Match Made In Paradise by Barbara Dunlop (black female authors TXT) 📕

“Bringing it down. I’ll go almost to stall,” Hailey said, sounding calm.

Silas raised his brow to Shannon, wanting to know what was wrong, but knowing better than to interrupt whatever was going on.

Shannon left her seat and moved close to him. “Engine failure,” she whispered so as not to disturb Brodie.

“Where is she?”

“She’s trying for Slim Meadow.”

Silas swore under his breath. No one had ever landed a beaver at Slim Meadow. Brodie once put a Super Cub down there, but you could land a Super Cub on a flatbed trailer if you had to.

The grass was long, and the brush was thick, and she’d have no way of knowing what the ground looked like underneath.

“Three hundred,” Hailey said.

Silas’s hands curled into fists, mentally going through what Hailey had to be experiencing.

“Two hundred.”

“We’re going to lose transmission,” Shannon said.

The radio crackled and went silent.

Brodie slammed the end of his fist on the table. He turned to Silas. “Can you get up the trail on an ATV?”

“I’ll make it work,” Silas said. He grabbed the compact first-aid kit from where it hung on the wall. “Give me all the supplies you can,” he called to Shannon, heading out the door for the door to the hangar to load up a company ATV.

He saw another truck pull into the parking lot. “Cobra’s back,” he shouted to Brodie.

“Get him to follow you up,” Brodie answered. “Let’s hope you can fly it out.”

Silas could hear the edge to Brodie’s voice. First priority was Hailey, but if she’d saved the airplane, they’d try to bring it home.

“Can you call in a chopper?” Shannon called from the front office, where she was pulling out the larger first-aid kit from below the counter.

“They won’t make it here before the storm,” Brodie said.

He was right. If Silas couldn’t make it up the hiking trail, Hailey would be stuck there alone until the storm cleared, possibly until morning.

Cobra got out of his truck.

“Need your help,” Silas called through the rain to Cobra.

Cobra was behind him in seconds entering the cavernous hangar. “What’s up?”

“Hailey had to put the Papa-X-Ray down in Slim Meadow.”

Cobra’s expression revealed his horror. “She okay?”

“We lost transmission at two hundred feet.”

Cobra swore. “What’s the plan?”

“You and me take two ATVs. I’ll go first with medical. You follow with a trailer and a toolkit.”

Cobra was already moving to the workbench and his travel toolkit.

Silas took the closest ATV, strapped two fuel cans on the back rack, fired it up, checked the fuel in the tank, then pulled out to the front of the office. Cobra would follow as soon as he could, and the trailer would slow him down, so Silas wasn’t waiting.

Shannon and Brodie were ready outside the door. Brodie strapped three first-aid kits onto the front rack while Shannon handed Silas a windbreaker, goggles and a baseball cap.

“I’m going to call about a chopper,” Brodie said. “Just in case they’re an option.”

“Good.” If the trail had turned to mud, Silas might get stuck partway to the meadow. The chopper might be a long shot, but it was one they should take.

Brodie clapped him on the shoulder. “Good luck.”

*   *   *

Silas headed down a little-used road past the airstrip. When that petered out, he turned onto a hiking and snowmobiling trail.

The first few miles were fine, but then the rain came down hard, and the narrow dirt trail turned to mud.

It took him nearly three hours to slog his way up to Slim Meadow, rocking through puddles and bouncing off logs. The rain was driving hard when he arrived, but he could make out the beaver at the far end of the meadow. It hadn’t caught fire and it looked to be right-side up. He breathed a huge sigh of relief.

He sped up on the open ground, the ATV bouncing hard on the uneven meadow. He avoided clumps of brush, sticking to the grass and moss cover as much as possible.

And then he saw her. Hailey was standing about a hundred feet in front of the airplane that had come to a halt short of a small rise. She was waving her arms to get his attention.

He zipped her way, stopping close and leaping off the seat, and she rushed forward and threw herself into his arms.

For a moment, he just hugged her, feeling her shaking a little, whether with fear or with cold, he didn’t know. She was soaking wet.

“You okay?” he asked, stripping off his smeared goggles, scanning her face, then her head, then her arms and torso.

But she was nodding. “Rough landing, but I think everything’s intact. Well, except for the engine. But I don’t think I bent the gear or anything.”

He kept his hands on her shoulders, not sure if she needed steadying. “Cobra’s behind me.”

She looked past Silas. “He is? That’s great news.” Then she took a step back and wiped her wet copper-toned hair back from her forehead.

“You sure you’re okay? I brought first aid. Does anything hurt? You should sit down.” He nodded back to the ATV. The seat was comfortable, if wet from the rain.

“I think I’m good,” she said.

“Think isn’t enough.”

“Maybe these.” She held out her hands, and he could see they were smeared with dirt, scratched, scraped and bleeding. “I cleared away some of the rocks and brush, hoping we could get a runway.”

“Ouch,” he said softly.

She glanced down. “I didn’t really notice it while I was working.” Then she pointed down the length of the meadow. “It’s socked in right now. But I hoped I’d be able to take off northwest toward the granite peak. I can’t tell if there’s enough room.”

“Your hands first,” he said, moving to the ATV and pointing to the seat. He took off his cap and covered her head with it against the persistent rain. “Do you have a jacket?”

“It’s underneath.” She pointed to her wet flight suit as she sat down.

She was slim, so it was hard to tell she’d layered up.

He opened the top first-aid kit.