He barked a laugh. “I hated school. Every minute of every day was sheer torture, and I’m sure I was no picnic for the teachers either.”
She bit her lip as if she were holding back her words. After a pair of seconds, a giggle escaped her mouth. “Somehow, I don’t find it hard to believe you were a challenge in the classroom, what with your dominant personality and adventurous spirit and all.”
Her hand found its way back to his leg again, sending a shockwave of desire straight to his groin. “Lest you think I was the ideal student, I’ll let you in on a little secret.” She lowered her voice conspiratorially. “I hated school too. I didn’t learn to read until the third grade. That’s why I decided to go into teaching. I wanted to work with kids for whom school wasn’t the happy place.”
Grant stared at Abby slack-jawed and mute. When he’d offered her his plane, he’d just been hoping for a short, playful diversion. Maybe a kiss at the end to see if he got the same tingle as he had last night. He never expected she’d bowl him over. No wonder his sister wanted to emulate her. She was the real deal, purpose driven, smart as hell, and so damn sensual. If it weren’t for the yoke hemming him in and the fact she probably didn’t want him to, he’d take her in his arms and kiss her blind.
“Wow,” he murmured under his breath. “Woman, you take my breath away.”
Chapter 5
With a screech of tires against concrete, Grant landed the jet back in the real world. Most of his attention was trained on slowing six tons of metal below a hundred miles an hour, but his ears picked up on a sudden escape of breath from Abby’s lungs. “I think I like taking off better than I like landing.”
After negotiating onto the taxiway, he reached over to give her knee a friendly squeeze. “Oh come on, it wasn’t that bad.”
She let out another one of her musical laughs. “No, I have to admit this trip was actually all right.”
From his end, it had been pretty damned fantastic. Once she’d finally relaxed, she’d taken the job of keeping him company to heart. His abs ached from laughing as she’d entertained him with stories about her students. The news his brother-in-law, Jack, had played in an indie-rock band in high school was fodder for future ribbing.
Grant steered the plane past the commercial gates to the fixed base operation side of Hartsfield-Jackson airport, parking it in the space he leased. “I have a car on this side of the airport so I’d be happy to drive you over to long-term parking.”
Abby unfastened her seatbelt. “You’ve already done so much. I’m sure I can manage to get there.”
He didn’t doubt for a minute she was perfectly capable of negotiating immigration and hailing a taxi. After hearing her explain how she had remodeled her home, he didn’t think there was anything she couldn’t do for herself.
Following her example with the seatbelt, he then put the plane to bed before leading the way out of the cockpit. While she donned her sun glasses, he retrieved their luggage and released the latch on the plane’s door. Once they were on the tarmac, he put his plan into motion. “Why don’t we first stop off at a coffee shop for some breakfast, then we’ll find your car.”
She reached for the handle of her suitcase and offered him a small smile. “That’s very kind, but I have about a million things I need to do before school starts back on Monday.” Then she pulled her phone out of her purse. “It’s okay to use this now, right? I want to let my friend, Chris, know I made it home okay. He’ll be worried when he hears about Caribbean Air.”
Her words brought him up short. After they’d parted ways last night, he hung around in the shadows wanting to see his sister off. In addition to fireworks, he’d gotten a view of Abby wrapped up in some guy’s arms. He knew she wasn’t married and assumed at the time the guy was a relative.
Maybe this Chris was a friend with benefits package. The thought turned his stomach. Having been on the receiving end of infidelity, fooling around with another man’s woman was a hard limit for him.
Still it always paid to get the facts straight. “Why wasn’t he on the same flight as you?”
She began texting while she explained. “He’s flying up to Charleston to meet with a potential client. He does restorations on old homes and is hoping to get the contract to remodel an antebellum down there.”
“Sounds interesting.” The way she’d handled herself made him think she was a straight shooter, not the type to fool around. But what did he know? He’d never thought his ex, Heather, was capable of cheating either. “How long have you and Chris been a couple?”
She looked up from her phone and blinked a couple times. “We’re not. Why do you ask?”
“I like to have all the players in a situation accounted for.”
