He didn’t like being shut out. “Problem solving is what I do best. Let me help you.”
She held his gaze for several moments. Indecision flickered across her face and her mouth opened then closed. She shook her head. “Not this time. But thank you for offering.”
She squirmed again and he let her go. His body slipped from hers, and cool air circulating through the plane replaced her warmth, but it was her mental withdrawal that chilled him. She stood, pushed down her skirt, and turning her back, hastily pulled up her panties and hose, buttoned her shirt and straightened her uniform.
He rose and redressed while she used the onboard bathroom. When she finished he took his turn, discarding the condom and washing up. She was waiting when he returned to the cabin with her shoulders stiff and her chin high.
“I won’t be distracted in the cockpit if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I have complete faith in your flying capabilities. If I didn’t, not even Trent’s friendship would make me put my life in your hands or your aircraft.”
She bit her bottom lip. “I need a favor.”
Tension crept into his muscles. Women always wanted something. For them, everything came with a price. “Name it.”
“Please don’t tell Trent about our…involvement.”
“I meant it when I told you I’d keep our private business between us.”
“I just needed to be sure. Thank you.” She closed the distance between them, rose on tiptoe and kissed him briefly, then rocked back on her heels and took a deep breath. “Let me get this bird in the air and get us home.”
She turned toward the cockpit and a heavy weight descended over him. What in the hell was his problem?
And then he knew.
He was falling for Lauren Lynch. Falling hard.
Nine
Emotion grabbed Lauren by the throat Thursday evening. The accident report fell from her shaking hands to the floor inside her apartment door where she’d torn open the package the moment the deliveryman had departed.Grief, relief and despair twisted inside her like a waterspout. Her father’s death hadn’t been suicide. His crash had been caused by mechanical defect in the plane’s design.
The plane she’d helped him build.
A logical corner of her mind insisted she wasn’t an aeronautical engineer, and couldn’t have predicted the bolt would shear off or the disastrous results. But she’d practically been raised in a hangar. She knew aircraft structure and maintenance backward and forward, and she’d worked by her father’s side on this project for the past ten years.
As many times as they’d dismantled and reassembled the major components, why hadn’t she noticed the faulty part? And how had he flown the plane so many times before without incident?
She stabbed a hand into her hair and circled the room. Maybe if he’d let her fly the plane, she’d have felt an unusual shimmy or lack of responsiveness the failing bolt would have caused. Maybe she could have averted disaster. But her father had never let her take the controls of what he’d called his baby.
She had to call Lou. She reached for her phone, and checked her watch. No one would be in the office this late in the evening. She punched his cell number. When voice mail picked up on the first ring she groaned in frustration. He’d forgotten to turn on his phone again. She left a quick message and disconnected. For a man who could handle any technical aspect of an airplane, he hated what he called modern contraptions like cell phones. She’d only recently convinced him to use the Internet. She’d have to call him at home later after his Thursday night bowling club.
But she needed to talk to someone now, someone who would understand the contradictory guilt and relief racking her.
Gage.
The idea hit her with a jolt of adrenaline. He had a way of looking at a situation from all angles. Maybe he could help her work through the emotions torturing her. She hadn’t seen him since a scowling Trent had met them the moment Lauren had opened the airplane door Monday night, and strangely enough, she’d missed Gage the past three days.
Had what they’d shared in San Francisco meant nothing to him? Had he decided to dump her now that he’d slept with her? The idea hurt, and that was stupid because there was no chance of a future between them. But still…
She’d thought him different from the Whits of this world who used a woman then moved on as soon as a model with better perks and more connections came along. If she hadn’t, she never would have gone to bed with Gage.
Either way, she didn’t want to call him. Because of his connection to Trent, revealing the financial reasons some believed her father had committed suicide wouldn’t be a good idea. Falcon’s indebtedness would only reinforce every negative belief her half siblings had about her.
That left Jacqui—if Jacqui was back in the country. She hadn’t been home when Lauren returned from San Francisco. But Jacqui wasn’t a good choice since she was rarely the voice of reason. Still…as much as Lauren had been haranguing her mother for answers, Jacqui deserved to know what the report had uncovered.
Lauren grabbed the papers and her keys and raced down the stairs to her truck. The bite of the cold night air penetrated her sweater, making her realize she’d forgotten her coat. Too bad. She wasn’t taking the time to go back and fetch it.
Shivering, she revved the engine and headed for the Hightower estate. If she was lucky, Trent wouldn’t be there. Twenty minutes later she hit the doorbell.
Fritz opened the door. “Good evening, Miss Lynch.”
“Is she here?”
“In the salon.”
“Is Trent here?”
