* * *
BJ paced around Megan’s living room, getting angrier and angrier. And that was so unlike him. His brothers called him things like Ice Man and Mr. Cool. But not where Megan was concerned. Megan had been able to punch all of his buttons since the first time they’d met. Damn it, where is she?
He strode over to the window and peeled back the curtain when he heard a car pull up. She practically bolted from the car. Boomer followed her to the door. BJ moved to the other side of the window and listened.
“Thank you for dinner. I had a nice time. Good night.” Megan turned to open her door.
“Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
“No, my babysitter is an older woman, and I’m afraid she might not understand,” Megan said.
“Aw, sugar, I can charm my way past any woman. Once she gets a look at my puppy dog eyes, she’ll be putty in my hands.”
“Boomer, I said no. I don’t want you to come in. I don’t want you to charm my babysitter. As a matter of fact, I don’t want to go out with you again or take swim lessons from you. Please go away.”
BJ peered through the sheer sidelight curtain to watch. Boomer pinned her to the door with a loud thump. BJ barely heard her muffled protest.
Boomer groped her breast. “I hope you can do better than that. I like to make my women scream.”
Oh, hell no.
BJ opened the door, and Megan fell into his arms. Boomer tumbled at his feet.
“I do believe the lady said no. You’d better go before I take you apart and leave it to your paramedic brothers to put you back together.”
Boomer picked himself up off the floor with as much dignity as he could muster, glared at BJ, and stomped back to his car.
Megan put her arms around BJ and held on to him like it was taking every ounce of strength she had left.
BJ pulled her close. “I can practically taste your panic. But you’re safe now. Safe in my arms. Again.”
After a long while, Meagan stopped trembling. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Thank you, but why are you here?”
BJ tightened his embrace. It felt so good, so right. He wasn’t sure which of them needed the hug more. “Mom got a migraine and asked me to come over.”
She pulled back to look into his eyes. “I didn’t know she got migraines.”
BJ kissed her forehead, then her nose. “I didn’t either, but I’m glad I was here.”
“Me too. Is she trying to push us together? She wasn’t too subtle about her disappointment that I was going on a date with a man who wasn’t you.”
BJ snorted a laugh. “She might be trying to play matchmaker, but more than likely it’s because she has five sons, a husband, and a brother. Mom’s pretty good at reading men. Boomer might have given off a bad vibe, and she got worried that you were out so late. Why did you go on a date with him but not me?”
Megan pulled out of his arms completely and knit her brows. “Well, the number one reason is you’ve never asked.”
Her words hit him like one of Shane’s right hooks. “What are you talking about? Sure I have, Steppie’s wedding for one.”
“Hello, I was the groom’s sister. I’m pretty sure Ethan invited me.”
BJ rolled his eyes. He had to give her that one. “Okay, the renovation project.”
She took a step back, put her hands on her hips, and raised her eyebrows. “I was the project coordinator, and you were an unwilling volunteer.”
“Football.”
“Your mom. Then Ethan invited me to the Labor Day barbeque, I asked you over for dinner, then I asked you to the book sale. You have never asked me out on a date. You assumed I’d fall into your bed without being wooed.”
BJ crossed his arms over his chest. “Are you kidding me? Who says wooed anymore?”
“I believe I just did. It’s what happens when you know a woman who reads Jane Austen and the Brontë sisters.”
This was not going well. He scrambled. “I’ve tried. You haven’t returned my calls or my texts. I’ve been out of my mind worrying about you. You didn’t call to thank me for the chocolate roses I sent.”
She tilted her head. “I didn’t get any chocolate roses. I never saw any messages from you. You never called. I thought you didn’t care, that I had freaked you out. I figured you’d moved on, and I needed something to take my mind off the hurt.”
BJ pulled out his phone and checked his online account. He groaned. “I didn’t place the order. Your address is stored in my car’s GPS, so I went to retrieve it, and I must have gotten distracted. I’m sorry for all the things I thought about you.”
“For future reference, it’s 762 East Cumberland.”
BJ punched a few buttons. “I’ll expect a phone call Monday.”
“Deal. Show me the number you have for me.”
He handed her his phone.
“That’s my number. I don’t understand.”
BJ took his phone back and paged through his texts, smacked his forehead, and chuckled. “Fat finger syndrome. Knox must think I’m crazy. And I’m sure he’s saved and forwarded every one of my texts and messages.”
He turned to her. “All of a sudden, I feel so incompetent.” He ran his hands through his hair. “I can’t think straight around you.”
Megan shook her head. “You look so pathetic right now. Stay to finish up the wine you brought?”
