Page 5 of Love at First Flight

“Yes. I’m sorry... I was just... sorry.” She stumbled at not being able to tell him where her thoughts had turned.

“I was just wondering if it was more appropriate to refer to you as Captain Moreno. I’m not sure what the proper protocol is here.”

“Oh, yes! Sorry,” she replied, flustered. “You can just call me Selah—I don’t really care.” On one hand, she’d already decided he could call her anything he wanted. The bigger truth was, she hadn’t adopted the title vacated by her dad. She was a pilot, but he was the captain, not her. She was still Number One, holding the spot open until a real captain could take it.

“Well, Selah, as much as I enjoyed talking to you, my lunch break is coming to an end, and I think I better book my hot-air balloon excursion. I’m planning on proposing to my girlfriend, so I wanted to see what you had available and how the process works...”

Well, crap.

She’d never been so disappointed to discover that what was happening on the phone wasn’t a flirty conversation after all. Dex had merely been friendly, and she’d read way more into the situation. She was ashamed and embarrassed because, of course, this was for an engagement. Something about hot air and altitude inspired love and romance and... wow, she was such a clown. He wasn’t married, but it was close enough.

Dex Westerly wasn’t for her.

Chapter Two

Central Oregon had,on average, about three hundred days of sunshine a year.

This particular unsubstantiated claim was something repeated by realtors, weather reporters, and by your everyday, friendly state park ranger, like Dex Westerly. He was even willing to say it on days like today, where he was basically nature’s janitor, emptying the park’s trash receptacles.

It was one of those feel-good, optimistic statements that was generally accepted and rarely fact-checked, as though life in the High Desert was on par with living in San Diego. In reality, it was used to differentiate between what people imagined to be typical Pacific Northwest weather and what they found here. Foggy, overcast, and rainy more accurately described Portland’s weather, not Terrebonne. When he said it to people from those areas, it sounded more like bragging.

Except the statement was also deceptive because, while there may be many days of sunshine, this wasn’t the same thing as three hundred days of perfect weather. A sunny day could be blistering hot or freezing cold with snow on the ground, depending on the season. If the sun was out, it counted. In Central Oregon, perfect seventy-degree days weren’t rare, but it could usually only be expected for two weeks in spring and two weeks in fall. The rest of the year was a crapshoot in terms of temperature.

After two years living here, Dex was getting used to it and, in fact, loved the area. It truly was an outdoorsman’s paradise, with lots of wide-open space, filled with the natural beauty of mountains, caverns, lava tubes, and waterfalls, all thanks to high volcanic activity millions of years ago. Yes, it was a desert, but being at such a high elevation, it was different and more unique than the stereotypical sandy ones and was pretty in its own right. He liked that about it. Plus, if he ever wanted the lusher, greener part of the state, he only needed to jump in a car and head west for an hour.

People came from all over the country to visit this particular state park. Dex was lucky enough that part of his job was informing people about neat and educational facts about local wildlife and plants. Way cooler stuff thanCentral Oregon gets three hundred sunny days a year. Such as, “Hey, see those big red ants scurrying on that rock by your feet. Those are edible and taste slightly of citrus. If you ever find yourself foraging in the middle of nowhere, you can eat those, but you’ll have to eat quite a lot to ruin your appetite.” Those types of facts excited and impressed kids more than adults.

To be honest, he preferred dealing with kids more than adults at his job. Kids weren’t boring. Most kids, even those acting up, respected the uniform enough to listen. If he said, “Please stay on the path,” most kids corrected themselves. They were simply curious and exploring. It gave him hope that some of them were able to break away from their electronic devices long enough to see the world around them.

Adults, for the most part, didn’t get excited about weird facts about local cuisine involving ants. Or how white sagebrush could be used as nature’s deodorant in a pinch, if a person rubbed it over their skin. He really thought that latter fact would strike people as interesting. Also, adultscouldread park signs, but assumed none of the information or rules applied to them. The number of times he had to tell adults to stay on the path was too high. The only information they wanted to know was if there was a “real” toilet around instead of the composting restroom. He’d just smile and point toward the visitor center located at the top of a steep and inconvenient hill.

Sure, his job wasn’t all fun facts, but it was all right. Dex wouldn’t give it up for anything. He felt he was doing pretty well in life, considering.

So well, in fact, he should keep things moving by settling down at thirty-two and ask his girlfriend the biggest question of all.

“I’m thinking of getting married,” he told his coworker, Jon Takala, as they lifted black, plastic bags of trash, transferring them to the back of a state park white pickup truck.

“Married? To who?” the taller, older man asked while brushing a dark strand of hair away with a hand.

Dex gave Jon a confused look. “What do you mean ‘to who?’”

“You can’t mean Ava.”

“Yes, Ava. Who else am I going to marry?” Dex had been seeing the vivacious personal trainer and fitness influencer for over a year now.

They had met at Smith Rock when Ava had been there doing a meditation video for her YouTube channel, and Dex had inadvertently walked between her and the camera. She’d yelled at him, but then they got to chatting, and she asked him if he wanted to get together later. At the time, Dex had been going through a rough patch in his life, ever since Rachel, his previous girlfriend, had packed her things without warning, preferring life in California more than she preferred him. His response to Ava’s question had been,Yeah, sure, why not?She was gorgeous, there was no way he was going to turn her down. His gut had told him, at the time, this was the best thing to get over his current bad luck, and it seemed to be exactly what he needed.

“Why do you suddenly want to get married?” Jon asked as he lifted the truck’s tailgate, snapping it into place. He took the driver’s side while Dex was relegated to the passenger seat. The question surprised him. The older park ranger had been married for at least ten years, had two young kids, and always seemed satisfied with his situation. Why wouldn’t he want the same for Dex?

“Are you kidding? Who wouldn’t want to be married to Ava? She’s great and beautiful and really active.” In his mind, it was a match made in heaven, or at least a version of heaven, where he’d managed to hit a home run and got someone who’d always felt somewhat out of his league. “And I’d really like to share a home with someone else, so I’m not alone all the time.”

“You’re not alone. You have your pet crow.” Jon chuckled at this, as though Dex’s accidental animal situation was amusing fodder to a larger joke about his lifestyle.

“Harper is not a pet.” Dex had found the young, injured crow with a broken wing near the backside of the tall rock spire called Monkey Face, during one of his work shifts seven months prior. With no other resources available, because local wildlife rehabilitation places didn’t have room for crows, Dex had let the bird convalesce at his place. He had given her the name Harper, thinking if he treated the bird like a friend, it would quicken the healing process. It sounded nicer than Ava’s preferred nickname, which was Harpy, even though they could both agree the name suited the crow’s personality more.

The good news was Harper did recover, although she wasn’t the best flier yet. The bad news was crows, like most wild animals, made for horrible pets. Dex considered Harper more like an intelligent, feathered ally, as the animal was free to come and go as she pleased. As such, Harper maintained her own life, but frequently stopped by to visit Dex, usually by cawing next to his bedroom window early on his days off until she was granted access through an open window.

Harper showed her appreciation by bringing him gifts like twigs and metal soda can tabs. He imagined these were valuable currency in the crow world. In exchange, Harper would steal any food she was able to sneak from his cabinets.

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