Paris or Bust!

PROLOGUE

There is nothing more special than a mother/child relationship, which basically makes being a mother the best job in the world. I don’t need an award for that, but I’m applying for the Mother Of The Year award anyway. It’s not because I’m the greatest mother on the planet-although I do think I’ve done a great job-but simply because my daughter is the best daughter out there. I figure that means I’ve done something right. Let me tell you about her.

Kylie Birmingham is kind and giving. She takes care of everyone around her without complaint, including me, her grandmother, and an entire airport, and trust me on this, that’s not an easy job. She’s hardworking, dedicated and yes, okay, she’s also stubborn as all get-out, but that’s because she cares so much.

So please consider me for Mother Of The Year. If I win, I plan to use the trip to take Kylie on vacation, which she desperately needs. In Paris I can spoil her for once. I can ply her with wine and food and culture. I can make sure she laughs and smiles. She really needs that. And a nice French man as a bonus…for me.

You’re probably wondering why Kylie works so hard. She’s running her deceased daddy’s airport, which she loves more than anything, but as with just about everything Kylie is passionate about, she’s developed tunnel vision to the point of ignoring all else, such as life.

So in conclusion-an essay has to have a conclusion, right?-please award me Mother Of The Year so I can take my wonderful, deserving, overworked and endearingly curmudgeonly daughter to Paris, and give her a life. Thank you!

CHAPTER ONE

ONE OF THESE DAYS Kylie Birmingham figured she’d slow down. But as she ran, gasping for breath, toward the maintenance hangar with a cell phone to her ear, a can of sealant in one hand, a wrench in the other and the radio at her hip squawking, she knew it wouldn’t be soon.

She lived her life running through her airport, or so it seemed. The crux of being her own boss, she supposed, and of being the boss of thirteen-and-a-half others, as well-the half being Patti the custodian because she was pregnant. Kylie didn’t count the baby as one half, she counted Patti that way, since she spent every afternoon sleeping in the storage closet while pretending to check supplies.

The radio squawked again. Dispatch needed her. Kylie’s extremely wealthy and extremely spoiled rotten client in the lobby needed her. Her head mechanic needed her. Her secretary needed her. Her accountant needed her.

Kylie’s head pounded, and she realized what she needed-a vacation.

Paris would do. Yes, Paris with its teeming crowds and bustling streets, Paris with the mind-boggling architecture and museums she could lose herself in, with the bakeries she could get happily fat in…oh yes, Paris, wild and romantic Paris, would do perfectly.

She’d never really take a vacation. Too frivolous, too time-consuming…and neither frivolous nor time-consuming were exactly part of her nature.

Her legs pumped the quarter mile distance between the front lobby and the third hangar of the small, private Orange County airport. The late-summer heat didn’t bother her, nor the fact that she hadn’t eaten since six that morning, but then again, stamina had never been a problem for Kylie.

Time, however…time was a problem, a big one. With so much work to do, there was no wild and romantic anything in her life, much less fantasizing about a trip to Paris.

“Kylie…are you listening to me?”

The voice came from the cell phone permanently planted to her ear. It was the sweet little voice of the biggest tyrant she’d ever met. “Yes, I’m listening,” Kylie said. “As my accountant, I always listen to you, Lou.”

“That’s Grandma Lou to you,” her grandmother said. “And I need your checkbook. I think I forgot to balance the thing last month…and maybe the month before…I don’t know. Anyway, the bank is calling, and…”

Kylie’s stomach fell to her toes. As she’d learned six months ago, it had been an incredibly stupid idea to hire her grandma after Grandpa had died. But the four foot four inch, eighty-going-on-sixteen Lou had blinked those rheumy baby blues, claiming poverty and boredom, and that she’d be dead in a week if someone, anyone, didn’t give her a job. And because Kylie, like her father before her, collected the needy, she’d folded like a cheap accordion on talent night.

The radio at her hip was still crackling with tension as the three people in her dispatch continued to argue over who was going to work the late shift tomorrow night. Their second richest client was coming through at midnight and required some tie-down assistance. Cocking her head, Kylie listened as the tiff upgraded to mutiny, which was nothing new. Bringing the radio to her mouth, she panted for air as she slowed down. “I’ll be there in two minutes. Fix this before I get there and heads won’t roll.” Empty threat, and they all knew it. She couldn’t have found another linesman, dispatch or mechanic in this puny, one-horse hellhole to save her life, but it was her hellhole and she’d make it work.

She always did.

“Well.” Her grandmother huffed a bit in her dainty little voice over Kylie’s cell phone. “No need to get your panties in a twist. Fine, then. I’ll handle this situation myself.”

“Grandma, I was talking to-”

“That’s Lou to you.”

Dial tone.

The cell rang again before Kylie could toss it in a ditch. Warily, she glanced at the caller I.D. and sighed.

“We have a situation in the front lobby,” Daisy, her secretary-and mother-reported.

A chip off Lou’s block as another sweet, little, dainty ex-socialite, Daisy had lost all her money dabbling in day trading. She couldn’t file, couldn’t answer a phone without disconnecting someone and couldn’t find the engine compartment of an airplane to save her life.

Yet another pity hire.

Funny though, the only person Kylie pitied at the moment was herself. “What’s the situation?” She pictured two planes coming in at the same time, or a computer failure. Maybe a plane hadn’t been tied down properly and was hurling itself down the slight hill toward the hangar designated as the lobby, because nothing, absolutely nothing, would have surprised her today. “Mom?”

“I’ve been answering the phone all morning and I need aspirin. Do you have any?”

Kylie stopped, leaned against hangar number two and thunked her head back against the metal wall. Eyes closed, head tipped up facing the sun, she decided she was the one who needed aspirin. She loved her mom with all her heart, she did, but for once, just once, she wanted her mother to be the mother.

“Maybe I should leave early.”

“But mom, the phones-”

“No problem, I figured that all out weeks ago. I just call line one with line two, then put them both on hold.” Daisy’s bubbly laughter tinkled in Kylie’s ear. “That way the phones are both busy and you don’t miss any calls! Ingenuous, huh?”

Kylie resisted the urge to slit her wrists. “How often do you do this?”

“Why, whenever I need to go home early. Just a couple days a week, I suppose. Oh, and guess what I just did, honey?”

Kylie was afraid to guess, honest to God she was.

“I picked up my favorite magazine this morning, and besides having that hunky Harrison Ford on the cover, it had a contest form for some Mother Of The Year award. You’ll never guess what I’m going to win.”

Kylie choked back a laugh because it would probably be a half-hysterical one. Mother Of The Year? Wouldn’t that be Kylie, who’d raised everyone around her?

“A trip to Paris!” Daisy laughed. “Isn’t it too perfect?”

Busy streets, lots of wine, no anxieties…no mother or grandmother to drive her off her rocker. “Perfect,” she agreed.

“I know! Everyone deserves their dream, honey, and I know yours is Paris. So when I win Mother Of The Year-which, of course, I will, as I’ve done a fabulous job with you, if I say so myself-I want you to come with me!”

The sun felt good on Kylie’s face. If only she could stand here all day instead of going inside and facing the chaos. “Mom, if I wanted a trip to Paris, I’d go.”

“No, you wouldn’t. Because ever since your father died you’ve taken it upon yourself to run this place just because it was his dream.”

It was Kylie’s dream, too, to kept the airport afloat, to see it prosper.

All she needed was a miracle.

Both she and her dad were practical, single-minded, goal-oriented, orderly, sane people, who had shared this weakness for the impractical, chaotic, unorderly, bankruptcy-bound airport. Maybe because in the air, they found true freedom, or because there was just something about walking through a hangar full of planes knowing you could hop in one and be anywhere you wanted to be. Whatever the reason, the airport had been her dad’s one passion, and she’d inherited both his love for the place…and the debts.

“You know, if you’d only get married, you’d feel more relaxed. Grandma said a nice boy just moved in across-”

“No,” Kylie said quickly. Relationships didn’t work for her. She only had room in her life for one problem area-the airport. Everything else had to be, well, easily managed, practical.

Men were not easily managed or practical, not for her.

Her mother and grandma shared the opposite approach. Men were like candy, to be gobbled up. They often tried to impose this lifestyle on the reluctant Kylie in the form of blind dates from hell. “I don’t need a date,” she reiterated.

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you do.”

“No, I-” She broke off, refusing to argue with the one woman no one on the planet could win an argument with. “So there isn’t an emergency up there?”

“You work too hard, Kylie. You care too much, you give too much. You need to get something back, and this trip-”

“Mom. Is there an emergency up there?”

“Of course there is. I told you, I need aspirin!”

“Okay, fine. I’ll be there as soon as I put out the fire in dispatch, deal with Grandma, and-”

“There’s a fire in dispatch? Why didn’t you say so? I’ll call 9-1-1.”

“No!” Kylie lowered her voice with effort. “Don’t call 9-1-1, I have it covered.”

“Well, if you’re sure, honey.”

“I’m sure. Gotta go, Mom. Don’t call 9-1-1. I repeat, don’t call 9-1-1.”

“You don’t have to shout, Kylie Ann.”

She could feel her blood pressure rising. “You know what, Mom? Take the whole afternoon off. On me.”

“Oh, honey, really?”

“Really-” She hadn’t finished the word before her mother disconnected. Picturing her mother racing for the door, and bulldozing over clients in her hurry to get out, Kylie managed not to thunk her head against the wall again.

BY LATE THAT NIGHT Kylie had handled each and every crisis, including dealing with the fire department, who’d come roaring out, sirens and lights flashing, due to her mother’s call.

Because of course she’d called 9-1-1 before heading out.

But for now, everything was good. She was head-deep into the engine compartment of a Cessna, with good old-fashioned rock music cranked up to head-banging volume on the radio, singing to her heart’s delight as she worked. The airport was empty, shut down for the night, and she was in her favorite state.

Alone.

Yes, maybe she’d rather be in Paris, but this wasn’t so bad either. She stood in her airport-thank you, Dad-surrounded by her favorite things…airplanes. Airplanes couldn’t talk back, couldn’t screw up the bank account, couldn’t leave early to get their nails done and their hair bleached.

She felt lucky, even with the debt weighing her down. After college she’d worked at other private airports to gain experience, always knowing she’d end up back here. She’d just never imagined she’d be here without her father, the only man to ever really understand her.

Wearing overalls stained with grease, her old clunky work boots and a backwards baseball cap on her short mop of dark hair, she felt perfectly content. Even-get out the record books-relaxed.

“Hey, babe.”

And just like that, with those two simple words uttered in that unbearably familiar, husky and, damn it, sexy voice, she shot from content to tense in a heartbeat.

McKinnon.

Peace shattered, an automatic snarl appeared on her mouth. “What do you want?” she asked without turning around.

“Hmm. That’s quite a question.”

A tall, dark shadow fell over her, but she didn’t need to turn her head to see the long, leanly muscled form of Wade McKinnon, owner of McKinnon Charters, not when that very form was seared on her brain from what she had aptly named The Unfortunate Incident.

