Sky High (Alaskan Frontier Romance Book 2) Page 2

  When Mason returned the following day to check on him, once again at their mother’s request, he noticed something was different the second he opened the door. The smell of death hung in the air and Mason knew what to expect even before he found his brother’s body.

  After that, Mason tried to get back into the swing of things, but he couldn’t. That’s when he decided to leave the city. He needed to go home, to his real home. Heron was the only place he’d ever really been happy. He was hoping it would be a place where he could heal.

  As Mason unloaded his things, Gus walked over to the plane and slapped it gently on the side.

  “Whoo-ee. She’s a beauty,” he said, looking over the 1965 deHavilland Beaver. “Always wanted one of these, myself. Don’t get me wrong, the Helio served me well all these years. But a Beaver, now that’s the dream.” He ran his hand along the side of the plane. “Yep, she’s one nice looking bird. How long you had her?”

  “Not long.” Mason sat the duffel bag down on the dock and turned to unload some boxes off the plane. “Got it in Anchorage from one of the outfits that was going under. I figure with this one and yours, I should be able to hire on another pilot. I could work with some of the lodges, fly their guests out on excursions. That sort of thing.”

  Gus chuckled. “Just bought the business and already thinking of expansion, huh?”

  “That’s the way the world works, isn’t it, Gus?”

  “Not for me. At least not anymore.” He glanced back at the tiny shed he’d built on the floating dock. For two decades it had served as the office for his air-taxi business. Now it would belong to Mason. “I’m looking forward to retirement. Never was much of one for the business end of things, anyway. Always wanted to keep it small. Easier to keep track of numbers that way.”

  “What are you going to do with all your free time?”

  “Not sure yet.” Gus reached down and grabbed his pants by the waistband. He pulled them up a bit. “Thought about heading south, but I can’t get up the gumption to leave.”

  “Maybe you just want to stick around and make sure I don’t run the business into the ground.”

  Gus laughed boisterously. “You may be right. It’s hard to let go. A lot harder than I expected it to be.”

  “Well, don’t worry. I’ll take good care of it,” Mason said reassuringly. “This winter the planes are both getting major overhaul. The office is getting a fresh coat of paint and I’ll be getting a website up and running. By next summer, it’ll be like brand new. You won’t even recognize it.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of,” he said soberly.

  “You’re not having second thoughts, are you?” Mason looked a little worried for a moment. The sale of the air-taxi business wasn’t finalized yet. Sure, they’d worked out all the details over the phone, but neither of them had signed anything.

  “No,” Gus reassured him. “My time is over. This is your time. Make the best of it.”

  “I’ll try.”

  Chapter 2

  “Lars, can you move that desk a little more to the right?”

  Lily pointed at the crudely built stage, indicating where she wanted the desk placed.

  “And then angle it inward just a few inches. The audience needs to be able to see past it when Carrie makes her entrance.”

  Lily stood directly in front of the stage – or what was to become the stage, considering that it was still under construction – holding a clipboard in one hand and a red wig in the other. As Lars moved the desk, she looked down at her clipboard to make a notation about the stage furnishings and realized she was holding the wig.

  “What am I doing with this?” she wondered aloud, the question directed at no one in particular. The bright hues of the wig were in sharp contrast to Lily’s own long, blonde hair. And, although it was a well-made wig, it certainly wasn’t needed for this production. Glancing around, Lily wasn’t sure who had given it to her, or why.

  “Allie, can you please put this away for me?”

  She handed the wig off to a young girl, who placed it on her head haphazardly and skipped off to the far end of the room, joining a small group of children who had come to watch the rehearsal.

  When Lars finished moving the desk, he looked up at Lily to see if she was satisfied.

  Lily nodded her head. “That’s perfect, Lars. Mark that spot on the stage so the kids know where to put it next time.”

  She glanced back at the stage crew, a group of three teenage boys, to make sure they weren’t messing around too much. The boys were joking as they painted a large plywood cutout into a mural of downtown New York City.

  Pleased with their progress, she turned her attention to the small group of actors sitting on folding chairs in a circle in the middle of the room. They were mostly teens, still in high school. Each of them had a script in their hands, ready to do another read-through of their lines.

  “Alright, Carrie. Go ahead with the first act.”

  As Carrie began her opening monologue, Lily took a seat in the circle. With the script in hand, she followed along as the young actors painstakingly recited their lines. They were still stumbling over the words, Lily noticed.

  “Jackson.” Lily glanced up from the script. “Are you following along?”

  “Yeah, sorry,” he said, squinting down at the page to find the spot. A few seconds later, he began reading his lines.

  Back and forth they went, clumsily reading through the script, trying to inflect feeling into the words. It was almost heartbreaking to hear them stumble over their lines, especially since the words were dear to Lily, much more so than anyone realized.

  Carrie, the lead, was the only one who had already memorized her lines. The others carefully followed along with the script so they didn’t miss their cue. All of them still needed to practice. A lot.

  The rustling of the fallen leaves outside the window were a sign of the season. Autumn was Lily’s favorite time of year. It was when the urgency of summer melted away, soon to be replaced by a slower pace. It was a time when Lily could start focusing on herself, indulging in the hobbies and interests that normally got put on the back burner. Best of all, it was a time for the school’s annual fall production.

