“Great ride, son. Thank you.”
“Was it anything like you think your grandfather flew?”
“One difference for sure—no one was shooting at us. Guess you would have to charge extra for that experience.”
“And find another pilot.” Jonas bowed his head. “He must have been a remarkable man. I’m glad he lived to share the stories with your dad. It was a privilege to take you up. Safe drive on the way back to the hotel. Those pink Jeeps are everywhere at this time of the day. Good enough drivers, but the girls are awfully pretty and apt to turn your head.”
Laughing, the man wheezed, “They are that.”
As the man left, Jonas turned to her with a surety that told her he’d been aware of her standing there all along. She couldn’t tell anything by his expression. He’d slipped off his goggles as soon as he’d cut the engine, and replaced them with his sunglasses. He looked good, though, with his hair whipped by the wind, his face wind-and sun-bronzed, and his black polo shirt and jeans framing a lean and toned body. If he told her to scram without hearing her, she wouldn’t blame him, but she would be sorry. So sorry.
“Please don’t look at me as though you’re afraid that I may be about to announce a pregnancy,” Alyx told him, trying for dry humor. “We both know you have nothing to worry about.”
“I might not mind if it got you to talk to me.”
Was he insane? “I’m about to turn forty, Jonas. By the time a child of mine would be ready for college, the cost will be so high, Donald Trump will need scholarship help.”
“From what I’ve heard on the news, plenty of women are just starting their families at forty.”
What was he doing? “Bad joke. I didn’t come here to talk about children.”
With an indifferent shrug, he asked, “So why are you here?”
She knew if she turned and walked away now, he would let her because she’d shown him that as far as she was concerned, everything was on her terms. Somehow she needed to get through this and get some things said.
“I owe you an apology,” she blurted. “I was rude the other day.”
He stared back at her with that same give-nothing-away face, then after some seconds, he lowered his gaze to the concrete. “You had your reasons.”
“Thank you, but I was being a coward.” That got his attention, which told her that he’d been doing considerable thinking about that meeting, too. “Can I simply say that the attack did a lot to undermine my recovered self-esteem? Not having been a social butterfly to begin with, at this point I’m maybe a bad shopping trip away from being a recluse.”
Jonas abruptly looked away. “That put-down regarding your appearance was—it was crap, Alyx. You could never look bad.”
With a wry twist of her lips, Alyx replied, “You are a gentleman.”
“No, if I was, I’d never have lashed out like I did. It was a cheap shot.” He sighed. “And you still haven’t learned to take a compliment.” His gaze fell to her shoulder. “You didn’t have any other repercussions from that slug who grabbed you last week?”
“No. I’m sure the manager was so humiliated that he threatened his relative’s life himself. But I plan to give my cousin a heads-up when she returns. She doesn’t need to experience that or worse.”
Jonas nodded. “Good idea. How long before she gets back?”
“About three more weeks. How about you?”
“Just about the same if Zane doesn’t go crazy on me and launch himself off his ten-foot-high balcony into the dry riverbed making this whole effort moot.”
“Another good patient, eh? Your karma must be catching up with you, Hunter.”
He bit off a laugh and folded his arms across his chest. “Or something.”
Alyx wished he would take off the sunglasses so she could see his silvery-blue eyes. But she supposed she deserved this restriction. She wasn’t religious, but she was spiritual and believed in the concept of penance.
“You’re able to take that much time off from the Bureau?” His expression gave nothing away, and yet Alyx felt his armor come up as though a medieval castle had suddenly slammed all doors. “Sorry, sorry,” she said quickly. “I didn’t mean to intrude.”
“I’m on leave.”
Of course he was. He’d said as much. What had he said? She’d been so caught up in her own misery that it must never have registered for more than seconds. Alyx mentally hit her palm to her forehead.
“I expected a promotion and didn’t get it.”
Stunned that he would share so much, Alyx wanted to respond with compassion and so was slow to do so. “I’m—”
“Never mind. It doesn’t matter.”