“No, miss.”
Good.
Fritz turned and led the way. “Ms. Lynch, for you, Madam.”
He stepped aside, revealing Jacqui sitting near the fireplace, dressed immaculately as always, this time in a dark teal color that brought out the color of her eyes. Lauren couldn’t remember ever seeing her mother looking less than perfect. Jacqui’s perfection had always been daunting for a rough-and-tumble girl who’d usually had skinned knees, scraped knuckles and hair trimmed by her father.
“Lauren, this is a surprise.” Jacqui rose and crossed the room to give her one of those meaningless air kisses.
“I’m sorry I didn’t call. I’m surprised Fritz let me in.”
“He’s been told I’m always available to you.”
Nice, but a couple of decades too late. And being physically available didn’t equate to being emotionally accessible. “I have the accident report. Dad’s death wasn’t suicide.”
“I told you it wasn’t.” Jacqui seemed even more tense than her usual uptight self.
“But why should I have believed you when you wouldn’t tell me anything else? Like what you and Daddy discussed that afternoon that sent him racing for the airstrip the moment you left. He flew off without filing a flight plan or telling anyone where he was going or when he’d be back.”
“That’s because I—” Jacqui looked away briefly. “I’m sorry. May I offer you some refreshment?”
Lauren gritted her teeth over the stalling tactic. Jacqui had quite a varied collection of ways to avoid a discussion. “No. Thank you. If we’d known his flight plan, he wouldn’t have lain out there in the Glades so long.”
Jacqui flinched. “The medical examiner’s report stated Kirk died instantly and didn’t suffer while waiting for rescue.”
“That’s the only thing that makes the idea of him dying alone bearable.”
Jacqui squared her narrow shoulders as if bracing herself. “What did the report say?”
Words tumbled in Lauren’s head—words a nonpilot wouldn’t understand. “Without getting technical, the plane’s design was faulty. There was too much stress on some parts. Dad hit stall speed during a steep turn and lost control because a bolt sheared off. He was flying too close to the ground to level out and set her down on her belly. That’s why he went in wing first.”
Jacqui bowed her head, covered her mouth with one beringed, manicured hand and turned away. A muffled sob broke the silence then her shoulders shook.
Watching her mother’s grief made Lauren uncomfortable. Unsure of what to do, she picked at the side seam of her jeans and cleared her tightening throat.
Pilots don’t cry. Her father’s voice echoed in her head.
She inhaled deeply, struggled for composure. Focus on the facts. “I should have noticed the worn part when we broke the plane down and reassembled her. If I had, then maybe he’d still be with us.”
Jacqui spun around, fists curled, body taut. Her mother’s red-rimmed eyes zeroed in on her. “Don’t you dare blame yourself for this. You have nothing to feel guilty about. I am the one who should have stopped him.”
Lauren blinked in surprise at her mother’s vehement tone. “How do you think you could have done that?”
“If I hadn’t given him the money—” Another sob choked off her words, leaving nothing but the crackle of the fire to fill the silence.
Lauren senses went on alert. “Money for what?”
Jacqui wrung her hands. “The engineering evaluation, the repeated upfittings…”
A knot formed in Lauren’s stomach. “Wait a minute. Back up. What engineering evaluation?”
Jacqui’s fidgeting stopped. “Kirk didn’t tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
Her mother crossed to the wet bar and splashed clear liquor from a crystal decanter into a matching tumbler. After taking a healthy swig, she faced Lauren.
“Kirk contacted me just before your eighteenth birthday. He had designed an airplane that he was sure was going to make him rich. He knew there was something not quite right with it, but didn’t know what or how to fix the problem. He asked me to use my connections to get an independent engineering consult. I agreed on the condition that I got to tell you I was your mother and spend more time with you. I had wanted to for years, but that wasn’t part of my original agreement with your father or my husband.”
Lauren let the information soak in. Her mother had wanted to see her? She found that hard to believe. “About the money…?”
“Your father couldn’t afford the engineer’s fee. I had chosen the best, of course. So I paid it.” She paused to gulp more of her drink. “The engineer found a flaw in the swept-back wing design and told your father it couldn’t be corrected. It was something intrinsic in the structure. In fact, the engineer recommended your father not continue to fly the plane. But that airplane was your father’s dream, and he wouldn’t be dissuaded. He convinced me to loan him the money to keep working on the design. Because I couldn’t bear to kill his enthusiasm, I continued to fund the project.”
Maybe her half siblings had good reason to distrust her. “How much money are we talking here?”
“That’s irrelevant. It was my money to do with as I pleased, and until recently, I covered my tracks well.”
“What do you mean until recently?”