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

gave Brodie a veto.

“If they’re just bringing a few friends to town,” he ventured to Brodie.

“A few?” Brodie asked.

Silas looked to Mia. When that didn’t get him anything, he looked to Raven instead.

“Twenty, twenty-five,” Raven said.

The number astounded Silas. “Where are they going to—”

“Go ahead.” Brodie gave a cold laugh. “Tell him where you want them to stay.”

“WSA housing,” Raven said.

Well, that explained Brodie’s veto.

“With upgrades courtesy of Mia.”

“Mia?” Silas asked, trying to force her to engage.

She looked at him, but her eyes were cold.

“If it’s a no, it’s a no,” Raven said, her tone tight. “We’ll figure out something else.”

“Maybe that something could not include bringing twenty-five giggling city girls to Paradise to mess with business,” Brodie said.

“You,” Raven said, pointing to his chest, “are a killjoy.”

“Somebody’s got to keep this town in check. The idea is ridiculous.”

Silas had to admit, he could see Brodie’s point. Were they supposed to evict the WSA staff and fill up the town for a party?

“We’re doing this,” Raven said, raising her chin in the air. “You can help us or not, but you can’t stop us.”

“How’re you going to get them here?” Brodie asked mildly. “Who’ll fly them in from Fairbanks?”

The question stumped Raven for a minute, but then she rallied. “I just made a deal on a refurbished haul road.”

A muscle ticked in Brodie’s cheek, but he didn’t respond.

“There are other air charter companies,” Mia said.

Even Raven looked surprised by that level of audacity. But again, she rallied. “Yeah.”

Silas had to admire her self-assuredness. Then again, hostility between Brodie and Raven was a very bad thing for the town.

“Maybe we can come to a compromise,” Silas offered.

“You mean, half the women?” Raven asked.

“Why would we do that?” Mia asked over top of Raven.

“To keep the peace,” Silas said.

Mia didn’t look remotely interested in keeping the peace.

He couldn’t help feeling like he’d missed something more.

“I remain opposed,” Brodie said.

“I remain supportive,” Raven countered.

“Brodie?” Shannon called to him from the office doorway. “Fairbanks air operations is on the line.”

“On my way.” Brodie gave Raven a last stern look as he walked away.

Silas took the moment to move close to Mia. “Hey. What’s going on?”

She looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

He searched her expression. Gone were the bedroom eyes and the sly smile.

She was an ice-princess’s ice princess.

“I mean what’s going on?” he repeated. “Is something wrong?”

“No. What would be wrong? Other than Brodie’s attitude.”

“Did I do something wrong?”

She gave a slightly brittle laugh. “I’m just busy. You know how it is.”

He didn’t.

“Ready to go, Raven?” she asked around him.

“Ready when you are,” Raven said.

“Catch you later,” Mia said to Silas and began walking away.

Oh no. It wasn’t going to be that easy. He strode after her, touching her shoulder. “What the hell?”

She shrugged him off. “I really do have to go.”

“Why are you mad?”

“I’m not mad.”

Raven pulled ahead, walking toward her pickup.

“Something’s clearly happened,” he said to Mia.

“We’re in different worlds, Silas.”

“We were in different worlds two days ago, too.” Neither of them had seemed to care then.

“We obviously had different expectations.”

Maybe they had, but he still didn’t understand. “Mia, what happened?”

She stopped and turned to face him. “Do I really need to spell it out?”

“Yes.”

“You lied.”

“About what?”

“The radio, the lessons. You remember, the ones you told Brodie were just for fun.” Her eyes blazed, and regret cascaded over him. “Do you know how hard I worked? Was this just a joke to you?”

“Mia.” He reached for her, but she recoiled.

“You swore you had faith in me.”

“It wasn’t like—”

“It was exactly like that,” she snapped. Lips pressed together, she pivoted and marched away.

Raven was watching them from the truck, and Silas could only imagine what she thought of him.

“That’s not good,” Brodie said, coming up behind Silas.

“You told Raven?”

“I tried, but you heard her. She didn’t exactly listen to my objections.”

“I meant about the radio lessons.”

“What about them?” Brodie asked, looking puzzled as he watched Raven’s truck pull away in a spray of gravel and a cloud of dust.

“Did you tell Raven they were just for fun?”

“Well, I wasn’t going to tell her they were only to keep Mia busy and out of her way.”

“They weren’t.” That was part of it but not all of it.

Brodie frowned in obvious exasperation as he stared where the dust had settled on the driveway. “That’s not really our biggest problem.”

It was Silas’s biggest problem. At least, it felt like Silas’s biggest problem. He hadn’t lied to Mia, but he wouldn’t be able to convince her of that now.

“Twenty-five more city women,” Brodie muttered.

“It might not—” Silas clamped his jaw. Things were far enough off the rails already.

“Spit it out,” Brodie said.

“It might not be the worst idea in the world.”

Brodie gave a curt nod. “Yes, yes, it might.”

“The guys would love it. You’d be their hero.”

“They love that fifth shot of whiskey, too.”

Silas stifled his amusement at the comparison.

“And it always seems like a good idea at the time,” Brodie continued in a resolute tone. “But it never ends well.”

“Whatever,” Silas said, realizing he was fighting for a cause he didn’t even care about.

What he cared about was losing Mia. As the thought formed, he ruthlessly shut it down. He had it all wrong. He couldn’t lose Mia because he’d never had Mia.

His dad had learned the hard way that women like her didn’t stay with guys like him. Silas usually remembered that lesson. He remembered it now, and it had never been truer. But, man, it felt like a knife to the gut.

“I gotta get out of here,” he said to Brodie.

“You and me both.”

“I mean it. You mind if I swap trips with Xavier?”

“You want to stay up at Mile High Research camp for three days?” Brodie was clearly baffled.

“That’s exactly what I want.” The farther Silas could get away from Mia right now, the better. He had to work her out of his system, and cold turkey was his best shot.

Brodie shrugged. “No skin off my nose. Xavier will jump at the offer.”

“Thanks,