Playboy Pilot (34 page)

She slipped inside and looked genuinely sad, rather than angry. “If you change your mind, you know where to find me.”

“Thank you. Take care of yourself, Alexa.”

I shut the door and rapped my knuckles on the top of the yellow car to let the driver know he could pull away. Then I stood there for a full ten minutes staring at nothing but the sidewalk. I didn’t know what to do with myself. I could go check into a hotel, but that thought depressed me even more than the incident with Alexa did. So I did the only thing that seemed to make me feel better lately—and headed back into the airport.

The Sky Lounge food wasn’t half bad, and it would kill some time before going to my depressing hotel by myself. I headed through the security I’d just exited and back down the National Elite concourse. As I passed gate thirty-two, I caught a glimpse of what I thought was the blonde Kendall ghost walking down the gangway to board her flight. She really looked like her from behind. The swing of her hips was even similar. I stopped to watch her walk the entire way down, not moving until she’d disappeared out of sight. Again, my heart was beating out of control just seeing a woman who looked
similar
to Kendall.

What the
fuck
was wrong with me?

I shook my head, blinked a few times, and forced myself to continue walking. I’d made it two or three more gates when I suddenly turned back around. “
I’m losing my fucking mind
,” I grumbled to myself. It was ridiculous, I knew. But my heart was still racing, and I’d never be able to sleep tonight if I didn’t at least ask.

I waited in line behind a woman who wanted to change her seat. When it was my turn, I made sure my captain’s hat was on my head. “Hi, I’m Carter Clynes with International. I could have sworn I just saw an old friend that I used to work with go down the gateway.

“You mean Captain Reisher?”

“No. A flight attendant. We used to work together.”

“Let’s see. We have Melissa Hansen, Nat Ditmar and…” The woman turned to her co-worker. “What’s the new flight attendant’s name again? The blonde?”

My heart started to pound with anticipation.

“The one that just finished training last week?”

“Yeah, that’s her. She just boarded today’s flight.”

“Oh. Her name…is Kendall.”

I froze. It couldn’t be. “Did you say Kendall?”

“I did. Is that who you thought it was?”

It has to be one giant coincidence.

“Kendall…is her last name Sparks?”

“Yeah, that’s it. She works the shuttle from New York to Boston now.”

Am I imagining what I’m hearing? Have I lost the rest of my marbles? Or can it really be possible that Kendall had become a flight attendant and was right down that hall?

The thought seemed insane.

I looked up at the flight board. It showed Boston, but was flashing delayed. “What time are you supposed to leave?”

“Our wheels up time is in fifteen minutes, but they’re telling us to expect at least an hour delay due to high winds.”

“Is the flight full?”

She keypunched a few things. “There are a few seats left right now.”

“I’ll be back.” I took off as fast as I could, running to the ticket counter where I could buy a seat.

SINCE IT WASN’T MY AIRLINE
, I had to wait in line with everyone else, and I was starting to get antsy. I’d checked the time on my phone a dozen times in the fifteen minutes I’d been waiting. The guy in front of me must have noticed.

“You look like you’re worried you’re going to miss your flight, mate.” He had what I thought might be an Australian accent.

“I’m trying to get on a delayed flight. There aren’t many seats left though.”

“You’re a pilot, aren’t you?”

I nodded.

“Don’t they give any preffy to the big boy at the head of the plane? What are you waiting on line like us cattle for?”

“It’s not the airline I work for.”

“Ah. Well you can go ahead of me, if it helps any. I’m three hours early for my flight.” The guy had a large dog carrier crate in front of him.

“You early to check-in your dog or something?”

“Or something.” He chuckled. “My wife and I were visiting here in New York. She won’t leave Mutton here home alone. The damn thing goes wherever we go.”

“Mutton?”

He leaned in and whispered, “That’s a goat I got in there.” Then he held his finger up to his mouth giving the universal sign for shhh. “Don’t tell the people at the airline. My wife thinks they won’t notice.”

I leaned over and peered into the crate. Sure enough, the guy had a small goat inside. “You don’t think they’ll know it’s a goat?”

“You haven’t met my wife, Aubrey. She went to hit the head. But by the time we’re done at this counter, they’ll be offering Pixy here Milk-Bones. She can sell wood to a forest. Come to think of it, you’re best going ahead of me. Because if they try to make this thing fly with farm animals, we’re going to be here for a good lot.”

I shook my head, amused. The guy was so charismatic and good looking, something told me he could sell the ladies behind the counter that the goat was a kitten if he tried. We talked for a few minutes, inching up a little at a time.

“So where you heading? Taking an adventure of some sort?”

“I hope so,” I said.

