Always Valentine's Day. Kristin Hardy

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СКАЧАТЬ only wished she was feeling so good about it. “I’ll stay here. All four of us can’t possibly squeeze into that backseat. There’s no room.”

      Buck looked them over. “Sure there is. None of you’s too wide. It’ll just be cozy. Hop in.”

      Cozy. Exactly what Larkin wanted. She heard a smothered laugh and glanced over to see Christopher watching her.

      “I’ll take the inside seat. You have the window,” Carter told Molly.

      “Of course not. You were the one who paid for the trip. You should sit by the window.”

      “I’m taller than you are,” he argued. “You sit on the inside, you won’t see a thing. Take the window.”

      Molly folded her arms. “Only if you take it on the way back.”

      “You drive a hard bargain.”

      “Get used to it,” she returned.

      He considered. “I guess I’ll have to.”

      Christopher glanced over at Larkin. “I’ll give you the window seat, too,” he told her. “Just to show you chivalry’s alive and well in Alaska.”

      “Gee, I’m so relieved.” She watched him fold his long body into the small space and looked at the postage-stamp patch of seat that remained. Right next to the door.

      “Need a hand?” Christopher asked.

      “I can do it myself.” Reluctantly, she raised a clunky boot to the threshold of the cabin, hoisting herself in and settling back into the alarmingly small space. There was no way to do it halfway. Even staying as close to the edge as she could, she was still unable to keep from touching Christopher.

      “All right, over all the way,” Buck ordered. “I gotta shut the door.”

      She wasn’t about to look at Christopher and see the humor that she knew would be dancing in his eyes. Instead, she stared studiously ahead and shifted over. Then the little back door slammed and latched with a clunk, leaving her wedged in place.

      It was impossible to shut out the awareness of his body. They were practically welded together from ankle to shoulder. It didn’t matter that there were layers of clothing between them. What she felt most of all was strength. He might have looked rangy, almost lanky at a glance, but with her body glued up against his, Larkin could feel that he was solid with muscle.

      Buck hoisted himself into his seat and whistled. “Scout, load up.” Scout hopped up into the helicopter, panting as Buck snapped a pair of chains onto his harness. The pilot put on a bright yellow headset and busied himself for a few moments, checking dials and flicking switches.

      He turned to them. “Each of you grab a set of those headphones hanging above you. Once I start the engine, you won’t be able to hear a thing unless you got ’em on. It’s two-way, so holler if you got a question or want to get a better look at anything.” There was a click and the rotors started turning. “Okay, guys, we’re ready to go.”

      Larkin tensed.

      Christopher turned to hand her a headset, then gave her a double take. Frowning, he leaned in close as the whine of the motor grew to a roar. “You okay?”

      She nodded and tried for a careless smile as the helicopter began to shudder, but it felt more like a grimace.

      Because Larkin had a secret. A seasoned traveler she might have been, but she’d never ridden in a helicopter. Jets, yes, Gulfstreams, of course. Even the odd Cessna, they were all fine.

      Helicopters scared her silly.

      Everybody else seemed totally confident about the ride. As far she was concerned, they were crazy. Something about a helicopter seemed a bit too improbable to really work. After all, straight wings were everywhere you looked in nature—birds, dragonflies, even mosquitoes.

      She couldn’t think of a single critter that had blades whirling around over its head.

      The sound of the motor changed. Larkin stared out the window, feeling panic clog her throat.

      Suddenly her fingers were caught up in a strong grip. She looked down to see Christopher’s hand clasping hers and glanced up to see him wink.

      “We’ll be fine,” he mouthed at her over the din.

      “Okay, folks,” Buck said. “Here we go.”

      And with a bounce, they lifted off into the air.

      She’d endure the flight, Larkin told herself grimly, even if she wound up sweat soaked and emotionally exhausted by the end. But as Juneau fell away and the helicopter rose over the ridgeline that ran behind it, an almost giddy magic took hold of her.

      She’d had no idea it would be like this. They were surrounded by Plexiglas, but it felt more like really flying, soaring over a snow-covered landscape like a bird. Then ahead of them rose a ridge higher than the rest. And Buck aimed directly for it.

      Larkin’s heart pounded a little bit, equal parts excitement and nerves. Her grip on Christopher’s hand tightened, and she felt him squeeze back. It seemed simply too high for the helicopter to get over, as though they would hook a skid and go tumbling down the mountainside. But instead, with an almost insouciant flick of the control stick, Buck sent them up and over.

      And she caught her breath.

      The glacier unfurled below them, a long sweep of gray-white snaking between ridgelines, looking almost incongruously smooth amid the rugged landscape. “That’s the Taku glacier below us,” Buck said. “It’s the only one you’ll see today that’s still growing. All the others are receding.”

      He sent the aircraft tilting a little bit, edging in toward the ground.

      “Oh, look.” The words just burst out of her. One minute, they were flying over the striated, dirty gray snow of the glacier. The next, she was staring down into a long crevasse at the most intense, most luminous blue she had ever seen. Impossible to believe such a gorgeous, glowing color existed. She couldn’t stop looking at it, turning to glance back as they flew past.

      “Can you take us by that again?” someone asked, echoing the words in her head. It was Christopher, she realized.

      Larkin glanced over at him quickly to see him watching her, not the glacier. Something flipped in her stomach, something she didn’t think had anything at all to do with the motion of the helicopter. Suddenly, it was hard to breathe.

      “There’s your crevasse.” Christopher pointed beyond her. It released her from the spell, and she turned, gulping air. It was just the close confines of the cabin, she told herself. Too many people, not enough air, all of it making her light-headed. That was all.

      She stared down at the glacier, amazed at how clearly she could see it. The surface, she realized belatedly, was coming closer. They were dropping, lower and lower still, until, soft as thistledown, the helicopter settled onto the ice.

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