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

them wanted to mess it up. But Mia was sure their feelings went deeper, and she couldn’t imagine Brodie would let a rift come between them.

She’d taken Silas up on his offer to fly her back to Fairbanks, and they lifted off the airstrip now, circling back over Paradise to head west.

She felt a hitch in her chest looking down at Raven’s cabin, the new bridge, the Bear and Bar, the Co-op and everything else all nestled in the crisp green valley surrounded by burbling blue rivers, pockets of wildlife and craggy mountain peaks. She wondered for a minute where they grizzly bears had gone.

She caught sight of Silas then and remembered their lovemaking. In his headset, a WSA cap and smoky sunglasses, his profile was strong as ever, sexy as ever. She couldn’t imagine ever meeting a man like him in Los Angeles.

She suddenly wanted to stop, to turn back, to land in Paradise and just spend the entire week with Silas. LA could wait. Lafayette could wait. They’d lasted these past few weeks without her. They’d last one more. She wasn’t ready to say good-bye to Silas.

“You feeling okay?” he asked over the intercom, his voice making her want him more than ever. “Not airsick, are you?”

“I’m not airsick.” She was lonely. She hadn’t even said good-bye to him, and she already felt so alone.

She watched the rivers, mountains and glaciers disappear behind them one after the other. And far too soon, the city of Fairbanks came into view. Silas was on the radio with air traffic control. Then they were descending, gliding onto the runway amid the din of commercial airliners, private planes and service vehicles of all sizes.

She felt like she’d been dropped unceremoniously back into civilization.

Silas taxied swiftly and efficiently from the active runway to the FBO parking.

He shut down the engine and ran through procedures, unbuckling his harness and removing his headset. When he opened the door, the rumble of motors and the shriek of jet engines filled the air. He hopped out and pushed up his seat to gain access to her bags in the back.

Mia unbuckled and hooked her headset above the doorway. She remembered how to unlatch the door and let herself out, firming her legs under her after the motion of the airplane, meeting Silas on the tarmac.

“Here we are,” she said, gathering her hair against the wind.

“Don’t forget your stored bags,” he said as he turned, luggage in hand, for the FBO entrance.

She’d completely forgotten about her bag and was surprised he’d remembered. Her mind was far too full of Silas to leave room for anything else as each step brought her closer and closer to their final good-bye.

It was quiet and peaceful inside the FBO. Mia let out a breath of relief and released her hair, finger combing it back.

“Hey, Becky,” Silas said with a nod.

It was the same young woman behind the counter.

“Your bags,” she said, giving Mia a smile. “I’ll be right back.”

“Looks like this is where we came in,” Silas said.

Mia met his blue-eyed gaze, thinking it might be for the last time. Her chest tightened and her heart hurt. “Silas, I don’t want this to—”

“Don’t,” he said, putting two fingers gently across her lips. “It was great, I mean great, meeting you, Mia.”

Excuse me? Meeting her? Was that how he summed it up?

He smoothed her windblown hair and stepped closer. “I’m going to miss you.”

She relaxed then, anticipating his embrace.

But he cupped her shoulders instead and gave her a kiss on the cheek. On the cheek? “Have a good trip back.”

No way. That couldn’t be it. “What if I visit?”

He drew back. “Why would you do that?”

“Because that’s what people do. You and me—”

He was shaking his head.

She didn’t know what he meant. “You just said you’d miss me.”

“I will.”

“I’ll miss you too.”

He gave a sad smile then. “You know as soon as you get to LA, your real life is going to scoop you up like a tornado. You’ll be far too busy to miss anyone.”

But Silas wasn’t just anyone. He was Silas. Silas, the sexiest, toughest, smartest, most exciting man she’d ever met. Her first real lover; she knew that now. What she’d had with him was beyond anything she could have imagined or dreamed.

“Just because I’ll be busy doesn’t mean I won’t miss you,” she said.

He looked like he didn’t believe her, like he was humoring her.

“I’m coming back,” she said with determination, knowing he couldn’t stop her.

“Don’t do that.” He gave her a chaste kiss on the forehead this time. “Just let it be what it was.”

“I don’t want that. I want more.”

“You think you do. You’re an LA girl, Mia. It’s what you know. It’s where you thrive.” He was saying she was soft. He was saying she was wimpy. He was saying she wasn’t good enough for Alaska. Or maybe he just meant she wasn’t good enough for him.

She was suddenly embarrassed.

He was politely brushing her off, and she was clinging to him like a lovesick teenager.

She straightened, her throat closing in. “You’re right. You’re you and I’m me, and that’s that.”

“Afraid so.”

She gave him a nod, not trusting her voice any longer.

Becky reappeared behind the counter. “Two bags. One small roller bag, one garment bag.”

“That’s them,” Mia said brightly.

Becky stacked them on a luggage cart. “Are you going over to the main terminal?”

Mia nodded.

“I’ll call the shuttle driver.”

Silas transferred her other bags to the luggage cart.

“You don’t have to wait,” she told him as he turned back to her.

“Okay. Good luck out there. I know you’ll knock them dead.”

She barely got a thank you out before he turned and headed back out the glass doors.

“Good-bye, Silas.” she whispered to his back.

*   *   *

Silas landed on the Paradise strip, gliding over the newly smoothed patch from the creek washout before taxiing down the access road to park the Navajo. He shut things down and then sat there, staring at the trees.

He should have told Mia to come back