When the flight attendant called out ‘next’, the Aussie told me to go ahead of him. I extended my hand. “Thanks. Good luck with your…pet.”

“Thanks. Hope you find that adventure.”

I hope so, too.

IT WAS HER.

My chest tightened.

Holy shit. I wasn’t imagining all of this.

As I sat in my seat at the rear of the plane, I squinted my eyes to see every movement that Kendall made as she worked the front of the Boeing 737. It was surreal to see her in this role. It was like my worlds were colliding in the strangest way.

Somehow, she hadn’t seen me board. That was a blessing because I needed time to process. She’d been helping an old man stow something away in the overhead when I snuck past her in disbelief.

I debated confronting her right then, but this was neither the time nor place to deal with all we had to talk about. My greatest hope was that she didn’t freak out when she inevitably noticed me.

Getting her fired was also something I really wanted to avoid. I knew the deal. There were plenty of people waiting in the wings for flight attendant positions. A majority who go through the training never even end up getting hired by the airline. Even though I didn’t understand how she came to be here, clearly, it was something she wanted. I wasn’t going to risk taking that away from her.

The confusion swirling around in my head was mind numbing.

Did she have the baby or not?

Flight attendant training was only a couple of months. Technically, she could’ve trained while pregnant then flew up until a certain point when they stopped allowing it. What actually happened to her all of this time was a total mystery.

The flight to Boston would only be an hour. Thank God. There was no way I could have lasted longer being stuck in this spot and unable to get answers.

Beads of sweat were forming on my forehead. My heart was beating so fast that for the first time ever on an aircraft, I actually got a little panicky. I never particularly liked flying unless I was controlling things from the cockpit anyway.

Kendall assumed her position up front for takeoff. Once we were airborne, she would likely be heading down to the galley at some point. There was no way I would be able to hide unnoticed until the end of the flight. The thought of coming face to face with her in front of all these people made me ill.

Working as a pilot had prepared me to deal with dozens of potentially catastrophic scenarios. Despite that, I didn’t feel prepared in the least to face Kendall.

I studied her as best I could from afar. She was wearing a gray pencil skirt and a light blue blouse with three-quarter inch sleeves. There was a darker blue stripe that ran down the middle. Her normally unruly hair was tied neatly into a low bun.

She seemed guarded and mechanical when interacting with the passengers. The smile I remembered that used to light up the room, now seemed fake with a hint of darkness beneath it. Kendall reminded me of myself before I met her. There’s no better profession than flying for people who want to run from their problems.

It scared me to think of
what
she might be running from at this point.

Did she have the baby and feel guilty over giving it up?

Fuck.

The urgent need to know what happened was making my skin crawl.

Kendall had been talking to one of the passengers when she suddenly began to make her way down the aisle toward the back of the plane.

She spoke to one of the other flight attendants. “I need a bandage for the passenger in 6C. Where do we keep those again?”

“I’ll grab it,” her co-worker said.

She happened to look in my direction while she was waiting for her colleague to fetch the Band-Aid.

Our eyes locked, and there was no turning back.

Looking like she’d seen a ghost, Kendall grabbed the back of one of the seats for balance. We just stared at each other for the longest time. The look on her face gave me the impression that if we weren’t thousands of feet in the air, she would have run away from me, not toward me. Actually, it looked more like she was debating whether to jump.

Even though she was right in front of me, she seemed miles away, far from being ready to face me. Perhaps, she truly thought she would never see me again. I’d often wondered if that would be the case myself.

“We need to talk,” I said in a low voice before silently mouthing, “Later.”

Before she could respond, the other attendant returned. “I’ve got the bandage.”

Kendall didn’t move. She was still looking at me, blinking, flustered.

The woman waved the bandage to garner her attention. “Kendall…”

Breaking her stare, Kendall cleared her throat and took it. “Oh, thank you.”

Her walk back to the front was slow and almost wobbly. She held onto the back of each seat as she made her way down the aisle. I knew my showing up would be a shock, but clearly it had really done a job on her. Sweating profusely, I was in no better shape.

By the time the plane landed, I’d had no further interactions with Kendall.

Her voice came over the intercom once. “Please remember to take all of your belongings before deplaning.”

I waited for all of the passengers to empty out of the aircraft before slowly walking toward where she was beginning to clean up. I stopped short at the sound of the Captain addressing her.

“Kendall, you feel like getting a drink with us downtown?”

My fists instinctively tightened. I knew all too well what he was up to. He was a fucking snake. This was the pot calling the kettle black, of course; I was a viper myself at one time.

“No. Thank you. I’m kind of tired. I’m gonna head home.”

Home?

Was she living in Boston?