My Forever Guy — Preview

Chapter 1

Scottie Montgomery

 

         A double-strapped canvas tote bag hiked over my shoulder, heavy with an unopened bottle of wine, I stepped outside the terminal building into the hot Houston air that carried the scent of jet fuel, the smell of rubber from aircraft tires, and the heaviness of aircraft exhaust along with the faint scent of dried grass from the neighboring fields.

         The sound of jet engines roaring to life as airplanes taxied towards the runway was deafening. A baggage caddy rumbled past, the wheels of the empty cart behind it clattering against the hard surface. The driver, a bearded skinny man named Martin lifted a hand in greeting as he passed.

         I jumped aside, nearly losing my balance as I swatted at a horsefly buzzing past my ears. Quickly regaining composure, I swept a stray strand of my straight longish brunette hair out of my face and kept walking.

         For the airport and even the asphalt tarmac acreage to be such a busy, urban area, it still carried remnants of the undeveloped land that surrounded it. Like horseflies and other pesky insects straying from the prairie around it.

A large jet went airborne, passing right over my head as it shot toward the sky, its wings glinting in the bright sunlight of the cloudless day.

After reaching the sleek Phenom jet parked just outside the Skye Travels terminal and waiting for the stairs to automatically lower to the ground, I pulled at my white button-down shirt, unconsciously trying to cool my skin. It was barely eleven o’clock, but already the heat was nearly unbearable.

I should be used to it by now. A born and bred Houstonian, I had never lived anywhere else and couldn’t say that I wanted to.

With the stairs secure, I started up, holding the railing with one hand, careful with my high heels on the narrow steps.

I wore the tight pencil skirt, reaching my knees, that was part of my uniform. The short jacket and little pillbox hat gave my outfit a Jackie Kennedyish vibe. According to all accounts, that was exactly the retro look that Noah Worthington, CEO and founder of Skye Travels, had been going for. I had no doubt he had gotten help with the look from his wife.

The inside of the airplane was thankfully already cool.

I carried the tote bag to the back of the airplane, set it down on one of the seats and pulled out the bottle of wine.

         It was a bottle of Chateau Latour merlot, the brand always requested by Ethan Sterling when he flew with Skye Travels. Most Skye Travels passengers were given complimentary wine of their choice, but Mr. Sterling paid extra for his—to get what he wanted.

         Part of my job was making sure it was on the airplane before it took off.

         With the wine secured in its place, I pulled out my phone, opened my app, and checked the wine off my list.

         My next task was to leave a pen and a little notepad in the cockpit for the pilot.

         The cockpit smelled like leather, disinfectant, and just the faint hint of vanilla and sandalwood.

         As I set the pen and notebook on the copilot’s seat, I recognized that I just might be imagining the vanilla and sandalwood.

         It was the scent worn by Thomas Johnson, the pilot of this airplane. Since the plane didn’t actually belong to Thomas—it belonged to Skye Travels—it was occasionally flown by other pilots.

         Ninety percent of the time, though, Thomas was the pilot.

         Thomas was not only a pilot, but he was the nephew of Noah Worthington, founder and owner of Skye Travels. Noah Worthington was Skye Travels. Or maybe it was the other way around.

         With my tasks complete, I made a quick survey of the airplane, making sure the cleaning crew had done their job, then headed back out into the heat.

         I remembered the day I met Thomas Johnson. It had been my first day of work and I hadn’t even known who he was until two days later.

         Thomas was the most handsome and charming man I had ever had the pleasure of meeting. Unfortunately, since I’d met him five years ago, he always had a girlfriend and as of two months, two weeks, and two days ago, he was engaged to Caroline Miller.

         The worst of it was that I actually liked Caroline Miller.

         It wasn’t her fault that I had been crushing on her fiancé for longer than she had known him.

         I glanced at my watch as I neared the terminal building. A quick glance toward the pilot’s parking lot told me that Thomas wasn’t here yet.

         He was uncharacteristically not early. I wouldn’t say late. Late wasn’t in his vocabulary.

         As I walked in through the back door, I opened my traffic app.

         Traffic was heavier than usual coming up 45 to the airport. That’s all it was. Thomas was delayed due to traffic.

         Going inside, I went to the elevator and waited for the car to slowly make its way down.

         As the client liaison, I had one assistant. She worked part time and, like me, was always on call. Her name was Annette and she was an online college student. She spent a lot of her time, like today, sitting in the upstairs staff lounge doing her schoolwork.

         Since I liked to be hands on, I didn’t mind. I’d taught her enough to fill in for me if I had to be off work for some reason.

         Since it wasn’t in my nature to miss work, doubly so since I enjoyed the work, that had yet to happen.

         “Need me to do anything?” Annette asked as I went in to the kitchen for a cold bottle of water.

         “No,” I said. “It’s all taken care of. Everything is ready for Mr. Sterling.”

         “I can do that, you know,” she said. “You taught me well.”    

         “I know. But then, what would I do?”

         Annette shrugged and went back to her homework.

         It was my job to make sure the airplane was ready for Thomas and I took my job seriously.

         “I don’t think Mr. Johnson is coming,” Annette said.

         “What?” Thomas wasn’t coming for his flight? “Why not?”

         “I don’t know. I heard Maggie talking about it to… someone.”

         Maggie was the office supervisor and scheduler. She knew everything there was to know about Skye Travels and everyone who worked or had ever worked here.

