“What gave you that idea?”
“You were always studying stars and planets.”
“You’re right. I was. I’m surprised you remember.” He tipped the glass of water, drank it all, and sucked a piece of ice into his mouth.
“How could I forget?” She watched him chew his ice. “Every time you finished a test early, you pulled out one of your astronomy books and buried your nose in it.”
“Yeah.” His teeth grazed his bottom lip. “Well, now the sky is my workplace.”
He raised his coffee cup to his lips. She shifted in her seat.
His biceps bulged in that pristine short-sleeved white shirt, perfectly pressed and starched. He wore no tie or epaulets, but she realized the pants and shoes were standard pilot uniform: navy trousers and black oxfords. His open collar revealed a throat she wanted to test with her tongue.
Heat flickered in his eyes under her shameless perusal, a corner of his mouth lifting in a semblance of the shy smile she used to know.
It finally sank in. Nick, full name Nicholas Sebastian Kent, was a pilot.
Ahotpilot. God knew there were very few of those.
Wearing … was that an Apple Watch? She couldn’t hold back a little laugh.
“What’s funny?” he asked.
“That mini-iPad strapped to your wrist.”
He glanced at it, lifting and turning his wrist to give her a better view, flexing his forearm as he did it. “I’ll have you know this is the Ultra 2. Capable of giving an accurate EKG.”
Good thing it couldn’t read her heart’s current electrical activity.
“I use it to track my workouts.”
“You work out often?”
“I do. Maintaining a regimen became easier once I could bring in another pilot to cover some of the flights.”
“How big is your company’s fleet?”
“Not that big. Two CJ4s.”
Her brother Adam had three of them. “Nice.”
“It is.” He grinned. “The company owners sell them as soon as they reach a certain number of hours, so I often get to fly new planes.”
Jannie knew Adam was always in need of pilots. “Are you happy there?”
“Yeah. They keep me on my toes, but I still get plenty of time off. They’re closing on a Challenger next week, and they’re sending me to Simcom to get typed on that one, just to keep me humble.”
Jannie couldn’t help it: she laughed. Nothing, but nothing, seemed humble about this version of Nick Kent.
His rakish grin was a captivating answer to her laugh. “What about you?”
“I practice near Orlando.”
“Orlando? That’s quite the distance from Fargo.”
“I went to UF and never wanted to leave Florida.”
Or Blake. He’d quit his job at LarsAir, her brother’s airline, to fly for JetBlue, just to be near her. And he’d pursued her until he’d gotten what he wanted.
