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The Daughter Dilemma
Ann Evans
Part of the family?Kari Churchill came to Colorado to learn more about her father, a man who spent more time traveling the world than he did with his family. While retracing his last days, spent in this glorious mountain wilderness, Kari meets the D'Angelos, a family who runs the Lightning River Lodge. They take a shine to Kari, especially Tessa, a fourteen-year-old girl who's in need of some female attention.Nick loves his family, but his matchmaking parents, pestering sister and strict aunts are starting to drive him nuts. Worst of all, someone has replaced his sweet baby daughter, Tessa, with a moody, rebellious kid. Kari is the only one who seems to be able to get through to her–and she's getting through to Nick, too. Could it be that she'd like to become a permanent addition to the family?
The sign over the building brought Kari up short
Bus Station.
What business would the girl have there? This morning, none of the D’Angelos had mentioned a family member coming or leaving town.
A vague, uneasy feeling stole over Kari. She went through the glass door. The station was a small, functional place, and in no time she saw Tessa standing near the bus bay. With a boy. Luggage around their feet.
They didn’t see her approach. Both were absorbed in the contents of the bag Tessa held. They looked like kids exclaiming over Halloween treats. They were kids!
“…should be enough snacks to hold us until we get to Albuquerque,” Tessa was saying as Kari reached them. “I got those chocolate-covered raisins you like.”
“Tessa?”
The blond boy looked up, and Tessa swung around. Her features went dead-white, and her eyes moved like a trapped rabbit’s. “Oh, K-Kari,” she stammered out. “Oh, hi.”
Dear Reader,
A long time ago this born-and-bred Florida girl spent a couple of years living in Colorado. What a shock that was! Snow instead of sand, mountains instead of beaches, and for neighbors, wild animals instead of tourists.
Eventually, circumstances brought me back to my home state, but I’ve never forgotten Colorado’s beauty. So when I started thinking of new places to set my next book, I couldn’t help remembering a terrific little family-run resort I’d found on the edge of Rocky Mountain National Park.
The Daughter Dilemma, the first of the HEART OF THE ROCKIES series, is based on those fond memories.
This book introduces you to Nick D’Angelo, the oldest son. Nick has his hands full running Lightning River Lodge, piloting helicopter tours, keeping his teenage daughter out of mischief and fending off his loving family’s determined efforts to see him remarried. When Kari Churchill literally drops out of the sky and into his life, he can’t wait to see the last of her.
As for Kari, she has her own busy career and her determination to learn more about her late father’s final trip into the wilderness. She’d be only too happy to oblige Nick and catch the next plane out of the mountains.
But neither of them stands a chance once the rest of the D’Angelo family decides they’re meant for each other.
I hope you enjoy Nick and Kari’s journey as much as I’ve enjoyed writing about them and this fun, energetic family. In books to come, Nick’s siblings will find their own Happily Ever After. These strong men and loving women typify the characteristics I so often found in the people who live in those mountains in Colorado—commitment, courage and an endless capacity for love.
Regards,
Ann Evans
The Daughter Dilemma
Ann Evans
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
It’s long past time to say a special thank-you to fellow Superromance author Kathleen O’Brien.
You convinced me to take the leap off the cliff, and only your professional insights, unending generosity and dear friendship keep me from crashing on the rocks below.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER ONE
NICK D’ANGELO was one hour and fifty-seven minutes into Angel Air’s deluxe two-hour helicopter tour. One hour and fifty-seven minutes into showing the Pattersons the beauty of Colorado’s Front Range the way birds saw it. One hour and fifty-seven minutes into a pounding headache that made him wonder if, at thirty-four, he was getting too old for this job.
Years ago he’d been a chopper pilot in the war, picking scared army grunts off sand dunes no bigger than a pitcher’s mound, bullets drilling holes into the side of his Black Hawk. No sweat, that.
But the Pattersons—both the rich, obnoxious father and the spoiled-rotten daughter—were making him crazy.
Dwayne Patterson, seated in the copilot seat of Raven One, was the kind of guy who’d die before he’d admit he was scared to death to fly. Every time Nick put the R-44 into a sharp bank, Patterson’s white-knuckled grip dug a deeper furrow into the seat’s leather. Nick didn’t mind that. Hell, plenty of people got nervous once they climbed into a helicopter. If this guy lost his lunch before the flight was over, Nick would clean it up—then charge him double through the “unforeseen incidence” clause in the release form.
