Second Chance Secrets

Ainsley

I’d had better days.

I sat in a small private Cessna jet on the tarmac at a little airport just out from Aspen, Colorado.

The sun came through the windshield with a vengeance. It was hot for an October day.

A ridge of trees, flocked with shades of red, yellow, and gold started just off the edge of the runway and traveled up the mountainside until they gave way to bare rocks and finally snowcapped peaks.

A flock of birds left the trees and flew into the sky.

Yet I was left sitting here on the tarmac in this plane.

The tail of the plane wore bright red letters. Skye Travels.

One of Noah Worthington’s planes.

Noah. My daddy.

Daddy was known to hire only the best pilots to fly for the company he’d built from the ground up.

It was an aviation empire now. One that rivaled some of the smaller commercial airlines.

Out of six children, I was the only one of his children who became a pilot.

Six. One brother. Three sisters. And one half-sister.

Both my half-sister and my older sister had married pilots, but that didn’t count.

I had Daddy’s blood running through my veins.

Yet he wouldn’t hire me on until I had enough experience.

Frankly, I thought he was being harder on me than anyone else.

He’d let me haul cargo, but not people.

“Miss Worthington?” A mechanic climbed up on the wing and stuck his head through the open door of my plane.

“Did you find one?”

“I’m sorry,” he said. “We have to order one from the factory. Won’t be here for two days.” He glanced upwards. “And with the weather they’re predicting, all bets are off.”

Damn.

“Is there another plane I can use?”

“You’ll have to check inside. I don’t have that information.”

Of course he didn’t.

I tossed my leather satchel over my shoulder, but left my pilot’s cap on the passenger seat.

Daddy insisted that all his pilots wear a cap. He thought they added a level of distinctiveness to the pilots.

“Come on Beau,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”

I picked up the leash and, leaning back, hooked it on Beau’s collar.

This was supposed to be a day trip. Fly up. Get the dog—a cute, friendly solid black lab—and fly back to Houston.

Simple.

But then the alternator had gone bad.

Apparently there was a shortage of alternators right now, at least for this particular plane.

And on top of that, there was a snow storm coming in.

I didn’t do snow.

I was a Houston girl. Born and raised.

My older sister, Madison, lived in Denver with her fiancé. But that was about as close to snow as I got.

Though I was only picking up a dog, I was still flying a Skye Travels plane, so I was wearing part of my full uniform. White shirt. Low heels. Black jeans.

I used every opportunity to show Daddy that I was ready to fly passengers, but today seemed like a good day to bend the rules.

I had become adept at getting in and out of small planes, even wearing heels.

The big dog was a bit of a different story.

I barely had my feet on the ground before Beau jumped out, landing behind me.

He shook his whole body, fur flying, and looked at me expectantly.

I didn’t know a whole lot about dogs, but I could tell Beau was still a puppy. A big gangly puppy.

Though the sun had been hot coming in through the windshield, there was a cold bite to the wind. I was wearing a little suit jacket. It wouldn’t do much to keep me warm though.

“Let’s go,” I said, starting off across the tarmac toward the office where I’d left just an hour ago.

Beau practically pulled me along behind him.

He was being shipped from one family member to another. That’s all I knew. I’m sure there was a story behind it all, but my job was just to get Beau from one airport to another.

My sister Madison would have known the whole story before she even had the flight scheduled. But she was a psychologist.

Me. I was all about the flight.

But right now I was stuck in an airport in the Rocky Mountains with a dog named Beau.

I went inside the little office and walked up to the desk.

“Hi,” I said to the young lady sitting behind the desk. Her nametag said her name was Claire. She was a tall, thin woman with short blonde hair. Her features were angular and sharp.

“Hi,” Claire said with a bright smile, mostly for Beau.

“They had to order a part,” I said. “for my plane.”

“I know,” Claire said. “I’m sorry.”

“So… can you get me out of here?”

“Unfortunately we don’t have any extra planes.” She said it with a straight face.

“I didn’t think you would,” I said, plastering a smile on my face, refusing to get snippy. “Do you have access to other flights out of here?”

“I do,” she said. “There’s nothing. The storm.”

“Right,” I said. “The storm. But would you please check again?” Beau tugged at his leash and I had to catch myself to him from pulling me with him. “I have this dog I have to get to Houston.”

Claire started to refuse, but I just raised an eyebrow and stood as though to say I was going to wait right here until she checked again.

Claire clicked keys on the keyboard.

Then looked back at me. “I’m sorry,” she said. “There’s nothing.”

“Alright,” I said, pulling my cell out of my pocket.

Daddy could fix this.

Claire had no idea, obviously, how to make things happen.

I shot off a quick text to Daddy.

ME: Had to order a part. AND weather has flight delayed. Can you get me out of here?

