Page 42 of Love at First Flight

Naomi grinned while pumping her eyebrows. “Well, it certainly explains why you never came home the other night. Seems like you and Dex had a lot to, uh, talk about after that news segment.”

“Dexter did this?” Her mother grabbed her again to inspect her neck. “Ah, see? Hailey did you a favor, and now you’re so happy, you can forgive her and you girls can go back to loving each other. I knew it would all work out. You and Dexter together. This is wonderful. And maybe you’ll stay here and not leave to go to some strange city away from me and your family.” The change in her mother’s demeanor was funny. It would appear Elena had no problem with her “bad” behavior if it all worked out in her mother’s ideal favor.

At the same time, she didn’t want to give her mother false hope. One, admittedly, amazing night (and morning) with Dex wasn’t about to alter the trajectory of Selah’s whole life. “Mom, come on. Nothing’s changed. I’m still mad at Hailey. Dex and I are still just friends”—because the last thing she wanted to explain was the concept of rebound relationships—“and I’ve reached out to my old flight instructor to see if he knows of anyone who might be interested in piloting for High Desert Tours.”

The way her mother’s expression dropped made Selah regret being blunt, but none of this should be a surprise. Her anger at her youngest sister was more than just Hailey starting a rumor. Her sister had no qualms about embarrassing her, Dex, and the whole business in such a public way. Also, she’d said some hurtful things to Selah and there wasn’t an apology anywhere. In fact, it appeared as if Hailey was hiding from Selah because her work schedule went from sporadic to nonexistent. Selah was about to suggest they hire a new office person, along with a new pilot, because it appeared her sister didn’t care about anything other than her own selfish needs.

Selah did feel bad, as if she was abandoning her mother. She decided to throw Elena some kind of bone. “But I do really like Dex. He’s been, um, really nice to spend time with.” Even this was insufficient to describe her real feelings—as though Dex was some nice acquaintance of hers. The truth—he was not only an attractive man, but someone who was beginning to have this ability to strip her down to her bare bones and give her the lightness and happiness she’d been missing from her life for some time. She never known anyone quite like Dex, someone who was not only endearing but made her feel as if she could lean against him and trust him to take some of the weight.

Her desire to want it all, to fulfill everything she’d put on her figurative to-do list, was becoming a complicated dilemma. Life never made anything easy. If anything, perhaps this relationship was simply another roadblock to hamper her. As wonderful as Dex was, she couldn’t throw away her goals and her dad’s dream for something that was more than likely a temporary relationship. Dex was trying to find his footing after Ava and, she had no doubt, he’d eventually find someone else. She was a Selah blip between the Avas. She’d been here before, but this time she didn’t have delusions about how any of it worked.

Her mother had her own ideas, though. “I’m sure Dexter is already halfway in love with you. Who wouldn’t love my Selah? You’re so strong. You’re such a rock.” Her mom stroked her cheek with tenderness and she tried not to think about it too much because passengers were about to show up. Boone arrived, getting out of his vehicle while eating an apple and casually strolling over to the group while holding a basic blue balloon for her pi-ball test.

“Everything okay?” Boone asked, tossing his apple core into the field after handing the balloon to Selah and scraping his fingers through his slightly messy rock star hair.

“Yup,” Selah replied. “My mom is just trying to convince me that everyone in the world loves me. And here’s a perfect example. Boone doesn’t love me.”

“Of course I do, darlin’,” he said in a slight Southern twang. “All the Moreno women have won my heart, some more than others... like your mother and her cooking.”

“Good grief,” Naomi responded flatly while their mother giggled.

“You can cook for me anytime too, honey,” he replied to her sister, throwing her a quick wink.

“Great. I hope you like your dinner with a giant side of laxatives.”

“Naomi Rosa Moreno, hush now. I didn’t raise you like that. I raised my daughters to be good girls. Boone, come to dinner on Friday, okay? And, Selah, you make sure to invite Dexter. If you don’t, I’ll find him on the Facebook and ask him myself.”

She opened her mouth to object but there was a side of her that didn’t want to fight it. She wanted to see Dex again and her mother gave an easy excuse. “Alright, fine. I’ll ask him.”

After that morning’s flight, she returned to the office trailer, pulling out her phone. She wasn’t sure how to start a conversation after they’d slept together.Hey, buddywas weirdly casual.Heyalso didn’t feel right. How could a single word appear both aggressive and standoffish at the same time? She didn’t want to call him in case he happened to be at work. What if she interrupted him while he was in the middle of rescuing someone hanging off a cliff? Was that even part of his job? In the end, she didn’t care if it was true or not, because fantasizing about Dex rescuing someone off a cliff was hot.

Selah typed,Hi there, friend. After a second, she backspaced the wordfriend, removing it from the text, and hit send.

A few minutes later came the response,

Hey! Made a new friend today.

A selfie followed. It was a picture of Jon and Dex beside each other. Dex clasped a swaddled old towel to his chest with what appeared to be a hawk head peeking from the top of the bundle. The bird’s face expressed bewilderment at being included in this selfie, its yellow eyes wide and its beak held agape. The picture made her smile and, to be honest, it was hotter than imagining him hanging off some cliff, rescuing some careless human.

Oh no. You’re getting another roommate? I don’t know how Harper is going to feel about this.

This was better than her first instinct, which was to express worry that an injured hawk could hurt him. Already feeling protective of the guy wasn’t a great sign when it came to her determination not to catch serious feelings.

It’s all good. Jon and I are on our way to a rehabilitation center near Warm Springs. Gonna get some fry bread for lunch while there. How’s your day going?

Any day I get to go up is a good day. :)

Selah was beginning to truly feel this way. Sure, this morning’s conversation with her family was slightly uncomfortable, but being able to escape into a hot-air balloon was about as close to heaven as she could get, outside of being with Dex. On today’s flight there was an older gentleman who, at one point, closed his eyes while taking a deep breath and smiled, like he’d been transported somewhere else, somewhere wonderful. She found herself closing her eyes to take a deep breath as well. Being the person able to take someone to this peaceful place made her feel good, like she had the ability to give them something special. Selah was fortunate to experience this all the time.

No one lost any irreplaceable electronic photo albums off the side of the basket?

Selah laughed.

Nope. No phones lost. We in the piloting world call that a successful flight.

That’s my girl.

His response made Selah freeze. The sentence expressed both pride in her and a certain amount of possession. She didn’t know which aspect she liked more. Regardless, it shouldn’t send warm tingles coursing through her body or produce longing for the man over one silly expression.

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