Page 23 of Love at First Flight

“Oh my God! You think I look thirty-two?” She feigned shock. “You think I’m an old crow?”

“ButI’mthirty-two. Are you saying that’s old? How old are you?”

Selah schooled her features into prissiness, replying, “Thirty,” before taking a sip.

Dex laughed heartily, sending bright bubbles of pleasure through her chest. “Get out of here with that fake outrage.”

They soon got down to real business, but only after Selah begged him to drag his coffee table onto the porch so they could work on his current jigsaw puzzle while they chatted. She found it easier to keep her focus on something else, instead of catching herself gazing into his hazel eyes.

“Did you talk to your boss about your idea already?” she asked.

“Oh, yeah, that went great,” he replied with sarcasm. “She basically laughed me out of the yurt. You have no idea how damaging it can be to your ego to be laughed out of a yurt. As expected, the answer basically boiled down to no budget, no interest, and, most importantly, no budget.”

“Wait, so is that it?” If the whole thing was impossible, what was she doing here?

Unless he wanted to hang out with her too? But why not say so instead of creating an excuse? There was a part of her wanting to believe this was true.

Selah reached for a puzzle piece within the box, the same one as him, and their fingers tangled together. His felt strong and tender. Her gaze lifted, which was a mistake, because exactly what she had feared happened. She got lost staring into his eyes. She counted on him to put an end to it, to stop touching, to break this connection, but he didn’t move either. Her skin flushed hot.

Harper’s squawk startled them both, bringing them back to their senses. Dex muttered an apology before pulling his hand away and surrendering the disputed puzzle piece to her.

Selah cleared her throat. “So, about the project?” she said to remind both of them of the conversation they were having while concentrating extra hard on fitting the puzzle piece together with its correct partners.

“Oh, well, Chris said,Go find yourself a wealthy benefactor who cares about crows and ducks. And, yeah, I guess she was being sarcastic, but then I thought, why not? Smith Rock is famous, so it’s easy to believe that wealthy people visit just as much as poor people. If we can get enough attention, maybe it’ll generate some kind of interest from the right person.”

“Except getting people’s attention these days isn’t easy.”

“True. Although, a hot-air balloon always catches people’s attention. I know it catches my eye when I happen to see one at work.”

ConsideringThe Blue Wonderwas most likely the balloon nearest to him when he was at work, she wondered if he’d seen it and thought of her. Or would he only think about what a bad experience that flight was? Maybe he hated the sight of her balloon, its whole association tainted because of one bad proposal. It was hard to tell from his words whether this was a good thing or bad. If anything, it reminded her the guy was fresh off the relationship wagon and she should be more careful when choosing and picking puzzle pieces.

“Well,” she started, “it’s not like I can give people hot-air balloon rides inside the park as it wouldn’t be very practical, and I don’t know how we can connect it in people’s minds to wildlife or rehabilitation or any of it, although...” An idea struck her, and she wasn’t sure if it would work, but decided to blurt it out, anyway. “What if... what if the park had some kind of educational event, but we turn it into a picture slash Instagram moment?” Her pointer finger rubbed across her bottom lip, a habit she was prone to do while concentrating.

Dex leaned his head against a hand, his attention focused on the movement, his eyes softening. It wasn’t clear if he was listening, but then asked, “What do you mean?”

“Okay.” She spread her hands in front of her as though about to reveal something big. “Tethering. We set up the balloon in some flat area at the top of the park, like maybe the RV parking area, but it’ll be tethered to the ground. I’ll use my whisper burner mode to keep the envelope inflated and people can take pictures in front of it. We’re getting closer to the end of the season, so people are going to be looking for opportunities for family images to use on this year’s holiday cards, or maybe they just want to take a nice image for their social media. And what cooler image can you have than taking a picture in front of a hot-air balloon with Smith Rock in the background? Right?”

“Yes.” He pondered this for a moment before nodding. “I think my boss would really like this. If we can promote it, it might draw people in. And balloons are in the sky, just like crows, so maybe we can connect these two things. Harper and I can have a table nearby. Help Harper’s friends. If people take pictures, learn about Harper, they might be more willing to make donations to the Smith Rock non-profit organization. It might not be enough to get the wildlife rehabilitation center, but it’ll still help the park.”

“As long as you think Harper will be okay around people. We don’t want to stress her out and have some bird accident with someone or the balloon.” She didn’t want to imagine what that could be, but she’d feel bad if something were to happen. Tethering wasn’t the easiest thing, as balloons wanted to soar away, but it might be worth it for the attention. Naomi would be proud of her for coming up with this out-of-the-box idea.

Wrapped inside the Moreno barn was the new envelope her dad had purchased. All this time, she hadn’t been able to bring it out. It was his. But this might be the opportunity they needed to drum up business for High Desert. They needed a balloon that would pop against the background and get people to remember them. Maybe this was the nudge she needed to finally face it.

“Harper should be okay. I’ve brought her to the park half a dozen times already, mostly in the hopes she’d want to stay, instead of living with me. The problem is that she’s not afraid of people and prefers my food, so you can see how well that turned out.” He did a half eye roll in the same direction as Harper with a smile, which was the most charming version of an eye roll she’d ever witnessed, more playful than sarcastic. “As long as people give her space and don’t crowd her, she might even pose for a picture or two and not be an asshole about it.”

Her brain couldn’t stop zipping along. “Oh, you know what? I can get my sister, Hailey, to do some social media videos for us so we can get the word out to even more people. If they’re able to donate online, it might mean more money.”

“Your sister would do that for us?”

Selah tried not to focus on the word “us” too deeply. There’d never been an “us” between them before. She casually flicked a hand through the air and replied, “Oh, sure. She owes me. Plus, she supposedly does really well on the Loop app. Her channel is some kind of gossip thing. Her handle is @HaileyTeaTime. I don’t really get it, but I know she gets a lot of views. As long as we’re okay with her having creative license, I think she’ll be willing to do it. But this way, we can cast our wealthy benefactor net even wider than just local park visitors. You never know.”

Harper hopped off her perch onto the table and grabbed a bright blue piece from the puzzle box, dropping it into Dex’s hand before returning to her spot. Like some kind of magic trick, he put the piece in the exact spot it belonged, snapping it together with an easy click, his gaze flicking to Selah’s with a grin. “Well, friend, I think you, me, and this plan are going to fit together perfectly.”

It was all so smooth, Selah almost swooned right there. It was too bad she’d declared swooning was prohibited. She laughed it off instead. There was nothing else to it. Friendship with Dex would have to do.

Chapter Ten

When presenting hisand Selah’s idea to his boss, Dex worried he was about to be laughed out of the yurt again. He’d also talked it over with Jon, who raised his eyebrows at the mention of Selah’s name but, in the end, was encouraging and offered his help if they needed it. Jon even offered some good suggestions, such as where would be a nice spot to set up the balloon and they should make a designated spot for people to line up to take pictures. This way there would be a safe distance around the balloon, and people would be able to get the whole balloon with Smith Rock in the background. With both Selah and Jon helping him, it gave Dex the confidence he needed to talk to Chris.

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