Her Fairy-Tale Life

She found his phone and wallet in the cockpit and an overnight bag in the cabin, which she gathered and returned to the house, refusing to look again at the damage as she walked through the squelchy mud of her lawn. The sooner he was gone, the sooner she could get on with her life and work out how to keep her head above water and stay one step ahead of the bank manager without her full crop of roses to sustain her.

"You might want to put on some fresh clothes before they come to get you," she suggested dumping the bag at his feet and placing his wallet and phone on the table. He leant forward and reached out toward her, but groaned loudly, sitting back and shaking his head slightly, eliciting another groan of pain. "Oh, come on, you can't leave my house in your underwear!" She exclaimed, aghast at the idea that someone might see. Everyone had a camera these days, and she was not about to be the next scandal he was attached to, not that anyone would believe it, but she still didn't want to be that girl.

"Tell me what you want from the bag and I'll help you," she said unzipping the soft printed leather. "This?" she held up a soft caramel coloured knit shirt.

"It'll do," he said in a pained voice as he shrugged out of the robe. "There's some pale coloured khaki's in there too." She dug around and found them, then helped him to dress, finding the proximity and heat of his toned, muscled body made her heart race and her hands tremble. She was being ridiculous, she knew, and as soon as she was done she jumped up and moved away to check the window for any sign on a helicopter.

"You'll probably hear it before you see it," he mumbled as he sat back resting his head again. She'd showered and washed her hair, which hung in long waves almost to her waist. He liked the smell of it, though he couldn't quite place it, and he looked at her, thoughtfully admiring the strength in her stature and the lines of her figure. She was tall, like most of the women he'd dated, but she didn't have that half-starved thinness about her, and he appreciated the curve of her hip and ass held snuggly in her Levi's.

"I'd offer you something to drink, but given your condition..." she shrugged. Not to mention the fact that she was broke and, even if the roads hadn't been closed due to flooding, she didn't have much to offer Kaeden aside of tea or coffee because she was so broke. "Oh god, I haven't checked your responses in forever!" she picked up the flashlight still sitting next to the old chair.

"No! he grabbed her wrist, keeping the dreaded light away from his eyes.

"Are you always this difficult?" she asked in frustration, trying to pull her hand away from his strong grip that seemed to sear into her flesh.

"Are you?" he countered with that crooked smile that seemed to make him somehow more handsome.

"I'm not difficult. I am following the doctor's instructions unlike you," she accused.

"The emergency operator is a doctor?" he narrowed his eyes at her, catching the small lie and being amused by her look of chagrin.

"You may find that your good looks and charm get you what you want with every other woman that you meet, but I'm not like them," she allowed him to wrestle the torch from her hand and then took his hand in hers, turning it over to check his pulse.

"You're right about that," he chuckled. "No woman I've ever known would walk out in the middle of a storm to help a stranger. They wouldn't have even known how to open the door to that plane, let alone drag me out and carry me back here. For that matter, a lot of the men I know wouldn't have done that." He turned thoughtful, looking at her. "Thank you," he said solemnly. "I'll pay for any damage I caused. Here," he said, grimacing as he reached for his wallet. "Call me and let me know what the damage is, my personal and business numbers are on this," he held out a business card to her.

"It's not necessary. It was an accident. I have insurance, and I'll survive. I always do," Maggie gave a sad smile. "Besides, anyone in my position would have done the same. You needed help, and I was the closest person to lend a hand." She was saved from having to argue the point further by the sound of a helicopter, and she went outside to flag it down away from the crash site and her beloved greenhouses.

Three men alighted and ran towards her crouched beneath the spinning blades. The doctor went to examine Kaeden and asked her to stay while he asked a barrage of questions before allowing the other man to help Kaeden to his feet. She wondered where the third man had gone, but, as they walked Kaeden to the door, she saw him walking back from the direction of the greenhouses shouting into his phone.

