The Daughter Dilemma

As for the man’s daughter, Hannah, a more unlikable teenager Nick had yet to meet. Whenever he looked back over his shoulder to see how she was doing, she invariably threw him a pouty, petulant, hurt-baby face. As though the past two hours had somehow been Nick’s idea and not Dwayne Patterson’s pitiful attempt to bond with his kid.

Hannah Patterson wasn’t much older than Nick’s daughter, Tessa, but she was miles apart in temperament. Surly. Jaded. Easily bored. In the past couple of weeks Nick had been at odds with Tessa, but nothing in her contrary behavior even came close to this girl’s attitude.

And he’d been trying so hard to be agreeable to these people, too. He had to. The summer season had been off this year. Too much rain. Too many tourists tightening their belts instead of spending money. But sometimes, Nick thought, you played your best hand and it still wasn’t enough to win the pot.

He’d flown these two over some of the prettiest country God had ever created. It was going to be an early autumn—already the aspen were spreading golden blankets across the green velvet slopes. They’d swooped down over abandoned mines and ghost towns. Followed the winding river through the canyons—so close you could make out the bullet-shaped trout in the crystal streams below. Surely that kind of ride beat anything the theme parks were offering.

But neither of the Pattersons seemed the least bit impressed. Hannah just yawned and rolled her eyes occasionally. Daddy should have spent some of his computer software money on charm school.

He felt a fingertip jab hard into his shoulder and turned his head to find Hannah thrusting forward in her seat.

“How much longer?” the girl shouted, though Nick had explained twice that the cabin radio picked up every word and delivered it right into each of their headphones. “I have to pee like a racehorse.”

Nice mouth, Nick thought. But Dad Patterson didn’t seem to mind.

Instead of answering, Nick pointed out the front right windscreen. Angel Air’s heliport was in sight now, the landing pad a stark blue-and-yellow scar against the mountainside. The small office and hangar looked like a Monopoly house, the company’s other copter, Raven Two, like a kid’s toy.

Somewhere inside the office his sister, Adriana, would be waiting for their return. Probably fuming, if he knew Addy. Which he did.

He pressed the radio switch on the side of the cyclic column that allowed him to talk to the office or any other flight service he might need to raise. “Base, this is Nine-Zero-One-Bravo. Coming in from the west.”

“Roger, Nine-Zero-One-Bravo,” his sister’s voice came through the headphones. “I’ll be waiting.”

One hour and fifty-nine minutes into the tour now. It would be over soon enough, thank God.

He supposed it wasn’t really the Pattersons’ fault that he was in such foul humor. It had been a lousy week. Tessa behaving like a royal pain in the butt over some silly dress. Addy pestering him all the time about wanting more flight time now that she had her license.

It didn’t help that for the past two days Nick and Tessa had been forced to move into one of the two-bedroom guest suites up at the main lodge. Their own cabin was off-limits right now. Tessa had left the back door open and a skunk had meandered in, then scurried out. But not before getting the hell scared out of it and doing what skunks did best. A good three days, the fumigators had said.

He must be going soft. Over the years he’d slept in barracks cots, hammocks, sleeping bags and once, in a three-foot sand coffin with an Iraqi camel parked on top of him. Now Nick mourned the loss of his own bed. That sag in the middle fit his six-foot, three-inch frame like a suede glove.

Lord, he really was getting old.

Rolling his shoulders to work out some of the tension, he thought about how moving back home five years ago had seemed like an answer to a lot of problems. No—in spite of the grim circumstances, it had seemed like the answer.

He hadn’t expected it to be easy. From the moment he’d returned to Colorado he’d known there would be a heavy load of responsibility. Samuel, his father, had suffered a massive stroke. It had thrown the entire family into a tailspin, forcing Nick to take over running Lightning River Lodge—the family inn and tour company. Everyone had quickly grown to depend on him and eventually they’d weathered that crisis. Most of the time he was confident he could handle anything thrown his way.

Except when he had a week like this one. This week, it seemed as though ten of him wouldn’t have been enough to go around.

