A Perfect Fit (9 page)

Cami smiled, liking the way fondness entered his voice when
he talked about his family. “Dad didn’t tolerate tardiness well.” George hadn’t
been a bear about it, but it irked him, and she’d never wanted to displease
him.

“No, he didn’t.” Vince tugged at an errant curl by her face
and tucked it behind her ear. “You miss him.”

She wanted to deny it, but she couldn’t. “Yeah. I’m not too
thrilled with him right now, but I miss him.”

Sage reappeared, wearing a sweater and with a backpack hooked
over one shoulder. “Let’s go.”

“Going hiking?” Vince asked while Cami grabbed her jacket.
He checked out the hemp sandals on Sage’s feet, which were definitely not
hiking appropriate.

“No, just my camera, some extra bottled water, and something
to collect flowers in case I find a few blooms I want to press. You said we
might launch from a meadow, right?”

“Yeah. It’s not peak time for flowers, but I’m sure you’ll
find a few that interests you.” He held the door open so the ladies could
precede him, waiting while Sage set the alarm, and double-checked the door lock
after he’d pulled it closed.

They rounded the edge of the garage and Cami could see the
basket and a huge canvas bag sticking up above the sides of Vince’s truck bed.
Excitement shot through her. “How far away is it?”

“Not too far, maybe ten minutes.” Vince pulled the passenger
door open for them and assisted Cami and Sage inside before circling around to
the driver’s door.

Cami tried not to squeeze too close to Vince in the cab, but
it wasn’t built for three adults. She found herself straddling the stick shift,
hip to hip with Vince as he pulled onto the road. His cologne wafted her
direction, an intoxicating mix of spice, musk and man. “Do you usually launch
from the same place?”

“It depends on the wind currents. I actually got permission
from a few property owners for launching, and before I came to get you, I
checked the wind patterns to see which location would work best for the area
where I want to set down. Now we’ll have to see if I actually get to land where
I want. You can’t guide a balloon to land where you want it to; it follows the
air flow around it, so you have to know wind patterns before you launch.”

“Really? I didn’t feel much of a breeze when we got into the
truck, so is it possible we’ll go up, and right back down in the same place
again?”

“No.” Vince chuckled as he changed gears, resting his wrist
on her knee, but keeping his hand on the gear shift. “It may seem like there’s
no real breeze here, but if you get up a little higher, the currents change and
there will be wind. And though I checked the wind patterns, the guys on the
ground will still have to follow us because I never know for sure where I’ll
end up.”

“That’s why it’s called a chase car,” Sage piped up.

“Right.” Vince took them around another corner and shifted
down. Once they were going at a normal speed, he moved his hand back to Cami’s
knee, setting it there lightly, heating her bare skin.

“Gage and Jeremy talked like they usually crew for you,”
Sage said.

“Yeah, we’re all commercial certified hot air balloon pilots
and take turns going up. We have a few local kids who like to crew with us. Two
of them are working on getting certified as well.”

“Do you have to take formal lessons?” Cami asked, trying to
focus on his words, and not on the hand on her knee.

Vince turned onto a dirt road. “Not like when you want to
pilot a plane. There’s a written test, then you have to work with a licensed
instructor, and log a certain number of hours and stuff. It depends on what
level of certificate you want. Kids can get a commercial certificate when they’re
only eighteen.” 

“How incredible. So how old do you have to be to become an
instructor?” Eighteen seemed insanely young to Cami, but if they could drive a
car at sixteen, why not, she decided. People were far less likely to crash in
mid-air than on the twisty mountain roads.

~*~

It was getting light already and Cami spotted Joel standing between
a red SUV and his Jeep in a meadow.

There wasn’t much time for questions as Vince greeted everyone
and made introductions. The guys pulled the equipment out of the truck bed, and
Sage said she was going to scout out some flowers.

“Don’t you want to watch the balloon get set up?” Cami
asked.

“I’ve done it before, and it’ll be a few minutes before it
starts to rise. I’ll be back soon.” She turned and headed toward a patch of
color a hundred yards off.

“Hey, where are you going?” Joel called out to Sage.

