Page 28 of Love at First Flight

“Oh, is that what this is about? Gah, you made me think it was something worse. You need to go touch grass, Selah.” Her sister collapsed in one of the office chairs, sliding into a slouched position as she took a sip from the straw in her tumbler while inspecting the paint job on her pointy, perfectly manicured nails.

“This isn’t a joke. That was a horrible video, and you need to take it down right now. I’m not kidding. I want it down. I can’t believe you would do something like that to Dex and me.” Selah hadn’t even perused any of the comments, which she was sure were riddled with commentary and would result in her becoming angrier. At this point, she felt bad for Dex for getting involved with the Moreno family. He didn’t deserve any of this. Maybe she did, though, for trusting her sister with this one small thing.

The straw popped from Hailey’s mouth. “I can’t do that, especially not without an explanation. Did you see the numbers on that post? If I take it down, it’s just going to make everyone suspicious, especially since it’s still making rounds.”

“Does it look like I care about your numbers? Take it down.”

“Youtold me to work my magic. You said I could do whatever I wanted. I got the spotlight right on the event, just like you asked.”

“You think this is what I wanted? For Dex and me just to be tossed under a bus for your entertainment and social media clout? You were supposed to be helping us. If this is your idea of help, I don’t want it.”

“I was helping! Do you know how hard it is to cut through the noise and catch people’s attention? These days you have to either intrigue people or make them mad—”

Selah released a bitter laugh. “Oh, well, that’s just great. Congratulations, I’m mad. Do you not get it? Do you not understand anything? Maybe you don’t take this seriously because you can just stay with Mom and live off of her good graces forever, having her cater to you while you just do whatever you want and make your silly videos—the rest of us here are trying to keep the business afloat. And maybe it’s not important to you, but it’s important to me.

“Do you have any idea how hard it is for someone like us to be taken seriously in this business, or reallyanybusiness? To be a young Latina woman trying to be a pilot? I’ve had to work my ass off. And you’re out there telling the whole world I’m crash landing baskets. With one video, you just threw away not only my reputation, but the business’s reputation—right into the shit can. And then what are we supposed to do? What is Mom supposed to do?

“And this is not even taking into account how Dex might be affected by all this. What am I supposed to tell him? That my sister blabbed his private business all over social media? That I can’t be trusted, either, because it’s my fault that I told Mom, and she told you. What if he gets in trouble at work for this? It’s easy for you, but this is our reputation that you’re playing with.

“We’re family. We’re supposed to have each other’s back, but it’s clear I can’t trust you to have mine.”

Her sister blinked for the first time, her eyes welling up with tears but none of them spilling over, and her expression still one of defiance. “You don’t know how hard it’s been for us since Dad’s been gone. What we’ve been going through. Not all of us can just pick up and move on as easily as you.”

Selah’s anger blazed hotter. “Excuse me?Idon’t know how hard it is? I’ve been suffering right along with the rest of you.”

“Even Naomi says she’s never seen you cry.” Hailey flung an arm in the direction of their other sister.

Selah glared at them. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize I needed to have my heart laid out on a platter for you two.”

“Se—” Naomi started to say, but Selah was mad at both of them, mad at the whole damn, rotten world. In fact, she wanted to go into the barn and shredThe Blue Wonderto ribbons.

Hailey wiped all the tears away with a hand, finding her footing again. “Sometimes I don’t get you, Selah. I really don’t. And I have been trying around here. Really trying. But you don’t see any of it. You want your sisters to have your back? When was the last time you saw us as sisters instead of just employees? And why does it even matter when you’re just looking to leave, anyways? Do you even care Dad is currently under a pile of clutter in Mom’s room? You were his Number One. You were chosen out of all of us, and you can’t get away fast enough. It was clear he loved you best and you weren’t even his real daughter. It wasn’t your father who died.”

Selah didn’t have anything left after that. She simply got up, walked out the door, and slammed it behind her.

Chapter Twelve

Dex was disappointedthe only reply he received from Selah, after his last message regarding the reporter wanting to talk to her, wask, thx. He wasn’t sure what she was thanking him for or if this was an accidental message meant for someone else. Either way, it didn’t give him anything, and while his message hadn’t required a response, he’d wanted one, anyway.

The whole week had been odd. The news station in Bend wasn’t the only one, as he had received other requests from random media sources around the country, most of them being blogs or YouTube personalities. He hadn’t replied to those emails yet. Regardless, he needed to talk to Selah about the interview he did for the Colorado radio station. She may never come across it, but it seemed important to at least give her the heads-up on the off chance she did.

“What’s going on between you and the sexy hot-air balloon pilot? What’s her name? Sara? Are you guys hooking up or what?”the radio personality had asked him.

Dex had been caught off guard by the question. All he could do was release a nervous chuckle and reply,“It’s Selah and, uh, yeah... we’re just... you know... friends,”which didn’t sound convincing, even to his own ears. He’d been debating telling her ever since, even though nothing could be changed and—It was only the implication of it all.

Also, it didn’t help when his boss, Chris, pulled him aside at work to tell him she didn’t care what Dex was doing in his personal life, but maybe take care of it outside the park when he wasn’t wearing his uniform. He wasn’t sure what Chris had witnessed, but it worried him all the same. Dex should never doubt that his campaign-hat-wearing boss and fellow rangers were as perceptive as hell, and their eyes could be anywhere. The point was, he should know better than to try anything on park property, no matter how big—or, in this case, short—the temptation was.

It was a good thing Chris got a call from the Smith Rock nonprofit, congratulating her on a healthy amount of donations. Also, Chris’s wife was quite pleased with their new family photo, so it was more of a discussion than Dex getting written up. He tried to shrug the whole thing off.

After he got home that day from work, he took another chance and sent a text to Selah.

Got a new one if you’re interested.

He sent along a picture of a jigsaw puzzle he’d recently ordered online. It was a stylized image of a crow posing inside of a gothic library because Selah once mentioned it would be fun to do something different from landscape images.

She responded after a few minutes.

I haven’t had the best day.

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