4. Flynn
Chapter Four
FLYNN
“Toss me that lashing strap, would you?” I called over to Elias.
The lashing strap came sailing through the air, and I caught the hook. Leaning into the storage area at the back of the plane, I tightened the strap and checked to make sure the hook was securely in place. Elias came around from the other side of the plane, resting his elbow on the wing as I straightened and closed the door to the rear compartment.
“Later this week, we have a group who booked a trip over to Katmai. You up for that?” I asked.
“Of course. What’s the schedule until then?” he returned.
“Three flights tomorrow. How about you take one in the morning and afternoon, and I’ll take the other one in the afternoon?”
He nodded immediately. Elias Lowe would live in the air if he could. He was one of my closest friends and had joined me here the year after I left the Air Force. We served together, but I’d left the military before he did because I needed to come home and take care of my siblings seven years ago.
I loved being in the air as much as he did, and it helped with the money we needed. People paid a ridiculous amount of money for flightseeing in Alaska and trips to remote travel locations. It wasn’t cheap to fly, and the risks were high, but it was worth it. Aside from scrambling to get my family’s outdoor expedition business in order when I came home, I had three younger siblings to take care of. So far, I’d managed to pay for college for Grant and Nora. My youngest sister, Cat, was still finishing high school.
Elias ran a hand through his shaggy dark blond hair and nodded. “You know I’ll take every flight you throw my way.”
“Oh, I know all right. It’s just you can’t be in two places at once.”
“He’d like to think he could,” a voice commented.
Elias rolled his brown eyes as he glanced over his shoulder. Tucker Harrison came into view as he stepped through the entrance into the plane hangar. “What the hell are you guys doing up this early?” he queried as he stopped on the other side of the plane’s wing and rested both elbows on it.
“Working,” Elias returned with a snort of a laugh.
“The more apt question would be what in the hell are you doing up so early?” I countered.
Tucker shrugged. “I know. Didn’t sleep well last night. That new cook you hired is only mediocre at making coffee, by the way. Yours is better.”
“Noted. So, you up for a couple of transport flights?”
Tucker nodded. “Of course. The fewer people I have to talk to, the better.”
Elias slid his gaze sideways to Tucker. “We know that.”
Tucker cracked a quick smile. He had a dry sense of humor with his friends, but he kept his friend circle small and tight. Like Elias, he served with me in the Air Force. When I’d heard from him three years ago, I invited him to come work with me, and he jumped on it. Tucker preferred to keep to himself, and Alaska was definitely a place that lent itself to that.
Patting the side of the small plane, I said, “You have mail and groceries for four villages. Might want to take a peek at the weather forecast, but I’m guessing it’ll be a two-day loop to get everywhere you need.”
“Works for me. If the plane’s ready, I’ll leave now,” Tucker offered, running a hand through his rich brown curls.
“This baby’s all loaded up,” I said, glancing over my shoulder at the storage area to make sure I hadn’t missed any boxes.
Tucker was already striding toward the small room that held various odds and ends, including gear. Not much later, he was steering the plane up into the clear sky.
Elias walked with me toward my truck in the parking area. “You taking the flight scheduled for this afternoon?” he asked as I pulled out my phone and scrolled through the schedule on the calendar.
“If you want it, it’s yours. It’s a family from New York. They were nice on the phone.” Glancing at my screen again, I added, “They’re supposed to be here in a half hour. Want to go grab some coffee first?”
“As if I would ever say no to coffee,” he said dryly.
We were in town, the town being Diamond Creek. While I had a small gravel landing strip out near the resort, it was solely for personal use. We didn’t do any official trips from there. The three plane hangars I owned here at the small airport in Diamond Creek were for my business’s seven small planes. Every now and then, I marveled at that.
When I’d returned from the Air Force after my mom died, the finances were a mess. She’d started an expedition business with my stepfather—who’d been a fucking asshole, by the way—and the business never quite got off the ground. When I came home, I figured I’d work with what we had—a huge chunk of land close enough to Diamond Creek to make it valuable, a partially finished resort, and three planes. In the seven years since, I’d finished building the resort and seen a surprising uptick in business with our flightseeing.
Thank God for that because it made us good money. We made money at our resort as well, but the flights were really good money. I’d been able to expand in large part because I had enough pilots to fly the planes. In addition to Elias and Tucker, two more friends from the Air Force, Gabriel Hall and Diego Jackson, had also come out to work with me. Tucker’s sister, Aubrey, would be joining us next year. Grant, my younger brother by five years, had finished his flight training last year. That gave me six pilots, including myself. My sister Nora was working on her flight training too.
I didn’t trust many people, but these guys were like family to me. I trusted every single one of them implicitly.
“Damn, it’s busy here,” Elias said as I turned my truck into the parking area in front of Red Truck Coffee.
“It’s always busy here,” I returned. “Cammi’s fast, though, so she’ll have our coffee ready in no time.”
We stepped up to the back of the line at the aptly named Red Truck Coffee. Housed in an old red truck that had been converted into a drive-by coffee shop and located right before the turn to the harbor docks in Diamond Creek, it did a brisk business from spring until the snow flew.
When we got to the front of the line, Cammi graced us with a wide smile. “Well, hey, boys. Flying the sunny skies today?” she asked, her blue eyes twinkling.
