“How’s your brother?” she asked.
“Preoccupied. He’s got this informal thing going with a local newspaper reporter, but she wants more than he does. East doesn’t know how to let her down easy. He’s dragging it out and causing himself all sorts of problems.”
“Easton never seemed like the settling down type. I always guessed he’d stay a bachelor as long as humanly possible,” Lana said.
“You and me both. But you never can trust people.” At Lana’s questioning look, Ash explained. “I don’t like change is all. Seems like lately, everything is changing around here. You’re not helping things.”
“People grow,” Lana said. “So do towns. Stilting Moose Spring’s potential is like trying to keep a child frozen in time. We all grow up eventually.”
“Some versions of adults are far superior to others,” Ash said drily. “If my town is unrecognizable in ten years, don’t think I’m not blaming you.”
There wasn’t much Lana could say to that. She already knew.
Overlook Ridge lay high above the town of Moose Springs, right before the tree line gave way to ice and snow. Between the remaining evergreens and the constant gusting of winds off the monstrous Mount Veil in the distance, the ridge was a particularly difficult place to land. A deep blanket of snow was spinning off the ridge in flurries, obscuring the visibility but leaving a small area clear. If the pilot was skilled enough to combat the combination of elements fighting to toss a helicopter back off the mountain.
Ash was skilled enough.
They landed much quicker and with less curse words than the last person who had flown Lana up here, which was the point of using Ash’s piloting services. She was the best. And while being budget conscious was always important, Lana preferred to save her coupons for when she wasn’t on the edge of a thousand-foot drop-off.
Lana waited until the helicopter was settled in place, then she unbuckled her seat belt.
“You’re not going out there, are you?” Ash’s eyes widened.
“Don’t worry. I’ve been here before.”
“If you get blown off the mountain, I’m not jumping after you.” Ash killed the propellers and unbuckled her seat belt. The Lockett blood had too much protector built into it to keep her in the aircraft, no matter what Ash liked to say.
They edged along the ridge until they were out of the worst of the flurries. Here, they had the best view of Moose Springs. Several thousand feet below them, the town was a tiny dot against the base of the mountainside.
“Okay, why are we up here?” Ash asked. “If it’s because you’re buying the whole mountain range, you’ll need to hike down. My ass is leaving you up here to reconsider.”
Lana didn’t answer. She knew her reasonings weren’t going to be what her pilot would appreciate.
There were only about six and a half hours of daylight in Moose Springs in December, with the mountains obscuring much of the sun’s light. Farther north, that amount of time decreased to much less. Higher up where they were, Lana had a chance to feel more sunshine on her face than the people she cared about would feel down there.
She wasn’t oblivious to the privilege of being able to charter a flight to Overlook Ridge just because she needed some time to think and the perspective of distance to do it in.
“Watch out over there,” Ash warned, jutting her head to indicate a loose bit of rock beneath Lana’s boots.
Nodding gratitude at Ash’s warning, she braced her feet wider for stability. Sometimes in business, one had to step back from the minutiae that could bog a project down. Stand back and really see the project as the whole it was supposed to be, not the individual parts.
Moose Springs was Lana’s project, and lately, she’d been far too bogged down in the tiny details. Tiny details were important, but Lana had been raised to see the big picture first. Thirty thousand feet worked better when one was in an airplane, but three thousand feet worked too.
“There aren’t a lot of roads in and out of town, are there?”
Ash glanced at her. “Not many, but we keep them clear. Why?”
“I’m trying to see this from a different angle,” Lana said. “I know what the group wants for Moose Springs, and I know what Moose Springs wants for Moose Springs. I’m trying to see if there’s another way to look at it. There’s nothing else around here, is there?”
“No,” Ash grunted, crossing her arms. “Just us and the rest of the mountains.”
“And Moose Springs used to be a mining town?”
“They closed the mines a long time ago. No one’s opening them back up, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Lana shook her head. “I’m trying to imagine what would be here if the resort was gone. Why people would be here. How far they’d have to go to find work.”
Opening her mouth then shutting it again, Ash must have decided to keep her thoughts to herself. At least initially.
“We’d find something,” she finally said. “We’re not that easy to take out.”
“In the meantime, how many of the town would you lose to Anchorage?”
A crease of concern crossed Ash’s brow. “I honestly don’t know.”
They fell silent, and Lana took in the scenery. Mount Veil remained a formidable monster in the distance. Maybe, somehow, the answer could be there.
Suddenly, Lana’s companion cleared her throat. “Hey, do me favor,” Ash said. “We’ll call this even on fuel and hours flown.”
“No special tourist rate?” Lana asked.
“I don’t know what you are.” Ash shrugged. “But you don’t count as a tourist anymore.”
She was making progress. Slow progress was still progress.
“You know my buddy Rick? The one you nearly took out with a tranq gun?”
His name brought a warmth that her cold weather gear couldn’t come close to comparing to. “I’ve had the pleasure of his acquaintance,” Lana said.
“If he ever gets up the balls to ask you out, let him down easy, okay? He’s had a tough time of it, and at some point, he needs to start putting himself out there again. The idiot has a thing for you, and we haven’t been able to talk him out of it. He’ll probably say something soon. Just don’t laugh in his face. Please.”
That “please” was quiet, the appeal of a worried friend.
“I wasn’t aware we came up here to discuss my love life,” Lana said.
“Trust me, it’s not high on my to-do list.” Ash dropped down into a squat, then folded her arms over her knees. “It’s not that I don’t like you. I do. I’m not sure why…” Eyeing her, Ash gave a little shrug. “I don’t know. Maybe there’s a part of me that buys into the whole caring about what happens to all of us. The difference is, I think the town will be better if everyone else on the planet forgets we’re here.”