A Fair to Remember by Barbara Ankrum Page B

wheel, but with the stick between his knees. Her mouth went dry and she shifted her gaze out the window.
    You liked it, he’d said. Don’t deny it.
    How could she? Worse than that, every time she was near him she was thinking about… sex . Her breasts tingled just imagining it now.
    Oh, for heaven’s sake, she hadn’t even thought about sex for a year. Longer, if she counted thinking about it as a pleasant thing, because long before the ink was dry on her divorce, sex with Kyle had become something to endure, not enjoy.
    Sex with Jake, on the other hand—
    Stop the crazy talk! There would be no sex with Jake Lassen, steamy hotness or not.
    Through the headset, Jake said, “Ever flown in one of these before?”
    “Never,” she replied, enjoying the fact he couldn’t see her… enjoying the view. “It’s amazing! Tell Sammy thanks for the ride!”
    She saw Jake and Sammy exchange looks and Sammy gave her a thumbs up. “He’s based in Livingston. He’s gonna drop us off and come back later for us. Wanna try your hand up here on the way home?”
    “What? Me fly? No!”
    He laughed. “Look down. See that river down there?”
    Below, the Yellowstone River seamed the scrub-covered valley, stark and clear against the sun-dried August grass. Here, the water lacked the power it possessed in Yellowstone Park, further east, and instead it ran glassy and shallow enough that even from high above, she could see the mossy boulders under the water’s surface.
    “We’re gonna catch some dinner there this afternoon.”
    Fishing? What other surprises did he have in mind? “I’m a catch and release kind of girl,” she answered over the sound of the rotors.
    He chuckled again. “Personally, I’m just looking forward to seeing you in waders.”
    She shook her head, imagining it, and then pictured jerry-rigging a pan over a campfire to cook said fish. She had no idea what to expect. She’d never met Deke and what she knew about him would fit in her pocket. Jake had told her once his uncle was his father’s brother and… different . He liked his privacy up on the mountain away from people, which, in a place like Montana, was about as alone as one could get.
    She knew he’d come from San Francisco and had been a silent partner in the Main Street Diner with Jake’s parents and had even offered to help Jake with college, though he’d turned that down. So he was an eccentric with a little money. She’d never seen his home and she wondered exactly what the home of a mountain-dwelling hermit would look like. And if he was old and not too steady on his feet, maybe Jake needed her help convincing him to move to somewhere less… remote, more civilized.
    She wasn’t sure how she felt about getting involved in Deke’s decision-making.
    Olivia stared out the window. In any direction one chose to look, the scenery was breathtaking. Copper Mountain and the quaint Western town of Marietta faded behind them as they crossed the valley and approached the Absarokas that wound north, their jagged spires jutting eleven-thousand feet into the cerulean blue sky.
    Even in August, snow still lingered in the shady dips of peaks here and there. The green beauty of the Absaroka-Beartooth wilderness reminded her how long she’d been away from this amazing place. She used to love riding up here. That was something she and Jake did in their last year together.
    She blinked. Don’t think about it. Think about something else.
    She curled her hand under her chin, and tipped her face against the window, watching the landscape slide by. She was grateful to Jake for bringing her up here today to see this. She had to admit, she’d mostly shut herself in at Lane’s End for the past six months and it felt good to be somewhere else. With him.
    Her gaze flicked to Jake, flying the helicopter like he was born to it. It made her heart tighten. He’d accomplished his dreams. At a cost, she knew. But when wasn’t there a cost to achieving one’s