watched her exchange a look with Misty and his sister frowned. Was that a good look or a bad look?
He opted to give them time to talk in case he went backwards from here. He’d done all he could. He nodded and moved across to apologise to Mia.
Montana watched his progress across the room before she turned to Misty.
She needed this. The memories everywhere she looked were crushing her. ‘I’d like to go with your brother to Lyrebird Lake.’
Misty frowned. ‘You made that decision fast.’ But the lack of surprise in her friend’s voice made Montana smile.
She sighed ruefully. ‘I’ve been a mess, trying to decide whether to ask him all morning. I knew they had staffing problems but it will be weeks before I’ll want to think about work. With somewhere to stay, it’s the perfect answer.’
‘Perfect answer to what?’ Misty said.
Montana heard the censure and could see Misty did not understand her rationale.
‘You have everything here,’ Misty went on. She included Mia in an encompassing gesture. ‘You have us.’
Too true, Montana thought, and that part would be hard. ‘I love you guys, and I will miss you, and that will be the hardest part, but there’s too much here.’
She met Misty’s eyes. ‘I need to get away and start life afresh with Dawn. I’m not looking to replace Douglas, just looking for somewhere everyone doesn’t panic about what to say to me in case they upset me. I’ll never forget Douglas, can’t imagine being with another man, but I need to be a whole person for my daughter, and I can’t do that here.’
‘Fair enough, but don’t decide immediately.’ Misty hugged her. ‘He leaves tomorrow. It’s going to happen fast and you might wake up and wonder what you’ve done.’
Montana looked across at Andy, where he was laughing with Mia. He made her laugh too, and that wasn’t an easy thing to do. ‘I know. But that’s a risk I have to take. I would be in safe hands. Will you help me?’
‘Of course.’ Misty sighed and glanced at her watch as she tried to calculate how much time they had. ‘You never know. I might turn up for a visit there one day by myself.’
‘You’d have to bring Mia, and her boyfriend wouldn’t like that—he’d have to cook for himself. But we’d have fun.’ The two women smiled.
When they left the next day it took Montana a while to come to grips with the fact that not only did Andy own the plane but he would be the pilot if she wanted to avoid a two-day car trip with a newborn.
She’d always had a reluctance to fly and the idea of a tiny two-seater plane with her daughter was right up there in nightmare territory. If she hadn’t had that unexpected confidence in Andy that she’d felt from the first moment she’d seen him, she would have pulled out.
She eased herself stiffly into the cramped seat, quickly breathed in and out a couple of times and tried to secure her seat belt, but it wouldn’t latch into place. Her fingers fumbled with it.
She could do this. She tried again one-handed with Dawn against her chest and then again with slightly more desperation until the door beside her opened and the woodsy aftershave she’d begun to associate with Andy drifted past her nose.
‘May I?’ He looked down at her with a reassuring smile and she remembered why she’d decided to go with this man.
She sighed and relaxed, and at her nod Andy clicked her belt and then secured the tiny strap around Dawn that threaded between mother and daughter like a leather umbilical cord for emergencies.
It meant she was joined again to her daughter and she liked the idea for the flight.
She wondered who would be drawing reassurance from whom in the coming flight. Thank God Andy was there to look after both of them.
Then Andy climbed into the other side of the plane and squeezed his big frame down next to her, and she could feel the warmth from his body like a soothing shield. She enjoyed feeling slightly safer until she remembered his presence meant they were close to take-off.
Oh, boy, she thought grimly, and concentrated on his strong hands as they caressed the controls. An unexpected wish to feel those fingers squeeze her hand in comfort made her twist to stare out the window.
‘You OK?’ She heard his voice and she turned back and hoped her face at least appeared calm.
‘Fine,’ she lied, and he looked across at her and grinned.
He nodded and resumed his flight preparations. She chewed her lip while he talked to the flight control tower and then it was too late to change her mind because the little Cessna had begun to taxi in an ungainly rattle down the runway.
Another small plane in front of them awaited take-off and she watched in sick fascination as it lined up and then hurtled away from them down the runway before it climbed precariously away into the sky. She swallowed the fear in her throat. Their plane would have to do that.
She wished irrationally that Dawn would be less settled and whimper or do something to distract her, but her daughter snoozed on regardless.
Andy positioned the plane and the engine built in noise until it seemed to scream—a little like the noise Montana wanted to make but couldn’t—and her nerves stretched.
He looked across at her and flashed his white teeth in the joy of the moment before take-off. Pretty impressive dentistry, she acknowledged, by grimacing back, then she returned to the only thing she could do as she breathed in and out. She prayed.
Breathing was a good thing and improved the lightness in her head at least, and praying could be helpful if divine intervention was required.
He released the brakes and the plane began its thunder down the runway and when she risked a look the tarmac beside her blurred. Suddenly the noise changed and her stomach plummeted and she realised they were in the air as the ground dropped woozily below her window.
OhmyGod. She turned her head away and closed her eyes.
Obviously Dawn travelled better than her mother. She was asleep. Montana tried to think of something different that rhymed with doom and gloom and boom. She moistened her lips and risked opening one eye.
They’d levelled out and Andy looked pretty relaxed. She opened her other eye.
She’d talk about the weather. ‘So, do you have emergency supplies in this thing and a homing beacon?’ That wasn’t what she’d meant to say.
Andy smiled. ‘GPS tracker and, yes, we have basic emergency supplies. Today we even have English muffins, ginger marmalade and Norfolk punch as extras for my housekeeper and jasmine tea for you. But despite the size of the plane, we’re safe.’
He glanced at her sleeping daughter. ‘Dawn isn’t worried.’
Montana looked down at her. ‘Hmm. She has less imagination than I have.’
‘Wimp.’
His eyes danced and she noticed