The Unfortunate Incident had occurred last New Year’s Eve, at their annual airport bash where all the employees used the holidays as an excuse to party hard and work little. Her mother, ever so helpful, had spiked the punch, which, Kylie told herself, was the one and only reason she’d been caught beneath the mistletoe by Wade in the first place. Technically, he wasn’t even an employee, he merely leased space for his operation. But she’d been caught.

Caught and kissed.

That the kissing had been instigated by her in a vodka-induced giggly haze really burned her butt, but Wade had done his fair share of the kissing that night, too, and he’d been damn good at it.

The jerk.

She’d kissed experienced guys before, and had occasionally followed her hormones. Okay, twice. She’d followed her hormones twice. That’s how she knew they happened to be in perfectly fine working order.

They seemed to be exceptional in this man’s presence.

“What do I want…” Stepping closer into the meager light of her single hanging bulb in the nearly empty hangar, Wade stroked his jaw thoughtfully.

Against her will, the sound of his fingers against the day-old growth of beard made her knees wobble. Damn it, he looked mouthwatering, with his dark hair cut pilot-short, his tanned, rugged face with the laugh lines fanning out from his deep blue eyes.

The face of a fallen angel, her grandmother had said on the day he’d shown up with a signed lease and a crooked, wicked smile.

The “angel” flashed that smile now. “You know what I want, Kylie. Same thing I’ve always wanted.”

Her stomach quivered, which she ignored. He wore black jeans, a black shirt shoved up past his forearms, and was quite possibly the sexiest man on the planet, while she was covered in grease and overalls, had her hair stuffed beneath a hat and didn’t have an ounce of makeup on. His “interest” was laughable, but that was okay. She knew what he meant when he said he wanted her.

He wanted her airport, and in the year that they’d known each other, he’d made her three official offers, two of which she turned down flat. The last one, made the week before, was such a good one she’d nearly passed out. That offer would solve her every problem. It’d fix the debts her father had wracked up before dying while testing an untried, handmade aircraft. It’d solve the problem of feeding and caring for her mother and grandmother, something her father had always told her would fall to her if something happened to him.

And it’d solve the whole Paris fantasy, as she’d be able to go. And maybe never come back.

“You agreed to give me two weeks to think about it.”

“I’ll give you your two weeks.” He cocked his head, his sharp eyes missing nothing. “Working again? Or should I say still?”

“Smith wants his plane first thing in the morning. Since you know damn well I can’t afford Doogie’s double-time pay, here I am.” Her head mechanic was expensive, but good. But she was even better, and far cheaper.

“You’re going to kill yourself with your pace, Kylie,” Wade said softly.

Why was it that whenever he said her name it felt like a caress? Probably because she hadn’t had sex in this millennium. “Don’t you have your own life to worry about?”

“Yep.” Another flash of the grin that could, and did, melt bones. “Heading out to Doogie’s birthday bash as a matter of fact.”

She turned back to the plane. Doogie had a fondness for airplanes, parties and girls. In that order. There’d probably be girls jumping out of his cake.

Looking as good as Wade did, she had no doubt he’d be fighting them off by the end of the night. They’d be falling at his feet by the dozen.

“So come with me,” came that sensuous voice right in her ear. “Protect me.”

Ah, hell, she’d spoken out loud. Jerking upright, she smacked the top of her head on the engine. Stars exploded in her head and she ground her back teeth. “I don’t really care what you do, or who you do it with.”

“Really?” He stroked a finger over the tender bump on her head. “Then why are you bringing it up?”

Right. Why was she bringing it up? Oh, yeah. Because she was an idiot.

“Come on, Kylie. Come with me to the party.”

His eyes were deep, and the most unusual shade of deep blue. When he looked at her, her body wanted to say yes to him, yes to everything, especially if it involved an orgasm. “No,” she said, listening to her head; and buried herself back into the engine compartment. Men were not her thing, she reminded herself. She had enough trouble in her life at the moment. “Go away.”

“Such sweet talk.” He sighed, a frustrated sound. “Good night, Kylie. I’d say don’t work too hard, but you would just to be difficult.”

She waited until the sound of his footsteps faded away to let out a shaky breath. She’d done them both a favor, he just didn’t know it, that’s all. She wasn’t a girly girl. Pretty hairdos and fancy clothes and all stuff female was one big collective mystery.

Then there was the serious case of nerves that hit whenever she thought of him. It had nothing to do with the fact he could buy her airport. Or that he had eyes that made her…yearn. Bottom line was, Kylie, so fearless in everything else, felt terrified of adding yet another person to her list of people to be in charge of. She was hardly managing as it was, and she couldn’t add another living soul.

She knew it was a pathetic attempt at self-preservation, but at the moment it worked for her.

A trip to Paris would have worked better.

CHAPTER TWO

WADE MCKINNON’S alarm went off at 6:00 a.m., startling him into near cardiac arrest and bringing back flashes of the military life he didn’t feel like facing at such an ungodly hour. Groaning, bleary-eyed, he knocked the clock to the floor and put his pillow over his head.

But before sleep could claim him again, he remembered.

He had to get up. He was no longer a wild, irresponsible nobody. Shocking as it was, he’d pulled himself out of the gutter. He now actually had a reason to get up in the morning. The Air Force had had a big hand in knocking sense into him, and as a result, he’d managed to put his experiences from it to good use by starting his own charter company. He was even-and he was just getting used to this after five years-successful. Hugely so. Unbelievably, he could actually do whatever he wanted, when he wanted, the only irony being that he was often too busy now to do just that.

Surging out of bed, he got into the shower, drank a gallon of coffee straight up, and went to work.

Walking through the private airport never failed to make him smile. God, he loved it here, in this dinky, falling apart, old place. A year ago he’d moved his charter business from Oregon to Southern California because he’d gotten tired of the rain, and he’d never been sorry.

Of course that might have something to do with Kylie, the lean, mean fighting machine who owned the airport. Man, he loved a kick-ass woman, and there was no doubt, Kylie was kick-ass. She was rough and tough and battle-ready, and in sharp contrast to her curmudgeonly nature, was so hauntingly beautiful, he could never take his eyes off her.

She did her best to hide that beauty, with her dark hair in its ragged cut he suspected she did herself, little to no makeup, and coveralls over the taut body he wanted beneath his. But to Wade, it was all in the eyes, and hers, deep jade ones, gripped him every time she laid them on him.

It wasn’t often a woman got under his skin, but she’d crawled in there at first sight and had never left. She’d laugh hysterically if she knew. Then she’d go back to work and forget about him. All she did was work, and it drove him as crazy as the memory of kissing her did.

The hangars were filled with airplanes, new and old. The smell of fuel and warm summer morning filled the air, and he inhaled deeply. With both the east and west doors open, the wind whipped through at a good enough clip to nearly rip his donut right out of his hand. Couldn’t have that, so he popped the rest in his mouth and dusted off his fingers.

He had an early flight taking some movie star to Moro Bay for a photo shoot. Which meant he’d get to sit around on the bluffs and kick back for a few hours before flying her home.

Oh yeah, life was good.

Moving toward the lobby, he figured he’d just check in with Daisy and see if his client had arrived yet. He wondered if the photo shoot was a bikini one…

“But, Kylie, he’s such a nice boy,” he heard Daisy say.

“Oh, please.” Kylie’s voice was strong and determined, just like every other part of her, and Wade grinned. She and her mother were behind the reception desk, their backs to him as they put up the schedule for the day.

“Honestly, Kylie,” Daisy tsked. “The least you could do is go out with him once!”

“No,” Kylie said firmly. “I am not going out on any blind dates, especially one you set me up on. No offense, Mom, but I don’t have the same taste you do.”

Daisy put her hands on her hips and jabbed her dry-erase marker in her daughter’s face. “I always set you up with nice boys. Keith. Justin. Steve. You should have married Steve.”

“Seth,” Kylie corrected. “And I couldn’t have married him even if I’d wanted to. Grandma chased him off, remember?”

“Well, who would have guessed he’d be afraid of one little old lady?”

“She told him I was desperate for a husband and that he fit the bill!”

“She was just kidding. He had no sense of humor.”

“Mom.” Kylie rubbed her temples. “I’m not going to get married, okay? It’s not for me.”

“Just because a few relationships didn’t work out?”

“Because none of them ever work out. Let’s face it.” She lifted her arms, exhibiting her coveralls and favorite baseball cap, not an ounce of femininity anywhere, and beautiful in spite of it. “I’m not exactly marriage material.”

“Nothing a brush and some makeup wouldn’t fix,” Daisy sniffed.

“Mom.” With a little laugh, Kylie shook her head. “Why should I bother? Look at you, you’re the epitome of a woman…”

Daisy smiled and preened, patting her perfect hair, her pretty sundress. “Why, thank you.”

“And you can’t keep a man, either. You’ve had how many boyfriends since Daddy died?”

“Well, who’s counting?” Daisy muttered.

“Three. And each broke your heart. Grandma’s been married five times. Five! And each time nearly destroyed her.”

“That’s because she wasn’t smart enough to marry someone with money the first time.”

“Well, I’m not interested, with or without money. Even you and Daddy had issues.”

“Because he thought he had to pamper me, and take care of every little thing.”

“He did have to.”

“Only because, sweet as he was, he was also…” Daisy winced apologetically. “Look, he was anal, okay? Completely and totally anal.”

And so was Kylie. That fact was written all over her mother’s face. Well, she’d rather be anal than the opposite. “All I’m saying is, for all I’ve seen, love is a pain in the a-”

“Kylie Ann Birmingham! Watch your language.”

“Love doesn’t really exist, Mom. Admit it.”

Daisy threw up her hands. “I give up trying to convince you. But at least try to have fun once in a while. Anything, Kylie, but try something.”

“I don’t need it.”

“Really? What if it was Wade asking?”

Wade’s ears perked at that. The conversation had been hugely interesting so far, but was getting even better now.

“First of all,” Kylie said. “He dates anything in a skirt, so he’s certainly not going to give me a second glance, and second…”

“Yes?” Wade pushed away from the wall and moved toward the front desk, smiling when Kylie whipped around, her eyes wide. “Second?” he asked sweetly.

Daisy grinned. “Well, hello, Wade.”

“Hello, Daisy.” He cocked his head at Kylie. “Oh, and your ‘first of all’ isn’t quite accurate. I’ve dated women in pants before. Not in coveralls, though…” He ran a finger down her arm, grinning when she glared at him. “And you never finished. Second of all…?”

“You had a client.” Deliciously flustered, she shoved some paperwork at him and changed the conversation.

“Had?”

“She cancelled because the wind scared her.”

He glanced out the wall of windows. “It’s hardly blowing.”

“Yeah, well, she cancelled. Probably was worried the wind would disturb her hair. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go test that plane I worked on last night, the owner will be here soon.”

