From Out of the Blue

by Nadia Nichols

  “What a beautiful bike,” Kate said as Mitch drove up beside the other vehicles and cut the engine.

  “You’re looking at the only beautiful machine at this airstrip. Just don’t touch it. Wally’s mighty protective and he doesn’t trust pilots.” He caught Kate’s eye and shot her a brash, unexpected grin then opened his door and jumped down. “C’mon, pard,” he said to Hayden, reaching for the passenger’s side door and helping Kate first. “Unbuckle yourself and I’ll introduce you to two of Alaska’s finest people.” He turned toward the hut and bellowed, “Campy, Wally, c’mon out here. We got company!”

  “Come on,” Kate urged Hayden as his shyness returned.

  His sneakered feet hit the ground just as Campy came out of the warming hut, followed by a stocky man wearing jeans, T-shirt, leather vest and a biker’s cap. His burly arms were completely covered with tattoos.

  “Wally Gleason, meet Hayden and his mom, Kate Jones,” Mitch said. “Campy, this is Hayden, Kate’s son.”

  At Kate’s gentle insistence, Hayden shook both their hands but kept his eyes fixed timidly on the ground at his feet.

  “Hey, sweetie,” Campy said, flinging the hair out of her eyes and bending low enough to make eye contact in spite of Hayden’s evasive maneuvers. “How do you like Alaska so far?”

  “Good,” Hayden replied somberly, moving behind Kate.

  “That’s a beautiful Harley,” Kate said with a nod toward the big black-and-silver machine.

  “A silver anniversary Screaming Eagle,” Wally said, staring first at Hayden, then at Kate and finally at Mitch. From his expression, Kate gathered he was connecting the dots. “Huh. Well, I’ll be damned,” he growled, then fumbled in his pockets for what looked like the remnants of a half-smoked cigar. “C’mon inside. I gotta talk to you.” The group tramped into the warming shack behind him. “Got four more calls this morning after you left,” he said to Mitch as he struck a match on the stove top. “One was for another flying gig next week, two more for tomorrow, the last was a film crew from a TV station based out of Seattle.” He sucked hard on the stub, trying to coax life into something that should have been thrown out long before.

  “They wanna do a special segment on the pilots that fly the climbers in and bring ’em back out when they get in trouble and you’re the man they want to talk to. I told ’em you’d call to set up a time.” He shook out the match, tossed it in the wood bin and handed Mitch a crumpled-up piece of paper. “Number’s there, and the contact name. Who’d a thought one flying job could bring such a windfall?”

  Mitch stared down at the paper, then shoved it into his jeans pocket. “We better get going, before we get so busy I can’t leave,” he said to Hayden, who willingly followed Mitch out the door. He glanced back at Kate. “You coming?”

  “In a minute.”

  When the door banged behind them, Kate turned her attention to Wally. “Is that plane of yours safe to fly?”

  Wally’s face reddened at her blunt challenge. “Of course it is. We wouldn’t be chartering it if it wasn’t.”

  “This other plane Mitch wants to buy. The Porter. How much is it?”

  “Too much. Raider was asking six hundred grand. Right now we can’t afford it, but maybe after we pick up some new business…”

  “Mitch told me about the Stationair’s history,” Kate said, not bothering to beat around the bush. “I don’t think anyone should be flying it. I’d like to buy that other plane and lease it back to you.”

  “Hold on,” Wally said, once he was able to move his sagging jaw. “The Stationair’s safe, and even if it wasn’t, any plane we charter should belong to the flying service.”

  “You just said the flying service couldn’t afford it,” Campy pointed out. “Kate says she can, and what she’s offering sounds like a real reasonable option to me.”

  “Whose side are you on?” Wally blustered. “Mitch works for me.”

  “And he’s flying a plane you own that shouldn’t be in the air and probably won’t be for much longer,” Kate said. “He can’t afford to be doing that. He has way too much at stake.”