         Annette might know the basics of how to take care of our clients, but she still had trouble remembering who was who.

         “I’ll go find out what’s going on,” I said.

         Mr. Sterling would be arriving any minute and Skye Travels was known for having passengers where they needed to be when they needed to be there.

         But honestly, that wasn’t what concerned me.

         What concerned me was that Thomas was scheduled to be here, but he wasn’t here yet.

 

 

 

Chapter 2

Henry Ashford

 

         I stepped out of the Uber in front of the Skye Travels private terminal building into what felt like hell.

         According to the thermometers, it was one hundred and three degrees.

         An unnaturally hot temperature.

         Being from Pittsburgh, I was used to a more temperate climate.

         It wasn’t that I was a delicate hothouse flower. I liked going to the beach with the best of them. But at the beach a man didn’t have to wear clothes to speak of.

         Quite a difference from my current uniform.

         Noah Worthington, the founder and owner of Skye Travels insisted on his pilots wearing a uniform that consisted of black pants, a blazer, and a pilot’s cap.

         No matter the temperature.

         Fortunately, I only had to be outside for about four minutes which included unloading my carryon bag from the trunk of the car and walking to the front doors of Skye Travels.

         The Skye Travels logo was painted in bright red on the wall just inside the door. Nothing modest about that logo.

         Noah Worthington had done well for himself. I hadn’t actually met the man, but I looked forward to it.

         I pressed the elevator button that led up to the second floor where the offices were.

         I had never been here, but someone named Maggie had given me excellent directions.

         It was no doubt part of her southern Texas charm. I hadn’t spent much time in the south, but I’d always had a weak spot when it came to the soft spoken soft skinned southern girl.

         I rode up to the second floor and got off. If I had designed the building, I would have put wide stairs instead of an elevator, but that was just me.

         There were probably stairs somewhere around.

         On the second floor, I turned left and followed the hallway.

         It wasn’t my fault I was late. It was my connecting flight.

         Noah hadn’t given me any choices when he’d offered me the temporary job.

         I would not be here for long. His nephew was going on his honeymoon and needed someone to cover for him.

         Although Noah hadn’t said, I got the impression that the honeymoon was unplanned. That probably meant the wedding was unplanned, but I wasn’t one to make assumptions or to judge others.

         Live and let live and all that as far as I was concerned. I could get behind an elopement as well as the next man.

         When I reached the front desk, there was no one behind it.

         There was a man, obviously a client, sitting in one of the partitioned waiting rooms. Probably my passenger.

         I had some things to do before I could take the man up in the Phenom.

         I was supposed to have been here three hours ago. That would have given me enough time to get access to the Skye Travels system before my first flight.

         And now there was no one at the desk.

         I kept walking, going behind the desk, down the quiet hallway.

         Not normally one to go places uninvited, I saw this as extenuating circumstances. I had no doubt that my client was waiting to board for his flight.

         I turned the corner and ran headlong into a flight attendant wearing the female version of my uniform. Even knowing that I was biased toward a flight attendant in a skirt, didn’t change that opinion.

         I quick glance told me that she wore her version with a skirt much better than I wore my version.

         “Excuse me,” I said, grabbing her elbow to keep her from losing her balance and falling. It never made sense to me why flight attendants wore high heels. No sense at all.

         They were on the flight to work, not to be in a fashion show.

         “So sorry,” she said, automatically putting a hand on her little hat.

         “It’s okay. I’m looking for someone named Maggie.”

         “She should be at the front desk,” the flight attendant said, somewhat crossly, adjusting her blazer that did not need to be adjusted.

         “I agree,” I said. “But there is no one there.”

         “Maybe I can help you,” she said. “My name is Scottie.”

         “Maybe,” I said, but I wasn’t convinced that this flight attendant named Scottie was the person I needed to see, no matter how fetching she happened to look.

         She had that soft southern skin that I had just been thinking about. Soft features. Big green eyes framed with dark lashes. Southern women knew how to do things with their makeup that the girls from the north either didn’t know about or didn’t concern themselves with.

         Scottie’s lips, though currently in a little skeptical pout, were kissably plump and shiny. Even though I forced myself to keep my gaze on her eyes, it wasn’t easy to keep from soaking her in from head to toe.

         Just then an older, middle-aged woman wearing sensibly flat shoes, came out of one of the offices behind us.

         “Oh good,” she said. “Henry, right?”

         “Yes,” I said, recognizing her voice. “You must be Maggie.”

         “Unfortunately there’s no time to orient you.” She glanced at her watch. “Your passenger is already here.”

         She pressed her fingertips against her chin.

         “I see you’ve met Scottie.” She nodded to herself. “I hate to throw this on you Scottie at the last minute, but I need you to go with Henry. Help him navigate our system.”

         “Go with him?” Scottie asked.

         “It’s just an overnight trip. Grab your bag and meet Henry at the airplane. I have to introduce him to Mr. Sterling.”

         Scottie looked at Maggie as though she’d just asked her to walk barefoot over hot coals.

         “Come on,” Maggie said to me, ignoring Scottie. “Let’s go meet your first passenger.”

         Scottie turned and went in one direction while Maggie led me back toward the waiting area where I was about to meet my passenger.

         Fortunately I knew how to fly a Phenom. As far as everything else related to Skye Travels, I was completely in the dark.

         It would be okay though. I would have a flight attendant along to help me navigate everything.

 

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