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

head toward them, sniffing the air again.

One of the cubs plopped down, and the other nuzzled its sibling’s head.

“Impressive,” she agreed. She inched a little closer to Silas, pressing her shoulder to his.

“Scared?” he asked.

“A little.”

“We can go inside if you want.”

“It’s okay.” The bears were a good hundred yards away. Mia calculated she could make it back into the Bear and Bar in about five seconds. It seemed unlikely the bears could run a hundred yards in under five seconds.

“Silas Burke, ace pilot,” a voice boomed behind them.

The mama bear looked over her shoulder at the sound.

Silas hopped to his feet. “Hey, guys.”

He offered his hand to Mia to help her up.

She took it, and he drew her to standing as the bears decided to lope away down Blue Crescent.

The two men were obviously brothers, tall and broad-shouldered, Nordic-looking, one with tight-clipped blond hair and the other with a shaggier cut.

“Mia, this is Tristen and Tobias. We call them T and T-Two.”

“Excuse me?” Mia asked.

“Tristen came to town first,” Silas said, indicating the man with short hair. “Joined up with WSA a couple of years ago. T-Two followed.”

Tobias flashed a bright smile and offered his hand to Mia. “I like to point out I was only a month behind Tristen in moving to town.”

“Were you second-born?” Mia asked curiously.

Tobias shook his head.

“So, the nickname is a demotion.”

“That’s why Tristen made sure it stuck.”

Tristen grinned. “Busted.”

“They’re both excellent pilots,” Silas said, and Mia realized he was still holding her hand. She could have let go, but she didn’t.

“We’ve got nothing on this guy,” Tobias said to Mia.

“It wasn’t as dramatic as it sounds,” Silas said, and Mia realized she hadn’t even asked him about the rescue and his daredevil takeoff.

“You took off over a cliff,” Tristen said, awe in his tone. “That’s badass.”

Mia’s hand contracted around Silas’s. People hadn’t talked like it was dangerous, but it must have been for Tristen to make such a big deal out of it.

“I was all but airborne before I flew over,” Silas said. “Other guys have done it, and it works perfectly well.”

“One for the record books,” Tobias said.

“We just wanted to say congratulations,” Tristen said. “Nice to meet you, Mia.”

“Welcome to Paradise,” Tobias said to her.

“Thanks.” She smiled as both men turned to go. She liked them.

Brodie seemed to have put together a great team of pilots. It made her think he was a good judge of character.

She slipped her hand from Silas’s, wondering what it was Brodie saw in her that he didn’t admire.

*   *   *

The situation Silas spotted on the Galina warehouse to the loading dock was pretty self-explanatory. A regretful-looking Mia was standing with Kenneth, AJ, Leon and Billy Leland, and they were all staring at a slashed and flattened left rear trailer tire. The mini loader was parked a few feet away.

“—and a repair might get me back to Fairbanks,” Billy was saying to Kenneth. “But I’m going to have to replace it when I get there.”

Raven and Brodie arrived then, surveying the damage.

Silas felt annoyed on Mia’s behalf. Why would they have put her back on the mini loader? What were they thinking?

“It’s my fault,” Leon was quick to acknowledge to Raven, earning Silas’s ire.

“I think I hit a button,” Mia added. “Accidentally. Maybe with my thumb. I was turning, and—”

“We thought she had it,” AJ said.

“I’ll pay for the tire,” Mia said.

“Galina will pay for the tire,” Raven jumped in.

“As long as somebody pays,” Billy said.

“Was anybody hurt?” Silas asked. They were missing the important question, as far as he was concerned. He looked Mia over from head to toe.

“She’s not hurt,” Leon said, and Silas shot him a stern frown. The man had no business putting her in that situation.

He tried to catch Mia’s eye to give a little moral support, but she wasn’t looking his way. She had to feel terrible. Nobody wanted to be the person who caused damage. He’d done it a time or two on an airplane, and it sucked.

Kenneth ended a phone call. “Caldwell can patch it,” he said to everyone. “He’s on his way over.”

“Good,” Raven said, moving closer to Mia and rubbing her arm in sympathy. But there was tension around her eyes.

Silas knew it wouldn’t be the cost of the tire. That was negligible. Raven was probably worried about Mia’s safety. Or maybe she was worried about disruptions in the busiest season of the year. She couldn’t be happy that half the crew was standing out here doing nothing.

“Can we all get back to work now?” she asked, looking around the circle.

Everyone muttered agreement, and the group began to disperse.

“It was that little button,” Mia said to Raven. “My turn was a bit jerky, but I was going really slow, and—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Raven said, but Silas could see Raven’s strain even more clearly now.

He didn’t like the way things were going. There was genuine danger to a rookie in a busy warehouse, and Raven didn’t need any extra headaches. Since he’d prompted Mia to step up in the first place, it was partly his fault. He sifted things in his brain until he landed on a solution—temporary, but at least it was something.

“Hey, Brodie,” he called out. “Got a minute?”

Brodie gave him a nod and Silas walked over. “She’s making Raven nuts,” Brodie confided in a lowered tone.

“I think I can get her out of the way for a while,” Silas offered.

Brodie raised his eyebrows.

“I’m going on a run to Wildflower Lake in Papa-X-ray. I can take her along, give her a tour, keep her out of town for the rest of the day.”

Brodie clapped Silas firmly on the shoulder. “Yes. Yes. Do it. You’re the one guy I can trust to keep his mind on business and off the supermodel.”

Nothing in the world would keep Silas’s mind off Mia. But she wouldn’t impact his performance as a pilot, and there was no way in hell he was going to tell Brodie about their kiss.