Page 32 of Finding You

KYLEN

Kylen didn’t have enough clients to pay his bills on private charters, but he had enough of them to make ends meet when he couldn’t be on his normal flight schedule. And it was how he decided to occupy his Monday. One of his new clients, a man named Montez Oliveria, had booked him for a short flight to Cape Cod. He was requested to sit at the airfield and wait for an hour.

It wasn’t the worst job, and it paid a decent amount—plus, he got to fly Montez’s plane, which was one of the nicest ones he’d ever seen. The man had the luxuries of a billionaire but the humility of someone in public service, and Kylen didn’t entirely understand him.

But he appreciated that Montez sat beside him in the cockpit and kept him company.

“You ever want to learn to fly?” Kylen asked when they were about an hour in.

Montez gave him a soft, pained smile. He looked very young, kind of windswept on purpose, with dimples in his cheeks and a very faint accent Kylen was pretty sure was French. “I know how to fly. But I can’t.”

Kylen frowned. “You know there are a ton of accommodations for people these days. I went to flight school with a Deaf guy who owns a very successful business.”

Montez’s smile went a little sadder—a little smaller. “It’s a neurological issue. I have seizures, and I faint. It’s not safe. Stress makes it worse, and if I’m sitting here, even with a co-pilot, all I can think about is if I’m going to lose consciousness. It’s better this way.”

Kylen didn’t know what to say to that. “So what do you do, then?”

Montez laughed. “I’m a lawyer. I do family law and things like that. Family business. I just passed the bar last year.”

“I didn’t know first year family lawyers could afford private jets,” Kylen said, then slapped his hand over his mouth. “Sorry.”

Montez threw his head back with his next laugh. “It’s okay. We can’t. It was a gift from my grandfather. He’s not a lawyer.”

The tone of that statement told Kylen not to ask, so he didn’t. Instead, he adjusted himself back a little since most flying these days was done entirely by the plane. He was more an observer and button pusher. But he still loved it.

“I mostly do commercial flying,” he said after a while. “I’m on leave right now because my grandmother fell and broke her hip, but it’s a good job. Pays a lot more than I thought I’d ever be paid when I was growing up.”

Montez gave him a curious look. “Not a lot of people take care of their grandparents these days.”

Kylen shrugged. “She was always good to me when I was little. My parents love me but hate my choices.”

“Like your choice to become a pilot?”

“Like my choice to come out of the closet,” Kylen said, feeling bold.

“Ah.” Montez nodded. “I know that very well. It took my family some time to come around. They’re very Catholic.”

“What does that mean?”

Montez scoffed. “It means it’s perfectly acceptable for my father to bring home a woman six months older than his youngest son, but should I fall for even a good man, my soul will be condemned to purgatory.”

“Well, it’s not hell, so that’s something?” Kylen offered.

Montez blinked, then threw his head back and laughed again. “I like you.” Kylen started to grin, and then Montez said, “Would you care to have dinner with me?”

Under any normal circumstances, Kylen would have said yes. He would have said hell yes. Fuck yes. Let’s do this. In fact, he could have said yes and then solved the problem with his daughter’s very straight teacher pretending to be his boyfriend.

But saying yes felt almost like cheating. That was a problem Kylen would have to solve, but the truth was he wasn’t ready to want anyone besides Dallas right then. As fucked as it was.

“Have I crossed a line?”

“No. No, no,” Kylen said in a rush. “I think you’re ridiculously good-looking, and I’d be lucky to have dinner with you.”

“But?”

“I kind of have a thing,” Kylen said. He didn’t want to lie, but the truth was too absurd, so he muddled it all. “There’s a guy…it’s kind of weird, but I like him. It wouldn’t be fair to you.”

Montez didn’t look upset at all. “Thank you for telling me. He sounds like a lucky man.”

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