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"You'd probably be flying circles around me in no time," he teased.

"Fat chance.
How could I ever hope to outfly one of the greatest helo pilots of all time?" Her question held the same joking tone, but the look of admiration she gave him almost took his breath away.

It gave him hope. And it convinced him that no man, however desperate, would want to kill himself as long as he had Kate to love him.

They landed in a small private airfield near her parents' house. Rusty unloaded the helicopter while Kate called her mother.

"I hope you don't get too bored while you're here," she said to Rusty, a hint of a frown darkening her eyes. "This sort of country-style event isn't everyone's idea of a good time. Doug came with me for the first couple of years after our marriage, but he hated it. I never understood why, since he grew up in a small town. In Lake Jackson, two of the most exciting and anticipated occasions are the Brazoria County Fair in Angleton each fall and the Mosquito Festival in Clute each summer. It would seem Austin's celebration would be a step up, but Doug didn't agree.'"

Rusty didn't voice his opinion that Doug sounded a little stuffy to him. Instead, the idea that Doug was less than perfect boosted his confidence.

A pickup truck pulled onto the field and stopped next to the blue and white C-Breeze helicopter. "Where's that little granddaughter of mine?" a deep voice boomed as a large man stepped out from behind the steering wheel.

"So that's how it's going to be!" Kate exclaimed, adding a loud, exaggerated sniffle for effect. "My own father can't even say hello to his only daughter."

The man wrapped Kate in a bone-crushing bear hug. "Hello, my little Katie-did. It's good to see you. Now where's that baby?"

"I suppose I'll have to get used to being second fiddle now that I'm a mother," Kate grumbled, but the beam of maternal happiness erased any doubt that she might be jealous of the attention her daughter was receiving. They walked over to where Rusty was holding Shanna in the shade of the helicopter. "She slept most of the way. I was afraid the noise might bother her, but she must have liked the motion. Now that we're on the ground, though, she's starting to get a little fussy."

"Poor little baby. She's probably hungry and tired of being strapped in her car seat for so long," the man said, then automatically lapsed into baby talk as he took the infant in his arms. "Let Grandpa hold you. He'll take you back to the restaurant and give you a real meal. How would you like some good
ol' Texas barbecue, Shanna?"

Rusty watched, amazed at the transformation. Kate's father was big, not only in height but in girth. Although he was somewhat overweight, which was probably an occupational hazard for good
cooks, it wasn't flabby fat but firm muscle.

Rusty could easily picture this man lifting a whole hog onto a grill. He seemed better suited to being a drill sergeant whipping a squadron of unruly recruits into shape or a logger manhandling sixty-foot pine trees than a man who could put together mouth-watering potato salad or a doting grandfather who spouted baby talk. Cradled in the curve of his brawny arms, Shanna looked like a tiny doll.

"Dad, I want you to meet Rusty," Kate said, after giving her father a few minutes to introduce himself to his grandchild. "Rusty, this is my dad, Arthur."

"Nice to meet you, young man."
The moment Arthur looked up, the softness left his features and was replaced by a critical appraisal of the man who had accompanied his daughter and grandchild on their trip. There was no harshness, yet there was no warmth as he said, "I feel as if I already know you from what Kate and her mother have told me. Kate said you were coming, but I thought you'd change your mind at the last minute."

Rusty wanted to point out that just because Doug always found an excuse to stay home didn't mean that he would do the same thing. But he kept his comment to a more neutral, "I was looking forward to meeting you and eating some of that barbecue I've heard so much about."

"Rusty loves barbecued ribs," Kate added as she took Shanna from her father so the two men could load everything into the truck.

"That's good, because I've got more than a hundred pounds of them in the smoker." Arthur picked up the bed in one arm and a suitcase in the other and headed for his pickup. Over his shoulder, he commented, "But I meant the hurricane. I didn't think you'd leave Lake Jackson when there was a hurricane so close to the Gulf."

"I've been keeping an eye on it," Rusty said, filling his arms with diapers and clothes and following Arthur "The last report I heard, they expect it to hit the Virgin Islands sometime today. If it takes a turn northeast and picks up speed, I might have to leave early."

The two men deposited their loads in the back of the truck,
then faced each other. Arthur's glasses rested comfortably about a half inch below the bridge of his nose. As he peered at Rusty over the top of the black frames, Rusty realized it was more of a disarming gesture than a careless one. It was clear Arthur was taking advantage of the moment to study the young man his daughter had brought home.

The scrutiny was a little unnerving, but Rusty thought he held up well. He hoped Arthur approved of what he was seeing, but it was difficult to know what the older man was looking for since he was obviously using Doug as a comparison.

"Kate told me you've really turned her business around." Arthur let his gaze move to his daughter, and again his craggy features softened. "To be honest, I was sort of hoping it would fail so she would have to move back home."

Rusty was surprised at the candid admission, and he hesitated a moment as he considered whether or not he should express his feelings about Kate and her business. It didn't seem to be a very wise move to immediately cross the father of a woman he was getting serious about, but Rusty decided he would rather the relationship began on a truthful level than on a phony one.

"I know she misses you and her mother very much, but making a success of that business means a lot to her," Rusty commented thoughtfully. "I don't think it would be good for her self-confidence if she had to return here after losing everything. Maybe after C-Breeze gets firmly back on it feet, Kate will decide to sellout and move back to Austin. But then it would be because she wanted to rather than because she had to."

"And would you be moving with her?" Arthur asked with the bluntness of a father who cared very much about his child's welfare.