When she brushed past him, he took her elbow, smiling when she whipped around, practically growling in his face.

What was it about him that put her so on edge? The same thing that made him want to keep touching her? He’d learned a lot about her in this very fascinating conversation. “Who’s riding shotgun?”

“No one.”

“I will.”

“I don’t need-”

“I will,” he repeated. He had no idea what the hell he was doing, he now had the morning free. He could go into his office, shut the door, open the windows, kick up his feet and take a nice snooze.

Instead he wanted to be up in the air. With Kylie. He figured it had nothing to do with those big, expressive jade eyes and everything to do with how she’d tasted. It had been nearly six months since their one and only kiss and he couldn’t quite get the memory out of his head.

Maybe she’d give him another taste, and then they could each go on their own merry way.

Yeah. That’s what he wanted. To go on his merry way. Alone.

KYLIE PILOTED. Wade watched. It was a first for him, sitting passenger side with a woman in charge. And she was in charge. She flew the same way she did everything else, with utter intensity, a serious expression, sure and firm hands, her dark glasses hiding her every thought.

The sky loomed large in front of them, brilliant blue with lazily floating puffy white clouds. Incredible. Being up in the air, as always, exhilarated him as nothing ever had.

“So.” Wade leaned back to enjoy himself. “Do you make love with the same abandon when you fly?”

Her hands jerked, and so did the plane. Craning her neck, she stared at him. “What?”

“I bet you do.”

For another long heartbeat she was silent, then she shook her head and turned forward again. “You’re insane. That explains everything.”

“We had such a connection that night. Do you remember?”

“No.”

“Christmas Eve.”

“New Year’s Eve,” she corrected, then rolled her eyes when he laughed.

“You do remember, and you’ve ignored it ever since.”

An interesting blush crept up her face. “I don’t remember anything.”

He shook his head. “Coy, Kylie? After you’ve practically crawled up my body?”

“I most definitely did not crawl up your body.”

“Don’t tell me I need to remind you who kissed who.”

She hissed out a breath. “Okay, so I kissed you. I was wondering what it would be like, that’s all.”

“And?”

“And nothing. Wondering gone.”

“Are you telling me that kiss quenched your thirst?”

She shifted in her seat and broke eye contact.

“See?” he said. “You want more, too.”

“Giving in to simple urges isn’t always the answer,” she said primly.

“Baby,” he said on a laugh. “There’s nothing simple about my urge for you.”

“Stop it.”

“I can’t. I’m still curious. You’re so tough on the outside.”

“I’m tough all the way through.”

“Nah.” He grinned when she glared at him again. “Know what I think?”

“If I say yes will you shut up?”

“I think that your toughness is a shield. That you’re really soft and sweet, with a heart of gold.”

That made a laugh tumble from her lips. “Right. And you know me so well.”

“Otherwise why would you let Daisy destroy the office on a daily basis? Or let Lou near your books?”

“Because I’m clearly mentally incompetent. Watch out, it could be contagious.”

His mouth quirked. “You care about your family very much.”

“They’re family,” she said simply.

“Some would just let them make their own way.”

“Their own way?” She shook her head. “My mom and grandma would get lost on their way there.”

“Exactly. I’ve been watching you for a year now. Even more so in the past six months.”

“Should I be concerned you’re stalking me?”

“Look, just admit it. You’re really one big softie who collects people to take care of so you don’t have to take care of yourself.”

She stared at him, then laughed. “I do not collect the needy.”

“See? I didn’t say needy. You did.”

She sighed. “How about we just don’t talk period.”

“Sure, soon as you tell me why you’d rather bury yourself in work and raise your mother and grandmother than live your own life.”

“Shut up. I have to check out the plane, and that requires listening. To the plane, not you.”

“The plane is perfect.”

“How do you know?”

“Because you worked on it.”

Startled, she blinked her huge green eyes at him.

Oh yeah, he had her attention now. “You might run the airport,” he said, “but you’re the best mechanic out there. You’re also not a bad pilot. So…now that we have all business out of the way, and you don’t want to discuss kissing or making love, how about-”

She turned back to her flying. “I don’t want to sell you the airport.”

“I wasn’t going to bring that up, but now that you have…you’re out of money.”

Her jaw went tight. “Not quite.”

“I’m not greedy, sell me half. We’ll be partners.”

“I’m not that desperate.”

He shrugged and leaned back. “Fine. We’ll talk about something else.” Glancing behind them at the roomy cabin, which was luxurious and empty, he smiled. “Ever heard of the mile-high club?”

Having just taken an unfortunate sip of soda, she choked.

“Guess you have,” he said innocently, while his insides churned and tightened at the adorably flustered expression on her face and unwilling speculation in her eyes that his question caused. “Want to join it together?”

“Does ‘not in your lifetime’ mean anything to you?”

He laughed. “So you’re not ready for that.”

“No!”

“Maybe next time then. Just think of how good it’d be, you and me, more of those mind-blowing kisses, added with-”

“Stop!”

He could see the pulse at her throat beating like a desperate little chick. She was trying so hard not to let him see he was getting to her, and for some reason, that softened him.

“I mean it,” she said, eyes dark, lips wet from where she’d nervously licked them. “Stop.”

Whether she admitted it or not-and he was far closer to the not-she wanted him. For now, that was enough. For now. “Stopping,” he said, and smiled.

“UH, KYLIE?”

She was in her office, swamped with paperwork and getting none of it done due to a particularly naughty daydream that involved, damn it, the mile-high club. With a sigh, she picked up the radio. “Go ahead, dispatch.”

“Have you looked at the phone lines lately?”

Kylie glanced over and saw all phone lines flashing wildly.

Ah, hell. Her mother had sneaked out again. “Thank you,” she said, feeling a headache coming on as she made her way to the lobby and the front desk.

“Kylie, Kylie!” Oddly enough, Daisy was there, waving at her, beaming from ear to ear, apparently utterly unconcerned about the phones. “You’ll never guess! I did it!”

Oh God. “You did…what exactly?”

“I got the call saying I did it. I mean, of course I did it, who wouldn’t think so?”

“Mom…what are you talking about?”

“I’m a nominee for Mother Of The Year! I sent in that essay, and the magazine picked their finalists from across the country, and I’m one of them!”

This was difficult to wrap her mind around. Her mother-whom Kylie took care of-was up for Mother Of The Year.

“Get ready, honey, because I’m going to win us that trip to Paris yet!”

“The phones, Mom. You can’t just-” With a sound of exasperation, she picked up the receiver and pushed line one. “Birmingham Airport.”

“Orange County Post. We’d like a quote from a Kylie Birmingham.”

Kylie looked at her mother as a bad feeling came over her. “About?”

“About the front-page article we printed on her mother being a national nominee for Mother Of The Year.”

With a wide smile, Daisy held up the newspaper. “See?” she whispered.

Yep, there it was, right on the front page for the whole world to see.

Our Own Daisy Birmingham!

National Mother Of The Year?

You Bet!

Kylie didn’t know whether to laugh or scream. “Hold on.” She hit line two. “Birmingham Airport.”

“This is Flora’s Florist. We have a delivery for a Daisy Birmingham.”

“What?”

“They’re from the retirement center where she volunteers as bingo manager. We just want to make sure someone is there to receive before we bring the arrangement over.”

Kylie sank to her mother’s chair and set her head down on the desk.

Daisy just smiled.

Kylie groaned.

“Hello?” said the florist. “Hello? Hello?”

CHAPTER THREE

WHEN KYLIE GOT UP the next morning, she’d convinced herself the publicity had died down. After all, her mother wasn’t a celebrity, Kylie wasn’t a celebrity and where they lived was little more than a one-horse town.

Why would anyone care about a silly little contest? Yes, today would be just fine. And indeed, when she got to work, the place was blessedly quiet.

Perfect.

Relieved, she went to her office and shut the door, determined to do something about the mountain of paperwork threatening to overtake her desk.

She worked through lunch, and was well on her way to having a deliriously good day due to lack of interruptions when Lou ambled in.

“You need money in the checking account,” her grandma announced. “Quite a bit of it.”

“A new lease is supposed to come through today. Some guy wants to park his two Learjets here for six months, and I’m just waiting for his call. Once that’s finalized, we’ll get a hefty deposit. Oh, and we sold a lot of fuel this week, so-”

“None of that is going to help you.”

Kylie frowned. “Why not?”

“Well, because I’m mailing the bills.” Lou lifted a shoulder. “So you’ll need to do something today. Okay, then, luvie…” She clapped her hands together. “Gotta run.”

It boggled the mind how quickly one old lady could destroy Kylie’s brain cells. “Maybe you can wait until next week to go to the post office.”

“Okay, dear. You’re the boss.”

Oh yeah, she had a headache now. A huge one. She watched Lou dance toward the door.

Suddenly Kylie realized the phones were flashing like crazy again. Damn it. With a sigh, she made her way to her mother’s desk. “Mom, I’ve told you, you can’t just tie up the phone like that!”

“Oh, I’m not the one doing it.” Daisy smiled sweetly. She leaned close. “The press is here,” she whispered. “They want to talk about what a great mom I am. Oh! And in an hour, the local television news is coming as well.”

“But the phones-”

“I know, isn’t it awful?” Daisy hit a few of the buttons, then shook her head. “Definitely, there’s something amiss. I tried to take care of it a while ago, but I couldn’t figure out what I did wrong…”

“A while ago…” Kylie let out a breath. She was going to blow up. Just poof, blow up. “Are you saying the phones are down, and have been for…a while?”

“That’s what I’m saying.”

Goodbye new client.

“So are you ready to talk to the press?” Daisy asked. “Maybe get your pic taken?”

“No!” Kylie pressed her fingers to her temples and turned in a slow circle, going still when she saw Wade standing there, smiling at her.

“Good afternoon,” he said. “Need some help?”

“Yeah, I need someone to shoot me and put me out of my misery.” She pulled her cell phone out of her pocket and ignored the flutter in her tummy at just the sight of the man she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about since their plane ride. Nothing an antacid wouldn’t cure.

“What are you doing?” her mother asked.

“Calling the phone service, which you might notice I have on auto dial.” She rolled her eyes when her mother just sniffed in irritation.

“I am not messing up the phones,” Daisy said. “The repair man told me the problem is on your roof.”

Or under it, Kylie thought crossly. Why was it so hard to be her? All she wanted was the airport running smoothly and good help to ensure that. She wanted to take care of Daisy and Lou. Simple. She’d be completely happy, just as her father had been. But somehow, it’d seemed easier when he’d done it.

“He said to check for a bird’s nest on the roof.”

That had been last week’s problem.

“Or a squirrel chewing the line.”

Which had happened the week before, but the line to the repair department was busy, which meant Kylie was on her own. “I’ll be on the roof,” she said, her mood not improving when Wade followed her outside. He looked good today, though she’d bite her tongue before admitting it. Having just come back from flying a charter, he had his aviator sunglasses shoved up on his head, a leather jacket tucked beneath his arm and a soda in his hand. He wore his pilot’s uniform-dark blue trousers and a stark white shirt with his logo over the breast that inexplicably made him look tall, dark and official.

