He could see that she was a little surprised by the way he’d just up and started talking about his childhood, and was glad that he’d managed to capture her attention, given the way the plane was wildly rocking back and forth.

“One day, I suppose my mother got sick of dealing with our soggy clothes and made us bring the umbrellas to school. The other kids snickered at us behind our backs, but Adam, Rafe, and I decided we’d make all of them wish they had brought their umbrellas to school, too.”

“How’d you do that?”

He smiled at her, running the back of his hand down her cheek. “We holstered our umbrellas through our belts and climbed up the rain spouts to the roof of the school. Our mom was a big Mary Poppins fan, so we’d all seen the character fly through the air holding her umbrella plenty of times.”

“You guys didn’t actually jump off the roof, did you? Someone stopped you before you could, right?”

“Nope.” He grinned at Tatiana’s wide-eyed expression. “We were quicker than any of the adults. Besides, they already called us the Wild Sullivans, so I’m pretty sure they knew no threats or punishments were going to reform us. Odds are they were less surprised that we were planning to jump off the roof with our umbrella parachutes than they were that we hadn’t thought of it sooner.”

“So what happened?”

She had, it seemed, forgotten entirely about the lurching plane, and he’d never been so thankful for his childhood idiocy as he was now. If he’d played it straight when he was kid, he wouldn’t have had this story to tell her now.

“Half the school was out on the blacktop waiting for us to make our move.” He shook his head, laughing at the memory. “On the count of three, we opened our umbrellas, walked to the edge of the roof, and jumped.”

She gasped. “Were you all okay?”

“Sure.” He said the word easily, throwing in a shrug as he added, “Rafe knocked his arm up pretty good and Adam lost a tooth, but the real damage didn’t come until the principal expelled us and Mom had to come pick us up.”

“How mad was she?”

He grinned again. “Mad. But later, when I caught her holding the open umbrella on the driveway, looking up at the sky, I knew why we’d only been grounded for a month as opposed to forever.” He could tell that they were getting close to making their landing, so he pressed a kiss to Tatiana’s hands to make sure she didn’t lose focus on him. “Part of the reason she loved watching Mary Poppins so much was because she always wished she could fly like that, too.”

A moment later, they made as smooth a landing as he could have hoped for. Ian wrapped his arms around Tatiana and held her tightly against him, giving silent thanks that everything was okay. If anything had happened to her, he would have been destroyed. Completely destroyed.

And as the plane finally came to a shuddering—and safe—stop, she whispered, “Thank you for making me forget how scary this was.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Ian was still holding Tatiana when David and Linda came out of the cockpit. “Are you both okay?”

“We’re fine,” Ian told them as he continued to stroke Tatiana’s back. “And in one piece. Thanks to both of you.”

Despite how shaky Tatiana was, she immediately asked Linda, “Are you feeling all right?”

Linda looked confused for a moment before she realized what Tatiana was asking. Putting one hand over her stomach, Linda reassured her, “I’m perfect. Junior here is already quite the flier, just like his parents.”

“We can’t apologize enough for this,” David said. “We had an eye on the incoming storm, but never would have taken off if we’d thought it would blow in that fast. Or that hard.”

Ian had flown more than a million miles with his pilots, and he’d meant it when he told Tatiana he trusted them. “You don’t have anything to apologize for.” But he needed to know something. “How long does it look like it will be until the storm clears?”

“Honestly, we’re not completely sure at this point, but I’d plan on at least a day, maybe two. We’ll do our best to stay on top of it and get you out as soon as it’s safe. Fortunately, we were able to get a message out on the radio,” David told them, “though we seem to be in a cell reception dead zone.”

They were all surprised by the sound of someone yelling outside the plane. The door nearly blew off when David opened it to find a man in a dripping yellow slicker standing on the tarmac. David lowered the stairs, then wrestled the door closed once the man was inside.

“Thank God you all got down safely. Welcome to Port McHardy. I’m Tim. As soon as we got word on the radio that you were making the emergency landing, I headed here. You were on your way to Alaska?”

“We were,” Ian confirmed, before introducing everyone and letting Tim know how much they appreciated his coming out to the plane so quickly. “Since we’ll be here until the storm ends, if you could take us to a hotel, we’d greatly appreciate it.”

“Be happy to. We don’t have any hotels here, but my sister runs a B&B. It’ll be a little tight in my car, especially with your bags and my pup, but I think we should all be able to cram in all right for the few miles through town.”

David and Linda left to gather up their things, and Ian turned his attention back to Tatiana. “How about we get off this plane?”

The breath she inhaled shuddered in her chest, but she smiled at him. “Getting off this plane is one of the best ideas I’ve heard in a long time.” He kept her hand in his as she stood up, making sure her legs were steady before he let her go to grab her canvas bag and his own.