  As the amateur thespians read through their lines, Lily couldn’t help but remember the plays she’d starred in. As a teenager, she’d enjoyed being up on the stage. Everyone always said she had a flair for the dramatic. All she knew was that she loved performing. The hair, the make-up, and way the words rolled off her tongue. There was nothing like the way her hair fell over her shoulders when she took that final bow or the sound of the applause as the curtain swung closed. She loved every bit of it.

  Since graduating, though, she’d taken over the role of producer. This was her seventh year in charge of the program and for the first time ever, they would be performing a brand new play.

  “Pelicans Dream Too.” That’s what it was called. Lily wrote it herself the previous winter. She never expected anyone to read it and she certainly hadn’t thought anyone would want to perform it on stage. It was only after Carrie found the script and shared it with the rest of the drama team that they convinced her to make it this year’s production. Now, seeing how engaged the actors were, Lily felt honored they cared so much about her story that they wanted to perform it.

  “Hold on a second, Carrie,” Lily interrupted the read-through. She leaped up onto the half-constructed stage with the ease of a cat. The actors, still seated in a tight circle of chairs, looked up from their scripts and turned their attention toward her.

  “You’re all doing great,” she said, pacing back and forth across the stage, “but I think some of you are over-thinking it. Carrie and Jackson, don’t try to talk different. Remember, even though your characters are in a strange city, they don’t lose their sense of who they are. They’re strong and resilient. They’re Alaskans and proud of it. Those of you who are supposed to be New Yorkers, if you need some vocal coaching to work on your accent, come see me
afterwards.”

  When Carrie started reading her lines again, Lily looked around. The school, a round building that doubled as the community center, was beginning to look more like a theatre than a place where students gathered to learn. On weekdays, nearly 45 students – enrollment was at an all-time high – filled the six classrooms that lined the outer walls of the building. The students were divided up, with two grades in each classroom. When lunch time rolled around, everyone gathered in the large open space in the center of the building, a space called the “great room” by most people. It was a round room lined with bookshelves to form a four-foot-tall wall, a small barrier designed to create a circular hallway around the outside of the room.

  When school wasn’t in session, the community center was utilized for various events. Town council meetings were held in the great room twice a month. It was also the town’s library, open on weekends to anyone who wanted to borrow a book. Some local organizations even used the space for gardening workshops and fitness classes.

  And once a year, it was transformed to host the annual fall production.

  The transformation had only begun, but already the set was beginning to take shape. Plywood panels lined the outer edges of the great room, cut out into shapes that mimicked the New York City skyline. Though most of the performers were older teens, kids of all ages were involved in the production, either painting the set, making costumes, performing on stage, or raising money and selling tickets.

  With that many children involved, the fall production was always pure chaos, but Lily loved it. They were only a few days into a four-week rehearsal schedule. For the rest of the month, she’d be completely immersed in the world she’d created.

  Lily blocked out the sound of the younger children’s horseplay and focused on the lines the actors were reading. Most of them hadn’t even begun memorizing their lines yet, and that was fine, she thought. Eventually, with enough repetition, the words would come naturally. For the moment, it was better for them to focus on acquainting themselves with their characters, trying to learn their mannerisms.

  After the last line was read and Lily was satisfied with the day’s progress, she thanked everyone for their hard work and told them they could go home. The school cleared out in no time. Children who’d been cooped up for most of the day raced out the door. The older ones gathered in small groups, making plans for the evening before shuffling off.

  “You need any help?” It was Lars, a dockhand who had volunteered his afternoon to do some heavy lifting on the set.

  “No, thanks.” Lily smiled appreciatively. “You’ve already done so much. I can clean up.”

  Alone, Lily folded up the chairs and stacked them against the wall. Then she moved all of the set props off to the side, out of the way so the teachers wouldn’t be tripping over them the next day. When everything was back in its place, Lily shoved her script into her tote bag and turned to leave. She didn’t bother locking the doors as she left. She’d lived most of her life in Heron and she couldn’t remember the community building ever being locked. There was no need. With barely more than 150 people in town, everyone knew everyone. They trusted each other. They relied on each other. It had always been the philosophy of the town council that the school and community building belonged to everyone, and no one should ever be locked out. It was one of the things Lily loved about this town.

  Outside, Lily stepped onto a wooden walkway. It was one of two boardwalks that connected everything in town. There were no roads in Heron, after all. And since the town had been built in a rainforest, the ground was generally too soft and muddy to walk on. When Heron was founded, the townspeople constructed one main boardwalk along the shoreline to connect all of the buildings. Later on, as people began to build homes further inland, they built a second, narrower boardwalk leading through the forest.

  There, among the evergreens, the air smelled sweet and crisp. October really was her favorite month, and not just because of the fall production. It was when things started to slow down at the Pub & Grub, which Lily ran almost single-handedly. It was also a time when the town’s residents focused on last-minute preparations for the upcoming winter. Those who had wasted the summer away needed to stockpile wood. Even those who hadn’t wasted the summer away still found various things that needed to be taken care of before winter set in. Everyone was busy with one thing or another, so they didn’t linger so much at the restaurant. And since things were slower at work, for the first time ever Lily had taken the entire month off from the pub.