Everything about him made her heart beat fast, and all she could think about was doing what he’d so brazenly suggested the other day-getting some. With him. In the air.

She had the feeling he would know exactly how to make her feel good, too. She’d probably, if her breathing problems from just looking at him were any indication, even have an actual orgasm. “Why are you following me?”

“I worked for the phone company one summer. Maybe I can help.”

She came to the back wall of hangar number one, where high above her was the phone box. There was already a ladder there, due to the problems she’d been having over the past few weeks, problems she now knew were directly related to her mother’s “help.” With a testing shake of the ladder, she started to climb.

“Why don’t you let me-”

“I’ve got it,” she said over her shoulder, and promptly forgot about Wade as she got to the top of the ladder and surveyed the phone equipment. Nothing obvious, no bird’s nest, no chewed wires from the squirrels. Climbing onto the roof, she sat and contemplated the situation. Basically, she had a phone system that didn’t work, she had a grandma who didn’t care about work and a secretary/mom who’d rather be in the paper and go to Paris than secure her future.

Oh, and she had an airport about to go under from lack of funds. Yep, it was official. Her life was in the toilet.

“Kylie?”

With a sigh, she lay back on the roof, studying the clouds overhead. It was a gorgeous day. “I’m still here.”

“I’m coming up.”

“Don’t.” If he did, he’d look at her with those eyes, the ones that made her melt. Then she might get a little desperate and ask if there was some sort of club involving sex on a roof. “I’ve got it under control. I’ve nearly got it handled.”

“Do you? Because from here it looks like you’re taking a nap.”

With a roll of her eyes, she pushed to her feet, moving more completely out of view.

And promptly sank through the old, half-rotten roof up to her hips, which, thanks to her daily morning habit of two old-fashioned chocolate-glaze donuts, stopped her from falling all the way through.

“Kylie? What was that crash?”

The sound of my ego hitting the earth at the speed of light. “Nothing,” she managed in a perfectly calm voice, wriggling her feet to make sure she hadn’t paralyzed herself. Actually she was wedged in nicely between the rotten roof and the supports. She couldn’t fall any farther, but neither could she pull herself out. She imagined the attic, which they used as storage space, and the view she presented to anyone in there looking up. Luckily, as all her employees were incredibly lazy, no one would be in there.

“I’m coming up,” Wade said again.

“No,” she replied, sounding slightly less calm now. But damn it, she didn’t want him to see how stupid she’d been to walk on the one weak spot on the entire roof. “Why don’t you go fly your last charter for the day.”

“How do you know I have one more?”

“Uh…” Because if anyone was stalking anyone, she was stalking him. Every morning she looked his schedule over, checking the weather, memorizing where he’d be flying, picturing him out there… “Daisy mentioned it.”

“Are you sure you don’t need help?”

Oh yeah, she needed help, but she wasn’t ready to admit it to him. “I’m quite sure. But…thank you. Thank you very much.”

WADE WENT. He did so because he knew damn well what Kylie had done, and knew she’d never admit to needing anyone, much less him. But at least she was still ornery as hell, so he figured she couldn’t have hurt herself too badly.

Damn her. He went up into the attic to verify for himself that Kylie was really good and stuck, and yep, there were her two long legs dangling through the rafters.

Too bad she wasn’t wearing a dress.

Then he cancelled his charter. A first. That he cancelled it for a woman really bit. He went back outside, but waited a good half an hour first, until the building cleared out and everyone had gone home. He waited an extra half an hour just because.

Then he climbed the ladder until his head was level with the roof. “Still here?” he asked of the woman half-in and half-out of the building.

She’d been studying the sunset, but turned her head to look at him through narrowed eyes.

“Ready to admit you need help?”

“Oh, has hell frozen over?” she asked sweetly.

He grinned and, reaching out, brushed a stray tendril of hair off her cheek, tucking it behind her ear. He loved the feel of her skin, so soft, and he loved the scent of her. No fancy perfumes for Kylie, heaven forbid, just the irresistible scent of shampoo and woman. Because he could, he leaned in, pressed his face to her hair, inhaling deeply.

Interestingly enough, she shivered. “What are you doing?”

“Smelling you. You smell good. Are you cold, Kylie?”

“No.”

“Ah.” He climbed up the rest of the way and carefully sat right next to her. On the unrotten spot, of course.

She was frowning, his Kylie. “What does that mean, ‘ah’?”

“It means if you’re not cold, you shivered because of me touching you.” He tucked another wayward strand of hair behind her other ear and goose bumps appeared on her arm. Stroking a finger down that arm, he watched her eyes go dark. She bit her lower lip.

“Admit you need my help,” he said softly.

“No.”

He danced his finger down her neck, over her throat, to her racing pulse. She trembled, and unbelievably, so did he.

“Look at us,” he whispered. “Both shaking from just a simple touch…we should give this a go.”

“I’m…not into you.”

“Really? What was that kiss about then?”

“It was about the spiked punch. And anyway, it was a long time ago. It wouldn’t happen now.”

“Hmm.” He ran that finger over her collarbone and her nipples beaded.

He went hard as a rock. “So you’re saying I could kiss you now and you’d feel nothing.”

“R-right.”

Bracing his feet of the roof molding, he wrapped an arm around her and tugged, until she popped free…and ended up in his lap. The now filthy, curvy, hot Kylie squirmed like crazy, trying to scramble out of his arms, but he put his mouth to her ear and said silkily, “I dare you to sit still for another kiss.”

“Don’t be stupid-”

“I dare you to sit still,” he repeated. “And not respond.”

She stared at him.

“Double dog dare you,” he whispered, tracing a finger over the dust on her jaw. “Come on, Kylie. Prove to me there’s nothing here to wonder about.”

She swallowed hard.

“What’s the matter, you chicken?”

“Of course not.”

“Well, then.” He leaned close enough to drown in her annoyed yet curious-in-spite-of-herself gaze. “Remember now, hold still. No jumping my bones. No showing how badly you want me, or I get to claim a prize.” And when her eyes flashed, he bit back his grin and put his mouth over hers.

CHAPTER FOUR

AT THE TOUCH of his mouth to hers, Kylie thought, Oh. My. God. The man had the most amazingly perfect kiss on the face of the earth. Tender, warm, firm…just right.

Completely beyond herself, she let out a helpless little sound because she wanted more, more, more, and what did he do?

He pulled back! Pulled back and shook his head at her. “No sound,” he whispered gruffly. “Don’t want me to get any ideas, right? And no touching,” he added, unwinding her arms free of his neck-how had they gotten there?-and holding them at her sides. “No talking, no nothing.” His voice sounded thick and raspy, as if he was having trouble breathing. “Because if you’re not careful, I’ll think you want this, really want this.” And before she could slug him in the belly for laughing at her, he’d put his mouth back on hers.

The gentleness was gone now as he dove in, hot and hard, claiming, possessing, using his lips, his tongue, his teeth… She struggled to free her arms and wind them around his neck, her hips arched to his, but his hands held her immobile.

He pulled back again, staring down at her with fathomless eyes, his mouth grimmer than she’d ever seen.

She opened her mouth, to say what she had no idea, but he put his fingers over her lips, shaking his head. Then he pushed her off his lap and went down the ladder, disappearing into the night.

Guess I passed his little dare, she thought dimly, hot as hell in the cool night. When had night come anyway?

Damn it.

Damn him.

THE NEXT DAY Kylie hadn’t even opened the glass doors to the airport lobby when two reporters stepped out in front of her and shoved a microphone in her face.

Beyond them, inside, she could see her mother behind the reception desk, laughing. And one Wade McKinnon in front of that desk standing there with casual ease, also smiling.

What were they laughing at?

Even from here she could see the speculative gleam in Daisy’s eyes…no doubt she was going to try to set Kylie up with him.

She should have stayed in bed.

But in bed she couldn’t be at the airport. Surrounded by everything that was such a comfort.

Besides, in bed, she’d lie there thinking about the night before, being in Wade’s arms, his mouth on hers, driving her right out of her living mind.

And maybe she’d forget why she couldn’t add one more person to her load.

“Kylie Birmingham?” Reporter number one stepped even closer. “Tell us how you feel about your mother’s essay, about the heartbreaking way she wrote about you.”

Kylie blinked in surprise. “I…” Should have read that essay, apparently.

Daisy happened to glance up and catch her eyes. Was it Kylie’s imagination that her mother flushed guiltily? No, it was not. And it wasn’t the reporters that made her mother do so, her mother loved reporters.

Which left Wade McKinnon.

They were plotting something. The thought was confirmed when Daisy broke eye contact first.

The tall, sexy man who kissed like heaven didn’t so much as glance in Kylie’s direction, but he was still smiling. Conspiratorially.

Oh, yes, they were most definitely up to something.

“Ms. Birmingham? About your mother? Can you tell us about your relationship? Does she require your help to run this airport?”

Ha! “No comment,” she said. “And no pictures,” she told them when one lifted a camera. Looking at her mother, she stalked into the lobby. She strutted right up to them in midlaugh and pointed at the both of them. “Stop it.”

Wade, looking vexingly scrumptious in his pilot’s uniform, just cocked a brow.

“Stop what, dear?” Daisy asked. “Did you sleep well? Because you have black circles beneath your-”

“I’m a big girl, just so you both know. I’ll make my own plans when and where it suits me.”

“Well, of course you will,” Daisy clucked. “How about breakfast? I have an extra bagel-”

Kylie crossed her arms. “I’d like to know what you two were talking about.”

Wade, apparently amused, didn’t comment.

Daisy rolled her eyes and pushed a mug of something hot towards her. “Herbal tea. It’ll help you relax. You could use a gallon.”

“I don’t need to relax-”

“We weren’t talking about you,” Daisy said, lifting the mug to Kylie’s lips.

She drank, but would eat her own tongue before admitting the stuff actually tasted good. Then her mother’s words sank in.

“That’s right,” Wade said when her cheeks went hot. “We weren’t talking about you. Contrary to popular belief, there are other things to talk about.”

“You…weren’t trying to make him go out with me?” Kylie asked her mother.

Daisy laughed. “Oh, right. As if anyone could make this man do something he doesn’t want to do.”

Wade smiled sweetly-sweetly!-when both women looked at him.

Right. No one made Wade do anything. She needed to remember that. He might want to kiss her stupid. He might want to buy her airport. But he didn’t want to go out with her, because really, how ridiculous would that be?

“We were discussing quarterly taxes,” Wade said, still sounding amused. “They’re due tomorrow.”

Ah, hell.

Her stomach sank. “I need to get Lou on the forms,” she said to herself, her mind racing. Did her grandmother even have the forms? Had she gotten all the financial stuff together to fill them out? Had she-

“Relax,” Wade said in her ear. He’d pushed away from the wall and now stood so close she could see the yellow specks dancing in his eyes. She could smell the soap he’d used that morning. She could feel his warm breath on her cheek.

