She told Katie everything she could think of about Payne on the ride from the Butte airport, including, “The weather has been awesome, the kids have been swimming at the lake whenever they can talk me into taking them and Lang is already working on a couple of charter bids out of L.A., trying to figure out what type of equipment is most cost-effective to put there.”
“Already?” Dylan asked.
“And nothing from your friend Jay, yet. Two of the industry people from your list jumped right on the opportunity. Dylan, this might just work out.”
Katie thought she was prepared for the beauty of the landscape since Dylan had described it so thoroughly and given her many comparisons to Virgin River. But she was stunned by the magnificence that was Montana and overwhelmed by the majesty of the mountain peaks and rich, green valleys. The drive to the valley that was Payne over the mountains gave views that caused her to gasp every time they came around another curve.
“And you look at this every day?” she asked Dylan.
“When I’m in town. Flying in here is awesome,” he said. “Sue Ann, pull over at the next lookout.”
A few minutes later Sue Ann brought the car to a stop at a wide space on a mountain road that overlooked a broad expanse of valley dotted with ranches. A stone wall bordered the lookout to keep people like crazy five-year-old boys from diving down the side of the mountain. Dylan jumped out and held the door for Katie, then the boys.
She stood at the wall and looked down. “My God,” she whispered reverently. “It looks like a postcard.”
He came up behind her, slipping his arms around her waist. Sue Ann joined them.
“See that small house at the far end of the valley?” Dylan asked her, pointing. “Just a small house, a barn, a couple of storage sheds you can barely see, a corral…that’s my place. And way down there on the other side of the pasture, way past the house, you can see the runway, hangars and a few planes.”
“All that is yours?”
“Kind of,” he said. “It’s mine and Adele’s. I borrowed from her to build the airport though I paid her back for that. She still owns the house and land, and put my name on the deed along with hers. You know her, she won’t take rent. I tried to buy it from her and she said if I argue any more, she’ll take her name off the deed altogether. She wants me to be here because I built the business here—she wanted to do something for me. It’s the only thing I’ve ever gone along with.”
She turned around to face him. “Why have you been so stubborn?” Katie asked.
“I had a lot to prove,” he said. “I wanted to show Adele that I grew up, that I could be responsible. I didn’t want her fixing things for me.” He kissed her.
One of the boys made a gagging sound and Sue Ann laughed.
“They never stop doing that,” Mitch said.
Andy looked up at Sue Ann. “He’s gonna be like our dad. Not our real dad, who died and went to live in heaven, but like our dad.”
“You okay with that?” Sue Ann asked with a smile.
“Yeah,” the boys said in unison. “We like him,” Mitch said. “He’s fun when he’s not kissing all the time.”
Dylan looked at Sue Ann over Katie’s head. “It’s a tough audience.”
Katie had turned back to the view. “Dylan, do you have a lot of cars?”
“Just a truck and a Harley,” he said. “It looks like an invasion down there.”
Sue Ann cleared her throat. “Yeah, there was really no keeping people away, once they figured out you were going to be in town. I could apologize, but there was nothing I could do, so I asked Lang and Ham to just get out the grill.”
“Who are they?” Katie asked.
“Oh, you know,” Sue Ann said. “The town.”
When they finally arrived at Dylan’s house it was almost dinnertime and there seemed to be a huge community there to greet them—employees from the airport, neighbors, friends. Katie was introduced to a couple of teachers from the town elementary school, two pilots who worked for Dylan, their families, a rancher who used Dylan’s pasture for grazing along with his wife and kids, and many others. Ham, a grizzled old guy with fingers bent from arthritis, merely nodded and gave a grunt when introduced and Dylan said, “He does speak, but not overly.” But apparently