Read Online The Way of Women by Lauraine Snelling - Free Book Online

wide-angle lens in place and zipped the camera pack. “And I have a bargain to make.” She turned the full intensity of her gaze on him.
    He watched her silently, waiting.
    “You don’t hit on me and I won’t dig at you.” She held out her hand. “Agreed?”
    “Agreed.” They shook on it, two business people closing on terms. “But may I say one other thing?”
    She looked at him, with one honey eyebrow raised.
    “You’re in a whale of a lot better shape today than when I first saw you. I’m glad.”
    Jenn nodded. “So am I.”
    By the time Mitch had completed his preflight checks, the line ofplanes at the end of the runway had taken off. They taxied, turned, and, with an increasing roar of the engines, lifted into the air. He glanced at his passenger.
    Pleasure lightened her face, a half-smile flirted with perfect, nibbling her full lower lip. While her cheekbones were still much too prominent, a faint blush softened the stark angles. Dark glasses hid her eyes, but her entire body radiated excitement. She leaned against the belt, intent not only on the landscape flashing below, but on the ash-dusted mountain that loomed ahead of them.
    Mitch routinely checked his gauges, but his gaze homed back to her, drawn by her joyous concentration. It was hard to equate this vibrant woman with the frozen creature of the earlier plane ride.
    He tapped her shoulder. “Lake Merwin.” He pointed to the azure lake below and to their left.
    She nodded and pointed to the long lake to their right. “Swift Reservoir?”
    “Yes. Yale Lake is right below us. We’ve been letting water out of all three just in case the eruption blows this way. Trying to keep the flooding down. Lewis River carries a lot of spring melt as it is.”
    He pointed to an open field with a scattered herd of animals. “Elk. They haven’t headed up to summer pasture yet.”
    Jenn focused her camera as he banked the plane to give her a good shot.
    She grinned as she turned back to him. “They’re grazing among those houses down there, just like a herd of cattle.”
    “Yeah, but no fences.”
    Mitch took them up to ten thousand feet as they came around the southwest flank of the mountain. From the south, the only indication of the mountain’s travail was the dusting of gray ash over the dazzlingsnowpack and plumes of steam that periodically penetrated the stratosphere and mimicked clouds hovering over the peak.
    Jenn sucked in her breath at the size of the crater visible from the west and north. The men at the airpark hadn’t exaggerated. Football fields or aircraft carriers were the only way to compare the size.
    “We’ll go around once at this altitude and the next run several thousand feet above her.” Mitch nodded toward the mountain.
    Jenn felt a pain in her gut at the desecration of such a magnificent mountain. The crater had fallen in, creating a hole hundreds of feet deep, the sides of it a gray-and-black mosaic of rock and ash. Deep gashes radiated away from the crater and appeared at other stress spots. The mountain was cracking from the pressure within. Although Jenn had read that the north face was bulging, she couldn’t discern it yet with the naked eye.
    Jenn grabbed for her case behind the seat.
    “Out of film?”
    “Uh-huh.” She completed the loading with automatic fingers, sneaking glances at the mountain as if it might do something while she wasn’t looking.
Come on, come on
.
    Spirit Lake lay below them now, bounded on the south by the two lodges. “You ever been to the lodge?” He pointed to the smoke rising from the lodge chimney.
    “Yes.” She snapped pictures as she spoke. “Frank McKenzie and I were up there last week. He hasn’t changed a bit.”
    “So you’re from around here, then.”
    “Born and reared in Longview. That mountain was my playground growing up. I’ve been to the top three times and hiked more of her trails than most people in the forest service.”
    “But you left.”
    “Yeah.”
Because you