And was vividly, vibrantly, unhappily aware that her body wanted to curl into his, that he looked good enough to gobble up in one bite.

“Lou can handle it,” he said. “Don’t get all worked up so early in the day, it’s not healthy.”

What wasn’t healthy was her body’s response to him.

“Your grandma can handle it,” Daisy confirmed, and pushed the tea on her daughter again. “She always talked about going back to college to finish up her accounting degree.”

Grandma loose on a college campus? Terrifying.

“Now if you’ll excuse me,” Daisy said. “I have a massage appointment this morning.”

“Mom-”

“Just kidding.” Daisy laughed. So did Wade. “But I do have work, so if you kids’ll stop standing around my desk and making me look bad for the boss…”

“No problem.” Wade took Kylie’s arm before she could escape, before she could finish obsessing over the quarterlies. Dad, how did you do it all?

Wade led her outside and toward the maintenance hangar. Halfway there they passed by a beauty of a Learjet. Standing in front of it was one of their more wealthy customers, Jimbo Stanton. Standing in front of Jimbo Stanton was Lou, flirting with the sixty-something-year-old customer.

“Lou!” Kylie refrained from wrapping her fingers around her grandma’s neck, and instead gestured her over. “Can I see you for a moment?”

“Sure.” Lou walked saucily toward them, making sure Jimbo watched her walk away.

He did, with his tongue practically on the ground.

“What are you doing?” Kylie growled when she got closer.

“What does it look like?” Lou patted her hairdo. “I’m trying to get a date. You remember what a date is, don’t you, Kylie?”

Wade laughed and Kylie groaned. “Don’t you have work to do?” she asked. “Accounting work?”

“All caught up.”

“How about the quarterlies?”

“Well, darling, I would, but I just did them last night.”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m quite sure.”

“And then there’s the checking account situation-”

“Balanced,” Lou said proudly.

“Are you positive?”

“Of course, I’m positive. I’ve done this before, you know. Now shoo, scat, vamoose, you’re cramping my style.” Without looking back, she sashayed toward Jimbo.

Kylie was overcome with impending doom. She was failing, miserably.

“Hey,” Wade said. “It can’t be that bad.”

“As long as I’m wearing rose-colored glasses.”

He took her hand and pulled her away. They walked alongside the tarmac for about a hundred feet before they walked down the alley between hangars two and three toward maintenance.

She was just numb enough to actually let him lead her.

“Pretty day,” he said.

It was, but it’d be prettier if their hopefully new client called. She glanced at the cell phone. She’d given him this number in case there was a problem with the phones again.

No missed call.

Wade moved closer, and before she realized it, she had the cool hangar wall at her back and the big, bad, sexy pilot at her front. “Your mother is right,” he said, running his hands up her sides. “Tension is spilling right out of you.”

“That’s because you’re standing in my space,” she retorted, both the words and her breath backing up in her lungs when he spun her around and put her hands on the wall. “What-”

The word turned into a moan when he pressed close, pressed his fingers into her shoulders, massaging right where she felt most of the tension, at the base of her neck. “Wade-”

“Do us both a favor and be quiet a moment.”

Oh, man, did he know what he was doing. Those fingers were magic, pure, unadulterated magic, as they dug into the knots in her shoulders, her biceps, her neck. She wore a sleeveless faux-silk blouse, and he wasn’t shy about slipping his hands beneath the material to work more of that magic.

Within two minutes her legs were Jell-O. Her hands slipped from the wall, and he tsked, putting them back up. “Hold still.”

Hold still. If she so much as arched her back, her bottom found a snug home at the vee of his trousers. She knew this because she did it. Then his hands danced all over her and she couldn’t breathe. Hold still? She couldn’t!

“If you’d only admit you liked this,” he whispered into her ear, causing a set of delicious shudders to race down her spine. “I could do it for you whenever you tense up. Which is all the time.”

She spun around, not realizing until that moment just how close they were. Her chest brushed his, so did her hips. His eyes darkened, and his hands slid from her shoulders to cup her face. “Kylie?” His thumb slid over her lower lip, making it tremble open. “Do you like it?”

Definitely, a woman more in charge of her sexuality would do just that, admit it and then take more, take all of what was offered, whatever that might be. But Kylie wasn’t that woman. She knew what she wanted, and what she wanted was her life simplified. Wade wouldn’t do that, he’d complicate it.

Yes, in the deep dark of the night, she could admit the airport needed more help than she alone could give it. She needed a partner.

But in the light of day, she wasn’t willing to let go yet. And then there was Wade himself. She told herself she wasn’t interested. She needed more than a single smoldering look.

A single smoldering look, which at the moment, was consuming her, making her a little sweaty, a little tingly, a little dizzy even, so she put her hands on his arms for balance.

He stared down at them, then looked at her.

Oh my, he had hard muscle beneath his shirt. Her fingers squeezed, testing, her knees quivering again when nothing gave.

“Kylie…”

Fascinated, utterly unable to help herself, she squeezed him again. “Yeah?”

“You’re…touching me.”

She was. She couldn’t stop. “I’m sorry.”

“No, I like it,” he said in a voice that sounded a little ragged. He gripped her when she might have pulled away. “I like it a lot.”

Suddenly her entire body forgot its own pledge. It was humming, craving, yearning, and when she looked up into Wade’s face, his mouth slowly curved into a wry smile.

“Say the word,” he said huskily, with one more trace of the pad of his thumb over her mouth. “Just say the word and I’ll touch you back. I’ll be quite happy to touch you back, Kylie.”

She almost went for it. She certainly, suddenly, desperately, wanted to. But she just realized something else…Wade stood there, looking at her patiently. He understood her enough to know she required patience. Buckets of it.

And that, she decided, was the worst part of the morning. Not the reporters, or the pictures they’d almost gotten. Not her grandmother looking for a date amongst the clients.

But Wade knowing her so well.

CHAPTER FIVE

KYLIE WENT BACK into the lobby, with Wade not far behind. He had a flight-she knew because once again she’d peeked-and would be gone the rest of the day on a charter to Santa Barbara.

Good.

She needed the rest of the day to recover from the feel of his hands on her body. In less than two minutes he’d dissipated most of the stress tension in her neck, replacing it with a different sort of tension altogether.

One that wouldn’t be easily assuaged by working on an airplane engine.

When she stepped into the lobby, Kylie automatically braced herself for the worst. Her mother had probably single-handedly destroyed the phone system again, or somehow managed to break down dispatch.

“Honey!” Daisy called, waving her over. “I just reheated your stress-relieving tea, come and get it.” She held out the mug, then swept a stray strand of hair off her daughter’s face. “You seem a little pale,” she murmured. “What’s the matter?”

Nothing, except every hormone she had was on full alert. “I’m fine.”

“Okay, but drink your tea, you need some color in your cheeks.” She patted her hair. “I was thinking about going a shade lighter to celebrate. What do you think?”

“I’m going to my office.”

“But what about my hair? I don’t want to look too old.”

Kylie looked at the woman who wasn’t quite fifty and looked two decades younger. “Mom, you look like my only slightly older sister.”

“Oh, honey. Really?”

“Really.”

Daisy grinned. “You’re such a good daughter. Now about you…I don’t suppose you have a hairbrush and lipstick lurking under all that mess on your desk? Because now might be a good time to find them.”

That “mess” was their livelihood. “Yeah, right, mom. Lipstick on my desk. Funny stuff.” Kylie went to her office. In the center of her desk sat a little pot of daisies. There was also a little sack lunch with a sticky note attached that said “eat me.”

Her mother.

And her heart sighed. You’re a good daughter, her mother always said, but suddenly Kylie saw the flip side. “You’re a good mother, too,” she whispered in the empty room.

But she still didn’t look for a hairbrush or lipstick.

WADE FOUND IT amusing how Kylie took all the press over the next few weeks. She glowered, scowled and grumbled her way through the days when it came to anything contest related, and yet seemed to thrive on running the airport. Watching her in charge-flying, wrenching, all of it, turned him on.

But then Family Voyager magazine wanted a spread in their next issue with all the nominated mothers and their children. Kylie appeared to look forward to that about as much as one would a root canal. On impacted molars. Without drugs.

Wade hadn’t mentioned his offer to buy the airport, and knew that even though she was up against the wall financially, she wouldn’t bring it up, either.

But oddly enough, that was okay, because he was distracted with something else, something disturbing.

He wanted Kylie more than he wanted the airport.

They were night and day, he and Kylie. He knew that, and yet they shared so much. They were both bullheaded, and far more likely to walk into a fight rather than away from one.

They also had both worked hard for their dreams, and had a passion for flying.

And they both figured love would never play a serious part in their lives.

He had a bad feeling he was wrong there, and was man enough to admit it. But he was also man enough to let Kylie figure it out for herself.

With his help, of course.

For two weeks he’d been running into her as often as possible, timing their entrance into the maintenance hangar down to the second, so that he could brush a hand low on her spine as he held the door open for her. Or squeeze past her in the lobby, making sure to touch her hip, to flick the bill of that baseball cap she wore in favor of doing something with the short mop of hair he so loved.

It worked, too, he could tell because her breath would catch, or she’d stare at him wide-eyed, a little bewildered, as if she didn’t quite know what to do with him.

Which made them just about even, as he didn’t know what to do with her, either. Correction-he knew exactly what he wanted to do with her, which was toss her in his bed and follow her down to have his merry way with her hot little bod.

Beyond that, he had a sinking idea he knew what else he wanted…and since it involved more than he’d ever wanted before, he decided to dance around that for a while and concentrate on the lust aspect.

And getting her into his bed.

On the day of the scheduled magazine photo shoot for Kylie and Daisy, he found Kylie in front of the vending machine in the deserted mechanics office. She had her hands on her hips and a frown on her pretty face. Before he could say a word, she kicked the machine.

A candy bar fell out. “Now that’s more like it,” she muttered, and tore into the chocolate.

“Skip breakfast again?” he asked mildly, smiling when she whirled to look at him. “I should tell you, that snarl on your face makes me want to shove you up against that wall and kiss it away.”

She turned her attention back to the machine. “I’d do just about anything for that Babe Ruth bar in there.”

He nearly swallowed his tongue. “Anything?”

“Maybe even give you that kiss of my own free will.”

For that he’d do a lot more than buy her a candy bar, but when he pulled change out of his pocket, she snickered. “Oh, like that’s going to work.”

He didn’t care if he had to tear apart the entire vending machine with his bare hands, he was going to get her that candy bar, and she was going to give him the promised kiss. He was already hard just thinking about it. The money dropped in, he pushed the button, and like magic, the requested candy bar came out.

She stared at him in such utter surprise when he handed it to her, that he nearly grinned. “Now about that kiss,” he murmured, stepping close.