Cammi mostly ran this little coffee place on her own with occasional help during the busiest times of the year. You could almost always count on seeing her when you stopped for coffee.
I thumbed toward Elias. “He’s flying this afternoon. I’m headed to do some repairs on one of our planes.”
Cammi reached for one of her distinctive red paper coffee cups. “The usual for each of you?”
“I’ll take an extra shot in mine today,” I replied.
Elias gave a sharp nod. “Same.”
Cammi started prepping our coffees. “Is neither one of you sleeping well?”
I shrugged. “It’s just busy. Every fall, I tell myself it’s going to slow down, but it never does.”
“Not until after termination dust falls,” Elias commented.
Cammi nodded in agreement. “Oh, yeah. The past few years, the tourist season seems to last longer and stay busier. It’s like people are in a rush to see everything before all the glaciers melt.”
She handed over one coffee, and I passed it to Elias, then fished some cash out of my wallet while she prepped mine. “When do you plan to close up shop for the winter?”
Cammi lifted one shoulder in a small shrug. “I never have a set day. I just wait until things slow down. Usually, that’s late October or early November.” She paused to fit a lid on my coffee. “Here you go.” She slid the second coffee across the counter.
Handing her the cash, I looked toward Elias again. He was studiously quiet. It hadn’t slipped my notice that he hardly talked whenever we stopped to get coffee here. But then, he wasn’t the chattiest guy in general.
“Keep the change,” I said as she began to open her cash drawer and count it out.
Cammi looked up. “That’s a ridiculous amount of change, Flynn,” she protested.
“And your coffee is ridiculously good. Right, Elias?” I nudged him with my elbow.
When he looked up, he simply nodded.
“Don’t overdo it with the compliments, Elias,” Cammi teased.
“Have a good one,” I said, lifting my coffee cup in acknowledgment.
After we returned to my truck and were driving back toward the airport, I commented, “What gives with you whenever we’re around Cammi?”
Elias shrugged when I slid my gaze sideways to him. “Nothing.”
“Okay, whatever you say.”
Elias took a swallow of his coffee. “It’s not like she needs me to tell her the coffee is amazing every time we go there,” he muttered after a moment.
I stayed silent and turned down the road that led to the runway. Diamond Creek’s airport had two runways. One for the planes that came in from the airport in Anchorage and occasionally Juneau. Running parallel to that one was a shorter runway lined with the hangars for the small planes. A number of the small planes were owned privately, while just as many were owned by small businesses such as mine.
When I came back home after my mother died and stared down the debts she’d left behind, I needed a way to fix things fast. Not just for myself but also for my three younger siblings. My mother had already been struggling to stay afloat after my stepfather passed away. She’d never once complained, but it was clear she was skating by just to keep things above water. I’d never known my father and was the oldest of all four of us at thirty-two. Then came the three kids my mom had with my stepfather—Grant, Nora, and Cat. Grant was five years younger than me, Nora another two younger than him, and Cat was the surprise baby.
After returning home, I’d ramped up the expedition offerings at our small resort. I’d managed to pay off the debts left behind inside of seven years and put Grant and Nora through college. Cat was sixteen now, and the last one I needed to put through college.
To say my life was mostly work was an understatement. It was all work from sun-up until sundown. I was lucky that Alaska had longer days during the money season because every single hour counted.
Rolling to a stop, I glanced over at Elias. “So, you’re all set for this afternoon?”
“I’ll be back before sunset.”
“See you later then. Fly safely.”
Elias paused for a second with his hand hooked loosely on the door handle. “Always.”
As I was driving out, a friend Trey Holden waved from his truck as I approached the stop sign onto the highway that would lead me out past Diamond Creek to home.
Stopping, I rolled my window down. “Hey, man, what’s up?” I asked, leaning my elbow on the window.
“Got something for you to think about,” Trey began. “I’m planning to sell my plane and the business that goes with it.”
“Really?” I asked, my mind immediately skimming through the numbers in the ever-present balance sheet in my brain.
Trey was a fellow pilot who ran a much smaller version of what we did. It was just him and his one plane and very part-time. Additionally, he was an attorney, which I figured kept him plenty busy.
Trey nodded. “Yeah. Emma’s pregnant again.” A wide smile broke across his face.
“Congratulations! I know you’ve been hoping for another one. When’s the baby due?”
“Six months.”
“That’s awesome. I’m seriously happy for you. I’m guessing you’d like to work a little less?”
“You got it. And stay closer to home. I have more business than I know what to do with as it is. Honestly, if I could just fill in and take flights for your business in a pinch, I would love it. That would scratch my flying itch, and I wouldn’t need to worry about the business end of things. I’m gonna finish out the season because I have too many booked, but you let me know come winter what you wanna do. I’d rather sell to you than anyone else.”
“Might be able to get more money than I can give you. Just being honest,” I offered.
Trey shrugged. “Maybe. But I trust you, and I like you. So, there’s that. I gotta run, though. I already have customers waiting.”
We waved, and I drove off, seriously considering Trey’s offer. For one, that would give me another plane and hangar. Two, I immediately had a backup pilot, and Trey was as solid as they came. Three, more money.