It Had to Be Him(22)

Megan’s tinny voice sounded through the speakers. “Hang on.”

The helicopter rocketed straight up with so much force, all the air whooshed from his lungs. “What the—”

“You want to stop? Okay.”

They plummeted toward the hard pavement of the parking lot at breakneck speed.

So this was her game. She was trying to scare him. Fine. He’d play along. He was a seasoned pilot himself, so he knew the maneuver wasn’t as dangerous as it might appear. Meg really did have some serious skills, just as Ben had said.

He grunted out a “No!”

“Make up your mind, Josh.”

Megan stopped their descent less than six feet from the ground before they headed straight up again.

As they zipped out over the water, he grabbed the handle above the door. “I thought we were being nice.”

She huffed out a breath. “What do you want, Josh?”

He loosened his grip on the handle as they flew over the tops of tall pines on the other side of the lake. “I’d like to apologize to you and to meet Haley.”

She turned to look at him. “Take off your sunglasses and say that again.”

“That’s a big-ass mountain just ahead. Don’t you think you should—”

“Then you should make it quick!”

He yanked off his glasses so she could see into his eyes. Like it’d do any good. He was trained to cover a lie, but in this case he wouldn’t have to. “I’m sorry, Meg. I screwed up. And I want to meet my daughter. Now turn.”

She frowned as she tilted them so steeply to the right his head thunked against the door. His body strained against the seatbelt, pulling some impressive Gs.

Megan was quiet for a few moments before she said, “You can’t just pop into Haley’s life, charm her, make her fall in love with you, and then be so busy working you ignore her and make her feel insignificant—like you did to me.”

What was he supposed to say to that?

When in doubt, grovel.

“I’m sorry I made you feel that way. It wasn’t intentional. How much have you told Haley and your family about me?”

Megan maneuvered them into a slower, more reasonable turn. “When you refused to come home with me that last Christmas, I realized you weren’t committed to our relationship. So I didn’t tell my family anything. Haley hasn’t asked about you yet.”

“We lived together. How is that not committed?” Suddenly they were in a narrow canyon no more than forty feet wide. “You’re kind of low, don’t you think?”

Ignoring him, she flew deeper into the canyon and over a raging river just a few feet below. “People in committed relationships spend holidays together and meet each other’s relatives. You stayed home and worked.”

“Growing up with a bunch of kids who tried their best to ignore December twenty-fifth didn’t exactly groom me for the ‘happy family Christmas’ experience you had.” But the truth was, by that Christmas his case was going south and he might never have seen her again. He didn’t want to make things worse by sharing the holidays with her and then leaving her.

The canyon narrowed by the second and for the first time he was genuinely concerned. Ready to take the controls if he had to, he said, “Meg, seriously. What the hell here?”

“Just a few more seconds.”

The canyon walls, along with the river, got closer and closer, but then suddenly the walls disappeared and there was nothing below but a deep valley. Around them were 360 degrees of cliffs and trees, like they were in the middle of a deep, wide hole. Megan swung the copter around to face the way they’d come.

An amazing waterfall plummeted as far as the eye could see below them. Millions of tiny rainbows glinted in the fading sunlight as the water cascaded over the cliff.

Meg slowly maneuvered them over a large, jutting ridge and landed. When she shut down and they hopped out, the roar of the waterfall replaced the engine noise.

Josh dug out his cell and snapped pictures as Megan moved beside him, refusing to look at him again.

He tucked his phone away. “Is this the part where you push me off the ledge and tell everyone I slipped?”

“Don’t tempt me, Josh.” She crossed her arms and sighed. Then her voice changed to a tone of quiet reverence as she said, “I’ll bet fewer than fifty people have ever seen this. You have to know it’s here because it’s not obvious from above and most pilots won’t brave the canyon. Zeke showed me this when I was a little girl. It’s my favorite place on earth. So, see? I was being nice.”

“It’s incredible. Thank you for nearly killing me so I could see it too.”