Page 56 of Shared By the Pilots

“Why did you offer to help me?” I held up his card. “Why did you give me this if you need tothinkabout it?”

“You looked like someone who might need some help. Or, more accurately, you looked like the kind of woman who would get herself into trouble and need rescuing.”

“No other reason?” I pressed.

He grinned down at me. “I have a feelin’ you have a reason in mind.”

The attraction in his eyes was unmistakable. Every woman knew that look, and Taylor had given it to me pretty much every time our paths had crossed. And the attraction was mutual; I was intrigued by this dashing solo pilot who seemed to do whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted to. It certainly helped that he had dropped everything and agreed to meet me this morning, no questions asked.

“Ask me out,” I said.

His smile deepened. “You want me to ask you out?”

“Yes.”

“Why don’tyouaskmeout, then?”

“Because if you ask me out, I have to say yes.”

“Youhaveto?”

“It’s a long story. But yeah. If you ask me out, right now, I have to say yes.”

I stared up at him expectantly. His cool blue eyes regarded me with curiosity, and something that might have been lust. He picked up his mug of coffee from the table and downed the dregs before answering.

“I don’t want to ask someone out whohasto say yes. There’s no sport in that.”

“I want to say yes.”

“I’ll call you after I think about your offer. The one regarding Excelsior, not whatever forced date thing you have going on here.”

He walked out of the diner, leaving me even more confused about my feelings than before.

31

Taylor

This was a bad fucking idea.

I had a pretty good thing going right now. My plane had a full tank of gas most of the time, and I was starting to tuck away money for a rainy day. Five years ago, that alone felt like the dream. Making a living doing what I loved, and not worrying all the time.

But I was a small fish in a small pond. Making matters worse was that I was surrounded by big fish. I had to keep my head down and try not to attract too much attention. Most of the other private airline companies ignored me, but if they so much as glanced in my direction, they could steal away my customers.

And out of all the big fish swimming around me, Bernard Langston was the biggest. He had a lot of money, but even worse, he had a lot of friends. Friends who owed him favors. If he ever decided to call in some of those favors, I didn’t want to be on the receiving end.

I have enough trouble on my own.

After breakfast with Veronica The Troublemaker, I drove down to Rice University to pick up a package. This time it was stored in a plastic Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lunch box, the kind of thing I used to have as a kid. That made me chuckle, although the guy I picked it up from immediately turned and speed-walked away once it was turned over.

Then I hopped in my plane and flew down to Puerto Rico. I was used to this kind of trip by now, but it still unnerved me. Not just because of what I was transporting, but because it was so damnquiet. On most trips, my passengers wore headsets so I could chat them up. Give them the full experience. But onthesetrips, I was alone with my thoughts.

I landed in San Juan and took a taxi to the same bar with the amazing street tacos. Neither the tacos nor the beer did anything to sate my appetite, though. The second beer didn’t help either, but things started feeling all right by the third.

Yeah, messing with Bernard Langston’s business was a terrible idea. That alone was reason enough to walk away from all this nonsense.

Then there was Veronica herself.

I’d made a lot of bad decisions because of women. That wasn’t an indictment of women: it was an indictment ofmyjudgment. When a pretty woman was involved, my brain turned to mush and I found a way to do the dumbest thing possible. I was mature enough to know that about myself.

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