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Friends? More like a business associate — a bald, portly guy carrying a briefcase — plus several stunning young women. His daughters?
More like groupies, I realized when one blew a kiss at him.
My heart sank as I did a mental count.
“Madden assured me there was enough space…” Harlon went on.
I froze, counting again. Seven guests, plus a pilot. An eight-person balloon. Enough space for everyone…but me.
“Can we get a selfie with you?” the groupies cooed at Madden.
Madden cozied up to them to squeeze into the frame. “Anything you ladies desire.”
The “ladies” struck several different poses before the one holding the phone switched to video and started to narrate.
“Here we are, ready for our flight, with our pilot…”
Madden made a hang loose sign, grinning as buxom young women crushed in around him.
“And Miss Sattler,” Harlon added.
Madden stuck up a hand. “Not today, unfortunately.”
Or any other day,hissorry/not sorryexpression made clear.
“There’s only space for seven, and Erin’s not cleared to fly solo,” Madden gloated. “She can only copilot.”
But only for one more hour,I nearly barked.One measly hour.
“Oh, I didn’t realize,” Harlon said. “What a pity. I didn’t know that when I invited the ladies along.”
He couldn’t have known, but Madden did. I glowered at him.
Harlon turned to his groupies. “I don’t suppose one of you would like to bow out?”
They crushed forward like panicked sheep, petting his Ralph Lauren shearling jacket. “And miss the fun?”
Harlon looked between them and me, obviously torn.
I burned to talk one — better yet,all— of the young women out of flying. But business was business, and every paying customer counted in a roller-coaster business in roller-coaster times.
I stuck up my hands. “Very kind of you, but it’s fine. Really,” I lied.
“See?” one of the women practically jeered. “It’s fine.”
Harlon looked annoyed, perhaps considering the flip side of maintaining a brood of willing and eager groupies. His eyes narrowed on the woman, and his lips went hard.
Out of nowhere, a dark-cloud-sweeping-over-the-horizon feeling whooshed in, and I swear, the earth trembled. Something terrible was about to happen, and I didn’t want to stick around to find out what.
“It’s okay. Really,” I cut in, touching Harlon’s arm.
The moment I did,zap!Static electricity hit me so hard, I jolted.
Well, I did inside, though I managed not to let it show.
But, yikes. Harlon’s eyes burned into me, and that creeping feeling went fromsurroundingme toinvading. A strange sensation tickled at the edge of my mind, and my thoughts began to blur.
Thank goodness for Chico closing the van door with a mighty bang. I turned, stepping away from Harlon’s bewitching aura.
