“Don’t worry, we’re here to kick it for you.” Skylar returned to her seat and raised her glass. “To Kathleen, who was as wise as she was wonderful. And who would want you to do what feels right, even if that meant having sex with Zach.”
“I’m not having sex with my ex-husband. For a start it would be more than he deserves and secondly that would make me stupid twice.”
“Was it stupid the first time?”
“Yes.” Brittany took a sip of wine and stared through the window, watching as the last of the evening sun sent a golden glow over the garden. “He was too damaged, too messed up, to ever trust anyone. He treated every human being he met with anger and suspicion. Maybe that was understandable in the circumstances, but it didn’t make a great foundation for a relationship and you can’t build a solid, lasting structure without foundations. A relationship is a structure, isn’t it? It’s something you build together.” She stared into the distance, thinking about what had gone wrong. “I was flattered that he was even interested in me. Everyone warned me, but I didn’t listen. I thought we had something special, and in a way maybe we did, but it still wasn’t enough. You can’t have a relationship without trust and intimacy, and Zach didn’t know anything about either of those things.”
Emily picked up her fork. “You still have feelings, don’t you? In which case you’re right to be careful.”
“Where’s the fun in being careful?” Skylar ate hungrily. “I don’t want to be bed bound at ninety with arthritic hips, regretting all the sex I didn’t have. I want to be able to lie there with a smile on my face thinking, man, that was good. I think you should throw caution to the wind and have wild monkey sex with him.”
“It isn’t going to happen. I’d rather drop a hair drier in the bath while I’m standing in it. My plan is to ignore the feelings and hope they go away.” Brittany ate a few mouthfuls. “This is good.”
“It is. I’m trying to work out what’s in it—” Emily dissected the food on her plate. “And even if you’re planning on ignoring those feelings, you can still let Zach fly you to the hospital. It would be the perfect opportunity to prove to him once and for all that you’re not hiding anything. Think of it this way. The journey will be quick and free.”
“Nothing in life is free. Zach was the one who taught me that.”
And she wondered what the price was going to be this time.
CHAPTER EIGHT
OF ALL THE PLANES he’d flown since that first flight with Philip, the Cessna Caravan was his favorite. As a bush pilot, he’d flown at both ends of the temperature spectrum, first in Australia where he’d spent a short time flying for a company that served remote Aboriginal communities, then in Alaska where the sheer versatility and performance of the aircraft had enabled him to fly across 92,000 square miles of isolated Arctic wilderness that included the oil-rich Prudhoe Bay. He’d flown everyone from physician’s assistants on search-and-rescue missions, to a school volleyball team competing in a high school athletic program. They all had one thing in common. They needed a skilled pilot and a reliable plane that could land anywhere.
When it had come to setting up his own business, Zach had known which plane he wanted. He’d chosen the Amphibian so that he could land on any terrain, and opted for an interior luxurious enough to satisfy the pickiest billionaire.
Philip Law had taught him many things, one of which was the importance of a thorough preflight check.
Given that flying was still the single thing he loved most in the world, he figured it made sense to make sure the plane wasn’t likely to fall out of the sky.
He started at the nose of the aircraft, checking the battery and fuel control unit. The sun beat down on him and he wiped his forearm across his brow before moving on to the exhaust stack, the P3 pneumatic bleed air lines and the orange cockpit heat hoses. In this aircraft the engine-fire detection loop went around the exhaust stack and the P3 bleed air lines, so he made sure there were no cracks in the exhaust or loose connections that were likely to trigger the engine fire light and set off earsplitting alarms in the cockpit.
He moved through his checks, swift but thorough, and gave the cowling door a gentle punch with his fist to make sure it wasn’t going to pop open after takeoff.
Because he was on top of the aircraft, he saw the car approach and pull up.
A glimpse of rich gold in the driver’s seat told him Emily was driving and he watched as the two women hugged, displaying an emotional connection far outside the scope of his own experience. The visible demonstration of affection did nothing to warm the cold, dark place inside him.
He had no doubt that their friendship was deep and genuine. He also knew that true friendship required trust and a leap of faith, which was why his relationships only ever skimmed the surface.
It wasn’t just that he didn’t trust anyone. He knew he couldn’t be trusted.
And Brittany knew that, too.
She’d handed him her heart, and he’d dropped it.
He watched as she stepped out of the car.
Her hair shone in the sunlight and an oversize pair of dark glasses covered her eyes. She’d replaced her trademark shorts with a pair of skinny jeans and her favorite hiking boots with pretty canvas flats.
Wondering what the hell had possessed him to offer to fly her to the mainland, Zach turned back to the aircraft, finished his check and then joined her on the tarmac.
“Philip gave me the message that you’d changed your mind.” And he’d done it with a knowing look that Zach had chosen to ignore.
“I decided you were right.” She adjusted the glasses on her nose. “There was no reason at all for me to turn down your kind offer.”
It hadn’t been a kind offer. It had been a— What had it been?
A salve to his guilt?