Match Made In Paradise by Barbara Dunlop (the best books to read .txt) 📗

an app to identify California women who want a change of pace, a life outside the city, who might like it here. We’ll bring them up for an event of some kind so they can mix and mingle.”

“You’re not going to match them one-on-one?”

“If the guys here wanted to use a dating site, they’d have already done it. We might not even tell them we’re matchmaking, just have a bunch of friends swing by to visit.”

“It would give the place more balance,” Breena said. “More women’s influence equals more progressive thinking, in my opinion. I’ll get my laptop. We’re going to need data and an algorithm.”

“You don’t mind helping?”

“Are you kidding? Paradise is a sausage fest. This sounds like female empowerment to me.” Breena pushed back her chair and came to her feet. “I am in!”

“In on what?” Zeke had arrived and wandered over without Mia noticing.

“Mia needs some help,” Breena said. “Computer stuff for California.”

Mia couldn’t help but be impressed with both Breena’s quick thinking and her apparent gift for misdirection. “How are you, Zeke?”

His attention switched to Mia. “Good. I’m good. How are things with you?”

“Do you want to sit down?” If they needed data on Paradise men, Zeke seemed like as good a source as any.

He seemed surprised but pleased by her offer. He smiled as he sat across from her.

“Between flights?” she asked him, knowing that as a ground-crew rampie he had to be at the airport to load and unload airplanes.

“T-Two just left for a crew drop-off in the PC-12. Everyone’s out now until about nine tonight.”

“You work very odd hours,” Mia said, thinking that was common among the men in Paradise. She made a mental note of that.

“When the planes fly, they fly,” Zeke said. “Twenty-four-seven. Well, not in the dark, unless it’s an emergency and they’re going into Fairbanks—lighted runway.”

Breena returned with her laptop.

“Can I get a burger?” Zeke asked.

Her expression faltered as she sat down. “Sure.” She set the laptop on the table and stood again. “I’ll let the kitchen know you want one.”

“Thanks,” he said.

“What about in the winter?” Mia asked Zeke.

“Winters are quiet,” Zeke said, helping himself to a couple of packs of sugar and turning over a coffee cup.

Catching his actions, Breena frowned, then deviated to the coffee station to pick up a pot.

Mia’s sympathies were with her. It was hard to take a few minutes off in the restaurant.

“Does everyone leave town when it gets cold?” Mia asked Zeke.

“Some do,” Zeke said. “You don’t need all the pilots year-round, or the ground crew either. The guys take sun vacations or go home to their families.”

“Families? You mean they have wives and children out of town?”

Breena filled Zeke’s coffee cup.

“No. Not so much, at least the younger ones,” he said, giving it a stir. “Parents or brothers and sisters for some. I spend January with my folks in Arizona. Dean’s family has a ranch in Texas. T and T-Two usually take a fishing vacation off the California coast. Brodie stays, of course, and Silas stays. There’s some work all year long, but the hours are really short in mid-winter.”

Breena sat back down and opened her laptop. “Less than four hours of daylight on December twenty-first,” she said.

“That short?” Mia said, slightly aghast.

“Dawn and dusk make it seem longer, and that’s the very shortest day.”

“That would take some getting used to,” Mia said.

Breena began typing. “Important point, I’d say.”

“Do you have hobbies?” Mia asked Zeke. “I mean, what do the guys like to do in Paradise when they’re not working in the winter?”

“Snowmobiling is big,” Zeke said. “The virgin powder up in the peaks is awesome. We play high mark on the hill. It’s a betting game but for something silly, like a pizza or a beer. Brodie doesn’t let us gamble for money. You have to be careful of avalanches if conditions are bad.”

“Sounds exciting,” Mia said, wondering which of her friends in California would be up for a mountain snowmobile adventure, in the dark, in the cold. Some of them surfed, so action sports weren’t completely out of the question.

Breena typed some more.

“You staying that long?” Zeke asked, a hopeful note in his voice.

“Not me,” Mia said, sneaking a glance at Breena to gauge how they were doing.

Breena’s return look said she thought Mia’s questions were on the right track.

*   *   *

The first thing Silas noticed in the Bear and Bar was Mia sitting across a table from Zeke. She looked stylish and tidy in snug jeans and a clingy bright blue top with flat lace at the neckline and cuffs. The two were engrossed in conversation, heads leaned forward, a laptop open beside Mia.

Silas wished he wasn’t jealous of the way she was looking at Zeke, like she was absorbing every phrase he uttered. He told himself they were only talking. And even if they weren’t, Mia was perfectly entitled to hang out with any man she wanted.

They’d both agreed to leave their night of passion in the past, so he had no call on her now.

He shook off the aggravated feeling and headed their way. If Zeke could chat her up in the middle of the Bear and Bar, then Silas could do the same.

She glanced up as he arrived, looking surprised to see him and not in a good way. Guilt crossed her face, and she quickly shut the laptop, making Silas wonder if something more than talking was going on.

Still, he pulled up the chair next to Zeke, crowding him just a little bit. “How’re you guys doing?” he asked, voice clipped as he sorted out his frame of mind.

Zeke seemed a little intimidated, but Silas didn’t much care about that.

“Uh, fine,” Zeke said. “I was just telling Mia about the trip to Eagle last winter.”

“I’ve never been snowmobiling,” Mia put in smoothly, clearly having recovered from whatever unease Silas had caused by breaking up the party.

“Can’t go in July,” Silas said, feeling twitchy, drumming his fingertips on the table.

Breena arrived. “Can I get