Recovering, Alyx frowned. “Of course it matters, Jonas. I just have no right to ask about your personal business.”
“It was for Chief of the Austin office, that district.”
“Austin…?” He’d wanted to move to Austin? Since when? Did this have anything to do with her? It couldn’t possibly; they hadn’t known each other long enough for something like that. It must have been to get closer to Dylan and E.D. “I’m so sorry. Do they know?”
“Who?”
“Dylan and E.D.”
“No, Alyx,” he repeated monotonously. “They don’t know and I’d appreciate it if it stays that way.”
“Of course.” She didn’t know how she felt about the news herself. What would it have been like if they hadn’t been a half-day’s travel apart? “Did they tell you why they didn’t give it to you?”
“They don’t do that,” Jonas said with the calm of someone trained to pass a lie detector test. “They stick to the ‘most qualified agent and seniority’ jargon. But it was politics and everyone involved knows it. I’m a little less of a ‘yes, sir’ man and less politically correct than the guy who got the position. My divorce, despite being old news for a couple of years now, didn’t help. The man with the final stamp of approval has a thin skin regarding giving up on marriage and a long penchant for resentment for anyone who does, regardless of the reason.”
“That’s—” Alyx bit her tongue to keep from saying too much. It was her experience that the very people who censured others would be better off keeping their noses in their own business. “Can you fight it?”
He grunted. “Even if I could, would the end results be worth it? It’s not smart to be seen as challenging authority if you’re hoping to get their support down the road.”
“I don’t know what else to say except that I hate this for you.”
“Thanks.”
And to think that when he had been in the most need of support, she had symbolically slammed a door in his face. Under the circumstances, she wouldn’t have been any help, but she knew from experience that sometimes listening made all the difference.
“If you’re under the perception that I feel you should bear some guilt over this, don’t be,” Jonas said. “It wasn’t to be…none of it.”
There was that word again. Perception had popped into her head several times in the last few days since being reunited with him. They’d certainly been guilty of being wrong about each other, jumping to conclusions without asking or having all of the facts.
“So what happens now?” She didn’t want to hear any more bad news, and why she was prolonging this conversation she couldn’t fathom for the life of her, but the sympathy and questions kept spilling through her lips as fast as water through a burst faucet during a winter freeze.
“I’m trying to decide. I guess that’s why this situation with Zane was so appealing to me. It could buy me time to think.”
Flying two tongue depressors attached to a motor was a sane formula to figuring out the rest of your life? Alyx knew he was vested for his pension—it was easy to do the math since he’d previously informed her that he’d joined the Bureau right after college—but only just. Plus that wasn’t the only thing to consider.
“You can’t quit the Bureau?” Seeing his eyebrows rise above the sunglasses, she sighed in self-exasperat
ion. “Let me rephrase that. I meant, aren’t you worried—considering the age of your son—of expenses coming up? College, for example?” But as soon as the questions had been posed, Alyx touched her fingers to her lips. “Forgive me. It’s none of my business.”
Jonas shrugged. “No, but I don’t mind. At any rate, I’ll sort it all out before Blake graduates and spends what I’ve already put aside for him. It isn’t my way to let anyone else carry my load.”
Meaning ex-wife Claudia’s new and very wealthy husband. No, Jonas was no less proud than she was. They still knew next to nothing about each other’s familial history, but it wasn’t all about DNA. Character was about nurturing, too, and she was beginning to suspect they had more in common than she initially concluded.
“No, you would never.” After those soft words, Alyx smiled an over-bright smile and took a step back. “Well, I’ve taken up enough of your time. I wish you luck, Jonas. Really. With everything.”
“Thank you, Alyx. It was generous of you to do this.”
“No, just necessary.”
Feeling as though she’d been given her cue that he didn’t want to hear any more—and she knew she should have left a minute ago—she remained rooted in place. The reason wasn’t a mystery; she was suddenly realizing this was probably the last time she would ever see him.
