Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 100202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 100202 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 501(@200wpm)___ 401(@250wpm)___ 334(@300wpm)
“You’re going to have to get a little more comfortable in the sky if you want to take those pictures,” I said as we crested the top of the run.
“Look at the view!” Happiness radiated from Sutton’s tone.
“You’re sure this is safe? You can fly this thing on your own?” Callie countered, white knuckling her seat cushion next to me, her camera bag on her lap.
“Well, if I can’t, we’re kind of screwed.” I shot her a smile and pitched left, following the side of the peak into the backcountry.
“That’s not funny.” But the corners of her lips curved upward.
“This is amazing!” I saw Sutton lean forward in the seat just behind her mother. “And you get to do this every day?”
“Every other day,” I answered. “Theo and I are going to trade off. One day I’ll fly and he’ll guide the skiers. The next day he’ll fly and I’ll guide.”
“You can ski all of this?” Sutton motioned out over the terrain. It was flawless, crisp snow, not a track to be seen, because no one had skied it yet.
“Yep. We have a special permit from the forest service.” I flew into the valley and along the base, keeping a hundred feet between us and the tips of the pine trees.
“No, I mean, you can actually ski all of this?”
“Been doing it since I was a kid.” I glanced over at Callie, who had loosened her death grip on her seat by a fraction and was leaning toward the window slightly. “Want to take the controls?”
“I will kill you.” She shot me a glare.
I laughed, and she shook her head.
“What?” We climbed out of the valley and skirted the next ridgeline. The horizon was nothing but snow-tipped peaks as far as the eye could see. Damn, I’d missed this view. There was nothing like it in the rest of the world. Sure, the Alps were gorgeous and there was something to be said for the mountains in Afghanistan when no one was shooting at you, but nothing compared to this.
“I’ve never seen you smile so much in a five-minute period,” Callie answered, taking her camera out of its bag.
“You’ve never been flying with me before.” I was happy up here, where there was only my own skill and the bird.
“Can you teach me to ski back here?” Sutton asked.
My eyebrows raised under my sunglasses.
“I’m good,” she promised. “Like, really, really good. I can handle the double black diamonds, and I was even on the racing team last year, but I’m kind of over it.”
“You’re over it?” I asked, following the ridge and keeping my bearings as we headed west.
“I get it, people like to go fast. But everyone takes the same path. It gets boring,” Sutton said. “I keep asking Mom if I can join the big mountain team.”
“And I keep saying no,” Callie said over her shoulder. “You’re ten—”
“Almost eleven,” Sutton countered. “And the coach said I’m good enough.”
“You’ve never even skied backcountry before,” Callie argued, letting go of her death-grip on her seat to turn toward Sutton.
“Weston can teach me!”
An awkward few seconds passed with no sound other than the beat of the rotor blades above us.
“Right, Weston?” Sutton tried again, her voice quieter this time.
Callie sat back in her seat and looked at me, one hand holding her camera and the other clinging to her seat.
“I’m so not getting in the middle of this.” I rolled left, sweeping us down the mountain. “Some of the best skiing is right here,” I said, hoping to change the subject.
“Are you good?” Callie asked me.
“At skiing or flying? Because it’s kind of late to back out of the flying part now.”
She folded her arms across her chest, but at least she wasn’t strangling the seat anymore. “The skiing.”
“Yes.” I didn’t need to explain myself with any more words than that.
She stared at me, then nodded as if she’d decided something. “Would you be willing to teach Sutton?”
“Say yes!” Sutton begged.
“Sutton!” Callie shot her another look. “There’s no pressure, Weston. None. I know how busy you’re about to be with the tours and everything.”
I brought us through the valley, heading back toward the resort. “If you want to learn, I’ll teach you, Sutton. But you have to promise that you’ll listen, because the first time you do something reckless, we’re done.”
“Yes! Yes!” Sutton nodded, her head bobbing in my peripheral vision.
“But no big mountain team,” Callie said.
“Okay!” She nodded again, obviously content with winning what she could.
“See, now that your hands are free, you could actually use your camera,” I teased Callie. “Want me to put her down so you can grab some shots?”
“Like…get out of this thing? While it’s…” She circled her finger, making the motions of the rotor. “No. Absolutely not.”
“You’d be completely safe,” I promised. “Or we can open that back door.” The blood drained from her face. She really was scared. “But we can do that next time if you want. There’s no rush. I’m up here almost every day.”