Abby lowered her sunglasses so he could see her whiskey-colored eyes. “I think I need to reiterate what I said last night. That kiss was a ‘one off’ and won’t be repeated. And once again I apologize if I have given you any indication I wanted more.”
Water off a duck’s ass.
Grant smiled to himself. Her mouth might be saying, “She’s just not that into you,” but the pulse thrumming in her neck and the heat radiating from her eyes were screaming otherwise. Grant closed the distance between them, wanting to kiss the lies right off her lips. Instead, he grinned as he told her, “Message received and understood.”
Immediately he backed away and let her head for the FBO gate. His gaze trailed after her as she walked past the guard station and turned left toward a line of taxis.
“Go ahead, beautiful lady,” he growled. He was no stranger to a challenge. In fact, he was on a first name basis with struggle, and fighting for what he wanted was second nature. “Play like you’re not interested because it will only make your surrender sweeter.”
Chapter 6
Grant ran his hand along the skin of the plane. The way she lay all open with the engine cowl off and the nosecone removed made him think of a patient in surgery. “She’s going to be back in the air by Friday, right.” He had to shout over the whine of a sheet metal grinder on the other side of the hanger. The mechanic Grant had been grilling pulled his hand out of the engine long enough to shoot the boss a thumbs up.
With that Grant wandered off. He was procrastinating plain and simple, just like he had done when he was back in school. Anything to get out of sitting behind a desk all day. He eased over to another of his planes and fisted a wrench from a nearby toolbox. “You servicing the landing gear or the tires?”
A gray haired man pulled his head out of the wheel well. “Tires. They’re due for maintenance.”
Grant nodded at Andy Foster, one of a couple go-to guys who’d been around since before the earth cooled. “Well then, I’ll leave you to it.”
“Mr. Davis,” Andy called after Grant turned to leave.
He would never get used to a man with forty years and a shit-ton more experience calling him by his old man’s name. “S’up?”
“Thanks for the overtime.”
Grant shook his head. “Thank you for bailing my ass out. We’d have lost that account if you hadn’t gotten that engine installed on time.”
The guy grinned. “Can never say no to double-holiday pay.”
Andy’s wife had just finished radiation therapy for breast cancer. God only knew how much the man owed in hospital bills. Grant had offered to cover the out of pocket expenses, but Andy wouldn’t hear of it. As a compromise, Grant sent all the overtime his way.
“How’s the wife doing?”
The guy suddenly became interested in a spot of grease on the floor, toeing it with his boot. “She was real sick between Christmas and New Year’s. She caught something from one of the grandkids and ended up spending a week in the hospital.” The guy’s face shot up, pegging Grant with a haunted look. “Thinking we might lose her to something like pneumonia after she’d survived cancer scared me to death.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Grant took a step back, feeling uncomfortable with the anguish in the guy’s voice. “Let me or Maggie know if there’s anything we can do, or if you need to take some personal leave.” Grant turned to leave.
“One more thing,” Andy called out.
When Grant turned to look at the man, the hard set to his jaw spoke of a decision made. “I’ve worked since I was fifteen years old. Every hour I spent away from the job, I felt was a wasted opportunity to be making money for my family. Seeing her in ICU changed that. I’m gonna retire at the end of the month.”
That was the last thing Grant ever expected to hear come out of Andy’s mouth. He’d have bet a week’s pay the guy would retire when they hauled him out of there with a toe tag. “I’m sorry to hear that, but I understand.”
At one point in his life, Grant thought the best thing he could do for his family was to make money. That belief had cost him his marriage, so yeah, he totally understood. Andy jerked his chin in a nod, then turned back to his work, and Grant quit procrastinating.
An hour later a sharp rap on the door of Grant’s office brought his head up from the computer screen. “Thank fuck,” he groaned, welcoming the interruption. The headache coupled with his gnat-sized attention span weren’t making getting the FAA certification he’d been working on any easier. Forget wrapping his bike around an oak tree or having a parachute failure, the paper pushers who ran the three letter agencies were going to be the death of him.
“Come on in, Maggie,” he called.