“Alyx—”
As Jonas took a step closer, Alyx also heard a door squeak open behind her. Then she heard a sweet voice call out.
“Jonas? I’m sorry to bother you, but I have a problem on the phone? I’d call Zane, but he’s at the doctor’s for a checkup.”
“Be right there,” he called back to Miranda. To Alyx, he said, “Sorry. I do need to take that. Do you want—”
“I’m late anyway,” Alyx interjected quickly and backed toward the SUV. “The dog gets pretty stressed if I’m gone too long. Take care, Jonas. And I mean that.”
Before he could get another word out, she was climbing into the vehicle.
Imbecile, she chastised herself as she fumbled to get the key in the ignition. She didn’t know the perfect exit line when she heard it. He forgave her, and that’s all she’d come for, all she needed. Now they could move forward with a clear conscience and goodwill.
But as she drove away from the airport, Alyx couldn’t deny a bittersweet something twisting her heart.
Chapter Five
Mechanical problem…what mechanical problem?
On Wednesday, stopped in the middle of carrying her laundry to the washroom in Parke’s house, Alyx gasped at what she thought she’d heard on the radio and raced back to the kitchen to turn up the volume.
“We are just getting in this report that a tour plane—the biplanes so popular in Sedona—looks as though it will be forced to make an emergency landing. Where that’s going to happen, we’re not exactly sure. Nor are we aware of the reason for the alert, but a representative of the company has told us that there are no passengers on board. That is at least a bit of good news. We will bring you updates as they come available.”
Good news to whom? Alyx wondered, her chest tightening. That was Jonas up there, she just knew it! There were two other fly-tour businesses operating at the airport that she knew of, but one was a helicopter service and the other a yellow Cessna type of plane with a closed cabin. Yes, it had to be Jonas in trouble.
Suddenly weak-kneed, Alyx almost dropped onto the leather ottoman by the fireplace. If it weren’t for her now-constant shadow, Grace, she probably would have.
The greyhound nudged her as though suspecting Alyx had forgotten the way to the washroom.
“Grace, let’s go outside for a minute, and then I have to leave for a few minutes.”
It clearly wasn’t what the poor girl had in mind, but ten minutes later, Alyx, still dressed in the pastel-green knit top and darker green capri pants that she’d been doing her chores in, grabbed the keys, her wallet, and ran for the garage. There was no question about waiting for the radio to tell her what was happening. Something compelled her to see for herself that Jonas landed safely.
The traffic was congested almost from the moment she left Parke’s cul-de-sac, no surprise, considering the alert, but it quickly had Alyx regretting her decision to try to reach the airport when she found herself in the thick of media vans and other gawkers. Everyone wanted to see if a newsworthy crisis was about to occur. As she inched toward the airport, she passed many a person with a video phone aimed at the sky, first cousins to the rubberneckers eager to see the ambulances and bodies after a bad traffic wreck on a highway, then to get their name mentioned on network TV. She had no business adding to that. Jonas certainly wouldn’t welcome her presence. But the question kept repeating in her head, what if this did turn into a worst-case scenario?
In the end, Alyx compromised. She parked diagonally in the gap she spotted between two vans only a few yards outside of the airport entryway. Grabbing her keys, she locked her car, leaving her wallet and everything but her sunglasses to follow the chatty stream of the curious and the media toward the landing strip.
She heard the plane’s approach almost immediately and spotted it moments later. To her horror, it was sputtering and coughing like an emphysema patient gasping for oxygen and yet another puff on a cigarette.
“Look at that thing,” a man to her right said. “At that low speed, he could drop like a bowling ball.”
Tightening her fingers around the keys, Alyx pressed her hand to her heart. Couldn’t planes glide for a while? Maybe you needed wind? There was no wind to speak of. The realization made her all the more worried for him.
“Come on,” she whispered under her breath. She prayed he was in control of his faculties, that he had the skill he claimed to have to land that thing, that he didn’t have a moment of thinking, What the hell difference does it make if I survive?
