Page 31 of Flyboy

Her eyes widened, and she placed a hand on her mouth.

His face darkened, turning a dark red. “In your room.” He placed a hand on his forehead. “I didn’t mean that the way it sounded.” His eyes held an apology. And for a moment, she let him wallow in his awkwardness. Then she laughed. “Let’s get me into bed?”

“Yeah. Um. By yourself. Tonight . . .” He turned away. “Could this conversation get any more . . . ?” He eyed her again.

She started to shake with the effort to laugh quietly. She had to laugh or else consider such a thing, which would be disastrous. Both for her personal morals and for the complete lack of ethics for an employer-employee relationship. And she valued her job at Top Flight. How would that be to create problems with Colton, one of the executive board members? She just couldn’t go there, but a kiss? She sighed. Now that was not going to happen.

Colton turned toward the house, her fingers laced with his, and they tried to move as quietly as possible through the front door and up the stairs down the hall, until they stood at her door. She turned to face him, but he just lifted the back of her hand to his lips, sending a new round of shivers through her, and kept walking to the next door. He stepped inside without another look in her direction.

Once inside her room, she shut the door behind her, leaned her back against it, and closed her eyes. As her breaths left her one at a time, she tried to calm her body and prepare to rest, hoping to sleep the remaining four hours of her night. Knowing she would never find rest if she didn’t relax, she stepped into her bathroom and turned on the shower.

Chapter 13

Colton arrived at the hangar early the next morning. He’d grabbed one of the bikes on the property and rode in, leaving the truck for Omar and Ivy.

He needed to go through some of the paperwork. Amanda had been asking about some things. But he could do paperwork anytime. The real reason he had left so early was perhaps cowardly, perhaps gentlemanly. He wanted to give Ivy her space in case she regretted every moment of her asking to be kissed. She hadn’t said as much, but she’d put herself out there, and it had taken every bit of self-control in Colton’s arsenal to resist.

How many times had he argued that whatever they did would be fine? They could weather it in the morning. It was late. But those were not reasons to kiss a woman, no matter how irresistible she became, no matter how much fun they’d had, no matter how much he wanted to earn her good opinion, convince her to like him, wipe away her doubts. Kissing her would not be the best move, and the tiniest rational part of his brain had carried through every other desire pounding with deafening beats through the blood at his ears.

And now, he wanted to give them space this morning to work through whatever they were feeling, to help her if she regretted every second of their evening.

He shut down his laptop when the last file was sent to the group drive for Top Flight. He sat back in his chair, looking out over the rough ocean. The winds had picked up; the white caps of the dark-blue waves extended farther out into the ocean. But the sky was clear of clouds. It would be another great day for flying. The team was progressing. They were excellent pilots already and would become more so.

Colton was proud of Top Flight, of the program they’d developed. He was proud of his team. Ace, Bear, Mustang, and himself had really put together something epic. He’d joined for the money. He’d told them flat out, “I’m here for the money.” But it had turned into much more than that. And he now considered the work they did as important.

“There you are.” Ivy’s voice amped up his awareness on all levels.

He turned, pasting a smile on his face, belying the nervous pounding in his heart. But her smile was large and warm and unassuming. Omar stepped in behind her. She clipped across the room, clipboard in hand. What used to annoy him, he now found endearing. “Omar and I have been going over the pilots in preparation for their reviews. And we wanted to get your opinion on a few of these.”

“Oh, excellent.” He sat at the table, and the other two joined him. Things seemed normal between him and Ivy. So normal, he didn’t know what to think. She hadn’t even given him anything extra to go off of, no smile, no double look, nothing intimate, nothing uncomfortable. Not even anything awkward. He admitted to himself that he was disappointed. But he was not deterred. They went over each of the pilots and filled out the paperwork to use in their reviews.

“I can start pulling them from class and doing personal interviews.” Ivy looked from Colton to Omar. “Unless you think we each need to be there.”

Omar shook his head.

Colton nodded. “That’s great. I’ll do their exit interviews. You’re the best one to do this initial assessment. Omar can talk to them at the midpoint.”

They discussed a few of the other details, some of the issues they’d been having, and then closed up the meeting just as the first pilots began to arrive.

Before Colton slipped out the door, he pulled Ivy aside. She still looked perfectly professional and undisturbed. He stepped closer. Still no response. He wanted to place a finger at her wrist and check to see if her heart rate was thumping through her like his was. “So. Some of the guys were talking, and they said that Padre Chagas had a fun nightlife. It’s full of restaurants and bars and lined with flowers. There’s a park in the middle.”

“Oh? That sounds fun. We planning some after-work team bonding with them?”

With them.“Yes. Excellent idea. I was thinking of bringing it up today during our wrap up.”

“Great. I’m in.” She smiled. Not the tremulous, apologetic smile, not the full we’re-dancing-together smile, just this impartial professional smile, and Colton wanted more than anything to break through that new ice. “Come with me.”

He turned to walk out the door.

“Wait, what?” Ivy looked back at the pilots who were all seated and ready. Omar raised his eyebrows from the front of the room.

“It will only take a moment.” Colton held the door open.

She followed him out. He wasn’t sure she would. And now that she had, he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. But he led her around the corner from the classroom to an empty hallway. Then he turned back. “Saturday.”

“Hmm?”

“Saturday. I want to take you out. On a date. Again.”

---