She popped the door handle and backed in the room with a stack of papers under her arm and two cups of coffee balanced in her hand. She passed him one then plopped down in the chair across the metal desk from him. “Here’s the stuff you need to look over,” she said, sliding them over. “I’ve highlighted the important sections and flagged where you need to sign. They’re all standard charter contracts, nothing funky.”
Grant flipped through the pages and once he’d signed in all the right spots, he slid them back to her. “Before I forget, Katie sent you these,” he said, passing her a manila envelope.
Pulling out several photos taken at the wedding, she smiled and glanced up at Grant. “She didn’t have to do that and the kids and I had a great time at the wedding. Thanks.”
Grant leaned over, smiling at the photo of two cute kids flanking the bride. “I’m glad you enjoyed it. Lexi did a great job as flower girl.”
Maggie offered up one of her good natured chuckles. “She insisted on wearing the dress to school that next Monday, and Matt was proud of his sunburn.” She sent him a gentle smile. “The trip made getting through the holidays without Brian a lot easier.”
He nodded. “I told him I would look after y’all while he was in Afghanistan and a little R and R is the least I could do. By the way, when was the last time you heard from him?”
Maggie beamed at the mention of her older brother. “We video-chatted last night. He said to tell you he got the box of cigars.”
“There’s more where that came from. Tell him to let me know if he wants anything else.”
“Will do,” she answered. “Don’t forget the CPA’s coming tomorrow.”
Grant dug his fists into his eyes. The mere mention of one more three-letter demon was enough to send his headache to DEF-CON two. “I won’t forget.”
Having succeeded in keeping Grant on the straight and narrow for another day, she snagged the collection of photos as she got up from her seat. She glanced back over her shoulder on her way out. “There was one thing Brian said he’d like.”
Confused by her mischievous grin, Grant answered, “Sure. Tell me what he wants, and I’ll take care of it.”
Her voice had a teasing lilt. “He’d like an eight by ten of you on the dance floor. When I told him you both waltzed
and
foxtrotted at Katie’s wedding, he didn’t believe me.”
“Whatever,” he fired back, shaking his head.
God, he was going to be a hundred before he lived those dances down.
Still chuckling, he settled back into his chair and gave the paperwork another shot. His good mood didn’t last long. After a few minutes, the words began to blur together and the thrumming in his head picked up tempo.
He reached in his desk for a bottle of pain reliever and washed down two tablets with the dregs of the coffee Maggie had brought him. Maybe he needed glasses or a day off. Other than when it was his time to take care of Grace, he hadn’t been anywhere other than the hanger since… Jeez, it had been the wedding.
Matt and Lexi weren’t the only ones who’d had a good time at the beach. Along with sand and water, the memory of creamy skin, whiskey-colored eyes, and golden curls came rushing back.
Damn.
If he started thinking about Abby, he’d be at his desk till he was drawing Social Security.
Placing his palms against his head, he adjusted the kink in his neck and redoubled his efforts to plow through the bureaucratic bullshit. His determination lasted about ten minutes before he found his mind drifting back to Abby. She’d been the most exciting thing he’d come up against in a long time, and he jumped out of perfectly good airplanes for kicks and giggles. He just had a couple problems to overcome in his plan to woo the lovely Ms. Roberts. The mile high brick wall she kept around herself and his freakishly long work week.
Once he started thinking about her, he had as much chance finishing the paperwork as he did learning to dance. “I gotta get out of here,” he groaned. As he blasted past Maggie’s desk, he called out, “I’ve got an errand to run. I’ll be back in the morning.” He hit the push bar on the door leading to the hanger and breathed in the smell of jet fuel and metal. Not as enticing as the perfume he remembered Abby wearing, but a close second.
****
“What do you think of this picture?” Katie asked as she clicked the mouse to enlarge the next photo.
Out of the hundred or so they’d already viewed, Abby had yet to find one where the couple didn’t look like they belonged on the pages of a bridal magazine. “That’s a good one as well.”
“I find it a bit too artistic for my taste,” Katherine Davis interjected while emphatically drawing a line through the list the photographer had provided.