She stood in the doorway watching as they helped Kaeden walk to the waiting helicopter, but he stopped and turned to beckon her closer, a grimace on his face. She walked the few steps to where he stood and reeled in shock as he placed an arm around her waist and pulled her close, kissing her. "I needed that sleeping beauty kiss after all. Thank you, for everything you did," he said in a voice made husky from the pain he felt. "Call me, please. I'll make this up to you."

Stunned into silence, she stayed rooted to the spot, quivering in shock and pleasure as he turned and made his way to the helicopter. The third man of the arrival party walked toward her. "I'll have a small crew out here this afternoon to try and move that plane and sort out a temporary fix for the greenhouse until the insurance assessors can get here," he said, handing her a business card and making his way to the helicopter. Still, she didn't move except to shield her face as the helicopter took off, leaving her alone and standing in stunned silence wondering if the last few hours had happened at all or if she had dreamt them. One look toward the greenhouses, though, told her just how real the situation was.

*****

Chapter 2.

Maggie was angry. A work crew had shown up and begun work without even checking with her and had done more damage removing the plane from the greenhouse than had been done in the first place. They walked, uncaring of the broken pots and precious plants she had fawned over all year. The insurance would never cover all of this, she despaired. Without the insurance or the money the crop would have brought in a matter of weeks, she didn't know how she would make the payments on her loan, let alone all of the other bills that sat waiting.

She sat in the middle of the debris surrounded by hastily constructed scaffolding and the plastic sheets they had erected to keep her greenhouse intact and wanted to scream and rage at someone. Except, the someone she wanted to scream and rage at had been taken to hospital with a concussion and other possible hidden injuries.

Well, since she was in the mood for a good fight anyway she may as well call her insurance broker, her step-brother, Alecks. God, she even hated his name, why couldn't he spell it like a normal man. It wasn't his fault, she knew, the evil step-monster had done that to him, but, with all that had happened, she couldn't bear that she was still beholden to him and his family in some way. "That's good, Maggie, stay mad, it will make this a lot easier," she told herself. She pulled out her phone and, sitting in the middle of the debris of her life and career, she dialled his number.

"Mags, it's not a good time for this. I am busier than a teenage prick at a titty bar," he grumbled into the phone.

"You'd know," she snorted derisively.

"Look, I've got a million clients waiting for me here, you know the storms and floods have been horrific. There are things a little more important than your little flower farm right now!" he snapped, and she could feel him getting ready to hang up.

"I'm a client, and a plane crashed into my greenhouse this morning. It destroyed half my crop, Alecks, and unless you stop acting like a jerk and come through for me for the first time in your life I'm going to lose everything!" She yelled into the phone.

"Fuck! Are you okay?" he asked, sounding surprised, if not concerned.

"I'm fine, the pilots in the hospital, and his father's company has come and done some temporary repairs. Probably so I won't sue them, but I've lost half the crop of roses, and Valentine's day is only weeks away. Even if I harvest what I have left, how am I going to tell my clients?" She was glad her voice hadn't broken, she was still angry, and she held to that anger tightly.

"I'll come out myself tonight," he said quickly.

"The roads are closed, and the only way in and out of here is by helicopter," she said.

"The guy who crashed must be loaded then," Alecks said speculatively.

"His father is, but it was just a dumb accident, he's probably just grateful Kaeden didn't die," she admitted, trying to hang onto her anger and failing.

"Kaeden who?" Alecks asked trying to place the name.

"Kaeden McConnell, as in McConnell Mining," Maggie filled in all the blanks.

"Fuck!" Alecks's expletive whistled into the phone. "We sue the pants off them then."

"Alecks," she said tentatively. "I don't want anyone to know he was here, with me," she said quietly. "I don't want to be part of that media circus that surrounds him. I don't want to be compared to, well... I just don't want people to know," she said. The truth was that she didn't want to be compared to the beautiful women he dated. Not that they had dated, but she just didn't want to be associated with him and that sort of life in any way.

"I'm sure they'll settle out of court to avoid any nastiness. That dude is always in trouble, I'm sure they are used to it, which is why they acted so fast to fix things up for you," Alecks reassured her. "Especially if you let Mother do the negotiations," he added, and Maggie could tell he was smiling.

