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He widened his stance to hip width. An airman’s stance. Her breath hitched at the uncanny resemblance to his late father.
Kristina’s heart pounded at the memory of the last time she’d seen Pax—not knowing she’d never see him again. This couldn’t happen to Gray. Not to her only child.
“You don’t belong here, Gray.”
The infuriated pilot arrived at the tail end of her words. “You want to talk about having no business here, lady?”
She stiffened. “A mother has a right to keep her child out of harm’s way.”
“Only one in harm’s way today was me.” The pilot lifted the ball cap off his head and slapped it against his thigh. “After you almost crashed my plane.”
She took her first good look at her unwanted neighbor.
Late thirties. Classic, high cheekbones. A long Roman nose. His jaw dark with beard stubble. A strong brow. Curly brown hair.
His eyes flashed. An electric blue, in a face tanned by the sun and wind. Something fluttered like a swirl of butterfly wings in the pit of her stomach. Something she hadn’t experienced since meeting another brash young airman during a long-ago church softball game.
With a sense of betraying that now dead young man, remorse blanketed her. Her hand automatically drifted to the chain underneath her shirt collar. And she stuffed the unwelcome feelings into a dark corner of her heart. For good measure, she glowered at the Eastern Shore pilot.
At the motion of her hand, he narrowed his eyes. Lines crinkled the corners of his eyes. Lines that probably feathered when he smiled. Which he wasn’t doing now.
Handsome by anyone’s definition. And from his body language, as arrogant and cocky as they came. She ought to know.
Once upon a time, she’d married one.
* * *
Canyon didn’t miss the scorn on her face. Welcome to Kiptohanock to you, too, neighbor.
Not seeing a car in the office parking space, he figured she’d walked over through the woods from next door. Gray must take after his father. The boy’s dark features didn’t resemble the woman. She could’ve been a cover model for a Scandinavian travel brochure.
Or considering her frosty demeanor, Icelandic. Although, if he remembered rightly, Greenland was the one with most of the glaciers.
“Which one are you?” She flicked her hand toward the sign. “Wallace or Collier?”
“Collier.” He jerked his thumb in the direction of her house. “And which one are you?”
Her chin came up. “I’m the woman who would’ve never bought this property if I knew we were in the flight path of your crop duster.”
One of those genteel, upper-crust Southern voices. Not the nowhere accent of Northern Virginia. Nor the twang of the Blue Ridge. Probably from central Virginia or the Carolinas.
He tightened his jaw. “I’m an aerial application specialist. And I’ve been careful to not fly over your house.”
“Mom...” Gray tugged at her sleeve. “Stop embarrassing me. Canyon is my boss.”
She planted one hand on her jeans-clad hip. “As if I’d ever allow you to work for a sky jockey like him.”
Canyon’s eyebrows rose. Interesting turn of phrase. He hadn’t heard that one since his Coast Guard days.
“Especially after what happened to your father.”
Without meaning to, Canyon’s eyes cut to the bare space on her left hand. A widow? A silver chain half-hidden in the folds of her collar glinted. Had Gray’s father been an airline fatality?
As for his first impression of Gray’s mother? Tall, a willowy five foot eight, Canyon estimated, to his six-foot height. Long, wavy blond hair spilled over her thin shoulders. Classic oval features. Fair skinned. And her eyes?
Her eyes gave Canyon pause. His grandmother would’ve called her eyes china blue. Like the blue in a field of cornflowers.
Those eyes sent an inexplicable pang through his heart. A yearning for something to which he’d believed himself immune.
According to the real estate papers he’d signed at closing, this must be K. Montgomery. Since the attorney had handled everything, he’d assumed the new owner was a man and that Gray, who’d started hanging out at the airfield a few weeks ago, the man’s son. But the disturbing, angry woman was definitely not a man.
Canyon folded his arms across his chest. He’d sold his grandmother’s house to buy the Air Tractor 802 he just landed. Landed safely, no thanks to K. Montgomery. His misfortune to sell what little remained of his family heritage to an aircraft hater.
He shrugged. “I invited Gray to help me out on the repair of an engine. The boy likes to tinker.”
K. Montgomery’s china-blue eyes became chips of sapphire. “The boy is my fifteen-year-old son. He doesn’t have my permission to work here. An airfield is dangerous. I ought to report you for child endangerment.”
“My mistake, lady.” When would he learn? In his experience, no good deed ever went unpunished. “The boy looks sixteen. Won’t happen again.”
Gray inserted himself between them. “Canyon was doing me a favor. Teaching me how to repair engines. I like being here.”
The woman squared her shoulders. “I absolutely will not allow you to put your life at risk.”
Gray went rigid. “Moving here was supposed to be about making a new start for both of us. But since Dad died, all you care about is making me miserable. As miserable as you.”
“I’m not—” She pursed her lips. “Being around airplanes will only make you feel worse, Gray.”
Gray held his ground. “Just because you’re afraid of airplanes doesn’t mean I have to hate them, too. It makes me happy to remember Dad here. You’re the one who makes me feel sad.”
Canyon angled toward Gray’s mother. “Your son’s a really good kid. Your husband would be proud. And I’d never put Gray in harm’s way. He’s good company.”
The woman blinked at him for a moment.
Canyon scrubbed his hand over his face. Bothered—strangely—that he’d forgotten to shave this morning. Bothered, too, that he was fighting so hard to keep the boy working at the airfield.
She faced Gray. “Go back to the house. I won’t risk losing you the way we lost your father.” She glared at Canyon. “And I’m not afraid of airplanes.”
