Page 87 of Shared By the Pilots

She bobbed her head. “Yes. I’ve had enough. I’m starting to get freaked out.”

“Easy there. It’s all right.” I took control of the yoke. “I’ve got it, now. You can relax.”

She let go and began panting as if she had just finished a marathon. I knew what she was feeling, because I had felt the same thing the first time I flew. Hell, I felt it after the wheels went up onthisflight after being grounded for a year. That adrenaline rush never got old.

Let’s see how much more adrenaline we can squeeze today.

“All right, that was fun,” I said. “How about we head back home now?”

“Sounds good to—AHHH!” Veronica screamed as I threw the yoke forward and sent us into a steep dive. I rolled the plane at the same time, corkscrewing down and around until we were flying in the opposite direction as before. The maneuver was pushing the limits of what this old bird could handle, but she still made it through without falling to pieces.

“Oh, that feels good,” I said while leveling the plane out.

Veronica was staring daggers at me. “Why did you do that!”

“Just stretching my wings.”

“Next time warn me!”

“Sorry about that. So you want a warning before we, oh I don’t know, do a loop?”

Her eyes widened a fraction. “Don’t youdare.”

She barely got the last word out before I was yanking the yoke and sending us into a long loop.

I had fun teasing Veronica, but it was such apleasureto fly again. Especially with the woman I loved. I’d said the words to her months ago, when we were sitting on the couch watching TV. I can’t even remember the exact circumstances; she made a funny joke that had me in stitches, and I just sort of said it.

I love you.

It was weird being in love with a woman who was also in love with two other men. But weird in an intellectual sense, not in an emotional sense. In truth, the weird little polyamorous love-rectangle we had going along with Luke and Adam was pretty damn great. First off, everything in the bedroom was really hot. I never knew I enjoyed sharing a womanthatway, but oh boy did it hit all of my sexual buttons. But even outside of that, Adam and Luke were two of my best buddies now, and the four of us hung out together more often than not.

It helped that we were all in business together.

A year ago, after having my pilot’s license suspended, I reached out to all the rich contacts I had made over the years. Retired cropdusters in Iowa and farmers in Nebraska. Rich fishermen in Alaska. Oil men around Houston. I scraped and scrounged and begged.

And when we had enough investors, we bought several of Langston’s old jets and founded VAULT Airlines. Originally it was just VALT, one initial for each of us, but Adam insisted VAULT sounded better. And really, it was just two planes—not quite a fleet, but hell, anything more than one plane felt like too many to an old flyer like me.

Luke and one of his old buddies were the primary pilots, while Adam and Veronica were flight attendants. With our two planes and flexible flight schedules, we were able to neatly fill the vacuum that Excelsior Air had left. It was even easier to pull off since we had a lot of contacts among the legitimate customers who had flown Excelsior over the years.

Granted, it was still early. We had only been operational for a few months. But the future looked bright.

Eventually, I stopped making Veronica scream in terror and flew back to the airport. One of the VAULT aircraft was sitting on the tarmac outside the private terminal; that would be Luke returning from a flight to Turks and Caicos, delivering a newlywed couple and family to their honeymoon.

“He’s not on board,” Veronica said, checking the calendar on her phone as we hopped out of my plane. “They landed half an hour ago. He and Adam are almost home.”

“Ask them if they want us to pick up tacos,” I said. “I’ve got a craving.”

We picked up dinner and drove home. Although we all had our own places, most nights we crashed together at Luke’s house, since it was the biggest. It also helped that he had a king-sized bed, which was important forotherlogistical reasons.

“How’d it feel?” Luke asked while we all ate dinner around the kitchen table.

I grinned broadly. “Like ridin’ a bike. Almost feels like the last year was just a bad dream.”

“You ready to do some real work?” Adam asked. “Don’t get me wrong. You’ve been a fine manager on the ground. But we all know that’s not where your heart is.”

“I never was good at math, but it seems like we’ve already got a full pilot roster.”

“Bobby knows he’s just been keeping your seat warm for you,” Luke said. “The other pilot position is all yours.”

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