eyes popped open, and she stared around the interior of the airplane. It hadn’t been a speed bump they’d hit. The little plane hit another pocket of air and jerked.
She sat up straight and stared out at a darkening sky. Thunderclouds rose high to her left, lightning flashing. “Is everything okay?”
“Should be,” Daniel said through gritted teeth. His fingers gripped the yoke, his knuckles white. “Remember that storm my brother was talking about coming out of the southwest?”
“I thought we were going around it?”
“That’s the idea. Only it’s getting bigger as we speak. We won’t be going through it, but we’re getting some of the bumpy air around it.”
Mountains rose ahead of them, their snow-covered peaks appearing beautifully dangerous. Megan’s heart lodged in her throat. “I thought we wouldn’t be going through the mountains on this trip.”
“In order to go around the storm, I’m having to fly farther north. We’re nearing the Sangre de Cristo mountain range.”
Megan’s pulse raced, her breathing becoming shallower. “Just how much experience do you have flying through mountains?”
He laughed, though it sounded strained through the headset. “Too late to ask now, isn’t it? But for what it’s worth, I have over two thousand hours flying this plane.”
“That sounds like a lot. How many of those hours were in this kind of weather?”
“There are never enough hours flying in this kind of weather. The idea is to avoid these conditions.”
“Should we put down?”
“Can’t. Not here. The best we can hope for is to swing wide.”
They hit more turbulence, and the plane dropped like someone had pulled the rug out from under them.
Megan swallowed a scream and held on.
Daniel moved his feet and scanned the instrument panel, his hands steady on the yoke. “Just a little farther and we should clear the side of this storm.”
She caught and held her breath as they neared the snowy crags a lot lower than she liked.
Lightning flashed nearby. A rumble of thunder sounded over the roar of the engine and through the muffling of her headset.
Megan had never been so frightened in her life. But seeing Daniel in the pilot’s seat, his jaw set, all his concentration on flying the airplane, made her feel a little safer.
Until the next big dip brought her even closer to the jagged peaks. Her stomach clenched, and she bit down hard on her tongue to keep from screaming again. Daniel didn’t need a crying woman in the cockpit with him. She had to be strong, even though she shook from head to toe.
The clouds billowed higher, blocking the sun, making the sky ominous.
Megan found herself leaning away from the turbulence, willing the little plane to fly safely around the storm and up over the mountains.
They seemed to be heading straight into the mountains instead of flying over the top, and the storm appeared to be engulfing them in its fury.
Tearing her gaze away from the mountains, she risked a glance in Daniel’s direction. His face was tense, a muscle flicked in his jaw and his knuckles were white on the yoke.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said softly, as if speaking the words out loud would make it so. She sent a silent prayer to the heavens to deliver them safely through the storm and over the mountains they were racing toward.
“Hold on,” Daniel said in her ears.
Her fingers dug into the leather of the armrest. She closed her eyes, trusting Daniel to deliver her safely over to the other side of the storm and the mountain.
Another drastic drop forced her eyes open in time to see the ragged peaks directly in front of them.
Daniel struggled with the small plane, pulling back on the yoke at the last minute, narrowly missing the edges of a giant outcropping.
Once over the top of the mountain, the clouds parted, and they blew through as if spit out by the storm. Slowly the turbulence subsided, and they flew out of the black clouds, into an entirely different world of sunshine and blue skies.
“Wow.” Megan pressed her hand to her heart and drew in a long, steadying breath, then let it out. “You were amazing.”
Daniel scrubbed a hand down his face. Beneath his Cherokee complexion, his face had paled.
Megan reached out and placed her hand over his on the controls.
Eventually he unwound his grip, transferring it to her hand. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have tried to outrun the storm. We could have been killed.”
“But we weren’t, thanks to your superb flying skills.”
“I feel like we should find a place to land and rent a car for the rest of the journey.”
“No way. I’ve never flown into the sunset in a single-engine airplane. And it appears as if we’re going to have an outstanding display.”
“As long as you’re okay.”
“I’ll admit, I was shaking in my boots about the time we hit that last really bad dip.”
“You and me both.” He squeezed her hand. “But from here to Vegas it should be smooth.”
“As long as you’re flying, I’m okay.” She smiled across at him and settled back, refusing to release his hand unless they hit another intense storm.
Megan figured if they could survive something as insanely intense and dangerous as braving that storm and nearly crashing into the mountain, things could only get easier. They’d land, check into a hotel, find a twenty-four-hour wedding chapel and tie the temporary knot.
What could be hard about that compared with the flight over?
“We’re sorry, but the hotel is booked for the weekend,” said the clerk behind the counter of the newest of the big casino hotels.
“Every room?” Megan asked.
“There’s a huge techie convention going on. I’ve had to call several hotels to find rooms for walk-in guests. There just aren’t any available. I’m sorry, ma’am, but I can’t help you.”
Megan couldn’t believe their luck. The one weekend they decided to fly to Vegas to get married and every hotel they’d been to thus far had been completely sold out.
“Come on. We’ll walk next door.” She hooked Daniel’s arm and dragged him to the exit. “I have a feeling there will be a vacancy there.”
“We’ve been walking the
