Dalton moved Grace to the side, so he could talk to her alone. He hadn’t had much alone time with Grace and Ice in the last two days. He noticed a bleakness about her that he had never seen before, and he was becoming concerned.
“Grace, is there something going on between you and Ice that you’ve not told me about?”
“No.”
She was lying to him.
“What aren’t you telling me?”
She gave him a trembling smile. “Nothing that I wouldn’t wait until Christmas to talk about.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive.”
Grace kissed him on his cheek, giving him a hug that brought back memories of when she was a little girl.
“I love you, baby girl. I’ll FaceTime you when you’re back home.”
“Okay, don’t let Dax talk you into doing any loopy loops on the way home,” she joked.
“I won’t.”
They walked back to Dax. Dalton let Grace and Dax have some privacy as he told the others good-bye.
With a last hug for Grace, he and Dax got inside the rental car.
Dalton put the car in Drive, pulling out of the parking lot.
“Were you able to get out of Grace what’s bothering her?”
Dalton grimly stopped at a red light. “No, she say anything to you?”
“No, I tried to talk to her this morning at breakfast before everyone was up, and she told me nothing.”
“That’s the same answer I got.”
“You think she and Ice are having problems?”
Dalton stepped on the gas when the red turned green. “She would tell us if it was anything else. Grace is loyal to Ice. She won’t discuss their marriage. I noticed a difference in her when I called her at the Road Slayers.”
Dalton drove up the winding road to the small air strip where his plane was fueled and ready for takeoff.
“That’s around the same time I noticed it too,” Dax agreed.
Turning into the smallest airport he had flown into, Dalton parked the rental to the side by the hangers. He and Dax got out to get their overnight bags. Dalton slung his onto his shoulder, grabbing the fly charts before closing the trunk.
He let Dax go into the office to leave the car keys and give their flight plan as he strode ahead to the plane.
Loading his bag in the cargo, he went and opened the door, then went up the steps. Taking the pilot’s seat, he started the Kestrel 350 single engine turboprop aircraft as he waited for Dax. Going back outside, he carefully walked around the plane, listening for any sounds out of the ordinary as he examined the plane carefully.
He had learned to fly early in his stunt career. At first, it had just been for fun, then it had developed into a love he had passed down to his son. He tried to teach Grace, but she hadn’t felt the same affinity for flying as he and Dax shared.
“Everything good?” Dax asked, placing his bag in the cargo area.
“Yes, we can go.”
After he returned inside with Dax, they took their seats in the front of the plane. Putting on his headset, he radioed the controller.
Ten minutes later, they were flying between two high mountains. Appreciating the stunning beauty, his attention focused on the instruments in front of him. Not only would his life be forfeit if he made a mistake, but Dax’s would be as well, and that was unacceptable to him.
Once they gained cruising altitude, he saw that Dax was staring out ahead, lost in his own thoughts.
He knew what Dax was thinking about. Dax and Grace were close. Not only were they brother and sister, but they were best friends.
Dalton was worried about Grace too. Could the blame of her unhappiness they were concerned about be laid on someone else’s shoulders? Could the anxiety of him wanting time alone have somehow affected her marriage?
Losing Oceane had been hard on all of them. He recognized now that they had switched their involvement with Oceane’s well-being to him. That would create a friction in any marriage, not the least in one that Ice had a part in. His son-in-law would want to come first, just as any husband would.
He had been understanding of the time Grace had spent away during her mother’s illness, but he would have expected the attention to return to him once Oceane was no longer in the picture.
Dalton could see Ice reacting badly if it hadn’t. Faced with his own culpability if he was right about what was wrong with Grace, he tried to think of a way to fix his daughter’s problem. Not only Grace’s but Dax’s also. His son was just as fixated on his happiness as Grace was.
“Are you giving me the silent treatment because I accepted Sex Piston’s invitation?”
At the question, his head turned to the side. He had forgotten about it; his primary focus had been on Grace.
He and Oceane had been about their children’s wellbeing from the moment they were born. He was feeling like he was letting Oceane down despite the promises he had made to her that he would always be there for them.