her being particular about the general presentation of the Native spirit, even in a snow globe. And to have a wolf suggested in it would be specific to her. “It will really suit her,” she agreed.
He glanced at her quizzically. “How would you know that?”
She blinked, realizing what she’d said. She couldn’t take it back, so she pushed on. “You are Gage Carson, aren’t you?”
He was obviously surprised. “How do you know me?” he asked, as his gaze flicked over her.
“From Wolf Lake,” she said, letting him digest that and ask his own follow up question.
And he did. “You’re from town?”
“I was, a long time ago, but then I came back for work. I remember the stories about your grandpa helping form Wolf Lake.”
He looked puzzled. “I really don’t remember any Brenners in town.”
“You wouldn’t,” she started to say, ready to tell him her birth name, but she didn’t get the chance before the guard he’d spoken to earlier, came rushing up to him.
“Sir, Mr. Carson? It’s all ready. Just pick up the papers, and head on out.”
“Thanks,” Gage said, and when the guard left, he looked back at Merry as he held up the globe. “Thanks for your input.”
“Sure, no problem,” she barely got the words out before he was on route to pay for the globe before ducking out of the store with the guard. Without a backward glance, he crossed the walkway and veered away from the charter service desk with the blonde still behind it.
Merry could have kicked herself. Talk about handling the situation all wrong! She should have just walked up to him, introduced herself, and immediately asked for a ride on his plane. “Should have, could have, would have, but didn’t,” she muttered, angry with herself as she quickly rushed after him.
Dragging her bag after her with one hand, the duffel in the other, she frantically tried to catch up to him as he cut diagonally across the seating area. His long stride was eating up the distance as he darted toward a side door marked “Private,” where another guard stood.
When he stopped to show identification to the security guard, Merry called out, “Mr. Carson...Mr. Carson!”
He frowned as she sprinted toward him, stopping within a few feet of him. She let the duffel and suitcase drop by her feet. “I’m sorry,” she gasped, breathless from the exertion. “I don’t mean to bother you, I really don’t,” she said. “But I need to ask you something, and you got away too fast in the store.”
He didn’t bother hiding his impatience as he looked pointedly at his watch, then back to her. “What is it?”
Mary filled him in on her predicament. She spoke in a rush of words, trying to get everything in before he up and left. “I can’t get out until tomorrow sometime, and that’s not acceptable because I’m needed back in Wolf Lake now.”
He hadn’t moved while she spoke, and she barely paused to take a breath before going on. “Since you’re on your way there, and you’ve got your own plane, I was wondering if I could hitch a ride with you back home?”
His intent gaze didn’t change for a long moment; he shattered her hopes with a shake of his head. “No, I can’t do that, and I’m in a hurry.”
“Why not?” she asked before he could disappear through the door the guard had just pushed open for him.
“It’s a company plane.” He held up one hand, palm toward her when she started to protest. “The rules are, no one gets on board who isn’t an employee or connected to the company in some manner. Sorry. Now I have to go.”
Merry swallowed hard. She should have simply told him she was Merry Casey back in the day, that her dad had worked on his parents’ ranch, fencing and running cattle. But she hadn’t, and he’d made up his mind. But she refused to give up. “Mr. Carson,” she began, but he cut her off again.
“No,” he said as he slipped off his ball cap, smoothed back his thick dark hair with one hand then tugged it back on with a sharp jerk of the bill. The action served to shadow his eyes even more. “Rules are rules. Now, I really have to go.”
Panic stricken, one last-ditch idea came to Merry—something that, if he agreed to it, wouldn’t break any rules.
“Mr. Cason, please listen for one minute?”
“This is not open for discussion.”
“I know, but I also know you’re the head of your own company, so the plane is technically yours... And since you’re the one who makes the rules, I think you could make an exception to break those rules just this one time for a neighbor.”
He countered that with, “It’s an insurance thing.”
“You said you take clients up in your plane?”
“Of course I do, when it’s called for,” he admitted, “but—”
She cut him off by reaching in her pocket and pulling out her small wallet. She took all of the bills she had left from her trip, just over a hundred dollars, and held it out to him. “Please, I want you to do some work for me. I’m hiring you, right now, right here, so then I’ll be your client.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he said roughly.
“I want you to design and make a bulletin board for me with ‘Kids Are Cool” at the top of the frame.” She plowed on. “Four feet by four feet, a perfect square and painted in primary colors, nothing too cute or sweet. Just bright and beautiful.”
His harsh expression eased a bit, and that seemed to soften the angular features of his tanned face. Even his eyes seemed a bit less intense. But he didn’t take the money. “I don’t do bulletin boards, only the buildings they hang in.”
She stared at her hand, which was still thrusting the money toward him, and hated the unsteadiness that was starting to show. “It’s a specialty job. I know you do them. A doctor at the hospital said you did one for him when the expansion was completed a few years ago. He brags about it, in fact—he said it was an add-on for the Radiology department.”
“What doctor?”
“Dr. Moses Blackstar.”
“He told you about me?”
She smiled at that. “Yes, he has. That work you did at the hospital is his favorite subject when it comes to you.”
“So you’re friends?”
“I’m on a government grant to The Family Center. I address the emotional and mental needs of challenged children, and he does the physical concerns. He’s basically overseeing the grant, and that means the doctor and I work together a lot.”
Gage cocked his head slightly to one side as if affording himself a better view of this crazy woman trying to hitch a ride with him. “I won’t even ask what’s in Wolf Lake that can’t wait a day, because I need to get in the air myself, and if you’re a friend of Moses’s,
