Page 5

FIVE

“Hello. Hello!” A smiling older Asian woman came out from the kitchen as Tiikaan led Merritt through Sam and Lee’s Restaurant.

He waved at the friendly woman. Man, did it feel good to be out of the Mansion of Mayhem and back in the land of normal people. Tiikaan breathed in the amazing smell of fried food, picked a booth in the back corner, and sat so he faced the door.

He tipped his head as he peered across the table at Merritt who sat ramrod straight in the vinyl booth. Well, mostly normal. His ruling on her was still out.

After dropping food off at a table, the cheerful woman came over. “Welcome to Sam and Lee’s. I’m Kim. Can I get you something to drink?”

“Pepsi, please.” He smiled back at her.

Kim wagged her finger at him, her forehead scrunching over her eyes. “I know you. How do I know you?”

His smile broadened. That was Alaska for you. Small community spread over lots of land.

“I haven’t been lucky enough to come up here before.” He shrugged. “Have you made it over to Tok?”

Her face lit up. “You’re Sunny’s brother. Tiikaan, the bush pilot, yes?”

He shrugged and laughed. “Guilty.”

“Yeah. I watched you on her channel. So nice to meet you.” Kim gave him a quick side hug before she crossed her arms with a sigh. “That Sunny. Such a nice girl. What’s she up to now?”

“I just dropped her off in the bush of the 40-Mile gold district north of Chicken. She’s trekking her way back to civilization.”

“That girl and her adventures. Makes me wish I was younger. You tell her Kim says hi next time you talk to her, okay?”

“I will.”

Kim turned to Merritt who watched the exchange with her mouth slightly open like she wasn’t sure what was happening. “And you, honey. What can I get you to drink?”

“Oh, um, hot tea, please?” There definitely was a hesitancy in Merritt’s voice that wasn’t there in her office.

“Be right back.” As Kim left, Merritt’s shoulders pushed back a little more and her neck lengthened, like her armor was clicking back into place.

Tiikaan sprawled his legs out and leaned back into the booth. “Smells amazing in here.”

“Yeah.” Her eyes widened as she scanned the menu .

“Sunny raved about the food. Declan, too.”

He surveyed the menu. Jeez. There were so many options that sounded amazing.

“Who’s Declan?” Merritt finally glanced at him.

“He’s a buddy that I grew up with in Tok. He’s the English teacher and the football coach at the high school.” Tiikaan grimaced. “And the local Turo.”

“He gave you that purple monstrosity?” Her smile, a genuine one that showed her straight teeth and made her eyes sparkle, hit him like a punch to the solar plexus.

This one could be dangerous if she ever let that smile loose for good.

“Yeah. He partners with the kids in town who end up working somewhere else for the summer or go off to college. He does all the work, then gives the kids most of the income. Not a very good business deal if you ask me, but he’s always been like that.” Tiikaan leaned forward. “He claims the Purple People Eater is the only vehicle he has available, but I have my doubts.”

Her smile faded to just a pleasant, practiced expression and her shoulders went back. “I believe we have cars here for use. I can see if one’s available.”

Why did the offer feel calculated?

“Nah. Renting it helps the girl out. Plus, it’s just a car. Doesn’t really matter what it looks like as long as it gets me from point A to point B.”

He smiled at Kim as she headed over from the kitchen with their drinks, though he could feel Merritt’s gaze on him. Studying him like he was some sort of new species she’d never met before .

“You ready or you need more time?” Kim asked as she put the drinks in front of them.

“Definitely more time. I haven’t even read through the first column.” He grabbed his soda and thanked her.

When she’d left, he scanned the menu and whistled. There had to be a hundred options. His gaze zeroed in on the unique pizza combos. He loved it when restaurants got adventurous.

“Kung Pao Chicken pizza? Oh, the Genghis Khan with beef, chicken, and a special sauce sounds good. Wonder what the special sauce is?”

“Hmm.” Was all the response Merritt gave as she fiddled with her necklace and scanned the menu with a crease in her forehead.

What? The rich girl doesn’t do pizza, burgers, and Chinese?

“We should get a Scampi Shrimp pizza. Shrimp in a special garlic, parsley, and butter sauce on a pizza? It’s like 5-star dining meets hometown diner. Sounds like a good match to me.” He wagged his eyebrows at her when she glanced up.

She cringed and bit her bottom lip. “While that sounds like it might be interesting, I’m a vegetarian.”

Of course, she was. She did realize that his primary source of income was guiding hunters to harvest meat, right? Would he have to spend the summer with looks of disdain every time he gnawed on a jerky stick?

Not that they’d be eating together often, but between her family’s obvious snobbery and their different lifestyles, the job he’d already been dreading could turn downright hellish .

Only one way to find out.

“Well, they have a garden vegetable pizza. I bet that would be good with the garlic sauce instead of marinara. We could have shrimp on one side and veggies on the other.”

He really should just drop it and order what he wanted without caring about her, but for some reason, her response mattered.

She sat back, her head nodding slightly. “That actually sounds amazing.”

“Okay.” Relief washed over him, and he relaxed into the booth. “Pizza it is.”

Kim came back, and Merritt ordered the pizza and fried wontons and onion rings to go with it. She twisted her teacup back and forth, tugging on the paper and string. She was nervous.

Why would a socialite, CEO of a massive mining company be nervous interviewing a “Podunk” bush pilot?

“I can’t wait to watch your sister’s latest adventure.” Merritt’s statement was the last thing he thought she’d start with.

“Really? You watch the channel?”

“Guilty.” Her smile wasn’t as bright as the earlier one, but her eyes still danced. “They’re kind of my escape. I’d love to someday go on a trek like what she does. I mean, I’ve been to lots of places around the world, but it’s rarely fun.”

Her expression dimmed.

“Why?” Wouldn’t someone with her kind of money have nothing but fun ?

“Well… I’ve spent the last nine years growing HGR’s philanthropic branch of the business, focusing on helping orphans and widows in not ideal situations.”

So not your run-of-the-mill spoiled brat. This day was getting more interesting by the second. Tiikaan’s mind spun with possibilities.

“What kind of situations?” He leaned forward, suddenly intensely interested in the woman across from him.

“We were one of the first relief crews in the Nepal earthquake.” She started toying with her tea again. “I’ve been to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya, Za’atari in Jordan, and others. We’ve been to Kutupalong in Bangladesh several times when the monsoons destroyed the makeshift orphanages.

“But the worst were definitely the al-Hol and Roj camps in Syria a few years ago when the violence there escalated. Those kids––” She swallowed, her voice thick. “That was scary.”

She shook her head and took a deep breath.

Then she forced a smile at him. “Anyway, now I get to be in Alaska with a whole new adventure. One I hope I can convince you to be a part of.”

She spent the next thirty minutes efficiently explaining to him about the new graphite mine about to begin production, how she’d need to be flown to and from the site most days until the excavation started and all the wrinkles were ironed out, and that, out of all the pilots she’d researched, he came highly recommended.

He had a hard time believing the last bit. There were a lot of amazing pilots in Alaska. But the hook his mind snagged on the most was how different the cool, put together boss lady was to the woman whose voice trembled when she talked about orphans.

One he wouldn’t mind spending the summer with.

The other?

Not so much.

And, if he went by this meeting, he couldn’t tell which version of Merritt would show up.