"I've never been tempted to put down roots anywhere until I met your daughter," Rusty answered. "I know how much she's gone through lately. And I know it'll take time before she's ready to love again. But I plan to be there when she is ready. If that's in Lake Jackson, then fine. If it's here, then I suppose there are some helo services in the area that need a good pilot."

Arthur's attention remained, full force, on Rusty. "I know my daughter is well beyond the age where I can screen her boyfriends, but I'm going to do everything in my power to keep anyone from taking advantage of her . . . especially now when she's so vulnerable."

Rusty knew the older man didn't mean it as a threat but as a promise. Since the business had all but died before Rusty arrived on the scene, there was no doubt that Arthur was referring to her heart and not her finances.

It struck Rusty that his feelings about Kate were as possessive and protective as her father's. Although he hadn't actually formed the words in his mind until that very moment, there
was no doubting his sincerity as he stated, "Sir, I'm in love with your daughter. I won't hurt her."

Kate was still standing in the shade, unaware of the intimate subject matter of the conversation between the two men. All she could see was the serious, measuring looks that were passing between them. For a long, tense moment, neither man spoke.

Finally, as if he found something in Rusty's steady gaze, Arthur smiled. Reaching out, he took the younger man's hand in his, gripping it in a warm, welcoming squeeze.

As the two men headed back toward the helicopter for another load, Kate heard her father ask Rusty, "You do any fishing?"

THE RESTAURANT, designed like a large log cabin, stood near the road. An oak tree, its ancient gnarled branches sweeping out until they almost touched the ground, shaded the expanse of lawn that separated the business from the family's home.

"Your mother wasn't too thrilled about staying here while I picked you up," Arthur said as they parked in the driveway. "But she had some pies in the oven and couldn't leave right then. You'd better take Shanna and go on over to the restaurant and see her. Rusty and I will unload all this stuff into the house."

Kate cast a questioning look at Rusty, waiting for his nod before she left. She didn't want him to feel uncomfortable with her father, and she didn't want him to think she was deserting him if he needed her. But he smiled and waved her off, apparently not the least bit concerned that he would be spending time alone with Arthur.

She was very relieved that they seemed to have hit it off so well. It was important that her dad like Rusty, and vice versa. If anything was to develop between her and Rusty, she would prefer that it have her parents' approval.

"Well, you're certainly looking much happier these days," her mother commented as Kate walked into the kitchen.

Until her mother pointed it out, Kate hadn't realized how very true that was. Gradually, the tight coil of grief inside her was unwinding, replaced by other emotions. She didn't go to sleep at night dreading being all alone in the big bed. Nor did she wake up each morning wanting to pull the covers over her head and hold on to the numbness of sleep.

Instead, she was anxious to get dressed and go to the office. It hadn't proved to be much more difficult to take care of Shanna there than at home. And Kate enjoyed being in the middle of the activity of the company. She liked seeing Rusty off each morning as he left for his first flight and then being there when he returned.

Although she knew it was silly, she still couldn't shake the feeling that lightning might strike twice. She never breathed easy until she heard the staccato slash of the blades against the air as he returned from each flight.

It was too soon, she reminded herself. Too soon to feel anything close to love for a man. And yet, how could she ignore the way her heartbeat tripled every time she saw him smile or felt the gentle caress of his fingers on her skin? And how could she dismiss the fact that he could make her smile again when she had thought all joy was gone forever?

"Yes, I'm feeling much better now," Kate said. After her mother had greeted both Kate and Shanna with a hug and a kiss, Kate sat on a stool and watched as her mother cut the cooled pies into generous slices. Shanna wiggled in Kate's arms, impatient as Kate unbuttoned her blouse. The baby's hungry mouth found Kate's full breast, and mother and daughter smiled with contentment. "I never would have believed I could be this happy."

"Thank goodness you had a child on the way to help ease the pain," Margie said.

But Kate knew it was more than just the baby. Shanna had brought back the will to keep going, but Rusty had brought back the strength. Kate couldn't imagine life without either of them.

Chapter Ten

Cesar has been downgraded to a tropical storm after passing over the western tip of Cuba. At his worst, wind gusts in excess of 115 miles per hour were reported. Several tornadoes and a twelve-foot storm surge caused extensive damage to that end of the island. Jamaica is still trying to dig through the rubble after Cesar blasted it earlier in the week.

In the kitchen, where she was packing a supplemental bottle of formula and another bottle of juice into the diaper bag, Kate could hear the newscaster's voice relaying up-to-date information about the hurricane. She had lived in a hurricane-prone area long enough not to worry about them until they were much closer to landfall on the mainland.

But she didn't miss the concern in
Rusty's expression when she saw him squatting in front of the television, his attention focused on the radar map behind the weatherman. The enhanced photo of the storm pulsed in a well-defined swirl of clouds, slowly moving out of the Caribbean Sea, devastating all that was within its path. The tracking stopped just as the storm sat poised on the mouth of the Gulf.

The waters of the Gulf of Mexico are extremely warm, and Cesar is expected to quickly regain whatever strength he lost when he passed over land. The National Weather Service is predicting Cesar to regain his Category 3 status and possibly increase even higher if he stalls in the Gulf.

Low-pressure systems in the Galveston and Pensacola area could pull the storm toward either of those cities. But it's still too soon to predict landfall. Stay tuned for further updates.

Kate had moved closer, stopping behind Rusty. As the soap opera that had been interrupted by the weather bulletin returned to the screen, she rested her hand on
Rusty's shoulder.

"Do you think we should go home?"

He stood. By the time he turned toward her, he had erased all signs of worry from his face, but not quickly enough that Kate didn't remember the frown that had been there seconds earlier.