Gray snorted. “You’re afraid of everything since Dad died. Afraid to laugh. Afraid to live. And I’m sick of living in the grave with you.”
Hurt flitted across her features.
An unusual—and unwelcome—sensation of protectiveness rose in Canyon’s chest. “Just a minute, Gray...”
Gray’s brown eyes darkened. “You don’t know what it’s like. She won’t let me do anything because she’s afraid I’ll get hurt.” His shoulders hunched. “Stop treating me like a baby, Mom.”
“Then stop acting like one, Gray,” Canyon growled.
Gray flushed.
Canyon sighed. How had he gotten entangled in this quicksand? Since leaving the Coast Guard, he’d spent the last three years making sure he stayed out of other people’s business and that people stayed out of his.
He took a breath. “What does the K stand for?”
“Kristina.” Gray kicked a loose stone on the concrete. “I like working with motors, Mom. And Canyon needs my help.” Gray leaned forward. “Tell her, Canyon. Tell her how much you need my help.”
Kristina Montgomery’s lovely face hardened. “Your only job is school, Gray.”
Gray clenched his hands. “Since you don’t have a job, I figure maybe I better.”
Canyon’s brow puckered. “I didn’t realize you were looking for work. What do you do?”
She opened her mouth, but once again Gray beat her to the punch.
“Mom cuts great triangle sandwiches.” Gray’s mouth twisted. “She has a green thumb. And can clean a toilet like nobody’s business.”
She quivered at his sarcasm.
Canyon had had enough of the attitude. “Let’s you and me get one thing straight right now, Grayson Montgomery. I will not tolerate disrespect to any woman, much less your mother.”
Gray’s and his mother’s gazes swung to Canyon’s.
“She cares about you or she wouldn’t have come looking for you. Good mothers don’t grow on trees. I should know.”
Canyon grimaced. What on earth had possessed him to share that little tidbit from his less-than-stellar childhood?
Her cheeks heated. “I apologize for my son’s extreme rudeness.” She swallowed. “And to answer your question, I have an accounting degree from the University of Richmond that I’ve never used.”
Canyon recalled only one other person on the Eastern Shore originally from Richmond. “Any relation to Weston Clark? The ex-Coast Guard commander who remodeled the old lighthouse on the Neck?”
“He’s my brother.”
Canyon noted the likeness then. Weston Clark had been married for not quite a year to one of the Duer girls—Caroline. Those girls had been a few years behind Canyon in high school. Closer to Beech’s age.
The thought of his brother put Canyon’s stomach in knots. He didn’t have time for this altercation with Kristina Montgomery. He still had a ton of stuff to get done before he met Jade and the social worker at the bus depot in Exmore.
He crimped the brim of his cap. “I can’t allow you to work here without your mom’s permission.”
Gray sputtered. “B-but she’s being unfair.”
Canyon shook his head. “Nevertheless, she’s your mother, and she gets to call the shots.”
“I have an appointment in Kiptohanock.” Kristina Montgomery swept a curtain of blond hair out of her face. “And I meant what I said, Gray. Go home.”
The boy’s countenance fell. “But—”
“Do what your mother says, Gray.”
Gray threw his mother and Canyon an angry look before he stomped toward the wooded path. Kristina Montgomery remained rooted in place, watching her son.
“I run a clean, safe enterprise, Mrs. Montgomery. Let me take you on a short flight and give you a bird’s eye view of the Shore.”
Canyon bit the inside of his cheek. Where had that come from?
Her forehead creased. Gray’s mother didn’t appear to smile much. Maybe she hadn’t had a reason to smile in a long while.
“Thanks, but no thanks. I don’t trust airplanes.” She moved to follow her son.
“Nor pilots, either, from the sound of it.”
She stopped.
“One word of advice, Mrs. Montgomery?”
She crossed her arms but waited to hear him out.
“If you refuse to let Gray pursue an interest he obviously loves, you might be the one risking everything.”
Her mouth flattened. “What are you talking about, Mr. Collier?”
“My name’s Canyon. And I’m talking about risking your relationship with your son. You could lose him for good.”
She tilted her head. “And you, I assume, are an expert on parenting? Why do you care?”
“Just being neighborly, ma’am.”
Which was so not true. He must be lonelier than he’d believed. Though after Jade arrived today, loneliness was sure to be less of a factor.
“Let me give you a piece of advice, Canyon Collier.” She jabbed her index finger in the space between them. “Mind your own business.”
Exactly what he thought he’d been doing. Until a certain blonde widow walked into the path of his incoming plane.
Pivoting on her heel, she trudged toward the woods without giving him a backward glance. And, discomfited, Canyon couldn’t for the life of him figure what had gotten into him.
Chapter Two (#u459b1624-ae75-5a9f-ba04-1b5a2727e64b)
The tangy scent of sea salt filled Kristina’s nostrils as she rolled down the car window. In the sky above the rocky point of the lighthouse beach, a gull screeched and performed an acrobatic figure eight.
Weston emerged from the keeper’s cottage and sauntered to the car. “Hey, big sis. How’s life treating you?”
His elder by a mere eighteen months, her mouth quirked. “Where’s your beautiful wife?”
As if on cue, the door opened. Caroline and ten-year-old Izzie spilled out into the milky sunshine of the late February morning.
Married life looked good on her brother. After a disastrous first marriage to a woman who deserted her brother and baby Izzie, Weston had found a new life and love on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.
Kristina fought a stab of envy. She’d never begrudge her brother his hard-won happiness, but that didn’t stop her from longing for a new life of her own. As for love?
She’d buried her chance for love when they lowered Pax’s coffin into the earth at Arlington National Cemetery.
