seem downright silly and embarrassing. And—

His eyes shot open, expecting to see Selah sitting on his couch, both wanting and dreading it at the same time.

Thank God. She’d left him to his misery and—Goddamn, his neck hurt. Between his head and his neck, and from spending the whole night in the recliner, he wasn’t sure if his body was permanently gnarled and would never be able to function the same again. Ava was right. He’d transform into a sixty-year-old man. The thought of going up and down on the path at work made him want to puke his guts out. Dex regretted it all. Everything. He was never doing this to himself ever again.

Harper squawked impatiently, giving him another warning to get up. Not wanting to experience more crow shit, Dex found his motivation to inch out of the recliner at the speed of a sloth and shuffle his way to the door—

Why was he wearing only one shoe?

After releasing the bird, he surveyed his home, seeing how bad it must have appeared to Selah’s eyes. It wasn’t dirty, but there was a blanket on the ground, his mail somehow got knocked to the floor, and some of his cabinet doors were open, revealing the clutter behind them. His mom would have a panic attack at the state of his home, and it had him second-guessing if his place was fit for company. Both of his exes felt it wasn’t, and he could only assume Selah would too.

He hadn’t been expecting someone like Selah to enter his life at all, let alone his house. Dex hoped she was alright and had gotten home okay. Should he check on her? How should he go about it? He could call the High Desert Tours phone line. She might even answer.

Dex pulled his phone from his pocket. Dead. The battery life in his three-year-old phone didn’t hold a good charge these days. Maybe this was a good thing, as he’d embarrassed himself enough in front of Selah. It was becoming a bad habit at this point.

The jigsaw puzzle on his coffee table was further along than he remembered. Did he puzzle while drunk last night? No wonder Ava thought he wasn’t exciting enough for her.

The phone on the coffee table also brought confusion.

He glanced at the smartphone in his hand to make sure it hadn’t teleported to the table without him noticing. The coffee table phone had an oval white sticker withAV8R on it.Definitely not his.

Picking it up, he flipped it over. The locked screen appeared. The background image was a picture of Selah and some older man wearing a blue baseball hat with the wordCaptainon the front. With the sun beaming down on them, Selah had never looked happier, her smile electric, her eyes bright. It was one more version of her Dex got a glimpse of, one he had yet to experience in person—wait, there was no “yet” about it because he wasn’t going to see her again.

Except she’d forgotten her phone. He had to get it back to her. Phones were important to people, especially these days. They were almost as important as a person’s wallet. Selah might need it for her business. Or perhaps this phone was important to her, like her earbuds were. Plus, she gave him a ride home and he had the day off. He owed her.

Dex made the decision to drive to High Desert Tours. After he cleaned up and took some pain relief, of course. No reason to go over there with bird shit on his head.

When he arrived at the farm parking area, the same one he and Ava used the first time, his was the only car there, besides a white company van. He assumed it meant that there weren’t any flights today or they were already finished. Dex rubbed nervous palms across his pants, unsure of himself. He probably should have called first. Should he knock on the door of the farmhouse? He felt awkward as hell and one look in a mirror confirmed he looked about as good as he felt, which was terrible.

He wasn’t entirely sure why any of this mattered. All he planned to do was knock on the door, drop off the phone, and then be on his way home, where he could take a couch nap while some mindless action movie he’d already seen a dozen times streamed on the TV in the background.

He cleared his throat and ran a hand over his hair before climbing the porch steps to the farmhouse door. Taking a calming breath, he knocked.

The older woman, the one he recognized as Selah’s mom, answered the door while on the phone. What looked like a bit of flour was streaked across one cheek. At seeing him standing there, her features dropped, looking worried. Dex must have really looked a fright for that kind of unexpected reaction.

“Becky, I need to call you back,” she said before hanging up, her brow creasing with concern. “Oh my goodness. Did you have a tour today? I’m so sorry. Ever since... well, my mind has been so forgetful. I really try to be better at keeping track of things.” She fumbled with collecting a worn, folded piece of paper from her pocket which might have served as her makeshift schedule. “I’m really sorry about this. I don’t want to ruin things.”

She appeared on the verge of getting flustered, and Dex had to jump in. “No, it’s fine. I’m actually not here for a tour. I’m... uh... I’m actually looking for Selah.” The tips of his ears grew hot, but he did his best not to react any more than this.

“But it’s not for a tour?”

“No. Just to... talk.” Perhaps he should have explained and handed Selah’s phone over to her mother and be done with it. Although maybe her mom would wonder why a strange man had her daughter’s phone, and he didn’t want to invite scrutiny, even if it was warranted. Her mother might agree with him that Selah shouldn’t have gone out of her way to give him a ride home when she hardly knew him.

Her mom’s expression flipped from relief to actual happiness. “Oh! That’s great! I’m so glad you’re here to see Selah. I think she’s in the office. It’s right on the side of the house over there,” she said, pointing in a direction. “Did you want something to drink? Some tea or coffee?”

“Uh, no, ma’am. I’m good, thanks. I’m just going to talk with her real fast and then I’ll be going,” Dex reassured her before taking his leave.

He’d just climbed the steps to a temporary office trailer when the door swung open. In front of him was a different woman, not Selah, but she hadn’t noticed him as she was looking somewhere inside the trailer. “I don’t understand why you can’t just look at my ideas. You want the company to make money? Well, that’s exactly what I’m trying to do too.”

Selah’s voice came from within the trailer. “I’m not trying to be an asshole, Naomi. I already have enough on my plate getting some of Dad’s loans refinanced. I’m up to my eyes in numbers and I don’t want to see any more right now. Besides, why would I want to start up a bunch of things and then expect whoever ends up being the new pilot to take over all of that? It’s probably going to be hard enough to find someone. If you still want to do it after I leave, you can take it up with them. Things are already overwhelming enough.”

“Whatever. You’re just being stubborn and—Oh, my goodness. Where did you come from?” Naomi’s hand went to her chest as soon as she turned, noticing Dex on the steps below her.

“Hi. I’m looking for Selah.” He glanced over his shoulder to see Selah’s mom leaning on the outside corner of the farmhouse, watching the whole exchange.

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