No, the nerves didn’t bother him. It was Patterson’s constant chatter over the cabin’s “hot mike” that drove Nick nuts. Nick had smiled and nodded in all the right places, glad that his sunglasses hid his boredom. But the guy wouldn’t shut up.
As for the man’s daughter, Hannah, a more unlikable teenager Nick had yet to meet. Whenever he looked back over his shoulder to see how she was doing, she invariably threw him a pouty, petulant, hurt-baby face. As though the past two hours had somehow been Nick’s idea and not Dwayne Patterson’s pitiful attempt to bond with his kid.
Hannah Patterson wasn’t much older than Nick’s daughter, Tessa, but she was miles apart in temperament. Surly. Jaded. Easily bored. In the past couple of weeks Nick had been at odds with Tessa, but nothing in her contrary behavior even came close to this girl’s attitude.
And he’d been trying so hard to be agreeable to these people, too. He had to. The summer season had been off this year. Too much rain. Too many tourists tightening their belts instead of spending money. But sometimes, Nick thought, you played your best hand and it still wasn’t enough to win the pot.
He’d flown these two over some of the prettiest country God had ever created. It was going to be an early autumn—already the aspen were spreading golden blankets across the green velvet slopes. They’d swooped down over abandoned mines and ghost towns. Followed the winding river through the canyons—so close you could make out the bullet-shaped trout in the crystal streams below. Surely that kind of ride beat anything the theme parks were offering.
But neither of the Pattersons seemed the least bit impressed. Hannah just yawned and rolled her eyes occasionally. Daddy should have spent some of his computer software money on charm school.
He felt a fingertip jab hard into his shoulder and turned his head to find Hannah thrusting forward in her seat.
“How much longer?” the girl shouted, though Nick had explained twice that the cabin radio picked up every word and delivered it right into each of their headphones. “I have to pee like a racehorse.”
Nice mouth, Nick thought. But Dad Patterson didn’t seem to mind.
Instead of answering, Nick pointed out the front right windscreen. Angel Air’s heliport was in sight now, the landing pad a stark blue-and-yellow scar against the mountainside. The small office and hangar looked like a Monopoly house, the company’s other copter, Raven Two, like a kid’s toy.
Somewhere inside the office his sister, Adriana, would be waiting for their return. Probably fuming, if he knew Addy. Which he did.
He pressed the radio switch on the side of the cyclic column that allowed him to talk to the office or any other flight service he might need to raise. “Base, this is Nine-Zero-One-Bravo. Coming in from the west.”
“Roger, Nine-Zero-One-Bravo,” his sister’s voice came through the headphones. “I’ll be waiting.”
One hour and fifty-nine minutes into the tour now. It would be over soon enough, thank God.
He supposed it wasn’t really the Pattersons’ fault that he was in such foul humor. It had been a lousy week. Tessa behaving like a royal pain in the butt over some silly dress. Addy pestering him all the time about wanting more flight time now that she had her license.
It didn’t help that for the past two days Nick and Tessa had been forced to move into one of the two-bedroom guest suites up at the main lodge. Their own cabin was off-limits right now. Tessa had left the back door open and a skunk had meandered in, then scurried out. But not before getting the hell scared out of it and doing what skunks did best. A good three days, the fumigators had said.
He must be going soft. Over the years he’d slept in barracks cots, hammocks, sleeping bags and once, in a three-foot sand coffin with an Iraqi camel parked on top of him. Now Nick mourned the loss of his own bed. That sag in the middle fit his six-foot, three-inch frame like a suede glove.
Lord, he really was getting old.
Rolling his shoulders to work out some of the tension, he thought about how moving back home five years ago had seemed like an answer to a lot of problems. No—in spite of the grim circumstances, it had seemed like the answer.
He hadn’t expected it to be easy. From the moment he’d returned to Colorado he’d known there would be a heavy load of responsibility. Samuel, his father, had suffered a massive stroke. It had thrown the entire family into a tailspin, forcing Nick to take over running Lightning River Lodge—the family inn and tour company. Everyone had quickly grown to depend on him and eventually they’d weathered that crisis. Most of the time he was confident he could handle anything thrown his way.
Except when he had a week like this one. This week, it seemed as though ten of him wouldn’t have been enough to go around.
