Being a parent, Jax had learned early on that actions spoke louder than words. He rounded the hood and opened Livie’s door. She unfastened her seat belt and started to get out.
As soon as he reached for her, she shot him a glare. “Don’t even think about throwing me over your shoulder again.”
“No problem.” He shoved one hand behind her back and another beneath her knees and lifted her out. “Shut the door, would ya?”
She did as he asked, but let out the most unladylike growl in the process. He headed to the hangar and eased her down beside him, keeping an arm firmly around her waist.
“I’m not flying with you.”
He pulled the keys from his pocket and shoved one into the padlock. “Of course you are. It’s the only place I can guarantee you’ll listen. We’ll keep our clothes on, and you won’t storm out.”
As soon as he had the door unlocked, he pulled it open and lifted her back into his arms. Damn it. This felt too right. Could she seriously keep denying this? Was she going to insist that what they had was nothing more than a heated affair? Because he knew there was much more and if she were honest with herself, so did she.
Even though he’d done a preflight check before he left, Jax still sat Livie in a chair and went about going through the routine again. Safety always trumped rush, especially when it came to flying.
By the time he was done with the check, had pulled the plane from the hangar, and went around it once more, he still had no clue what he was going to say to her.
Jax assisted her, carefully and a bit awkwardly, into the passenger seat of the plane. She seemed to still be just as angry. “It’s good that you’re quiet,” he told her as he put his headphones on. “Makes it easier for me to get everything out.”
There were two ways he could approach her and he honestly didn’t know which one would be the most effective. Livie was all business, all the time. Perhaps that’s the side he needed to appeal to. But, on the other hand, they were so much more than legal documents. They’d been intimate, just this morning in fact, and they knew each other’s hopes for the future.
He picked up her headset and extended it to her, smiling when she yanked it from his hands.
Jax started the plane and slowly circled around to the end of the runway. Once they were beyond the crucial period of takeoff, he’d get his thoughts all out.
“Can I do it?”
Her abrupt question caught him off guard and he turned to her.
She met his gaze. “If I’m going to be leaving, I’d like to fly once more before I go.”
Oh, of course. She was leaving. Because she hadn’t thrown that around enough since she arrived. Jax gave a clipped nod and watched as she checked her gauges, the wings, and pulled in a deep breath. She gripped the controls and started them forward.
Jax didn’t know the last time he’d been in a plane piloted by someone else, but he had to admit, seeing Livie at the controls was a hell of a turn-on . . . which was the last thing he needed.
She took off with the ease of a seasoned professional. Jax couldn’t help but think Paul was smiling down on his prodigal daughter.
“I’ll fly, you talk,” she told him once they’d reached the desired altitude.
He had to admit, he loved hearing her voice come through the headset. He wanted to get used to this, but he also had to be realistic.
“I want a timeline of when you’re leaving and a projected time of when things will get started on the airport.”
Livie’s grip tightened on the controls, her knuckles turned white, and he had to bite the inside of his lip to keep from smiling. He’d purposely thrown her off. She expected him to discuss their rocky relationship. Not going to happen. The second she took those controls he knew how to make her think, make her want. She hadn’t lost the love of flying. The temptation had been too great for her to avoid.
“Well, um, I’m leaving in two weeks and the outline Jade had drawn up indicated that the process should take about a year to fully develop.”
A year. Sweet mercy, that seemed like a lifetime. He couldn’t even imagine how his tiny piece of real estate would grow. But he honestly didn’t want to go through this process without her. They were a team whether she wanted to admit it or not.
“I’m going to need to give my renters some information,” he went on. “Is their rent staying the same? Will there be a time the hangars are out of commission while the renovations are going on? My customers are going to have to be—”
“I get it,” she demanded. “I know. There’s a lot to take in.”
“We’re partners in this,” he reminded her.
She eased the plane a little to the west and headed farther away from Haven. Surprisingly, he figured she’d get uncomfortable with the topic and take them back to the airport. That would so be a Livie move.
“Are Jade and Melanie leaving when you do?” he asked.
“I’m not sure. We haven’t really discussed that. I’m sure they’d rather stay behind. They’re facing their own issues in Atlanta, so they’re not as eager to get back. Jade quit her job and Melanie can technically work from anywhere since she has a successful online business.”
As if she needed to twist that knife deeper.
“You think things are going to be neat and tidy, Livie?”
She glanced his way for the briefest of moments before she focused her attention back to the darkening sky. The timing of this flight couldn’t be any better. Livie loved being in the sky at night and he wanted to drive home the fact that all of this could be hers—was hers—if she would just reach out and take
