“Hello, David. Come in.”
Wariness clouded his dark eyes as he glanced around. “Are your sisters here?”
“No. They’re giving us some privacy.”
“Oh. Good. Merry Christmas, Paige.” His hug was awkward, stiff and blessedly brief.
“You, too. Thanks for coming by.”
“Uh, yeah.” Looking ill at ease, he shifted on his feet. “Look, Paige, I’m sorry for the way I ended things. I—”
“Don’t be, David. It was the right thing to do. We’d become a habit. Don’t get me wrong, I do love you, and I probably always will.” He stiffened. “But like a really good friend. We grew up together, and we learned so much together. Those will always be special memories. But I’m not in love with you, not in the passionate way a husband and wife should be.”
Painful lesson or not, she had Trent to thank for that realization.
David looked both relieved and disappointed. “No hard feelings?”
“No. None.”
“So…can I buy you lunch or something?”
She searched his face, checking to make sure a meal was all he wanted to share, but she saw nothing remotely romantic or wistful in his expression. Then she thought about going to the local diner and eating under all those prying eyes. The grapevine would be humming before they opened their menus.
How many times had she told her sisters the only way to solve a problem was to face it head-on? The best way to quiet the gossips would be to prove they had nothing to talk about.
“I’d like that.”
“Lucky for you our momma decided to have the family join you in Vegas for Christmas this year,” Lauren, Trent’s half sister, said as she slid onto the bar stool beside his. “It’s not her usual exotic locale, or so I hear.”
No, and he wasn’t happy to have the family witness his misery. “Lauren, I’m not in the mood for company.”
His plane had left Vegas with the McCauleys last night as scheduled, but with an extra passenger. Paige. The crew hadn’t notified him until after they’d safely landed. He couldn’t go after Paige because the rest of the HAMC fleet was committed elsewhere.
“Your plane has returned, but your crew’s maxed out on hours. Our sister says you’re in desperate need of a pilot. I’m volunteering.”
Given he’d resented the hell out of Lauren when her existence had been sprung on them earlier this year, and he’d made her life…difficult, her offer surprised him. “You’ll miss your first Christmas with Gage.”
The love for his best friend in her smile choked him up. “Who do you think suggested I volunteer? You’re family, Trent, and sometimes you’re a bit of an ass, but Gage loves you and that’s good enough for me. If you want to go to South Carolina, I’ll get you there. It gives me an excuse to get my hands on that hot plane of yours again.”
“Smart ass.”
“Undeniably true. So what do you say? Wheels up in an hour?”
Gratitude tightened his chest. “I’ll be ready.”
Two hours later they were in the air, when Lauren’s voice came over the speaker in the passenger cabin of his jet. “Trent, I need you in the cockpit.”
“Why?”
“Get. Up. Here.”
The strain in her voice had him hustling forward. “What’s wrong?”
“Sit down. Strap in.” She pointed to the copilot seat with one hand and covered her mouth with the other.
“I don’t—”
“Do it.”
He debated reminding her who was in charge, but her pallor and the sweat on her brow alarmed him. For the first time in over a decade, he entered the flight deck and strapped in then put on the head set. “What’s going on?”
“Take the yoke.”
“I can’t fly.”
“Yes, you can. You have your license even if you don’t use it.”
“Lauren—”
“I’ve engaged autopilot.” She threw off her seat restraints and bolted for the back of the plane. The door to the bathroom slammed closed.
What in the hell was going on?
Adrenaline plowed through him, sharpening his senses and making the fine hairs on his nape stand on end. He shouldn’t be here. Heart-pounding minutes passed while he waited for Lauren to return. He studied the three liquid crystal displays of the instrument panel and listened to the quiet whine of the twin turbofan engines.
He flexed his fingers then curled them around the yoke and scanned the horizon through the wraparound windscreen.
Memories surged through him. His fingers tightened on the controls and it all came rushing back. His love of flying. His knowledge of the mechanics of the process.
God, he’d missed this. He was tempted to disengage the autopilot and test his skills. But he wouldn’t.
“You okay up here?” Lauren slid back into the pilot’s seat. She had slightly more color in her cheeks. She smelled like mouthwash.
“Yes.” And he meant it.
“Gage said you used to be a top-notch pilot.”
He and his best friend had flown almost everywhere. “I was good. But that was a long time ago.”
“Well, you’re going to get a refresher course this trip.” She yawned. “I need a nap.”
“The hell you do. What’s going on?”
She gave him a what’s-your-problem glare, one he’d been on the receiving end of dozens of times when he’d been giving her a rough time, then she ruined it by smiling brilliantly. “If I tell you, you have to swear to keep it to yourself. It’s a surprise. Even Gage doesn’t know yet.”