“Don’t worry, I’ll stay in sight. Just checking out some
flowers,” she called back over her shoulder.

Cami noticed Joel didn’t seem to like Sage wandering away,
and kept glancing back at her, scanning the surroundings every few minutes.
What was with him? Once a SEAL, always a SEAL, she decided.

Turning back to the setup, Cami watched as they unfurled the
balloon fabric from the huge canvas bag and pulled it out along the ground. She
helped unfold it, so it lay more or less flat while Vince removed a huge fan
from the truck bed and set it up.

“I guess it takes a lot of air to fill one of those things,”
Cami said when she came back over to him, wishing she’d worn long pants. She
burrowed deeper into her jacket for warmth.

“
Those things
are called envelopes,” Vince said with
a grin. “And yeah, they take a while to fill. You want to take a corner of the
envelope and hold it open for me?” When she lifted it so the air would blow into
the fabric, a freckled teen named Cory grabbed the other side of the hole and
helped hold it open. Vince yanked on a string and started the gas-fed fan.

The air rushed at Cami, and her hair whipped around her face
and tangled behind her. The fabric jerked in her hands, rippling as the envelope
slowly filled with air.

Vince set the fan to the correct angle, then turned back to
the basket behind him. He and Joel lifted the burner into place on top of the
basket and fastened it, before leaning it onto its side, so the burner would
face the balloon. They shifted it closer, then Vince returned to the fan to
check the angle.

It did take a while to get sufficient air into the envelope,
but it wasn’t as bad as Cami had expected. Even so, she was freezing by the
time Vince directed the first burst of flames into the envelope.

Once he started heating the air, it didn’t take long for the
balloon to become upright. The crew surrounded the basket, holding on to keep
it on the ground as Vince helped Cami inside.

Sage wandered back, her bag slung over one shoulder again. “It’s
a beautiful balloon, and a great day for a ride.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Vince said as he vaulted into the
basket. He checked the business radio in the instrument panel to make sure he
could speak to the ground crew. “We’re good to go. Catch you all when we land
again.”

The guys hopped off the edge of the basket and it started to
rise, bobbing up above the ground and gaining altitude quickly. “What if the
radio hadn’t worked?” she asked.

“We have walkie-talkies for backup, they’re good up to
two-thousand feet, but the radio is better.”

Cami waved to Sage and the others as the distance between
them quickly lengthened. She peered up into the bright jewel tones of the
envelope above them as the sun broke over the top of the mountain and radiated
light down on them. “It’s gorgeous. How long have you had the balloon?”

“A couple of years. We might make it through next summer
with this envelope, if we’re lucky, then we’ll either have her overhauled or
replaced. They rarely make it more than five-hundred hours. It’s better here
than some places because we’re cooler, but eventually the heat from the burner
takes its toll.”

“And what about the rest of this stuff?” She gestured to the
basket and instrument panel. “What’s all this equipment for if you can’t steer
the balloon?”

“I can steer it, if I want to go in the direction the wind
allows.” He pointed out the altimeter, compass, and fuel gauge for the burner,
and showed her how to work the business radio so he could chat with the chase
crew.

The fresh morning air called to Cami as she soaked in the
beauty of the valley. She was fascinated as Vince pointed out the local sights,
and found she was more impressed than ever when she saw the DiCarlo resort from
the air—it was spectacular. “We should get a shot of the resort from up here
for the website.” She leaned forward on the basket and stared out at the world
below them.

“Good idea. I bet Jeremy would be happy to take one next
time he comes up.” He stared at the grounds. “So, has anyone told you about
your resident ghost yet?”

“We already have a ghost?” Cami was amused. “I thought
someone was supposed to die there before you could have ghosts on the
property.”

“Yeah, well, the property existed before the DiCarlo empire
bought it, didn’t it?”

She nodded her acknowledgement. “So tell me about the ghost.
Has it been around for long?”