  “That’s right,” Campy agreed. “Mitch needs a reliable pair of wings. All this free advertising will be for nothing if that old wreck crashes while he’s flying a bunch of climbers to the mountain.”

  “I spent twenty-five years in the air force,” Wally said, his expression dark with suspicion. “Now, maybe a Navy pilot’s pay is a smidgen better than an air force mechanic’s, but even at a captain’s wage, ponying up six hundred grand for a plane is a big stretch of the old bank account.”

  “My dad’s an investment analyst. He’s been in charge of my money since I got my first job in grade school. He’s done all right with my savings,” Kate told him. “Where is this plane? I’d like to check it out without Mitch knowing. Maybe if I have a chance to negotiate the price on my own he’ll sell it for less. Raider knows how much Mitch wants it, so having him around won’t help.”

  Campy gave Kate an appraising glance. “Honey, you go on back to Mitch’s place. Tell Mitch I invited you to go shopping this afternoon and get him to drop you off here, then I’ll take you over to Raider’s airstrip. It’s not far from here, maybe fifteen miles. Raider’s in the middle of a nasty divorce, so he’s real anxious to sell. It’s a great plane. It would put us head and shoulders above the competition. I bet Raider would have it sitting pretty at our little airstrip tomorrow morning if we went over there today.”

  Kate gave Campy a brief nod and smile. “Sounds good. I’ll be back. And thanks.”

  “My pleasure, hon,” Campy said. “I never liked that old red-and-white clunker, and I’ll be glad to see it gone. Hey?” she added hesitantly as Kate reached for the doorknob. “I know this is none of my business, but does Mitch know Hayden’s his son?”

  Kate shook her head. “I haven’t told him, and I don’t think he has a clue.”

  “I’ll be damned.” Wally peered out the window. “That kid’s a carbon copy. He’d have to be blind not to see it.”

  “You only saw it because I told you my suspicions earlier,” Campy said. “Otherwise, you’d be just as clueless as Mitch.” She gave Kate a sympathetic smile. “Good luck, hon.”

  Wally was still wearing that flustered look when Kate left the shack and climbed into the truck. “I was asking Campy if she knew of any good places to shop in the area,” she said in response to Mitch’s questioning glance.

  “You want to go shopping?” Mitch started the truck.

  “Why not?” Kate buckled Hayden’s seat belt. “Campy said there are some good clothing stores nearby. I could use some warmer things. The nights are pretty nippy here. She offered to take me this afternoon, so I told her that sounded like fun.”

  “You and Campy, shopping.” Mitch pulled away from the warming hut and started down the airstrip road. “You surprise me, Captain Jones.”

  Kate raised her eyebrows. “I rarely get to do fun stuff like that, and I’d also like to pick up a few things at the grocery store. Is there something wrong with that?”

  “No.” He cast her another perplexed look then shook his head. “No, nothing at all.”

  “I thought she was very nice to offer.”

  “Very nice. I’ll drop you back there whenever you say. If Hayden wants, he could stay with me and we could do some fishing. Rustle up supper. You up for that, pard?”

  “I wanna hear fish and wolfs howl,” Hayden announced without hesitation.

  AT MITCH’S CABIN, Hayden was enthralled with the river, the rustic setting and, most of all, with Thor, who, when released from being tethered to a doghouse in Mitch’s absence, decided instantly that the boy belonged to him.

  “Can I keep him, Mumma?” Hayden asked when the preliminary greetings were over.

  “Thor belongs here, Hayden. He’s Mitch’s dog.”

  “I’m sure Thor’d go along with it,” Mitch said. “He likes you, pard, no doubt about it.”

  “But he wouldn’t like Cal
ifornia,” Kate pointed out. “He’s a husky and huskies don’t like hot places.”

  “But Mumma, you said we were gonna live in Montana. That’s why we moved.”

  “Moved?” Mitch was climbing the porch steps with Kate and Hayden’s packs and he paused to look back at her. “Since when did the Navy establish a base in Montana? Does this have anything to do with global warming?”