With a narrow little laugh, she backed up a step, hit the back of her knees on a low table in front of the couch, and sat down on it hard. “But…that machine never works, not without a well-placed kick and three times too much money.”

“So you were lying about the kiss?”

Her eyes narrowed as she tipped her head back to look up at him. “I never lie.”

“Didn’t think so.” Sinking to his knees before her, he took her hands and wrapped them around his neck and said, “Give me your best shot then.”

She tried to tug her hands free, but he held them in place. “Are you welshing on your promise?” he asked.

Her mouth was only inches from his, and it was open. Most likely with shock. Or maybe just plain irritation. But her lips were bare and full, and since her tongue darted out to lick them, also wet. “Fine,” she said. She squeezed her eyes tight, puckered up, leaned in a little bit…and waited.

And waited.

Finally her eyes flew open. “What are you waiting for?” she demanded.

“You promised to kiss me.”

Irritation definitely swam in those eyes now, and once again she leaned forward, puckered tight as a drum. But this time her mouth touched his, even if it was the light, chaste kiss of a friendly cousin.

When she pulled back, she smiled. “Duty complete.”

“Duty?” He laughed. “You afraid of a simple kiss, Kylie?”

She looked away. “I’m not afraid of anything.”

“Liar.”

“Okay, fine!” She yanked her hands back. “But kissing you is never simple. It makes me…”

“What?” He put his hands on her hips, squeezing gently. “It makes you what?”

“It makes me…” The expression on her face assured him she was holding back.

Big surprise there.

But then the radio at her hip squawked. Daisy’s voice broke the mood. “Kylie Birmingham, you’re behind schedule. Get your tush up here and get dressed and spritzed up for the photo shoot.”

Kylie leaned her head back and studied the ceiling. “You know everyone at the airport can hear her talk to me like that,” she said to Wade.

“There’s nothing wrong with her loving you.”

“Yeah.” With the sigh of someone holding the weight of the world on her shoulders, she moved away.

“Going to get dressed and spritzed up?”

“Suppose so.”

He eyed her baseball cap and coveralls. “Do you even know how to do that?”

“Shut up, McKinnon. What?” she said when he surged to his feet and stopped her with a hand to her wrist.

“For the record?” he said quietly. “You scare me, too.”

KYLIE WENT to her office, and everyone waiting there had a bomb to drop. Daisy held up a fitted, flowery sundress. Lou held up a piece of mail and looked guilty and since the dress gave Kylie hives, she addressed her grandma first. “What have you done now?”

Lou smiled a bit guiltily. “Uh…maybe you’re too busy to go over this.”

“Spill.”

“You’re being audited.”

“Because?”

“Because your number was up? I don’t know.”

Kylie closed her eyes, but her mother shook her, then shoved the dress in her hands. “Get this on. We’ll deal with the audit after the photo shoot.”

“Oh, don’t worry,” Lou said. “Wade said he’d take care of it.”

“Wade?” Kylie asked.

“Turns out he’s got an ex-girlfriend who works high up in the IRS. In fact, he’s probably talking to her right now.”

Why did that make her more grumpy? With a sigh, she started to strip. “Come near me with that thing,” she warned her mother as she hefted a curling iron, “and I’ll have to get mean.”

Daisy just shook her head, then came after her anyway.

Lou unzipped her makeup case, which was the size of a bowling ball bag.

“Oh, no,” Kylie said with a laugh, backing up. “No way.”

“Yes, way. You look like death warmed over. At least use blush.” Lou pulled out a bright red blush powder with a brush the size of Kylie’s head.

“Mom,” Kylie said, panicked.

Daisy sighed again. “Oh, leave the girl alone,” and then it was Lou’s turn to sigh.

“Fine. But don’t complain to me when you look horrid in the photos.” She proceeded to put two big red circles on her own cheeks. Then she pulled out a siren-red lipstick, carefully and thoroughly lining her lips before kissing the air and smiling proudly. “See? I look great. You should really let me help you.”

“No, thanks.”

Lou sniffed.

Kylie could deal with Lou’s attitude, and she’d deal with Daisy’s, too. She could deal with shoving herself into a long, thin, spaghetti-strapped sundress, and even with applying a little mascara. She could deal with being overworked and underpaid, and she could deal with an audit.

But when she was all done dolling herself up, when she’d walked out of her office, when Wade had turned toward her, dropping his jaw and the file he held, she realized the one thing she couldn’t deal with.

The way he looked at her as though she was pretty. As though she was hot.

Her knees wobbled, infuriating her. Yep, she could deal with just about anything…except him.

CHAPTER SIX

WADE STOOD in the lobby, stunned into silence by the vision heading toward him. She wore a long, flowery sundress that hugged her curves and a tough-girl grimace on her lips. Attitude screamed with every swing of her hips. Her eyes blared irritation and impatience, and when they landed on him, uncertainty was added to the mix. Her lips shined with some light glossy color he wanted to eat right off, her hair lay gently around her face, framing the bite-me expression he’d come to count on.

And that body…he’d never really realized how mouthwatering it was.

He wanted to devour her.

An equally made-up Daisy followed Kylie toward where the magazine photographers had set up at the far end of the lobby. Being a slow business day, with no scheduled incoming flights, every employee in the place stood around, ogling their boss.

Wade understood, because he stood there, too, his own news completely forgotten, watching the photographer try to coax a natural smile out of Kylie. She was as stiff as a board, and though he doubted anyone else saw past her orneriness, he did. She felt uncomfortable in the limelight, and probably would have given her last penny to get out of it.

Feeling an unexpected surge of sympathy, he moved in close. “Excuse me,” he said, pushing his way through. “Got a message for Kylie. Excuse me.”

She visibly braced herself, most likely waiting for a comment on her looks, but she was going to be disappointed. He didn’t need the makeup and fancy clothes to see that she was the sexiest, most hauntingly beautiful, most amazing woman he’d ever met. Undoubtedly, he could see the real Kylie far better in her everyday clothes, but this was a nice change. Real nice. “I have something that just might put a genuine smile on your face,” he said in her ear.

“Today nothing could put a real smile on my face.”

He let his lips brush the sensitive skin beneath her ear, his entire body tightening when she shivered. “Really?” he wondered. “How about the audit is indefinitely postponed?”

Pulling back, she narrowed her eyes. “Yeah?”

“Yeah. Where’s my smile?”

“You probably agreed to sleep with her.”

He lifted a brow. “Would that bother you?”

“Not in the least.”

He just looked at her, and she let out a snort. “Okay, yes, it’d bother me. Happy?”

“Oh yeah.” He stroked her jaw. “But it was just a phone call, Kylie.” He stepped back just as she let out the genuine smile he’d wanted to see, and the photographer snapped the shutter.

Wade leaned in one more time. “And all you have to do for me in return? Smile like that. At me.”

Then he wisely vanished before she could smack him.

TWO NIGHTS LATER Kylie was alone, once again buried in engine work on a customer’s plane. She stood on a ladder, stretched out, trying to reach a particularly unreachable bolt.

Behind her, the radio was turned up as high as it could go so she couldn’t think for a change.

Normally this would fulfill her, as she loved nothing more than a late night by herself buried in an airplane.

But normal no longer applied to her life. She’d had to charge the fuel for their tanks this morning, because she hadn’t had enough money in the accounts to cover the purchase. The new client had never materialized, and though she had a lead on two more, if they didn’t call soon, it might be too late.

It was entirely possible she was going to have to sell the airport. That burned. But she finally had to admit her love for the place wasn’t enough. It needed more than she could give.

Wade could give it. She’d read his proposal, she knew what he planned. With his marketing savvy and fancy connections, he’d have this place hopping in no time.

Damn him.

She didn’t begrudge him his success, she just wanted it for herself, too. Did that make her a bad person? Probably.

He hadn’t kissed her again.

Her fault. She didn’t want more kisses. Hell, she could hardly concentrate now with the power of the last one still messing with her head.

Damn it, she couldn’t reach the bolt. Wriggling just to the point of no return on the ladder, she realized she had the wrong size wrench. Of course she did.

Suddenly the right size appeared at her hip, extended to her by no other than the tall, dark, enigmatic man she’d been thinking about.

“Hey.” He shot her a crooked grin that destroyed her from the inside out. “Need any help?”

Oh, boy. Loaded question. Yes, she needed help easing the tension strung tight inside her. Yes, he could ease that tension with just a touch, a kiss. And no, she wouldn’t let him. “I’m fine.”

“Uh-huh.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means you make everything so damn difficult. Why can’t you admit, just once in a while, it’s okay to lean on someone?”

“I don’t need-”

“I know.” He tossed up his hands, then shoved his hands through his short, spiky hair. “You don’t need anyone. Well, I think that’s stupid.”

She blinked. “Are you calling me stupid?”

He stared at her. “How can you be so smart, driven and beautiful, and yet so absolutely pig-headed at the same time?”

“I- You think I’m smart and driven?”

“Maybe,” he said, eyes still flashing. “And maybe I also think you’re sexy as hell, too.”

She just stared at him, because he’d done what few had-stunned her.

“If you’d only take a single solitary breath from the whirlwind that is your life,” he said, knocking the air from her lungs by hauling her off the ladder. “You’d see that not everything is about work, or about taking care of someone.” Squeezing her hips, he held her still before him. “It’s about relationships. Like ours.”

While she gaped at that, he stepped back and pointed at her. “And I don’t need taking care of, so you can drop that excuse right now. I’m not one of the needy you collect. Hell, I’m even downright easy. I put the toilet seat down, the cap back on the toothpaste and believe it or not, I can even dress myself.” He lifted his arms out to exhibit that fact.

She could only stare at him. “There’s no us.”

“You don’t think so?”

She let out a long breath. “Even if there was…what does it mean?”

“Why don’t you come to my place and find out? Tomorrow night.”

“That’s a really bad idea. What would we do?”

“Tell you what, babe.” He ran a finger over the grease spot on her cheek, and her heart fluttered. “You can decide when you get there.”

WADE SET UP KYLIE’S seduction carefully. Food was key, Kylie loved food, the junkier the better. He’d ordered an extra large, extra loaded pizza, and put on a loud rock CD to go alongside the food. He had candles, too, lots of them. Probably not her style, but he needed something to keep her off balance. Off balance, she was uncertain and adorable.

Plus, he figured he had a better shot that way.

He hadn’t even been sure she’d come, so when he heard her arrive, he took a deep breath and moved to the window to be certain it was her. Who else could it be? She drove an ancient old Jeep that she’d rebuilt herself, and far before it appeared in front of his house, he heard it clunking up the street.

Looking harassed, a bit tired and more than a little ready to rumble, she stalked up the driveway, holding a folded newspaper like a weapon.

He opened the door just as she leaned forward to knock, and for whatever reason, his quick appearance seemed to have startled her into a tumble.

Right into his arms.

“Well, hello,” he said, enjoying the feel of her in his hands. “That step’s a doozy, huh?”

