Page 1 of If You Were Mine
Prologue
DORIAN
“It kind of worries me that I’m so easily persuaded to get in this thing.”
My best friend just beamed at me as we looked over at the Cessna Skyhawk. “Isn’t she gorgeous? I realize she’s not mine, however, my boss lets me borrow her.”
“When you say borrow, do you mean borrow, or are you stealing this from your boss?” With Joshua, one never knew. It wasn’t that Joshua was reckless, far from it. But we had been in our fair share of scrapes throughout the years.
I had many friends throughout my life. Some that I worked with now, some that I had gone to school with. Joshua was the only one I had met on a summer vacation that had turned into a full semester vacation when my father hadn’t wanted me to come back to town. That wasn’t a time in my life that I liked to think of, but throughout all the pain and rejection, including neglect, I found my best friend.
Joshua worked with me sometimes at the various clubs and businesses that I owned, but he also worked with a billionaire who liked to have his hands in every single pot he could find.
When I had been shipped off to Cage Lake to stay with my mother in one of the various houses that the family owned, dear old mother had been too busy to pay attention to me for many hours of the day, so I had strolled the small-town streets and found my best friend. Seriously, we had clicked just like that and got in enough scrapes together that the local sheriff and deputy probably still had our pictures as teenagers up somewhere.
We’d grown up, of course, and quit doing stupid things that could get us sent to jail, however, I needed to be a little clear on this.
“Who do you take me for? Of course I’m not stealing a damn plane. Adam wants me to fly it, because he just got his new baby, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted to sell this or not. So I get to take it out after they work on maintenance, just to make sure she’s doing good.”
“That still doesn’t fill me with confidence,” I said dryly.
“I’ve had enough flying hours solo that I could be a pilot if I wanted to. You know this is what I’ve always wanted to do.”
“Why weren’t you a pilot?” I asked, interested. He met my gaze, and I got it. “Harper.”
“Yes and no. When Mom and Dad died, flying didn’t feel like an option. We were spiraling trying to deal with custody and what I’d do for school. Then when the grandparents died and Harper was getting out of school, I didn’t want to leave my baby sister alone all the time flying back and forth. You know that pilots don’t get to spend as much time with their families as they’d like. And I couldn’t do that to Harper. Plus, I liked working with you and Adam. And a business degree isn’t anything to laugh at. Hell, I’m making more money now than I would have as a pilot. Which means I can have a hobby now, instead of having to fly from one place to another.”
“I guess the glass is half full in your case.”
“Damn straight.”
“So where are we going in this thing? Vegas?” I teased.
“No, I’m not taking you to Vegas in a piston single engine aircraft. This baby has six hundred nautical miles of range, can seat up to four, has over an eight-hundred-pound useful load, and needs a little over fifteen hundred feet of takeoff distance. It’s the best training plane out there.”
“Did you read that in the manual?” I asked dryly.
“You know I did. I know every inch of this baby. It’s going to suck when he sells her.”
“You really think Adam’s going to sell her?”
“Probably. He got a green Caravan, which seats up to fourteen, and I don’t know if he wants this tiny plane.”
“Maybe he doesn’t want to waste that much fuel, or deal with that many people. He won’t give up your baby easily.”
“I hope not because I love her. So get in, and I’m going to do my normal preflight checks. You just sit there and look pretty.”
I batted my eyelashes. “It doesn’t take much.”
I got into the co-pilot seat and did what I did best. Nothing. At least that’s what my father had said.
I frowned, pushing those thoughts from my head. Why the hell was I thinking of my dead father today? He truly didn’t matter. He was gone, and while his sharp talons of control were still dug in deep in some of us, I didn’t really care about him. He had never liked me, pretty sure he had never loved me, and so I wasn’t going to give him the time of day.
My phone buzzed and I looked down at the readout as Joshua did his preflight checks.
Flynn:
Are you heading to town this weekend? Hudson isn’t answering my calls.