  Kate shook her head, avoiding his eyes by watching Hayden wrestle with Thor. “I’d tell you that the west coast was about to drop into the ocean, but that’s classified information. We’re just going to visit my family for a while.”

  “But Mumma, we moved, remember?” Hayden called out to her. “All our stuff went away to Gram’s and Gramp’s.”

  “You stay away from the river, Hayden,” Kate said, hoping the change of subject would be distraction enough. She glanced at Mitch. “I don’t want him going near the water.”

  “How long are you planning to stay in Montana?”

  She shrugged, trying to avoid his questioning stare. “I haven’t had a vacation in years. They owe me this leave.”

  “I don’t doubt that. How long?”

  His eyes were asking for much more than a simple answer of days or weeks. She drew a painful breath, wondering how long she could sidestep and evade, and wishing she’d left Hayden back at the Moosewood with Rosa. “A month or so.”

  “And you moved all your furniture there so you’d be more comfortable?”

  “Well, actually…” Kate tore her eyes away. “There’s another reason.”

  “I thought as much. We never finished our conversation last night. How about we sit out on the porch and do just that?”

  “But, Hayden…”

  “He’s on the porch. We can keep an eye on him and talk at the same time.”

  “But I promised Campy I’d go shopping, and…”

  “How about something to drink? I have orange juice, iced tea, beer…”

  “Orange juice would be great, thanks.”

  Kate watched him disappear inside the cabin then turned to Hayden. He was throwing a rubber ball for Thor, who ignored it and barked happily. Three months ago she never would have dreamed she’d be in Alaska, falling for the man who’d tripped up her career and fathered her son. Not in a million years. But something was definitely happening between them. She could feel the attraction, the warmth and the genuine and powerful tug at her heartstrings when she watched Mitch interact with Hayden.

  But what if these feelings weren’t real? She’d only been around Mitch for a day. How could she possibly be so won over by him in such a short time span? Was she just clutching at straws because she was so afraid of what might happen to Hayden if anything should happen to her?

  How would she know?

  And how was she going to find the courage to tell him what she did know?

  MITCH RUMMAGED through the cupboards for a clean glass and filled it with orange juice. Then he found another and filled that one, too, just in case Hayden wanted some. He found and filled a third, finishing off the container. He tossed the empty box in the woodstove and stood for a moment, wondering what had made Kate so sick that her hair had fallen out. What else could it be but cancer?

  The big C.

  If that’s what she wanted to talk about, this was going to be a grim conversation.

  “It’s going to be hard, prying those two apart.”

  Kate’s voice startled him. She was leaning through the door that led out onto the porch, hands in her jeans pockets and a faint smile on her face. He could hear Hayden talking to Thor right behind her. “Now, you fetch it, Thor,” the boy was saying in a stern teacher-to-student way. “Ready? Fetch!”

  “No way will he ever get that dog to retrieve anything,” Mitch said.

  She turned toward her son and then looked back at him, her smile widening. The dog hadn’t fetched. “Anything I can do to help?”

  “Yeah,” Mitch replied. “You could tell me the real reason you came to Alaska.”

  The smile faded. She straightened in the doorway, hands coming out of her pockets and arms wrapping around herself in a protective way. He heard the sound of a ball bouncing and a sudden swift scrabble of paws.

  “Good boy, Thor!” Hayden cried out. “Fetch!”

  Kate shot a glance over her shoulder then faced him. She bit her lower lip for a moment with an apprehensive expression. Here it comes, Mitch thought. But her words took him by surprise.

  “Hayden’ll be four years old in July.”

  He nodded, confused. “Yeah…?”

  She was looking at him now as if she expected something more, and then she repeated, with enough significance to make him uneasy, “Four years old.”

  He nodded again, no closer to being enlightened. Why was she looking at him that way? Damn, this wasn’t going to be easy. In fact, getting anything out of her was like pulling teeth. He was going to have to help her out.