In his arms she never failed to do a very ego-satisfying melt, which he could unequivocally say went both ways. He’d been around the block a few times in his life, and no one had ever created this combustive sexual tension within him. Sex with Kylie would be mind-blowing, toe-curling, heart-pounding. He just knew it.

“Back off,” she told him. “You’re going to get dirty.” Pulling away, she tugged at the straps of her overalls. She wasn’t kidding about getting dirty, with the smudges all down the front of her and on the tip of her nose, she’d obviously been working on an airplane. She wore her favorite cap over her mop of hair, and the usual scowl.

But beneath it was a touching amount of nerves and an unsureness that broke his heart. “Come inside.”

She wrapped her arms around herself. “I’m not dressed for that.”

“Then why are you here?”

She lifted the newspaper. “Because of this.”

“Well, come in if you’re going to hit me with it.”

“Fine.” She stepped inside. “Nice place,” she said in such a begrudging way he had to laugh.

“Thanks. I think.”

She looked around at the cabin-style house with the high vaulted wood-beam ceilings, at the wood-planked floors covered here and there with throw rugs, at the large but comfortable furniture, and then narrowed in on the music and candles. “What are you up to?”

“Nothing.”

“You’re always up to something, and we both know it.”

She walked away from him, to the far side of the living room. She opened his French doors and stepped out into his backyard. He followed her to the edge of his pool.

Coming up behind her, he put his hands on her shoulders. Tense as usual. “What’s the matter, Kylie?”

With another sigh, she spread out the newspaper, then pointed to the article on her mother. “You’re in here.”

“Am I?”

“You said, and I quote, you think Daisy did a superior job raising ‘the amazing’ Kylie. That ‘they balance each other out and complete each other.”’ She looked at him. “I know those reporters are pulling words out of a hat, but-”

“No.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“I said what they said I did.”

“You…said it? You talked to the reporters?

About me?”

“Yes.”

“But you knew that would bug me.”

“What I knew was, you weren’t telling them anything, and they were going to make it up. And you are balanced by your family.”

“I don’t need you to protect me. I told you, I take care of myself.”

“Uh-huh. And you’re doing such a good job of it, too.” He touched the black circles beneath her eyes.

Kylie had been spoiling for a fight, for a release of the building tension within her, since she’d read the paper. In truth, it was why she’d come, because she knew he’d give it to her, and whether he knew it or not, he just had.

“You’re stubborn as hell,” Wade said, stoking her temper nicely. “But you are everything I told the reporters. You’re amazing, Kylie.”

She had no idea why that last really got to her, but it did, and before she gave it another thought, she shoved him into the pool.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE TALL, gorgeous, obnoxious man hit the water. Kylie felt a surge of satisfaction that was quickly washed away by…remorse. She really shouldn’t have done it, but her other choice had been to kiss him and she couldn’t do that.

Wade surfaced. He tossed his hair and water out of his face, narrowing dark blue eyes on her.

Remorse turned into a nervous giggle. “Oops,” she said. “Sorry.”

Water dripped off his nose. “You are not.”

“You’re right.” Tension eased, she leaned over the edge. “Maybe you’ll stay out of my life now, and-”

He moved like lightning, grabbing her hand and tugging her in.

The water muffled her scream. The night had been cool, but the water that rushed over her was warm. Still, the shock of it held her immobile for one moment.

Long enough for Wade to haul her close. “Chicken,” he taunted when she sputtered and gasped for air. “Trying to scare me away with temper.” His hands tightened. “Guess what, Kylie? I don’t scare easily.”

His hands were creating this delicious and confusing state of chilled heat. His face was so close she could see the fading sunlight dancing in his eyes.

And the yearning in them.

Oh, God. He wanted her, she could see it. “Let me go, Wade.”

“I can’t.”

Fine. She’d simply get away from him on her own. But she’d lost her hat. Her shoes were weighing her down, and her arms were held at her sides by the man holding her close.

“Now.” He lowered his forehead to hers. “I meant what I said. You are amazing. And if Daisy had anything to do with that, then she’s amazing, too.”

She stared at him, in that usual state of confusion he always put her in with his proximity. Plus, he was holding her so effortlessly she had the most horrifying urge to nestle her face in his throat. “Let me go,” she said again, in a barely there whisper.

“Kylie…”

A light breeze rippled over their wet bodies as they drifted in the water in each other’s arms. Kylie was grateful for the fence around his yard. She couldn’t touch the bottom of the pool, but she knew Wade could as he danced them in a slow circle beneath the dusk sky. The sound of the water lapping against the edge was rhythmic, hypnotic. The feel of his warm strength lulling. She breathed him in, the faint scent of man and hunger, and when he drew her closer, she went.

She told herself it was because she felt chilled and he was so warm, but that was a big, fat lie. She went because she wanted to, and because in his arms some of the emptiness inside her started to dissipate. And when he kissed her, his mouth soulful, his tongue deep, any lingering emptiness vanished.

That was why, when he unhooked her overalls and pulled them off, that she let him. Let him strip her completely, and watched as her clothes drifted away in the water. A few bolts from her pocket sank to the bottom of the pool like stones.

Wade pulled off his shirt. Good Lord, he was beautiful, all hard angled planes and tough, sinewy muscle, with smooth, sleek, tanned wet skin. Oh yes, and he was hard everywhere, except the soft, crinkly patch of chest hair between his pecs, which she reached out and tangled her fingers in.

And tugged.

“Closer?” he murmured, and when she hummed her affirmative answer, he wrapped his arms around her tight-so tight she lost herself. When he kissed her this time, she kissed him back. His mouth was firm, demanding in a way that was so vintage Wade. The fist on her heart tightened. As always, and without a word, he commanded her the way no one else could.

Beneath his hands, her body came alive. There was no other way to describe it. She came to life, responding to his talented, greedy fingers and mouth in a way that might have scared her if he wasn’t right there with her, lost right alongside her.

The rest of his clothes fell away, too. She stared down at his erection and quivered at the sight. “Ridiculous,” she panted, even as she reached out and touched. “This is ridiculous.”

“You’re supposed to swoon at such a sight, not use words like ridiculous.”

She let out a half-hysterical laugh. “I meant the situation, not you. You…you’re…”

“Huge? Impressive?” he teased, his smile faded when she stroked him and looked up into his eyes.

“Perfect,” she whispered, and wrapped her legs around his waist. His hands cupped her breasts, his thumbs rasping her nipples, his most impressive hard-on nudging…

Then he wasn’t just nudging, he’d slid home with one full, oh-so-perfect thrust and she couldn’t remember what was ridiculous about the most sensual, erotic experience of her life. She had the tile at her back, the giving, warm water surrounding them, the darkening night upon them, and Wade deep inside her.

“Okay?” he asked, and when she could only stare at him, he let out a groaning laugh. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“Yes,” she managed. “Very…yes. Wade?”

“Yeah?”

“Stop talking.”

“I can do that.” Then thankfully, finally, he began to move.

Later she would remember her hoarse cries, her soft whimpers and wordless demands. She’d remember how she sank her fingernails into his tight butt and made him go harder, faster, and later, much later, she would blush in the middle of whatever she was doing when she remembered.

But for right now, there was no later, there was nothing but this. He was so familiar, and yet a complete stranger. Every kiss, every taste, every touch felt new and thrilling, and just when she thought she would die if he ever stopped moving inside her, he said her name in a ragged, husky voice so filled with awe and longing, she was lost. Simply lost. She didn’t have a chance of holding back, even if she’d remembered to, and with a small cry and a trembling that rippled through her entire frame, she broke into a shattering climax. Vaguely she heard his guttural moan, felt him shudder in her arms right with her.

Reality returned slowly, in the same easy sloshing waves of the water lapping over them. They lay on the steps in the shallow end, breathing ragged, staring up at the now night sky. She wondered at the tight ache in her chest, and the delicious sensation between her thighs…and at the need to have him again.

Definitely, time to go home and lick her wounds. She sat up and remembered she was naked. She wondered at the flash of embarrassment, when a moment ago she hadn’t been able to get naked fast enough.

Wade sat up, too, and reached for her. “Regrets already?”

Yeah, she had regrets, but man oh man, did he look good. “Wade-”

“I should tell you,” he said, unusually solemn, snagging her wrist, looking right into her eyes. “I love you. I love you, and I have for some time.”

If she thought it’d been hard to breathe with his mouth on her while he’d been buried deep inside her, it was impossible now.

“Did you hear me?” he asked. “Should I say it again?”

“No! It’s…it’s just the sex talking.” She scrambled up the steps of the pool, weaving like a drunk on the deck. Still very naked. Dripping. Shocked. He’d used the L-word! “You can’t l-l-”

“Love you? Why not?”

“Because I can’t…do it back. My life…” She lifted her hands, and had to let out a laugh. “My life is crazy enough, I can’t take on one more per son-”

“I already told you, no one takes care of me but me.” Calmly, he retrieved her shirt, her overalls, then stepped out of the pool, too, standing there in all his leanly muscled-and nude!-glory, water pooling at his feet.

“Fine.” She snatched her clothes from him. “You take care of yourself, and I’ll take care of myself, and we’ll just forget this happened and-”

“And what?” All that glorious male specimen moved closer. Very close. Very unconcerned about the nudity. “We’ll go on our merry way and forget that we just rocked each other’s world?”

She shoved her legs into her wet overalls, which meant her foot got stuck halfway in and she had to hobble around or fall on her ass. Her bra was still floating in the pool so she skipped that, too, and shoved her arms into her still inside-out shirt.

“Kylie-”

“I am leaving now.”

“But-”

“Bye.”

She got all the way home before she realized she’d forgotten her boots, too.

KYLIE WALKED into her office the next morning and found her bra and panties, dry and neatly folded, on her desk. No note.

None required, she thought grimly, staring at the plain white, serviceable bra and panties as she sank to her chair. The sexiest, most intelligent and startlingly intuitive man on earth fancied himself in love with her.

Her own little miracle, that.

And her own nightmare.

“Good morning, honey.” Daisy, dressed in a pink suit with matching fingernails and toenails, and a little matching purse, smiled sweetly as she entered. As usual, every hair was in place, and she looked incredible.

A feat her daughter had never managed.

“Do you have a minute?” Daisy asked.

“No, actually, I-”

“Don’t ask her if she has a minute,” Lou scolded, coming in behind Daisy, looking just as spectacularly put together as her daughter, though her finger and toenails were cherry red. “She never has a minute.”

“Grandma-”

“Be quiet, and welcome to This Is Your Sucky Life.”

Kylie blinked. “What?”

Lou shut the door. “What happened last night?”

Kylie’s stomach dropped. “Nothing.” Besides hot and wild sex in Wade’s pool. “Why?”

“Because your bra and panties got here before you did.”

Kylie grabbed the underwear in question and shoved it in her drawer. “I…lost them.”

“At Wade’s house?” Daisy smiled kindly when Kylie frowned. “Should we have the birds and the bees talk again, honey? Because-”

“Mom!” Kylie scrubbed her hands over her face. “I remember the talk. Jeez!”

