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

a little in the sugar cure, but they’re mostly fat.”

“Fat is bad?” He took another unrepentant bite.

“Not as bad as carbs.” With a glint in her eyes she took a bite of waffle and berries.

“You have a perfect body, you know that?” he asked. If anyone could afford an extra carb or two it was Mia.

“I work pretty hard at it.”

He was afraid he’d insulted her. “I didn’t mean you—”

“It’s part of the job.” She didn’t look offended. “But I’m thinking of giving it up.”

“Giving up the perfect body?” It was totally up to her, of course.

“Modeling.”

“Really?” He thought she was at the top of her game. It seemed like a very strange time to give up her career.

“Lafayette is going to take more of my attention now. Alastair did a lot of the work. I mean, I was there with him all the time. He took my advice and he shared all the details, even if people in the office didn’t understand that. I’ve been a senior adviser in the company for years now, along with being a model.”

“You’ve had enough of modeling?” Silas guessed it wasn’t for everyone.

It looked glamorous. But being a jumbo-jet pilot on international flights looked glamorous too. That had never been his dream. He liked the challenges of small planes, VFR rules, short strips and rugged terrain.

“Management is a lot of planning and strategizing, what’s the mood of the consumer, the next color palette, which shoe designer will be impactful, how you build a relationship with retailers.”

“I can see you’d be good at those things.”

Her princess vibe had to be an asset in that world. Glitz and glamour were where she belonged, high-end hotels and star-studded parties.

It made him sad for a second, but then he stopped himself. Mia might be fleeting in his life, but that didn’t mean he shouldn’t enjoy this moment.

She ate only half her waffle, making him think she wasn’t as cavalier about carbs as she pretended. He ate two, plus bacon and everything else. Then, much as he’d have loved to stay longer, they packed up their new clothes.

Danny and a couple of other staffers helped him fit the torn-down generator into the plane, and Cornelia offered a final apology to Mia.

Mia was gracious about it, but Silas could tell she didn’t want to belabor the point. So, they headed to the plane and took off for the real world.

He waited until they were thirty minutes out, dreading the conversation he knew they had to have. But as they crossed the Yukon River and picked up the Chain Lakes, he knew he couldn’t put it off any longer.

“Mia?” he said over the intercom.

“Something down there?” She perked up and looked out the windows, scanning the ground.

“When we get back,” he continued.

She turned to look at him.

“What do you want to do?” He paused, switching his fingertip back and forth between them. “With this? With us?”

“What do you want to do?” she asked him back.

He didn’t have an answer. What he wanted to do and what he ought to do were two completely different things.

“I get it,” she said.

He didn’t know how she could get it when he didn’t get it himself. He opened his mouth to say so.

“What happened at Wildflower Lake stays at Wildflower Lake,” she finished.

He took in the play of emotions on her face, trying to gauge her thoughts. “Is that what you want?”

“How about last night keeps the best night title, and we leave it at that?”

“That’s not an answer, it’s a question.”

“I don’t see that we have another choice. I’m leaving, and your boss is still . . . your boss.”

“I can handle Brodie.”

“I don’t want to leave a mess behind.”

There’d be a problem before she left too. Paradise was an incredibly small town.

“I don’t want people gossiping about you,” he said, reluctantly coming around to her way of thinking. “You’ve had enough of that in your life lately.”

“And since this has to be temporary anyway . . .” She picked up the thread.

“It is a given,” he said, hating that they were making the responsible choice. He’d love to take advantage of every single second of her visit, but that wouldn’t be fair to her.

“It’s fine.” She waved a dismissive hand. “It’s honestly fine, Silas. I mean, you and me?” This time it was her who pointed back and forth between them. “Are you kidding? No way it would have worked.”

He tried to ignore the stab in his chest at her words. “You have your life,” he said, instead of begging her to spend more time with him.

“And you have yours.” She gave a nod that said the matter was settled.

Paradise came into view on the horizon, and he knew it had to stay settled. One night with Mia was all he was ever going to get. One single night.

*   *   *

Only two days later and Mia missed Silas. She felt like a chocoholic craving that next Belgian truffle or praline ganache. But it wasn’t illicit cacao and sugar she wanted, it was Silas—the taste of his skin, the scent of his hair and the feel of his hands on her body.

She couldn’t talk to Raven about Silas, but she desperately needed some girlfriend chat. Over the lunch break at Galina, she took her salad and iced tea onto Bear and Bar’s deck for some privacy and a data connection.

She dialed Marnie.

“Hey, you,” came Marnie’s cheerful voice. It sounded like she was out on a busy street. The background traffic noise made Mia think of home.

“Hi, yourself,” Mia said back with a smile.

“What’s going on up there in the wild north?”

“Is this a bad time?”

“It’s fine. I’m on my way back to the office. I couldn’t move up the court date, so we’re still nearly three weeks out on the docket.”

Mia couldn’t help but be disappointed. Not that she’d held out any real hope that things would suddenly turn her way.

“Everything okay with you?” Marnie asked.

“Mostly. Well, not exactly.”

“Nobody found you up there, did they?” The background turned quieter,