Lumber Jacked(2)

After Dad died last year, I knew it was time to go. I was fucking sick of the cold, sick of the dark, sick of delivering other people’s groceries. I wanted to be somewhere else, somewhere I could still fly but make more money doing it. I was so ready to get the hell out of here and my dad’s old house was the only thing stopping me. I couldn’t quite afford to set off on my own without the money from the house, but I didn’t exactly live in a town with a hopping real estate market. So I waited. And I studied. I had one semester left of my online college classes to go. When I got out of here, I’d have both my pilot’s license, and a business degree.

A gust came from the east and buffeted the plane.

I kept my head down, remained focused on the instruments, the plane, the sound of the wind. There as in instinct to flying that not everyone understood. I’d tried to explain it to some of my dad’s old buddies in town, but they’d just laughed…at both of us. There were days I would swear the wind whispered to me. Days I knew where it was going to blow, knew a storm was coming despite the radar. Weather was crazy up here, could turn on a dime, and this storm was proof of that. It was supposed to be ninety miles south of me for another few hours. More than long enough for me to get in, drop of sex-on-a-stick’s grocery order and get back.

I was so close to getting out of here. Even if Simms decided he wanted to start something, I’d have to tell him no thanks. I had goals. I had plans. And a new man didn’t fit into them. At least not one from up here.

That meant avoiding men until I could get out of this place, especially hot ones with dark eyes and unkempt hair. Now was not the time to be distracted. I’d worked the last few years to get ready and I was leaving for the lower forty-eight. Falling for someone was the last thing I needed.

So, of course, my thoughts wandered to Jack-ass and how I wanted him to tug down my jeans, push me over the railing of his deck and take me from behind.

No. No. NO!

“Stop that.” I scolded myself aloud, but knew it wouldn’t help.

I forced my thoughts back to the future. I could not fall for someone, especially not some stupid city-slicker who’d be starving by now if it wasn’t for me. I needed a real man, one who could handle me.

So, falling in love was out of the question. But what if Jack just wanted hot monkey sex?

I continued to monitor the console, check the altimeter. Jack would probably be a fun fuck buddy— how could he not, with muscles and a face like that? I smiled to myself, as I thought about the hot sex we could have. One night might be perfect. Just enough to take the edge off my need, give my vibrator a little vacation.

Just one night, I could do that, I kept telling myself, even though the rational part of my brain scoffed loudly. Yeah, right, Anna. I had just started to roll my eyes at myself when the plane lurched so roughly I let out a yelp. Shit, this storm was nasty. Time to get out of the damn sky.

My elevation was decreasing with the intense turbulence, something that never boded well for a floatplane. Jack’s house was right on a lake with no room cleared through the trees for an actual land landing. Water landings were all I could do in this plane anyway. I loved to watch the floaters cut through the choppy gray waves, but in this weather, water landings—or any landings for that matter—were brutal.

Still, any landing was a good landing. Hell of a lot better than the alternative…

I forced myself back into automatic pilot mode. Dad had taught me to fly “technical,” so I kept to what I knew and met each problem with calm. The wind shook the entire body of my little cargo plane and I knew the landing was going to be bad.

God, hope Jack doesn’t see this. He already thinks I’m incompetent.

I didn’t know why I cared, but that seemed important to me—that he didn’t watch me struggle to land sideways on the water. If I wanted to keep my job, my clients, I needed to be seen as a strong, independent woman who flew like a badass. Alaska was huge in land but small on people. One bad word from him at the closest fishing village and the news would spread. Until the house sold, I needed to keep flying to pay the bills.

As I watched my radar, I knew I was only about a mile out from my usual landing spot. I continued to decrease my altitude as I worried that doing so would drop me from the sky like a stone. In this wind, who knew what the airstreams would be like? I gripped the joystick tighter as I turned a little west, then a little north, then a little east to get a feel for the airstream. Landing on the water would be much easier with the wind at my back, but in this storm, the wind ripped from all directions. Any way I approached, it was going to be bumpy.