“So do you love him?”

“Love him? What are you talking about?” But she knew, God help her, she knew.

She had no idea what Wade saw in her, she was a tomboy who forgot to comb her hair half the time, she was grumpy and ornery, and she didn’t have a soft spot to her.

And yet he loved her.

A serious problem, because she didn’t know how she felt in return. And yet if this stomach-in-her-toes, heart-on-its-side, can’t-eat-can’t-sleep feeling meant she loved him back, she didn’t know how she could live through it.

“Sit down, dear, you’re looking pale.” Lou pushed her into a chair. “Here’s what’s wrong. One, you work too hard. Two, you don’t smile enough. Three, you have people who love you, and you snarl at them instead of loving them back. Four, you have the most gorgeous hunk on the entire planet mooning after you and it takes you six months to notice-”

“Grandma. What is this?”

“I told you, I’m giving you the quickie version of This Is Your Sucky Life.” She turned to Daisy. “Tell me the truth, she’s the mailman’s child, right? You adopted her. You didn’t really have this alien.”

Kylie groaned and covered her face.

“What your grandma is trying to say, is that it’s okay you made love with Wade,” Daisy said. “We know you love us, and we think maybe you love him, too. It’s okay to love people, Kylie. It’s okay to lean on someone once in a while-”

“Lean on someone?” Kylie started to laugh, then realized she was close to tears and bit her lip. “Mom, it’s just that I can’t handle someone else leaning on me.”

“Why I ought to take you over my knee!” Lou said. “Sure, you run the business. And sure you’re more mature than we are. And okay, yes, maybe you’re even smarter, but Kylie Ann Birmingham, this taking care of people crap goes both ways. Who makes sure you actually eat once in a while? Your mother. Who makes sure you actually laugh once in a while? Who makes sure you stop and smell the flowers? Me, thank you very much.”

Kylie opened her eyes and looked into the two pairs of baby blues watching her so anxiously despite the levity in her grandma’s voice. They cared. They cared deeply. Why had she ever doubted that? “Look, I-”

“Just say you’re sorry and that you’ve been an idiot,” Lou said. “Go on, say it.”

“Okay, maybe I’ve been a bit of an-”

“Idiot,” Grandma filled in helpfully.

“Idiot,” Kylie agreed, rolling her eyes.

“No doubt there,” her grandmother agreed. “A complete idiot. Now. Forget about us and go get your man.”

Go get her man. Yeah. Shocking, but she liked the sound of that. But first she turned to Daisy. “Mom. I love you. I know I don’t say it enough, but I really do.”

Daisy’s eyes filled.

“Yeah, yeah. Love, love, love.” Lou pushed Kylie toward the door. “You have a man to catch.”

“I love you, too, Grandma.”

Lou’s eyes filled, as well. “If you’re going to go soft now, you’re wasting it on the wrong person,” she said, her voice suspiciously wobbly, and shoved Kylie out of her own office.

Kylie smiled, her heart feeling…light. Then her own office door shut in her face, and just as it did, she heard her grandma say, “I love you, too, even if you are an alien.”

CHAPTER EIGHT

WADE WOKE UP ALONE. He’d woken up alone a thousand mornings before, but this morning, for the first time ever, it didn’t feel right.

Kylie should have stayed. Should have been in his arms all night, blinking sleepy, sexy eyes at him. Then he’d have shown her what mornings were good for.

If he knew her, and he was quite certain he did, she’d ignore him today. She’d bury herself in work and pretend nothing was different.

When everything was different.

He walked from his office, braced, knowing he’d be facing a ten-foot brick wall when it came to Kylie, and dreading it. Damn it, if he could face his feelings for her, then she should have to do the same.

And she did have feelings. He didn’t care what she admitted out loud, he’d made love to her now, he’d seen how she looked at him, how she’d lost herself in his touch.

If nothing else, she wanted his body. Good news, but it wasn’t enough.

Walking through the maintenance hangar, he sighed heavily, disgusted with himself, because since when hadn’t lust been enough for him?

Since now, apparently. Since Kylie.

And then he noticed, someone had opened up one of his planes. With a frown, he headed toward it and stepped onboard.

And nearly swallowed his tongue.

Kylie stood there…in a dress. And not any regular dress, either, but the knock-’em-dead, formfitting, flowery number from the photo shoot. Her hair had been styled, her lips glossed, and when she saw him, she…smiled.

She didn’t ignore him, didn’t snarl at him, she simply kept smiling.

“I’m…sorry,” he said, his voice a little hoarse. “I think I’ve entered the wrong plane.” He turned away, and she let out a little laugh.

“Wade…”

He turned back to her. “My God, Kylie, you look beautiful.”

“It’s the same dress because…” She laughed again. “Well, it’s the only one I have.” She held a file, and suddenly she shoved it at him. “Here.”

He realized she had music on, not her usual hard rock, but something soft and romantic. She had a cooler opened with sodas in it. And she had a look to her face… If he didn’t know better he’d think she was trying to seduce him. “What’s this?” he said, opening the file.

Inhaling deeply, she clasped her fingers in front of her. “It’s a proposal.” She took a step closer, nearly tripped on her heels, swore roughly, then forced a smile. “For you.”

Watching this rough and tumble woman trying so hard to be soft and sexy made him want to both laugh and grab her. Grabbing her won out, and he reached for her, but she stepped back. “It’s a proposal,” she repeated. “For the very thing you’ve wanted.”

Blankly he stared down at the file, remembering only that he wanted her. But Kylie wouldn’t fit into this file.

“I’ve learned something about myself these past weeks,” she said quietly, her fingers turning white as she twisted them together. “I need people in my life. I need you in my life. And I’m ready to admit it out loud.”

Shocked, he stared at her. Was she saying what he hoped she was saying? “You…need me?”

“I need your expertise, I need your business savvy. I need you, the airport needs you. I’m just sorry it took me so long. So…” She drew another deep breath. “Will you buy into the airport as you’ve wanted? Will you become my business partner?”

When he didn’t answer, Kylie let out a slow breath. “Did you change your mind?”

“On what, Kylie?”

Why was he looking at her like that, she wondered, his eyes all dark and inscrutable? His mouth grim? His body language looking as if maybe he wanted to strangle her? “On…being my business partner.”

“Yes. Yes, actually, I did change my mind. I don’t want to be your business partner.”

What? What? How could he do this to her? Taking the last step between them, she stabbed his chest with her finger, hard. The sinewy strength of him didn’t give an inch, so she stabbed harder. “You’ve been after me all year for a piece of this place, and now, suddenly, when I’m the one asking, you don’t want a part of it?”

“Kylie-”

Oh, but she wasn’t done. She stabbed him again. “You wanted this. You said so-”

“Now,” he said, and grabbed Kylie. He settled his hands on her waist and whipped them both around so she was the one backed to the closed door. “We were discussing something very important.”

“No, I was discussing and you were rejecting.”

“Not rejecting. Negotiating.”

“What kind of negotiation is no, Wade?”

“I don’t want to be just your business partner,” he said, still holding on to her, still making her yearn and burn with just his hands and his eyes. “I want to be your husband.”

“You…” The air whooshed from her lungs. Her heart stopped. “Oh my God.”

“Yeah. So…Kylie Birmingham, will you marry me? For better or worse, through sickness and in health, through grumpy moods and business deals and meddling relations?”

Kylie opened her mouth, then shut it. Then opened it again. “You never said anything about marriage,” she managed to whisper through the terrible burning in her throat.

“I just did.”

“Yeah.” She cleared her throat, then lost her breath when Wade ran his hands up her body to cup her face.

“I love you,” he said quietly. “Does that help?”

It did, if the hope and joy and heart-thumping desire pumping through her meant anything. “I think so.” Suddenly feeling light and carefree, she slid her arms around his neck. “Know what?”

A small smile curved his mouth. “What, baby?”

“I love you back.”

His eyes softened, and so did his mouth as he gently, tenderly set it to hers. “So the answer is yes?”

She opened her mouth, but someone pounded on the door.

“Go away,” yelled Kylie.

“But that’s what I need to tell you, I have to leave early!”

At Daisy’s voice, Kylie rolled her gaze heavenward. “Mom, I’m a little busy, can’t you give me a few more minutes here?”

“Honey, I just found out I didn’t win the trip to Paris.”

Oh, damn. “Mom, I’m really sorry,” she said through the door. “I know how much it meant to you, but-”

“Never mind, it doesn’t matter. That’s what I wanted to tell you, I just found a hell of a deal on a travel site on the Web. Your grandma and I are leaving today. Can we have two weeks off?”

Kylie looked into Wade’s laughing eyes. “You know what? Go for it.”

“We’ll wait until they get back to go on our honeymoon,” Wade whispered, and her heart soared.

“You’re taking me to Paris on our honeymoon?” she whispered back.

“Is there anywhere else?”

Laughing, Kylie leaned away from the door and hugged him. They were still hugging and kissing when the door opened behind them.

“Oh my,” Daisy said. “I’m sorry.”

“Mom, we’re getting married.”

“You’re…” Daisy looked faint. “Can you say that again?”

Kylie grinned, feeling a little faint herself. “We’re getting married.”

“You wouldn’t tease an old woman, right?”

“You’re not old, and I’m not teasing you.”

Daisy looked to Wade for confirmation, and he nodded. She hugged them both, sniffling loudly. “So you can take care of my baby while I’m gone,” she said to Wade.

Kylie shook her head. “Mom, I can take care of myself.”

“I’ll be glad to take care of her,” Wade said, squeezing Kylie gently.

The reporter was behind Daisy, with tears in her eyes. “That’s so beautiful.”

Kylie thought so, too. She looked at Wade. “You know, that all happened so fast…do you think you could ask me again? Just so I can hear it one more time?”

The reporter lifted the tape recorder. “Oh, no need! I got it all on tape. You can listen to it whenever you want. In fact, you can listen to it all the way to Paris.”

EPILOGUE

Contest Winner Announced!

Margaret Milford of Buffalo, N.Y., the mother of two-year-old quadruplets, has been chosen Family Voyager’s Mother of the Year! She wins a trip for two to Paris, along with a five-thousand dollar shopping spree.

“My husband and I are dancing the macarena!” Mrs. Milford said after being notified of her selection. She was picked by the editors of Family Voyager from among nine finalists.

A tenth finalist, Jody Reilly of Everett Landing, Texas, withdrew after marrying FV publisher Callum Fox-click on Wedding Festivities to see photos of their hometown ceremony.

Mrs. Milford said she’s planning to leave the quads, Mary, Max, Molly and Manny, with her mother-in-law. “Sam and I want to rekindle our romance on the trip. We might also catch up on our sleep, although I wouldn’t count on it.”

FV photographers will accompany the couple to Paris. You can follow their adventures on this Web site, and read about them in our print edition.

Congratulations to the Milfords!