Vince smiled and leaned toward her, his voice lowering
theatrically.  “There’s a legend of a Mexican family mining in the valley who
struck it rich. When local vandals learned about the find, they went to the
house—which was supposed to be situated right where the hotel is now—killing
the wife and children while the husband was away, and stealing all of the gold
before torching the place. The husband returned home to find his home in ashes
and the charred remains of his family inside, a tomahawk sticking out of his
wife’s head. He reportedly spent the rest of his life and then his death,
haunting the property, a broken man.”

Cami hoped the story wasn’t all that well known—just the
thought made her shiver. “That’s a little creepy. So have there been reports of
sightings over the years?”

“Plenty of them. And they’ve increased since your father
broke ground on the hotel. One of the local crackpots claims the construction
has disturbed the dead.”

“I wonder if it will hurt or improve our room bookings if
the story gets out to guests.” Was there a way to use it to their advantage,
since it was lingering around anyway? She dismissed the idea—it didn’t exactly
work well with the company reputation and would definitely cause issues with
the normal clientele.

“Not too worried, then?” Vince asked.

“I’m taking a positive attitude. I doubt it will make
headlines in hotel news unless we make a big deal over it. Our guests rarely
care much about local legends.” And if anything popped up, she’d bury it.

“Glad to hear it.” Vince reached out and slid a curl behind
her ear.

Cami touched her mussed curls and tried to make order of
them with her fingers. “Now I know why Sage wanted her space while the fan was
on,” she joked. “I’ve got to be a mess.”

Vince just smiled. “You look fine, happy.”

“How could I be otherwise?” she said as she met his eyes and
felt a shiver of attraction shoot through her. She wondered if this was more
than a passing flirtation and decided to test it. “I have a confession to make.”

“A confession? Sounds heavy. Don’t tell me you like Greek
food.” His face was so serious, it threw her for a second.

She felt the corner of her mouth twitch at the way he’d
responded. He always kept her guessing, doing the unexpected. Cami found him
intriguing and more than a little alluring. “Yes, I do, but I didn’t know it was
a sin requiring confession. I’ll keep it in mind.”

He took her hand in his. “I’ll appreciate it, and forgive
you for your unhealthy addiction to Gyros, if that’s the problem.”

She leaned in and lowered her voice slightly. “It’s
worse—Moussaka.”

He tipped his head away as if it was a blow to his
sensibilities. “Don’t tell me. I might not get over it.” He smiled and rubbed
his thumb across her palm. “So what dastardly thing have you done requiring
confession?”

She studied him, intrigued by all the sides making up the
man, and knew she’d barely scratched the surface. “You may have gathered, I’m
not entirely thrilled with the things I’ve learned about my father in the past
couple of months.”

“Couldn’t blame you. It’s an awful lot to deal with.”

She blew out a breath. “Okay, so I’m going to try not to
stumble around on this too much. Normally I wouldn’t admit this, but at the
moment I’m pretty big on straight-up honesty.” She hoped she didn’t offend
him—that the way she ended the confession would make it more palatable.

“Honesty’s always a good thing.” He’d moved closer.
Had
he moved closer? She wasn’t sure. He must have inched in.

“My father has always pushed me on guys who had flash and
power and were upwardly mobile. He favored post-graduate degrees and suave
exteriors. Maybe because that’s what he was—all suave exterior.” She tasted the
bitterness in her mouth and swallowed it back. “Sorry. I don’t know if I’ll
ever be able to forgive him for his serial affairs, even if I become as tight
with the other daughters as he wanted.” She doubted that would ever happen.

“I understand.” Vince’s voice softened. “It’s a big thing to
handle all at once, and the vow to love, honor, and cherish doesn’t have an
amnesty clause if you suddenly decide you want a piece on the side.”

“Right.” His words soothed her. “So I meet you, a little
unkempt, two-day beard growth, down digging in the dirt, and though I could
tell from the first that you were a great guy, you’re so unlike anyone I’d ever
considered dating before. When I came out onto the patio the other day, it was with
more than half the thought that you were the type my father
wouldn’t
want me to spend time with.”

He leaned back. “Really?” His expression showed amusement
rather than offense. “What was the rest of it?”

She pursed her lips. If she was going to be honest, she
might as well go for broke. “You’re handsome, appealing in a rough-edged way.
Polite, great with your niece, and hard working. All good qualities.”