He eased back on the throttle to cut his airspeed for the landing, frowning at the vibration that passed through his fingertips. One of the main rotor blades might be out of trim. Just as well that the Pattersons were the last tour scheduled for the day. Tomorrow he’d take Raven One off-line and check it over.
In deference to Dwayne Patterson’s stomach, he set the skids down especially easy on the pad, then cut the rotor. The blades had barely stopped making their whoop-whoop noise before Addy was at the chopper door, helping Hannah Patterson find her feet.
“Well, how was it?” she asked no one in particular. Bright enthusiasm was Addy’s idea of good customer service.
Hannah lifted one thin shoulder. “We saw mountains. Big surprise.”
The girl pushed past Addy as though she were parting drapes, heading for the office’s small bathroom.
Addy smiled at Dwayne Patterson as he stepped out. “What about you? Did you like it? Did Nick point out all the abandoned silver mines? Those are some of my favorites.”
“Very nice,” the man said absently. He was already consulting his guide book, eager to find the next thrill. “If we take this road, can we get to Estes Park before nightfall?”
While Nick continued to shut down the engine, Addy helped Patterson with his map. She then headed toward the office, presumably to make sure Hannah had managed all right.
Nick came around the front of Raven One. Dwayne Patterson looked slightly uncomfortable, as though he didn’t know what to say while they waited for sullen Hannah to emerge.
“Certainly a beautiful day for a flight,” Patterson finally said. The clouds bunched along the Front Range were almost purple in the late-afternoon sunlight.
“We’ll get a thunderstorm later,” Nick said. Addy would lecture him if he didn’t make nice with the customers.
“You really think so?” Patterson frowned up at the sky as though he could find an argument for Nick’s statement written across the blue canopy. “I hope we can make Estes Park tonight.”
Estes Park sat at the east entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park. “You and your daughter plan to blitz the Rocky Mountains in one weekend?” Nick asked.
“Actually, I think Hannah would rather be home with her mother,” the man admitted. “Anywhere away from me. I’m recently divorced, and we were supposed to spend the summer together. It didn’t happen, and she’s still sulking over it.” When Nick didn’t respond right away, Patterson added quickly, “I needed some time to myself. But I’m making it up to her now. That should count for something, right?”
Personally, Nick didn’t think that counted for anything. The guy wanted credit for shouldering his responsibility now? After he’d already made it clear to his daughter that she came second in his life? Fortunately he was saved from making any kind of polite answer. Hannah and Addy emerged from the office to rejoin the two men at the helicopter.
The girl headed in the direction of Patterson’s rental SUV. When she found the doors locked, she cupped her hands and yelled, “Are we going or not? Come on!”
The car keys quickly appeared in Dwayne’s hand. He turned toward Addy and Nick once more, his features sheepish. “Kids,” he said, as if that one word explained everything. “You know how they are.”
I thought so, Nick wanted to say. But I guess I’m still learning. If he’d been really savvy, last night’s argument with Tessa might not have happened. “Hard to know what’s in their heads,” he agreed. “But then, I guess that’s the way they intend it.”
Patterson nodded, then stuck out his hand to say goodbye.
“Come back again,” Addy encouraged. “There’s plenty more scenery around here, and next time, see it from the back of one of our horses. Lightning River Lodge has a really fine stable.”
The man gave her a noncommittal smile and went off to join his impatient daughter. In another few moments they would be gone, heading back down the winding mountain road and onto the fastest route to Estes Park.
With his arms crossed over his chest, Nick stood beside Addy and watched them go. His sister waved—the quintessential tour guide sending her chicks off to explore new territory.
“Smile,” Addy said without glancing his way. “Pretend you’re happy.”
“I am happy,” Nick replied. “Happy to see the last of them.”
“Well, you didn’t have to take them up. I told you I could handle it.”
“I wouldn’t be so cruel.” He turned toward his sister, cocking his head at her speculatively. “The lodge has a really fine stable?”
“I haven’t given up on the idea. You and Dad need to hear me out about expanding.”
“You want to run the stable or fly?”
“I don’t see why I can’t do both. Especially since you don’t seem willing to let me do much flying.”
Addy headed toward the office, a trim, dark-haired beauty who had boundless energy and about a million ideas to make the family businesses run better. Some of them were even pretty good.