  “Okay, so Hayden’s almost four and you’re sick. Sick enough to have lost all your hair so you have to wear a wig.” He paused as she raised a hand to her hair with a startled expression. “I saw it lying on the coffee table this morning,” he explained. “So you brought Hayden to Alaska to share a good vacation with him and to make some good memories. Am I right?”

  If anything, her face became paler than it already was. She glanced out the door again, watching Hayden and Thor for a long moment before looking back at him. “Partly,” she admitted. “I am pretty sick and I did want to share some quality time with him. But mostly, I brought him to Alaska because I wanted you to meet him. Mitch, Hayden’s your son.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  KATE SHOULD HAVE FELT relief as she spoke those words, having finally found the courage to tell Mitch the truth, but instead she felt nothing but dread. He stared at her for an endless moment, then turned away and paced across the room to look out the window for what seemed like a very long and silent time. She heard him mutter something beneath his breath as he ran his fingers through his hair, then he turned to her, a shocked expression on his face, as if he’d just been fatally shot. “I don’t understand. How can he be mine? We used protection. I mean, how…?”

  “I wasn’t on the pill. I wasn’t seeing anyone and hadn’t for a long time, and I wasn’t predicting any one-night stands with an air force officer. And sometimes condoms fail.”

  He shook his head, in a daze. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  There it was, the million-dollar question. Why hadn’t she told him?

  “It was just one night.” Kate made a helpless gesture with her hands, abandoning the attempt to explain.

  He gazed out the window at Hayden. “Obviously, it was a helluva lot more than that.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Jesus, Mary and Joseph. For four years you kept that a secret? Four years?”

  Kate could see Hayden picking up the ball, teasing Thor with it, laughing when the dog barked, then tossing it again so Thor could chase after it. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I don’t know what else to say to you. We barely knew each other. We weren’t involved in any sort of relationship. It was just one night and I honestly didn’t think what happened between us meant anything to you.”

  He stared at the floor for a long moment, then rounded on her, his body rigid with anger. “Where the hell do you get off, passing judgment on me that way? How could you have a clue how I felt when you snuck off the next morning without so much as a goodbye? How could you know what I was thinking when you didn’t even bother to read the letter I sent? Four years,” he repeated. “Tell me something. How do I get those years back? How does Hayden get them back? He thinks his father died in a plane crash. Isn’t that what you told him? The same thing you told me?”

  Kate turned away from his accusing gaze. He already knew the answer.

  “How the hell do you intend to explain me to him now? Are you planning to tell him I’ve come back from the dead?”

  “No. I’ll tell him the truth. He�
�s old enough to understand.”

  “Is that why you came to Alaska now? Because he’s old enough to understand that I’m not dead and never was?” He went back to pacing. “What do you want from me, Kate? What am I supposed to do? Become an instant dad? Should I be grateful that you got sick, just so I could find out I was a dad? Would you ever have told me, otherwise?”

  Kate couldn’t answer, nor could she meet his eyes. His rage and his hurt were understandable. She had no words that would possibly explain.

  She felt the pain building within her and she fled onto the porch, drawing a breath of cool air into lungs that betrayed her in a fit of coughing. She’d had the nagging cough ever since the second round of chemo, but for the past few days it had been better and so had her stomach…until now. Hayden was coming back up the steps with the dog as she descended.

  “Mumma…?” he said, his expression frightened.

  “Stay on the porch,” she choked behind her hand, not looking back. Mitch would watch him. Now that Mitch knew he was Hayden’s father, he would take care of Hayden, watch over him, provide for him, love him. She knew from his reaction that Mitch would never back away from that responsibility, no matter how much he blamed her for those lost years.

  She found a quiet spot by the river and collapsed there, leaning back against the trunk of a spruce tree, overwhelmed with a sense of hopelessness. She’d been wrong, so very wrong, and there was no way to make it right, no way to erase the past. Mitch’s anger with her was justified. She blinked the tears from her eyes and wrapped her arms more tightly about herself. She’d told Mitch, but it wasn’t over yet.

  She still had to tell Hayden.