Page 85 of Shared By the Pilots

“I’m afraid you’ll be in Luke’s and Adam’s,” I replied. “You have to share me with them!”

“Don’t go worryin’ about that,” he said. “I’ll find ways to spend my time. Plenty of good fishing out on the gulf. I can’t fly my clients out to the water, but I bet I can rent a boat and make it work for a year.” He looked over my shoulder. “Luke, got a second? Wanted to chat with you.”

The two of them went over into the side hallway. I tried not to look like I was eavesdropping, but I was curious about what Taylor wanted to say—and a little worried, too.

“You didn’t have to help me,” Taylor was saying.

“Sure I did,” Luke began to reply, but Taylor cut him off.

“No. You didn’t have to help. In fact, it went against your own personal interest to help me out of this situation. My life would’ve crumbled and I would have become a mess of a man. The kind of man who isn’t good enough for Veronica.”

“I think you would have bounced back somehow,” Luke said carefully.

“Stop downplaying what you did,” Taylor insisted heatedly. “You’re a good man, Luke. Even if youareformer Chair Force. I owe you one, pal. And as long as you don’t ask me to step aside and let you have Veronica, I’ll be forever in your debt.”

“No debt here,” Luke said. “I told Veronica I could share her, and I meant it. Helping you was just the first step in proving it to her.” He hesitated, then added, “Besides, you’re a good guy. Even if you did learn your sloppy style of flying from dusting crops.”

“I can still out-fly you seven days of the week, and twice on Sunday,” Taylor boasted.

Luke snorted. “Not with a suspended license.”

It almost seemed like they were about to fight. But then they embraced each other warmly in a long bro-hug, clapping each other on the back. When they pulled away, I was shocked to see tears in both of their eyes.

Maybe they can share me after all.

For a few days, it felt like all the drama was over. The guys fell into a nice groove sharing me. One night Luke crashed at my place, and the next I spent with Adam. On the third night, Taylor and Luke both came over and we had our first threesome. It felt vaguely funny to have a foursome before a threesome, but then again, life was full of funny little things like that.

Life was good.

But then the consequences of our actions came back to bite us in the ass.

Details of the animal trafficking case began to come out. More specifically, Gulf Airlines discovered that Luke and I had been moonlighting for Excelsior. The interview was quick, but short—I was terminated effective immediately.

Both of us went to bat for Adam, insisting that he hadn’t done anylegitimatefreelance work for Excelsior; he had only signed on for one flight to help catch Broussard. The people in charge at Gulf Airlines didn’t care, and he was let go, too.

“Don’t beat yourself up,” Adam said while the four of us ate dinner at my place one evening. “It’s not your fault.”

“Actually, it quite literallyismy fault,” I replied. “I was the one who kept insisting something shady was going on with Broussard’s flights.”

“Which you were correct about,” Luke said.

“I didn’t need to drag him into it, though,” I muttered.

Adam leaned across the table and kissed me. “Even knowing what I know now, I wouldn’t do it any differently.”

“Still, though,” I said.

“If you want to play the guilt game, I can take a turn,” Luke pointed out. “I’m the one who convinced you to start moonlighting at Excelsior, so I basically got you fired.”

“I knew what I was getting into, though,” I said.

Adam snapped his fingers and pointed. “Exactly. Me too.”

I blinked. “Oh.”

Taylor chuckled. “They’ve got you in a pickle. Might as well give up and stop feeling guilty.”

“I’ll try, but it will take a while,” I muttered.

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