Page 2 of Hayden

So, how could I possibly say no?

Besides, it was good money, and I didn’t have a flight of my own scheduled for the next three days. I was supposed to have lunch with my mom today, but I could reschedule that.

“Okay,” I said, and her body relaxed against the pillows. “Make the call and let Rick know. I’m going to take a quick shower.”

I hurried out of the room. There was a lot to do before I got on the flight. I had to shower, do my hair, and apply makeup. It didn’t seem like much with a three-hour window of time before the plane left, but the New York City traffic was already clogging up the streets, so I needed to get moving.

I arrived at the airport just half an hour before the flight was supposed to leave. I didn’t have a chance to ask Evelyn too many questions since I was in such a hurry, so all I knew was that we were heading to Costa Rica. Apparently, some big time businessman had an important meeting to get to. Before I left, I tossed a bikini into my overnight bag, figuring that I might be able to enjoy the limited time I had there.

We’d be returning tomorrow afternoon.

Stepping onto the plane in my standard flight attendant uniform of navy slacks and a white blouse, I saw the pilot, a woman named Sandra with dark hair cut into a stylish bob and a smile that always reached her eyes. I’d worked with Sandra on a couple of flights, but she and her co-pilot husband had only been working at the airline for three months, so I didn’t know them well.

“What are you doing here?” she asked as she saw me. “I thought Evelyn was working today.”

“She’s sick, so I stepped in,” I said, stowing my bag overhead.

“That’s nice of you.”

I grinned. “And now she owes me one.”

Sandra laughed, and the door of the cockpit opened. Her husband, Dale, stepped out. He was short and stocky, with a dimple in his chin and a deep voice.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” He repeated his wife’s question.

“Rylee’s filling in for Evelyn today,” Sandra answered, her eyes going to the window. “And your time of arrival is perfect. It looks like Mr. Reid is here.”

Mr. Reid?

I didn’t bother to ask Evelyn if she knew who was flying today, because it usually didn’t matter to me which rich person we were carrying to business meetings or vacations or whatever. My job was the same, regardless.

Provide drinks and snacks. Offer a pillow if the passenger wanted to sleep. And most importantly, leave them alone.

Most of the time the job was easy because these people paid big money for private planes so that they wouldn’t have to interact with people. They wanted privacy and the ability to stretch out in the fully reclining seats. My role was just to be there when I was needed and practically invisible when I wasn’t.

But as the town car pulled up outside and I saw Hayden Reid step out of the back in a tailored suit and looking like a billion bucks, literally, I knew that this passenger was different from the others.

I’d never met him personally or any other Reid before, but I was well-aware of who they were. The patriarch of the family was an old man named Patrick, and the news had recently reported that he was ill, but no one seemed to have any details. Patrick’s son had died a few years ago, but he had three grandsons that ran the family company, KeenTech.

Hayden was the youngest of the siblings. And gorgeous, I realized, with thick dark hair and a face that was movie star worthy.

I hated how I was immediately attracted to him, despite every reason not to be.

My knowledge of the family didn’t come from a place of envy or interest. It was more of a “know your enemy” kind of thing, having learned at an early age how wealth and power could so easily destroy a person’s life. In this case, my own mother’s. All I knew from those painful years after my mother’s nervous breakdown after losing everything was that the Reid’s were the worst kind of wealthy snobs. Entitled and self-absorbed.

Reid men took whatever they wanted in life with no regard for others. They were obscenely wealthy and completely out of touch. I worked with rich people all the time, but this was a different caliber of the elite upper class.

I headed to the back of the plane and started going through my pre-flight checklist as Hayden boarded the plane. I heard Sandra and Dale introduce themselves to him, but I busied myself with what I was doing, hoping that he wouldn’t seek me out.

I’d have to talk to him eventually, of course, but I was feeling slightly flustered by his unexpected presence. I’d formed my opinion of The Reid family a long time ago based on my mother’s interaction with them, but I never thought I’d run into one of them like this. Face to face, and at his beck and call as the flight attendant.

Why didn’t they own a plane? They were certainly wealthy enough for it.

Finally, I finished checking my station, and I had everything I needed, so I approached Hayden, who had taken a seat in one of the six chairs for passengers on the plane. He was wearing an expensive looking suit, but he’d removed the jacket for the flight and draped it over the back of the chair beside him. The blue shirt he was wearing matched the brilliant blue of his eyes that were glued to me as I approached.

The pilots had gone into the cockpit, so it was just the two of us in this space. For some strange reason, that thought made me feel even more flustered, but in a way that was warm and completely unwelcomed.

“Hello, Mr. Reid.” I greeted him cordially, then introduced myself. “My name is Rylee, and I’ll be your flight attendant. Is there anything I can get for you before we take off? We have a fully stocked drink station and snacks available.”

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