  Lily briefly thought about heading toward the main part of town, toward the pub. It was hard handing the reigns over to someone else, but business was slow this time of year and she had other responsibilities. Besides, it was just for a few weeks. If anything major happened at the pub, she could always step in, she told herself.

  Resisting the urge to swing by the pub, Lily turned toward home, instead. As she did, a humongous dog came barreling down the boardwalk. Its tongue hung out the side of its mouth, its jowls flapped wildly with each stride. And the way she came running, like a bulldozer on a path of destruction, Lily knew she needed to get out of the way. She quickly jumped to the edge of the boardwalk and only narrowly avoided the dog as it raced past her.

  A man was following at a run, trying to catch it.

  “Bernie, get back here!”

  The shout was more of a desperate plea than a command, and Lily couldn’t help but chuckle at the situation.

  Mason didn’t find it quite as humorous. When he reached the spot where Lily was standing, watching, he stopped and leaned against the railing. It took him a few seconds to catch his breath.

  “You could have tried to stop her,” he gasped from his bent-over position.

  “Judging by her size, I don’t think I could have,” Lily laughed.

  “You may be right,” he agreed reluctantly. He was still bent over the railing. It was the only thing holding him upright. “She probably would have barreled right through you.”

  “Been chasing her awhile?” Lily asked, though she really didn’t need to. She could tell by one look at the man that the dog had bested him. His long sleeves had been hastily pushed up to the elbows and a narrow bead of sweat was forming near his temple.

  “Yeah,” he said, still panting from the exertion. “You might not know it to look at me right now, but I’m actually in pretty good shape. It’s just that we’ve been playing this game for…” He looked at his watch before finishing. “About an hour and a half.”

  Then he looked up at her. Lily recognized those gray eyes. His hair wasn’t as red as it was when they were kids. It had taken on a more auburn color. And he wasn’t lanky anymore, either. He’d filled out quite a bit. His shoulders were broad, his arms muscular. And with his shirt clinging to his chest the way it was right then, Lily could tell there was a lot more definition underneath his clothing. He’d changed, but it was definitely him.

  “Mason?” She couldn’t believe it he was there. “Mason Caldwell. Look at you.”

  Without thinking, Lily flung her arms around him. The last time she’d seen him, they were teenagers.

  In an instant, a flood of memories came rushing back. Mason was Lily’s first love. From the time she was eight, she’d had a crush on him. But he was a year older and had no interest in her. She followed him around for years before he finally noticed her, too.

  He was the first guy who kissed her. The only guy to ever kiss her.

  She was 15 years old when she fell completely in love with him. For a year, it was wonderful. They became inseparable. And when it inevitably ended, as first loves always do, it had broken her teenaged heart.

  But Lily never stopped wondering about him… what he’d done after high school, where he was now, if he was happy, married?

  And now he was back.

  Her arms were still around him when she realized he wasn’t hugging her back. Awkwardly, Lily pulled away. He looked uncomfortable there with her. She noticed him step back a few inc
hes, putting a little more space between them.

  “Lily Frontier.” He seemed a little surprised to realize it was her, but not in the way she hoped. “I never expected you’d still be here.” He didn’t sound the least bit glad that she was.

  “Why not?” she asked, trying not to sound defensive.

  He shook his head.

  “I don’t know. I guess I thought you would have gone off to college and settled down in the city. You always wanted to go to New York, didn’t you?”

  “You remember that?”

  How could he forget? It was practically all she talked about for months. She was going to become an actress. Her sights were set on the glitz and glamour of the stage.

  “Yeah, I remember. The way you talked about it, I figured you’d leave as soon as you graduated.”

  Lily laughed, shaking her head at the memory. “I was 16. Of course, I wanted to get out.” She rolled her eyes. “Who doesn’t want to leave Heron at that age?”

  Mason hadn’t wanted to leave. He’d wanted to stay in Heron and build a life there. But then again, it hadn’t been his choice. A lot of things in life hadn’t been his choice.

  He shoved his hands in his pockets.

  “You wanted me to come with you, if I remember correctly.”

  “I did,” she said nostalgically. That much was true. Her dream of New York had always included Mason. She used to envision the two of them together, walking through Times Square and seeing her face on the enormous screens advertising Broadway shows. Afterwards, they’d go home to their plush Manhattan apartment. The odds of ever achieving that kind of success was minuscule, she knew. But then again, Lily was a dreamer. She always had been. As long as she had Mason by her side, she used to think, she could turn the fantasy into a reality. It seemed such a silly dream now.

  Mason saw the wistful look in her eyes. He wondered if she was thinking about the two of them, the good times they had together, or if she was wishing she’d taken the chance and moved to New York.

  “So, what brings you back to Heron?” Lily asked. “Are you just visiting or are you here to stay?” She hoped he didn’t hear the trace of anticipation in her voice. She wanted him to stay. Even though she barely knew him anymore, she liked the idea that he might be back in Heron for good.