He was right, and I was an idiot. It had never occurred to me to make arrangements for him to fly home. I should have done that while I had the concierge on the phone the night before making the air ambulance plans.
“I’ll text him when we get to the airport,” I promised. “Meanwhile, what do you think the mechanic is going to say?”
It only took thirty minutes for the mechanic to explain what had malfunctioned in the portside engine and tell us it could be fixed relatively easily. “I can probably get the parts up here by noon tomorrow, and then… I’d say the work will be done maybe noon the following day? Unless, of course, something unexpected happens.”
The three of us met with the safety inspector, who went through the mechanic’s conclusions and seemed to agree with everything. We made the requisite calls to the home office to make arrangements for the repairs, and then Nate called Brenda to arrange to keep our hotel rooms a couple more nights.
I hadn’t heard back from Teo about whether he needed to continue on to Frankfurt or not, so I tried to keep from getting a little excited about the possibility of spending more time with him. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend the next forty-eight hours than naked in bed with the sexy man.
When we were finally able to leave the airport and meet Teo and Brenda for lunch, I was starving. That had to have explained the odd feeling in my stomach when I walked into the hotel restaurant and saw Teo. He’d obviously showered and dressed in clean clothes. He looked handsome in a navy sweater and jeans. His smile was genuine and friendly as he spoke to Brenda, who already sat next to him at a four-top table. The hostess who led us to the table seemed unable to keep her eyes off Teo, and I couldn’t blame her. He was drop-dead fucking gorgeous, and I was honestly shocked he wasn’t already in a twelve-way relationship with a dozen of the most beautiful and generous gay men in the world whose sole purpose in life was to lavish him with attention and love.
“Um, Jack?” Teo said, jerking me out of that mental image. His bright eyes looked at me, unsure, which made me smile automatically in hopes of putting him at ease. His cheeks flushed.
There was an awkward moment when Nate leaned over to kiss Brenda hello. Suddenly, I was faced with the obvious reality of not being able to let on that Teo and I were anything other than acquaintances from the ill-fated flight. I was very new at the executive charter service that managed the Bankses’ Gulfstream, and the last thing I needed was for Nate to think I planned on sleeping with our passengers.
“Hi,” I said, clearing my throat. “We just heard that Mr. Banks’s plane landed and the transfer to Northwestern went smoothly.”
Teo nodded. “Chris called me. I’m so relieved to know he’s in good hands.”
I took the chair next to him so Nate could sit next to his wife. “Did you get my text about Frankfurt?”
“Oh, uh, yeah. Sorry. That’s actually why I called Chris in the first place. They don’t need me to go. The client went ahead and signed the papers remotely. It’s kind of a long story, but it was Grandpa Banks they wanted because of a family connection. We didn’t really need to have the papers signed in person.”
“Oh, good. Then…” I fiddled with my water glass. “You can head back to Chicago. We can help you find flights.”
Teo glanced between Nate and me. “Is the plane grounded for a while?”
Nate cut in. “Not at all. They think it’ll take about forty-eight hours for it to be ready. But we can probably get you back to Chicago on commercial flights sooner. I’ll warn you though, it’s a pretty long travel day. I think they stop in Halifax and Newark before O’Hare. Ten hours, maybe?”
Teo’s eyes widened. “But we were only in the air for a few hours before we got here.”
Nate continued. “Yeah. It’s only about three and a half for us. The problem is all the stops and layovers doing it on the airlines. You have to go around your elbow to get to your ass. It’s one of the reasons companies like Banks Consulting uses a corporate jet. That time is money when their high-level executives are the ones stuck in airports.”
Teo glanced back at me before speaking to Nate. I noticed his cheeks flush again a little bit which only made my stomach feel funnier. “I don’t really want to go by myself. Can I stay and ride back with you?”
“Of course,” Brenda said, reaching over to pat his hand. “It’s your plane, after all. You’re the client. We just want to make sure you’re happy and comfortable.”