“Know what?”
“Jeez, you’d think a smart guy like you would figure it out. I’m nauseous and sleepy. I’m pregnant.”
The news winded him and then a surprising twinge of jealousy twisted his stomach. He’d never thought about having kids. But he liked the idea. With Paige.
Would her brown eyes ever glow with the knowledge that she carried his child? He might never get the chance to find out. He blinked away the choking emotions and focused on his half sister. “Congratulations. Gage will be thrilled.”
“I hope so. I mean, this wasn’t planned, but I think he’ll be okay with the idea. Our mom, on the other hand, is going to hate being called Grandma. Can you see the immaculately dressed and always perfect Jacqui Hightower as a granny? But she’ll have a house full of grandkids by the end of next year, so she’d better get used to it.”
Lauren yawned again then she leaned back in her seat. “Keep an eye on the sky and the instruments. This baby is set to fly herself to our destination, but it never hurts to pay attention. Wake me before we land, and I’ll talk you through it.”
Her eyes closed.
Shock rippled through Trent. Lauren was going to trust him to bring them in safely? Then he recalled that she spent half her time as an instructor. She was used to putting her life in the hands of others.
The knowledge was humbling. He had trouble putting anything in the hands of others.
His grip tightened on the yoke. He couldn’t wait to tell Paige she’d been right. He never should have walked away from what he loved. Flying or roller coasters. He wasn’t his father. He’d shown no sign of being unable to handle the downtime between highs.
If anything, the adrenaline rush was an asset because it sharpened his reflexes, memory and skills.
“Lauren?”
“Mmm,” she murmured back sleepily.
“Thanks for getting me up here.”
Her lids fluttered open, revealing the same Hightower teal eyes he saw in the mirror each morning. “Trent, like me, you have flying on your DNA, and when you’re born with a gift you can’t walk away from it. Love is one of those gifts. When you find it, you can’t let go.”
How was it that the women in his life—specifically the ones he’d treated badly—had a better handle on reality than he did?
But he planned to take his sister’s words to heart. He wasn’t about to let Paige go without a fight.
From the sidewalk, Paige waved as her past—David—drove out of sight, leaving her free to face her future.
A future that seemed a bit bleak at the moment, but one that held potential. She shoved her hands into her coat pockets.
Her mother joined her. “Are you okay?”
“Yes. Very okay. David and I made peace. I’m sorry I put it off for so long. It’s one of the reasons I avoided coming home.”
“You needed time to heal, Paige. We each do that in our own way. Of all my girls you were always the most private, the one who needed to hibernate while you tended your wounds. We were trying to give you time and space. We knew you’d come back when you were ready.”
A sad smile tugged Paige’s lips. “‘If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they’re yours. If they don’t, they never were,’” she quoted her mother’s favorite Richard Bach line.
“Yes. Exactly.” Her mother’s gaze sharpened on a white luxury sedan creeping down the street. “An outsider.”
“How do you know?”
“Baby, I know every car in the neighborhood and almost all the ones in the town—at least until tourist season. That one’s a rental. See the front plate?”
The setting sun glared on the windshield, blocking Paige’s view of the occupants, but her heart went a little wild when the driver pulled to the curb in front of her and turned off the engine. Dread knotted in her stomach.
The driver’s door opened. A dark blond head followed by the rest of Trent’s tall, muscular body unfolded. His intent blue gaze locked with hers over the roof.
The urge to run bolted through her.
“Someone you know?” her mother asked.
“Yes.”
“Want me to stay?”
Running solved nothing. “No. I can handle this.”
“Holler if you change your mind.”
Paige nodded without taking her eyes off Trent as he came around the front of the car and toward her.
“I’m sorry,” he said before she could unglue her tongue from the roof of her mouth. “I should have told you the day we met that I didn’t know you. I had reasons. At the time I thought they were good ones. But I was wrong. Please let me explain.”
She hated unanswered questions. But did she dare risk letting him rip another chunk out of her heart by listening to him?
She looked at her house. Her entire family would be watching and waiting to come to her aid. Then she glanced down the street and caught a couple of curtains twitching. No matter where she went someone would be watching.
“Let’s walk. There’s a park a short ways down the street.”
Trent fell into step beside her. Electricity hummed between them. How could she still want him, still ache for him when he’d lied to her? She inhaled deeply, filling her lungs with his cologne.
They’d passed three driveways before he spoke again. “I didn’t correct you the day we met for purely selfish reasons. Telling you my married brother had slept with you—”