He eased back on the throttle to cut his airspeed for the landing, frowning at the vibration that passed through his fingertips. One of the main rotor blades might be out of trim. Just as well that the Pattersons were the last tour scheduled for the day. Tomorrow he’d take Raven One off-line and check it over.

In deference to Dwayne Patterson’s stomach, he set the skids down especially easy on the pad, then cut the rotor. The blades had barely stopped making their whoop-whoop noise before Addy was at the chopper door, helping Hannah Patterson find her feet.

“Well, how was it?” she asked no one in particular. Bright enthusiasm was Addy’s idea of good customer service.

Hannah lifted one thin shoulder. “We saw mountains. Big surprise.”

The girl pushed past Addy as though she were parting drapes, heading for the office’s small bathroom.

Addy smiled at Dwayne Patterson as he stepped out. “What about you? Did you like it? Did Nick point out all the abandoned silver mines? Those are some of my favorites.”

“Very nice,” the man said absently. He was already consulting his guide book, eager to find the next thrill. “If we take this road, can we get to Estes Park before nightfall?”

While Nick continued to shut down the engine, Addy helped Patterson with his map. She then headed toward the office, presumably to make sure Hannah had managed all right.

Nick came around the front of Raven One. Dwayne Patterson looked slightly uncomfortable, as though he didn’t know what to say while they waited for sullen Hannah to emerge.

“Certainly a beautiful day for a flight,” Patterson finally said. The clouds bunched along the Front Range were almost purple in the late-afternoon sunlight.

“We’ll get a thunderstorm later,” Nick said. Addy would lecture him if he didn’t make nice with the customers.

“You really think so?” Patterson frowned up at the sky as though he could find an argument for Nick’s statement written across the blue canopy. “I hope we can make Estes Park tonight.”

Estes Park sat at the east entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. “You and your daughter plan to blitz the Rocky Mountains in one weekend?” Nick asked.

“Actually, I think Hannah would rather be home with her mother,” the man admitted. “Anywhere away from me. I’m recently divorced, and we were supposed to spend the summer together. It didn’t happen, and she’s still sulking over it.” When Nick didn’t respond right away, Patterson added quickly, “I needed some time to myself. But I’m making it up to her now. That should count for something, right?”

Personally, Nick didn’t think that counted for anything. The guy wanted credit for shouldering his responsibility now? After he’d already made it clear to his daughter that she came second in his life? Fortunately he was saved from making any kind of polite answer. Hannah and Addy emerged from the office to rejoin the two men at the helicopter.

The girl headed in the direction of Patterson’s rental SUV. When she found the doors locked, she cupped her hands and yelled, “Are we going or not? Come on!”

The car keys quickly appeared in Dwayne’s hand. He turned toward Addy and Nick once more, his features sheepish. “Kids,” he said, as if that one word explained everything. “You know how they are.”

I thought so, Nick wanted to say. But I guess I’m still learning. If he’d been really savvy, last night’s argument with Tessa might not have happened. “Hard to know what’s in their heads,” he agreed. “But then, I guess that’s the way they intend it.”

Patterson nodded, then stuck out his hand to say goodbye.

“Come back again,” Addy encouraged. “There’s plenty more scenery around here, and next time, see it from the back of one of our horses. Lightning River Lodge has a really fine stable.”

The man gave her a noncommittal smile and went off to join his impatient daughter. In another few moments they would be gone, heading back down the winding mountain road and onto the fastest route to Estes Park.

With his arms crossed over his chest, Nick stood beside Addy and watched them go. His sister waved—the quintessential tour guide sending her chicks off to explore new territory.

“Smile,” Addy said without glancing his way. “Pretend you’re happy.”

“I am happy,” Nick replied. “Happy to see the last of them.”

“Well, you didn’t have to take them up. I told you I could handle it.”

“I wouldn’t be so cruel.” He turned toward his sister, cocking his head at her speculatively. “The lodge has a really fine stable?”

“I haven’t given up on the idea. You and Dad need to hear me out about expanding.”

“You want to run the stable or fly?”

“I don’t see why I can’t do both. Especially since you don’t seem willing to let me do much flying.”

Addy headed toward the office, a trim, dark-haired beauty who had boundless energy and about a million ideas to make the family businesses run better. Some of them were even pretty good.