Page 15 of Arrogant Arrival

“Sure. Need me to fly you somewhere or just transport a plane?”

“Actually, I wanted you on the plane with me. I’ve never been to Greece. You’ve gotten to meet our family over there, and now that I have my own family… I don’t know. I just really want to meet them and thought we could take a family vacation. Would you go with us?”

“As long as it’s me introducing you to family, and nobody trying introduce me to available bachelorettes. Absolutely no one is allowed to try and marry me off while we’re there.”“I can’t make any promises for anybody else, but you’re safe with me and Dex. I don’t think little Georgina will try to marry you off either.”

This won’t be much of a vacation if I have everyone hounding me. If my mother could, she’d have me married while we’re there. But, honestly, I haven’t been to Greece in three years, so it would be nice to visit everyone again. “I don’t have any flights scheduled the beginning of next month. I’ll keep that week cleared. Sound good?”

“Perfect. Might even extend it to, say, nine days? I’ll see if Dex and I can clear our schedule as well.”

“Give Georgina kisses for me.”

“Will do! Bye, Jimmy.”

I end the call and sigh. Taking a commercial flight to Greece makes me automatically think of Jo. I hate it that my mind keeps going back to her. Anything and everything reminds me of her. I haven’t even eaten cheesecake again. I wonder what my pilot-hating stewardess has been up to. I wonder if I’ll ever see her again. Despite knowing it’s ridiculous, I can’t stop thinking about her. It’s been a month, and I’m still hung up over her. There was something about her that has me regretting not getting her full name or phone number before she stormed off, pissed. All because of what? That I’m a pilot? She’s the ridiculous one. She’s so ridiculous that she’s made me ridiculous. She’s an airline stewardess who hates pilots. That’s like an actor who hates cameramen.

The executive that I’m flying walks through the door right then, interrupting me from my thoughts. “Thank you for waiting on me, Jimmy.”

“No problem, sir. Ready to head out?”

“Yes. I hope you weren’t too bored while waiting?”

Pining over a woman I barely know and can’t find, listening to my meddling mother trying to marry me off to the first available Greek woman who comes along, and planning a vacation in Greece with my cousin and her wealthy husband? Nope. Not bored at all. The only silver lining is I’ll get to play with my sweet niece Georgina on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world.

Jolene

It’s been two months since my epic night of passion, but dammit if I can’t stop thinking about him. Worse, if I hear anything Greek, it reminds me of him, that and Elvis Presley. An Elvis song was playing in the Memphis International Airport, for obvious reasons, so I had to plug in my headphones. The bright side is that I’m completely over all the other heartaches and crushes. In fact, I’m so over any guy who’s not Jim that I don’t even give anyone a second glance. If I close my eyes, I can still feel and hear him. It’s great for a few minutes, my memories tiding me over until I open them and see that I’m still alone.

I sigh and look out the window of the plane. All these adventures I go on, and my most incredible night was a rainy layover in Miami with a stranger. The captain comes over the intercom and tells us to prepare for landing. Lana sits across from me and smiles. She has that look like she’s about to share a naughty secret.

“What did you do?” I drawl out.

“It’s not what I did, but who I’m hoping to do.”

I laugh and shake my head at her. “Okay…who’s the lucky guy?”

Lana grins. “George.”

“The new co-pilot?” I point my finger behind me.

“Yes. Isn’t he dreamy?”

I hadn’t really noticed.I haven’t noticed anyone since…I force a smile. “Well, way to welcome him to the team.”

“I’m nice like that. But there’s a slight problem that you could easily fix, my dearest and bestest friend and coworker.” I roll my eyes and she reaches across, grabbing my hands. “You have a layover in New York tonight and so does George. I have a leg to Athens. But since you don’t want to hook-up with George—him being a bad ol’ pilot and all, I could do this for you and let you have my connecting flight to Greece?”

Jim. Great. Even Greece is ruined for me.I’m so annoyed at myself for immediately thinking of Jim when Lana asks me to cover her shift to Athens, Greece. I’ve never been to Greece, so the thought is exciting and I could stay there a bit longer to take in the sights since I don’t have to work for a few days. I’m not sure if it’s the plane descending, or just my thoughts of Jim, but it causes my chest to sting and tighten. We bounce a little as the wheels hit the runway. Lana bats her long eyelashes at me and I cave. “Fine. But don’t think I noticed how you tried to make this sound as though you’re doing me a favor when it’s you who will be smiling by the end of the night.”

Lana just laughs because she knew what she was doing. That traitor.

We land and wish the passengers a wonderful stay and tell them we hope that they will fly with us again. The normal spiel. Once the plane is empty, I turn to Lana, “I guess I’ll let you handle clean-up since I need to rush and catch my next flight to Greece.” Lana sticks her tongue out at me as George appears in the doorway of the cockpit. She quickly slips it back in her mouth and smiles at him.Good luck, George, you’re gonna need it with this one.

Why can’t I be more Lana and Renee? They don’t have any issue having fun and being spontaneous with these pilots. Why do I keep letting myself get attached? Worse, I realize I just thought I was hung up on the guys before. That was a crush. Jim has gone past crushing me but ruining me. I don’t even want to think about hooking up with not only pilots, but anyone, for that matter.

When I board the plane, none other than Captain Clynes, aka Trip, greets me. I should be happy for him, and in a way, I am. I’m surprised to see thatMrs.Clynes and baby Brucey is on board the plane as well. I shouldn’t be too surprised. Sometimes they do travel with him. It must be so romantic and nice to fly and see the world together. That’s everything that I thought I could have.

“Hello, Kendall.”

“Hey, Jolene.” She smiles.

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