Damn my fair skin.

“Wait a second! You did notice him, didn’t you? I see that look. You’ve finally noticed another guy! Yay! So why didn’t you say anything to him? Oh, crap. You were with Jackson. No way could you ask him to introduce you after everything that happened the last time he introduced you to a guy. Don’t worry though. We will just have to make sure you have another chance,” Aubrey rambled on. Great, now I was going to have to admit to seeing him again in the grocery store.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I already saw him again this morning at the grocery store. And you saw what I looked like when I left this morning. I bumped into him, he seemed nice, and then he was super icy to me. I don’t think the third time will be the charm.”

I quickly finished making their smoothies so I could get out of there. I really didn’t want to get the third degree about some guy I was never going to date anyway.

“Here you go! This should help with the hangovers. I need to head out if I am going to make it to the terminal in time. See you guys on Monday.” I grabbed my backpack off the floor near the door and peeked inside. “Thanks for throwing my stuff together, Aubrey. I appreciate it.”

“Don’t think that this conversation is over, Lex. We will talk about this later,” Aubrey threatened.

chapter 4

I parked the Mini Cooper in my parking spot at the terminal. I rubbed my hands together in excitement as I thought about the upcoming flight. It wasn’t often that I was able to get extra hours in the Lear since Dad used it for most of his business charter flights. I couldn’t wait to get up in the air today.

As I headed towards the hanger, I could see my dad running over his checklist outside the plane. We had both picked the same dark purple polo shirt to wear today—my favorite color. I knew Dad wore it because he knew I loved when he wore his. He had let me pick the colors out on the last order of logo shirts, and he hadn’t been too excited when he saw the purple ones, saying it was a little too feminine for him. Yet he still wore it because he liked making me happy.

“Hey, Dad. Great minds think alike, eh?” I gestured towards our shirts. He snorted in response to my teasing and reached out to give me a big bear hug.

“Alexa! Since I can claim half of your great mind, it only makes sense that we think alike. Right, sweetie?”

“Makes sense to me. Anything I can do to help get ready for the flight?”

“Yeah, could you make sure there are drinks and snacks in the cabin? We only have one passenger today, so we only need a few things available.”

“Sure, Dad. Should I fluff a pillow and grab a blanket while I’m at it?”

“Alexa Marie, you know that our passengers pay for comfort and convenience. I know it’s a pain to cater to them sometimes, but that doesn’t mean you need to get sassy with me.”

“Sorry, Dad. I’ll can the attitude. I promise.”

“Good, because he will be here any minute, and I want everything ready to go before he gets here. His dad is paying us good money to make sure his son makes it to some big party tonight.” Dad smiled back at me, letting me know that he didn’t really mind my attitude all that much.

As I worked to get everything set up in the cabin of the Lear, I could hear my dad talking to someone in the hangar. Sounded like our passenger was here a little bit early. As I leaned over, peering into the fridge to make sure we had a selection of beverages, I could hear footsteps climbing the stairs onto the plane.

“Well hello. I didn’t realize the view would be this good or I would have had my dad charter all my flights through Mr. Hewett,” I heard a husky voice murmur at me. I stood and twirled around, coming face to face with none other than Drake Bennett. Dammit! Three times now in twenty-four hours. Really?

“Drake,” I gasped at him. His eyes were directed at where my ass had been moments before, but he raised them to look at my face now. And yet again, there went that molten gaze turning to ice when he realized who I was. Seriously, what had I done to offend this guy?

“Wow! Didn’t see that coming. Does Jackson know that you’re a stewardess? I can’t imagine that he’s cool with how often you must get hit on when you hang around horny businessmen all day, bending over like that.”

“Wait, what? Why would Jackson care if I was a stewardess? Which I’m not, by the way.”

“Right, sorry. I should have said flight attendant. Let me guess, you met Jackson because of the job. I almost forgot that he was the one who’d suggested this charter line to me. Guess he doesn’t mind how often you get leered at since he hasn’t talked you out of the job.”