“Sorry.” She twisted her hands together as she glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. “I’m not really good at small talk in normal situations, and this whole thing is just really weird.”
Hoping to relieve some of her self-consciousness, I flashed her a grin and teased, “What, your sister doesn’t auction you off on the internet on a regular basis?”
Her pretty green eyes widened, and she giggled as she shook her head. “I guess that’s a fair question, considering the circumstances and what I just asked. But no, this is a first for me.”
“Same.”
She laughed harder, shaking her head. “What I was really asking was if you step in as a white knight for damsels in distress often, not if you bid on women on the internet on the reg.”
“Yeah, I figured since that would be a super strange thing to wonder about, even under the circumstances.” I winked at her, and her cheeks filled with a pretty pink color. “But the answer is still the same.”
“What made you do it then?” She tilted her head to the side, and a lock of her dark hair slid over her shoulder.
I had to force my gaze away from her perfect tits before I made her second-guess her decision to get in my SUV even more than she seemed to already be doing. Focusing on the road, I shared the story about how I’d come to be the winning bidder on the auction her sister set up, skipping over the reasons I’d felt a driving need to be the one who found a solution to her problem. I still didn’t understand my reaction to her myself, let alone well enough to explain it to anyone else.
“Aw, please tell your boss and his wife thank you from me. I owe her big time for being so empathetic over my situation and him for letting you use the corporate jet.”
“Will do.” It sounded as though she thought Hadley’s reaction to the news report was the reason I was flying her to Portland, but I wasn’t going to correct her assumption when it worked in my favor.
As I pulled up at the gate to the private airstrip where we kept the planes, Mel started rifling through her purse. “Did you forget something important? We can circle back to your place before we leave if you need to go back.”
“No, just checking to make sure I have my ID for security.” She pulled her driver’s license from her wallet and wiggled it in the air. “I’m the kind of person who usually checks and double-checks to make sure they have everything before leaving thehouse, but I was too rattled to go through my usual routine this morning.”
I waved at the guard manning the gate, and he pressed the button to let us through. I flew out of this airport often enough that all the guys knew me. “No worries. You can put your license away because you won’t need it since we’re not flying commercial. The process here is a hell of a lot easier than going through TSA.”
“Oh, I didn’t know it was that different since I’ve never flown private before.” She tucked the card back into her wallet before zipping her purse close. “You don’t need it for the manifest or something?”
“Nah, your sister already gave me what I needed”—it went without saying that anything Ana hadn’t given me, I’d uncovered on my own—“so I was able to file the manifest last night.”
She scrunched up her nose, and my fingers itched to smooth the wrinkle that popped up on the bridge. “That seems like a serious hole in security.”
“Normally, you’d need to show your identification to the flight crew,” I explained as I pulled into a parking spot near the hangar we used. “But since that’s me today, you’re good.”
“Well, aren’t you handy to have around,” she murmured as I climbed out of the car.
Making a mental note to keep an eye out for chances to smooth the way for Mel whenever possible—since I doubted I’d end up impressing the fuck out of her by saving her life like Brecken had with Hadley—I grabbed our luggage from the back of my SUV. Flinging my duffel over my shoulder, I rolled her bag around to the passenger side before leading her inside the hangar.
“Holy crap,” she whispered, eyes going wide as she took in the row of planes.
“My boss was smart to get them since they’re a sound investment in my line of business.” I headed toward the smallest of the three and loaded our luggage inside. I’d already stopped by to fuel up and run through my maintenance checklist. “We’re taking this one since I’m piloting solo for this flight.”
Mel snorted as she followed onto the plane. “Yeah, I won’t be much help if anything goes wrong.”
“Are you a nervous flyer?” I slanted a glance her way, my hand hovering over the radio.
“I’ve never had an issue before.” She glanced around the interior of the jet. “Just tell me where to sit, and I’ll try not to get in your way while you do whatever needs to get done before we can take off.”
Although there was plenty of space in the cabin, I jerked my chin toward the co-pilot’s seat since I wanted to keep Mel close. Then I radioed for help with getting out of the hangar and finished preparing the plane for our flight. Less than thirty minutes later, we were in the air. I enjoyed the fuck out of watching Mel take in the sights as we flew to the West Coast.
From the time we’d arrived at the airport to when we were climbing into the rental car in Portland, only about four hours had passed. “Dang, that was a super-fast flight.”
“With a cruising speed that’s about a hundred miles per hour faster than a commercial Boeing 747, flying myself tends to save a lot of time,” I explained as I popped her sister’s address into the mapping app on my phone.
“Not to mention how much faster and easier it was to drive up to the plane without all the usual airport hassle.” She rubbed her hands together, her lips curving into a big grin. “Which means we’ll be there earlier than expected.”
Her sister’s house was a forty-five-minute drive from the airport, and there weren’t any other cars parked in the driveway when we pulled up. But there was a little boy with the same darkhair and green eyes as Mel waiting on the front porch. When she climbed out of the passenger seat and he came running toward her with a huge smile on his face, I felt as though I’d taken a direct hit to the chest. If meeting Mel hadn’t already made all my efforts today worth it, seeing how happy her nephew was would have.
5