I walked over to one of the sofas and sat down. Beau jumped up to sit beside me.

There was only one other man in the lobby, but his back was to me. A phone was pressed to his ear.

“I don’t think you’re supposed to be up here,” I said, pushing at Beau.

He didn’t budge.

He was awfully heavy for a puppy.

DADDY: Let me see. Hold tight. Be right back.

Hold tight. He had no idea what he was asking.

Claire was shooting me dirty looks for having Beau on the sofa.

Well, it wasn’t like I could do anything about it.

I stood up and Beau followed. We walked over to the window and turned our backs to Claire as I held my cell and waited.

Clouds had gathered around the mountain peaks. I remembered Madison talking about how the mountain peaks would disappear in a swirl of clouds when it was going to snow.

Then when clouds cleared, they would leave a layer of fresh snow.

While waiting for Daddy to get back to me, I checked the weather on my phone.

Wow. According to the projection, this whole area was going to be blanketed by snow in about… three hours.

I needed to leave. Now.

I turned and started back toward the desk, Beau in tow.

Claire saw me coming. I know she did. She stood up and disappeared into the back.

I stood in the middle of the lobby. Beau’s leash in one hand. My phone in the other.

My thoughts scattered in a thousand different directions.

There was no way I was getting out of here today.

I had to find dog food for this dog. And a place to stay.

A hotel that took dogs.

I stared at my phone. Willing Daddy to write back.

The phone rang and I jumped.

“Hi Daddy,” I said. I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Wyatt

I’d been on hold for far too long.

But it had paid off.

While I was on hold, listening to interminable elevator music, I’d watched the young lady who had come in with her dog.

I couldn’t hear her conversation with Claire, the receptionist, but I could tell by Claire’s smug expression and the girl’s look of distress, that she was stranded here.

I stood up. Stretched. The girl was pacing and talking on her cell. She was one of those dark-haired brunettes that automatically sent my pulse racing.

But this particular dark-haired brunette had the beauty of an angel.

I didn’t know who she was or where she came from. Frankly I didn’t care.

I shoved my iPad into my satchel and tossed it over my shoulder.

Hanging back, I waited for her finish her call. I could hear her voice, but she spoke low, so I couldn’t understand her words.

“Love you, too,” she said before ending the call. I flinched.

Didn’t matter. There were lots of people she could say that to. Didn’t mean she was taken.

Either way, I could still help her.

Claire had disappeared into the back. I’d dealt with her before, so I wasn’t surprised.

The girl stood there, looking bereft.

I walked over and stopped a few feet away.

“Hi,” I said.

She looked over at me and frowned. Her dog walked over and licked my fingers.

They said dogs and owners tended to have the same personality, so I had hope for this girl.

I nodded toward the receptionist desk. “Having trouble getting out of here?”
“A bit,” she said.

“Well, I just got clearance for takeoff.”

She was frowning again.

“Must be nice,” she said.

“Can I give you a lift?” I asked, scratching her dog’s ears.

“I don’t know you,” she said.

“Your dog likes me,” I said.

“He’s not—” Her phone chimed again and she glanced at it, then lifted her gaze back to mine.

Her eyes were green. Not hazel. A deep emerald green. Mesmerizing.

I took another step forward, holding out my hand.

“I’m Wyatt,” I said.

She hesitated, but then slipped her phone in her pocket and pressed her hand against mine.

She had a professional handshake. That told me a lot about her.

I grinned. “Now you know me.”

She shook her head and grabbed the dog’s leash with both hands.

“So can I give you a lift?”

Claire walked back out to her desk and watched us.

“I don’t even know where you’re headed,” she said.

“With this weather, I’m thinking it wouldn’t matter.”

I could tell she was considering it. But she was still wary. A good quality for a girl who looked like her to have.

Claire’s voice came over the loudspeaker. You’d think there was a roomful of people and not just the two of us.

“The terminal will be closing in ten minutes.”

I’d been in this terminal a hundred times and I’d never even known it to have a loudspeaker.

Probably just for emergencies.

But Claire was being an ass. I’d seen it before. This was different though. She was usually a lot more subtle about it.

She smiled when she saw me looking in her direction. She raised a hand and sent me a smile.

I ignored her and turned back to the girl.

“Well,” I said. “I take that as my cue to get out of here.” I gave the dog another pat. “Good luck.”

I turned and walked toward the door to the tarmac.

Damn. I hated leaving this girl stranded here.

But I understood where she was coming from.

She had no idea who I was.

And had no reason to leave with me.

If she were my sister, I’d commend her caution.

I reached the door and wrapping my fingers around the doorknob, prepared myself to face the air that seemed to be getting colder by the minute.

“Wait,” the girl said from behind me.