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I didn’t say more about how the snow had interrupted the plans because I didn’t want to make Miss Overstreet feel bad that she had insisted we fly to Corinth right now. That, and I was frustrated at the dropped call. Honestly, this whole trip was turning out to be a lot more work than I’d bargained for. It wasn’t anyone’s fault, but it was still exhausting.
“Mr. Delaney,” Miss Overstreet said as I waited for my room key, “Can you still get me to Corinth before my deadline?”
I took a slow breath before answering, “I finish my jobs as I see fit to do so, Miss Overstreet. I will get you to Corinth and back to Tulsa, but until this storm blows over and the commercial airlines are flying again, I’m not going to be taking you anywhere. One reporter’s story is not worth the potential damage to my plane to fly through such a storm, and I’m not even sure we’d have the fuel to finish the flight now that I’ve landed early.”
Miss Overstreet nodded, though I could see the disappointment in her eyes.
“I understand, Mr. Delaney. I just appreciate that you’re willing to finish the job at all, despite this storm.”
She walked towards her bags, presumably to go take them to her room. I caught my eyes following her and turned quickly back to the clerk. He was watching me, my keycard in his fingers.
“Your room key, sir,” he said, smiling and leaning forward. “You know,” he nodded towards where Miss Overstreet was arduously picking up her bags, “Now, would it kill you to dream a little? She mentioned something about working out a plan or something to deal with the snow while she was checking in. A little optimism never hurt anyone.”
“A realistic attitude is what saved the plane from going down in the first place,” I replied sharply. “I’ve heard too many stories of other pilots thinking they could outlast the winter storms in this area. The damage to the planes is not pretty, and that’s just counting the storms you’ve lived to tell about it. I’ve done us both a favor by landing here in Dawn.”
The young man’s eyes widened a little, and his face flashed a look of incredulity before he released my keycard.
I walked over to Miss Overstreet.
“I’m sorry if my words came out harsher than intended earlier,” I said softly. “I do not appreciate having my aptitude as a pilot questioned, even if that was not your intention. I landed the plane for our safety. I hope you understand that.”
“I’m more worried about what my boss will do if I do not get the pictures to him on time, despite the weather being something so far out of my control that it’s not something I should be punished for,” Miss Overstreet said as she hoisted her duffel bag onto her shoulder. “But, traveling always exhausts me. I’ll be sleeping well tonight.”
“After the stress of landing early, I’d like to take a nap,” I said. I hesitated before continuing, “I hope you know that just because we’re here together doesn’t mean we have to be joined at the hip.” I didn’t want her to feel obligated to tell me every little thing she was doing for however long we were stuck here.
With that, I walked towards my room. She followed until reaching her room, which was just two doors down from mine. At least we were both on the ground floor. That’d make packing up and getting back to the car easy once the storm had blown over and planes were flying again.
I entered my room to learn that I had one of the corner rooms. Two large windows sat nestled on each side of the corner, almost meeting in the middle. There was a heater underneath one of them, which I was thankful for. In this weather, I hoped the power wouldn’t go out. In a small town like this, I wasn’t at all surprised that the cell service was terrible during a storm.
I put my duffel bag on the floor by the bed, hiding it on the side not visible from the windows.
I did a quick sweep of the room to double check the closets and locks, and then I took my shoes off. My socks were entirely soaked from walking through snow even though we’d barely been outside. With a sigh, I threw them over the rod holding up the shower curtain. It was chilly in the room, but hopefully the heater would warm things up enough for them to drip-dry slowly. Besides, I could always use a hair dryer to speed the process up if I wanted to when I was up from my nap.
I put on some dry socks and then lay on the bed. Miss Overstreet’s constant need to talk to someone had been the nail in the coffin today. If she had been more interested in the view, and the view alone, outside the plane, perhaps I wouldn’t be quite so exhausted.
Then again, we’d left early and the whole day had gotten pretty stressful with the storm. I had thought I’d be getting this rest in Oregon, but to get it in Colorado only meant that the next leg of the journey would be easier.
As my eyes closed, I took a deep breath. I hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights in the room. There was enough light coming through the windows despite the sun not shining. The road lights were enough for me to see by with two windows in my room.
Sleep quickly stole me away, and I dreamed of a safe flight to Corinth for Miss Overstreet. Client safety was my number one priority when things went awry, and I was mainly glad to see that we had made it to the inn safely – even though it appeared that we were one of few guests in the inn currently.
Chapter eight
Grace
With Mr. Delaney taking a nap, I decided I was going to read the book I had packed. I stayed in my room which thankfully only had one window. Right now, it wasn’t that bright outside. I turned on the light closest to the bed. I didn’t need the overhead light for reading, but eventually decided to turn that one on, too, since it was so dark outside.
However, I hadn’t realized that I was going to be stranded when I packed it. Out of the three hundred and fifty pages to be read, I was on page two-hundred-ninety-one. I’d be finished with this book in a couple of hours! Regardless, I buried my nose in the book, hoping that by the time I finished, the snow would have stopped and it would be melting.
When I looked up, the last page finished and the end of the story sinking in, I glanced at the clock in the room. I’d only been reading for an hour. Maybe an hour and a half. That was not good. Now that my book was finished, I glanced out the window.
The snow had piled even higher. High enough that I could see it starting to lean against the window of my room. And it was still snowing. This was going to be an incredibly strong snowstorm, and now I wished I had paid better attention to the weather I’d be flying through before booking the flight.
It might have been worth it to pay for the commercial flight and rental car at this rate, if only so that I could have avoided this storm.
I made my way out to the lobby, knowing this was going to be the place with the best cell signal right now. My room was too far in the back to have much with the way the wind was affecting everything. Upon pulling my phone out, I found I had one bar. One single bar of service.
It’d make for a spotty call, but it was better than nothing. The wind and snow must have let up for just a little bit, since earlier there had been no service.