As the left wing suddenly dipped, everyone on the ground, including Alyx, gasped, plus she shifted her fist to her lips. From the corner of her eye, she saw a fire engine race toward the landing strip, yet another hint of how dangerous the situation was.
In terrifying slow motion the biplane coughed and wobbled its way to earth with a stream of smoke pouring from it and, as it touched concrete, a screech from braking tires. As soon as it stopped, Jonas pulled himself out of the plane, hopped to the ground, and began running away, apparently concerned himself about a possible explosion.
Breathing a sigh of relief after seeing nothing on his black polo shirt and jeans to suggest he was injured, Alyx took exception to the disappointed sigh from one man.
“Excuse me, a man didn’t turn into a fireball, and you’re sorry?” she demanded.
He barely gave her a look as he shut off his phone. “I’m behind on my child support. This could have been a windfall to help me catch up.”
After weeks of trying to keep her head down, Alyx couldn’t help but think of some of her recent cases, the lowlifes that made her fight so hard and long, and risk so much. “I’m an attorney. What’s your wife’s name so that I can help her put you where you belong?”
The man backed away from her as though she’d just confessed to being contaminated with the latest superbug, then vanished into the retreating crowd. That was all she really wanted. Returning her attention to Jonas, who was now shaking hands with the firefighters, she absorbed the sight of him with relief and a strange pride. She would just watch a moment longer, she told herself, then return to the house. With all of these people around, he would never spot her.
The thought had barely passed through her mind when he looked over someone’s shoulder and his eyes locked with hers.
Was that…? Yes, it was Alyx.
Jonas didn’t consider himself a romantic. He thought he’d made his share of romantic gestures when inspired, but he certainly had never bought into the love-at-first-sight concept, regardless of Dylan and E.D.’s remarkable history. However, realizing Alyx had come up with this ridiculous crowd to watch his landing, he experienced an unusual jolt and
had to struggle to pay attention to police and firefighters. He was beyond grateful to be on the ground intact, and for these good people’s quick response, but it frustrated him that he couldn’t go ask why she had come. She’d made it clear that they were history, so why bother? Another gesture to prove her sincerity that she wished him well? He sure didn’t want her pity if he had crashed. Send a bottle of Scotch to the memorial service, he thought with an increasing touch of sarcasm. Heck, he wanted a double now, but since he expected to test-fly Zane’s increasingly temperamental plane as early as tomorrow, that wasn’t even an option for him tonight.
“Jonas!” Miranda rushed through the hangar and toward him. Her coral-pink tank top delineated her youthful curves to perfection, as did her jeans, while her glossy chestnut ponytail swung, catching the midday sunlight. He suspected his teenage son would salivate over her, although she was three or four years too old for him. And Jonas was decades too old for her, but that didn’t stop the kid from trying to throw her arms around him. Seeing her intent in those deceptively kitten innocent eyes, he caught her by her forearms and pretended to steady her.
“Watch it. Don’t fall,” he said before turning to face the fire chief to make sure she didn’t try anything else.
“Are you okay?” she gushed. “I was terrified. I only waited inside just long enough to call Zane to assure him that you were on the ground.”
“I’m fine. Thanks for the concern, and for reassuring Zane. Did you tell him that his plane hasn’t suffered any structural damage?” Seeing her worshipping gaze dim, Jonas nodded toward the building. “You’d better go reassure him.”
He spoke kindly, not wanting to embarrass her in front of the others. He was pretty certain Zane could turn on the TV and see for himself, considering the TV video cameras trained on them, but it worked to get the kid out of his hair.
It took longer to get rid of the press. The media wanted something for what, in effect, was wasting their time. About twenty minutes later, when Jonas had satisfied the reporters enough to excuse himself, and all of the emergency trucks pulled away, there was no sign of Alyx, either.
The Last Man She'd Marry Page 5