"Oh God, do we have to tell her?" Maggie groaned.

"Are you kidding? You want her on your side this time. She knows these people and their friends, I bet. Trust me, if you want to save your little flower farm you want her in on this," he lectured. "Look, the BOM says the weather is clearing so the roads will be passable tomorrow, no doubt. I'll get mother up to speed, and we'll come out and inspect the damage tomorrow, but I hope you took photos before they did the repairs, temporary or not."

"Yeah," she said hesitantly. She's been so mad when the crew had arrived, and, not even come to her door to introduce themselves to her before starting work on her property, she had grabbed her phone and taken photos of them all and the helicopters they had arrived in. She was calmer now, having told the whole story to Alecks and wary of what her step-monster, his mother, would do with the information. She may not love them or even like them very much these days, but they were the only family she had.

"I have to go, Mags. All hell has broken loose here this week. Mother and I will come out tomorrow afternoon, okay? Hang tight until then, and don't accept any offer they try to make." Alecks said distractedly, and Maggie could hear the commotion of his busy workplace in the background before he hung up.

"Oh God," Maggie whispered. "This is going to be a circus, and instead of being Kaeden's circus it was hers, and Alecks and Elena were her monkeys," she buried her face in her hands and, not for the first time that day, she cried.

*****

Kaeden sat up in his hospital bed and stared at his phone, trying to decipher the message amongst his clouded thoughts. Aside from a splitting headache, he felt fine, but they had kept him for observation, regardless of his objections. Even after the third reading of the text message it made no sense to him, so he called the number and smiled as the voice of his angel of mercy came on the line.

"Hello Angel," he smiled into his phone.

"Kaeden, why aren't you in hospital and asleep at this time of night?" She asked, worried that he hadn't sought medical help after leaving her house.

"My phone woke me up, I need to get a nice lullaby ringtone like yours," he chuckled. "I got this weird message that I think is apologising for something that is either about to happen or might happen in the future and it's confusing me even more than how an expert pilot like me managed to wreck my plane."

"You might want to revise that expert tag," she teased, remembering the blue of his eyes and the way they crinkled at the corners when he smiled.

"No, I blame you entirely for that crash, running out in the rain waving that torch around when I was trying to land," he accused still chuckling. "My reputation is fully intact, thank you."

"I was trying to wave you off! I was trying to save you, you big..." she faltered for an appropriate word, "You big plane crasher!" she said indignantly making him laugh loudly.

"You did save me, Maggie," his voice deepened and became serious after a moment. "The doctors said you did all the right things to look after me, including torturing me by keeping me awake with that torch and all those questions."

"I didn't do much really, you were only here for an hour or two," she said regretting her earlier teasing.

"So, tell me what this message means exactly and what I should expect?" He asked. "I have pretty thick skin these days and a team of lawyers at the ready to sue any media for involving you in any scandal associated with what happened."

"My step-monster is about to happen, and it will be bad. I'm sorry, but by the time I realised Elena would find out and probably go after you, your family and the money you have at your disposal, it was too late to un-tell my brother what had happened. I mean, he probably would have found out anyway, because he's my insurance broker and all, but I was just so mad at those guys you sent for creating even more damage and things got out of control. Now my step-monster knows and will be contacting you and your lawyers." She let out a large breath after spewing forth all the words that summed up her worries.

"Okay let's just slow this down a fraction," Kaeden frowned into the phone. "The step-monster," he paused, "Elena, right?"

"Right," she agreed.

"She found out that I crashed into your property and she will come to see me to demand I pay for the damage I caused?" he questioned.

"Right," she agreed again.

"I already told you I would pay for the damage, Maggie. You don't need to worry about that," he said calmly. "It was my fault, I should be the one apologising here."

"You don't understand," Maggie shook her head, despite the fact that he couldn't see her. "The Step-monster is Elena Dorian." She paused to see if he recognised the name, and when he didn't say anything she continued. "She's truly awful. She goes after high profile people all the time, feeding the media with rumours and lies, so the trials are very public before it even hits the courts if people don't give in to her settlement demands."

