Night Flight Read Free Page A

right. Thanks.”
    Enjoying her gracefulness, Sam saw her shoulders drop, indicating she was truly relaxing for the first time. The wind played with Megan’s red hair, moving it restlessly across her shoulders. The sun glinted through the strands, setting them on fire as she took her first photograph of the nearby mountains.
    “Up here,” Sam confided to her, “you can think. That’s why I like ballooning—it’s quiet, and you’re away from the things down below that create the problems in your life. In the sky, things just seem to become more black and white, you get more objectivity.”
    She liked his sensitivity. There was a lot to like about Sam Holt. “Have you always ballooned?”
    “Yeah, since I was twenty. I’m twenty-nine, now.”
    She forced herself to look upward into the balloon that was many stories high. “This is a beautiful one. I like her rainbow colors.”
    Sam looked up, studying the inside of the balloon that swirled with a multitude of colors. Then he looked back at her. “You remind me of a rainbow—red hair, green eyes, pink cheeks.”
    Lowering her lashes, Megan absorbed his husky compliment. “Thank you, Sam.”
    “It’s not blarney, although there is a drop of Irish blood in my background.”
    “Irishmen are always good with a line.”
    He adjusted the flame, sending more hot air into the balloon. “Yeah, but we’re poets of the heart when a woman captures our attention.”
    Heat suffused Megan’s cheeks. Sam had certainly captured her heart this day. She tried to look at him objectively.
    There was nothing to dislike about him. He seemed at ease in the sky, a bird without wings but able to fly anyway.
    “So, you’re a schoolteacher. I imagine that keeps you pretty busy on weeknights with grading papers and such.” Below them was nothing but Joshua trees sticking out their prickly arms across the desert. The Mojave was a merciless mistress: over a hundred degrees during the day, dropping to shivering temperatures at night. It was too bad Megan couldn’t enjoy the contrasts between the sky and earth, or the myriad colors and the gentle sway of the balloon.
    “I’m busier than I’d thought I’d be. I work over at the day-care center three evenings a week.”
    “Two jobs?”
    She shrugged. “I’m a workaholic by nature.” Since graduating with her teaching degree, there were plenty of bills and loans to pay off. Megan had found a small one-bedroom apartment in Lancaster that could help her remain within her meager budget.
    “Not me. One job’s plenty. I like my time off to pursue things like this.”
    “You appear competitive, not driven.”
    Sam liked her insight. “Bingo. That’s me all right.” He wondered why she was driven. “So, you’ve just moved out here. From where?”
    “Columbus, Ohio. I went to Ohio State for my degree.” Megan wrinkled her nose. “I miss the green grass, trees and flowers.”
    “I know what you mean.” She was honestly beginning to relax, and it made him feel better. Megan’s body language wasn’t as stiff, her knuckles no longer white. He grinned. “We’re arch enemies, you know.”
    “Oh?”
    “Yeah, I graduated from Michigan, Ohio’s arch football rival.”
    Laughing, Megan clapped her hands. “So, you’re from Michigan?’’ He stood easily, feet spread far enough apart to compensate for the sway of the balloon. The wind ruffled his hair, several strands dipping to his brow. She enjoyed watching him brush them back into place with his long, large-knuckled fingers.
    “Born and raised there.”
    “What made you come out here to this godforsaken desert?”
    “I promised to answer all your questions after we win,” he teased. “Tell me more about yourself.”
    There wasn’t that much to tell in Megan’s opinion. “I was born in Oakland, California, moved around a lot with my family, and loved Ohio so much that I wanted to go back there for my degree.”
    “Then what drew you back out here?” Sam asked,