“Pretty wet out there, eh?” Tim said, a massive understatement if ever there was one. “I’d offer you an umbrella if it would help, but it would just blow away in this wind.”

By the time they’d all climbed into the car, they were soaked pretty much through. The front window fogged up on the inside and Tim wiped it away with his forearm as he headed away from the airport on a tiny country road.

A little black and white dog decided Tatiana’s lap was the best place in the car to plop his wet rump down. Tim said, “That’s Buster. He’s still a puppy and learning his manners. I can take him up here if he’s bothering you.”

“No, he’s perfect right where he is.” And when Buster stood up on her lap, then put his paws on Ian’s chest and began licking his face like he was a tasty dog treat, everyone laughed as Tatiana said, “Besides, it looks like he’s found a new best friend.”

The B&B was a small private home where Tim’s sister and her husband rented out a couple of spare rooms in the summer to the few travelers who made it all the way up to the northernmost point of the island. Tim had barely brought them inside and explained their predicament, when his sister did a double take. “Oh my gosh, you’re Tatiana Landon.”

Tatiana smiled. “I’m really sorry that we’re dripping all over your floors.”

“My floors have seen worse than this when the steelhead are running. Oh, I so wish my girls were home from university to meet you. They’d be absolutely thrilled.”

Her brother cut off her gushing to remind her why they were there. “This time of year, you’ve got both rooms open, don’t you?”

“Didn’t I tell you? Bryan and I decided to completely redo one of them.” She was clearly distraught to have to tell them, “I’m so sorry, but I’ve only got one room open.”

“David and Linda will stay here with you,” Ian said. When they immediately protested, he shook his head. “You’ve both already been too flexible where I’m concerned, and after what you pulled off getting us down safely through that storm, I insist. Tatiana and I will figure out something else.”

“I’ve got that space above my barn,” Tim offered, obviously thinking they were a couple. “My youngest uses it when he comes home from school.”

“Oh no,” his sister protested, “you couldn’t put guests up there.”

“A room above your barn sounds perfect,” Tatiana said. She turned to look at Ian, and even with her wet hair plastered to her head, she was so beautiful she took his breath away. “Doesn’t it?”

They all smelled like dog. His wool suit was destroyed. His entire schedule had just been thrown entirely out of whack. And they were going to be stranded on an island in a college kid’s room above a barn for who knew how long?

But as Ian looked down at Tatiana’s smiling face, he couldn’t bring himself to worry about any of it. Not when he’d just been given the most unexpected and precious gift of his life—a few more hours with her.

“Yes,” he agreed, unable to tear his eyes from hers. “It sounds absolutely perfect.”

* * *

“It really is perfect!” Tatiana declared when Tim let them into the private space he had created for his college-age son.

Straight out of Tatiana’s “one day I’ll live in the country” dreams, the floors were pickled pine, and the pine bed frame on the far wall looked to be homemade, as did the kitchen cabinets in the small eating area. There was an old TV set and baskets of games and movies, along with a comfy-looking couch that evidently pulled out into another bed.

They’d stopped by Tim’s home so that his super nice and pretty wife could load them up with some food to get them through to the next day. At Ian’s urging—in the event that someone in town heard Tatiana was here after being on a plane that had made an emergency landing and posted the news on Twitter or Facebook—she’d used Tim’s phone to leave a quick voice mail for her sister and agent, to let them both know she was fine. He’d also placed a couple of calls. One to Bethany so that she could make the necessary adjustments to his schedule and to let his executive staff know they should deal with anything urgent that came up—apart from Flynn, because he’d given the man his word that they would deal with each other directly. His second call was to the head of the company in Alaska he should have been meeting with right then to let him know what had happened.

Tatiana knew how important Ian’s Tuesday afternoon meeting with Flynn was, and she hated the thought of anything going wrong with the acquisition when he had put so much time and energy into it. But when she’d told Ian she hoped the weather would clear up in time for him to get back for it, instead of agreeing with her, he’d given her a look she hadn’t quite been able to read.

“If you need to use the phone in the house again,” Tim said, “just drop by and go ahead. We always meant to put one in here, but never got around to it. The doors are always unlocked, so no need to wait for one of us to let you in.”

“I can’t think of the last time I haven’t been near a phone or the Internet. What a gift that is,” Tatiana said, smiling at the man who had been their knight in shining armor all afternoon. “Thank you so much for everything, including this chance to unplug for a little while.”

“We really can’t thank you enough for putting us up like this,” Ian agreed. “If there’s anything I can do for you in the future, just let me know.”

“When I heard over the radio that your plane was having trouble, I was just praying you’d make it down in one piece. Had to have been pretty scary. We’re all just happy to help.”

But Ian was already handing him a damp business card. “This has all my contact information. I hope you’ll let me do something really nice for you and your family one day soon.”

“Well, thanks. And don’t hesitate to come on in if you need anything. Two more for dinner would be no problem if you change your mind.”