Montana Rescue (The Wildes of Birch Bay Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Dani had wanted New York for as long as Nick could remember. Yet, she’d been wrong. And her ability to finally see her life clearly had been due to dealing with their family dysfunction.
    Therefore, he’d had to ask himself: Was she the only one who’d gotten it wrong?
    Was going national truly his next step, as everyone believed? Or could it be something else? This question had nagged at him for months, yet he was no closer to an answer now than he’d been when it had first slithered through his mind.
    “Still trying to decide what I want to do,” Nate finally answered, pulling Nick back out of his own thoughts. “I’ve put in for leave but given no definite start or end dates yet.”
    “Then come home,” Nick said. “Help me out here.”
    “There’s not enough to do there right now. I spent too much time doing the same as a kid not to know that. Mowing and weeding mostly. Around-the-clock watering should start soon. But you don’t need me to turn the sprinklers on.”
    “But if you’re here doing half the job, I’d have more time to chase those women you think I need to chase.” The reality was, he was tired of the women he chased.
    “Yeah. Not gonna happen. I have about a million better options.” A couple of noises sounded through the phone. “I need to go,” Nate said. “I’ll let you know what I decide.”
    “There’s always a bed for you here.”
    Nate laughed. “You’re so lonely that you want me to come home and bunk in the same room with you like we did when we were kids?”
    “Too good to sleep with me these days?”
    “I can find better people to sleep with.”
    Nick smiled, feeling less lonely just talking to his brother. He hoped Nate would come home. Forward steps and all that. They could all use some. But he also wouldn’t bet on it. Nate had even more issues than their mom when it came to being here. And Nick couldn’t blame him.
    They signed off, and Nick made a quick decision and left through the back door. They had a small section of lake access on their property, as well as a boat dock. Their sister had spent many evenings there over the years. Searching for herself. So he decided that he could use a little searching himself.
    And just maybe while he was at it, he’d see a certain red-and-white helicopter fly over.

Chapter Four

    H arper switched the aircraft’s radio over to the station monitoring search and rescue missions as she flew, and blew out a soft breath at the lack of emergencies being reported. Not that she would have done anything if she’d heard a distress call. She no longer volunteered for the valley’s SAR program. But that didn’t mean she didn’t continue to listen in on a regular basis. With the mountains around them, and the entire area a prime spot for outdoor activities, too many people routinely got lost or hurt. And occasionally, someone didn’t make it out alive.
    Every time that happened, it stole another piece of her heart. Not because she knew the casualties personally, but because she felt a deep-seated need to take care of the area and all the people in it. She’d always been that way. Or she had until . . .
    Since Thomas’s death . . .
    She gritted her teeth and pushed the 212 harder. Thomas shouldn’t have died. They’d been a team. They’d been the best thing she could ever imagine.
    Hurt and anger mixed as she swept out over Flathead Lake, but she ignored all of it. She was returning from dropping off a team of corporate executives at a guest ranch not far from here—with a pickup scheduled for Sunday afternoon to take them back to Missoula International—and she had her aircraft pointed toward home. Only, there was nothing waiting for her at her house except another long evening alone, and she suddenly couldn’t do it. She didn’t want to be home. In the house that Thomas had built for them.
    And she most definitely didn’t want to be alone.
    She peered at the ground as she passed over the area, knowing her parents