"So you plan to sue me," he stated without rancour. "Despite the fact that I said I would pay for any damages."

"No!" she denied the accusation. "I just want my insurance to cover it, so I called my broker, who happens to be my step brother, Elena's son, Alecks."

"Your insurance company will want to recover the cost, that's no problem, I wouldn't fight it," he said easily. "There is no reason for Elena to come to me with an offer to settle anything out of court unless you decide to press charges."

"It's not that easy. You don't know what Elena's like. You don't understand," Maggie said miserably. Elena hadn't even asked how she was when she called earlier. She had just demanded that she send photos of the damage through to her.

"Listen, people try to sue my family for all manner of things, me crashing in a storm is nothing but a minor annoyance. We have a whole regiment of lawyers who are well equipped to deal with the Elena's of this world, and the threat of bad publicity never bothered me. Which you obviously know," he gave a half-hearted chuckle.

"There's a lot of good press about you and your family out there, too," she said quietly. Maggie was glad he couldn't see her blush. She had given in to the temptation of googling him to find out more about the handsome stranger that had crashed into her life.

"So you looked?" he sounded pleased, which only made her blush all the more.

"I'm sorry," she said again. "I'll try and get Elena to let the insurance company handle it all. I just wanted you to know what was probably coming. I know it was an accident, and if I weren't so reliant on this year's crop to make the bank happy and keep Elena out of my business, I wouldn't have even called Alecks until I knew you had recovered properly. Speaking of which, you had better get some rest rather than listening to me prattle on about my awful family. Thank you for being so understanding."

"Maggie, you saved me. Seriously, you have nothing to apologise for. I'm in your debt, and I will make sure you have more than enough to make up for the damage and keep the banks happy," he said reassuringly. "Trust me, even without the insurance issues I would have made sure you were well compensated. Please don't worry about this, or me," his voice had become as quiet as hers.

"It's late, I have to go. I hope your head feels better in the morning," she said with sincerity and hung up before he could say anything else. "Great," she said out loud. "I finally meet someone who makes me forget all about the pain of not being able to have the love I want and he's just as unattainable, albeit in a totally different way."

Maggie knew she was being silly. She had only known the man for a few hours, but she wished she could know him better, despite the fact that she was awkward and plain, too tall and too solid. She lived in a completely different world where going out involved a good pair of jeans and boots, not dresses and high heels. She sighed, feeling sad, and walked into her bedroom, picking up the old raggedy bunny from her bed.

"Looks like it's just you and me again," she said, stretching out on the bed and hugging the soft, well-worn toy. Tears sprang to her eyes and she told herself it was just the roller coast ride she had been on today, not the fact that she felt more alone than ever as the biggest day on her business calendar approached rapidly. Valentine's day was fabulous for her on a business level, but disastrous on a personal one."

*****

Chapter 3.

Maggie woke from a dream that left her hot and bothered. It had seemed so real that waking up alone in bed was disappointing and she considered closing her eyes to try to get the dream back. "Don't be stupid," she said aloud, sitting up and swinging her legs from the bed. She had work to do, and no one was going to do it for her. She pushed the memory of Kaeden McConnell and the dream from her mind and started her daily routine.

The light plane had been dragged away from the greenhouse by the crew who had been there yesterday and sat with its nose dug down to the ground and one wing bent and buckled like a wounded bird brought down in the storm. The vision of Kaeden fighting the controls as he came into land sprung to her mind, and she wondered if she had added to his crash with her appearance near the old airstrip.

She could see a shadow moving around in the greenhouse through the cloudy exterior panels, and she began to jog through the squelching mud, pulling her phone from her pocket to catch the intruder. She rushed through the door swinging it hard and frowned. Music was playing, one of the soundtracks she liked to listen to when she was down here working. 'An intruder wouldn't have put that on,' she thought.

"Bob?" she called out, thinking that the old man would be the only person who would feel welcome enough just to let himself inside and inspect the damage. "Bob?" she called louder over the music, walking toward the site of the crash.