BJ checked his watch. “I can’t. I’m giving a flight lesson at eight, so nothing after midnight for this bad boy. Can I get a rain check?”
“How about Pete and I come out to see you and bring lunch? He hasn’t stopped talking about daddy’s boo hecka.”
“I’ll be done around noon.” He stepped closer and draped his arms over her shoulders. “Please don’t bring pizza. I’ll explain someday.”
He angled in for a kiss, careful to keep it within the boundaries she’d set. He counted to five. Very slowly. Okay, he stopped counting for a bit between two and three. And between three and four but went immediately to five when the growing heat threatened to burn through his self-control. “I’ll see you at noon.”
CHAPTER 40
BJ tensed. “You’re coming in too hot, ease up.” He might as well have been talking to the wind. His student made no move to adjust anything. He forced himself to relax as she set the bird down hard. It didn’t surprise him; the entire lesson had been a disaster. As big as it was, there was simply no way he wanted to share the sky with her yet. It was going to take all of his tact and charm to tell her there was no way he could sign off on the application for her license. How the hell did she get this far in the process with such poor skills?
“Woo Hoo!” Her shout echoed around the tiny cabin as she pumped her fists in the air. “That was awesome!”
She leaned over toward BJ, giving him the perfect view of her cleavage. The low-cut, skintight tank top barely contained her breasts as it was, but now they threatened to escape. BJ didn’t think that was an accident.
“When do I get my license?”
“Let’s go inside and talk about it.” BJ was buying himself time to craft his famous Goldilocks speech: not too hard, not too soft, a just-right “no way” speech. It was a formula he’d used countless times while breaking up with his girlfriend of the month. It was simply a matter of plugging the relevant details into the proper spots and moving on. No sweat.
Normally, BJ would have ditched his sunglasses and baseball cap as soon as he entered the hangar, but today he left them on as a way to stay professionally detached from the sexy little thing in front of him. A lithe, leggy, buxom blonde, she was the kind of woman who usually had him hard in minutes, but today, he felt nothing. Once upon a time, she would have been good for a few weeks before moving on, but not anymore. He compared her to Megan, and she didn’t come close.
“I don’t think you’re ready to solo yet, let’s sit down and go over the problems I saw during our flight.” He took a seat at the small conference table and motioned for her to take a seat
on the other side. She ignored him and took the seat next to him. BJ scooched his chair away from her.
She pouted and looked up at him through incredibly long, lush lashes. “There are so many knobs and buttons and thingies, I get confused.” She reached out to stroke BJ’s arm.
BJ gently removed her hand from his arm and set it firmly on the table. This seems familiar. He looked down at his clipboard to remind himself of her name. “Tiffany, all those knobs, buttons, and thingies are vital to keeping you, and all of us, safe. You absolutely have to know how to make the correct adjustments immediately without thinking. The wrong thingie at the wrong time could kill you, your passengers, another pilot, or some innocent person on the ground. You’re not ready for your license.”
She was in his lap before he could react, planting an open mouth kiss on him. “I’m sure there’s a way I can change your mind.”
BJ stood violently, dumping her unceremoniously on the floor. I guess that’s how she got this far. He held his hands up as if he were under arrest, then pointed to a black globe on the ceiling. “Everything that goes on here is monitored and recorded for my protection. There’s a clear sign on the door indicating that. What can I say? My dad’s a lawyer. I’m not going to sign off on your application, and there is no way you can change my mind. Please leave.” He pointed toward the door.
She closed the distance between them quickly and smiled. “Aw, come on, handsome, don’t be a stick in the mud; you know you want me.” She glanced down, expecting to see the physical evidence of his desire. Her smile faded. “Are you gay?”
BJ froze. Am I gay? Is it finally happening?
“Trust me, bitch, he’s far from gay.” Megan set the brake on Pete’s stroller and strode over to him. Before BJ knew what hit him, she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into a deep kiss that left him gasping for air. “You know I don’t like another woman’s lipstick on you, so I’m going to have to lick it off.” Megan lapped at his lips with her tongue.
BJ groaned, put his arms around her, and pulled her close. “Oh, baby, what you do to me!”
BJ struggled with impulse control, the desire to ease her onto the conference table and have his way with her nearly overpowered him. The warmth of her touch sent shock waves through him and threatened to erupt. His eyes closed and an involuntary groan escaped. “Baby, I repeat, what you do to me.”
* * *
Her hand wandered down, to caress the bulge straining at the zipper of his jeans. The simple touch sent X-rated thoughts slamming into her brain. Dear God, I’d forgotten how much of him there is. Thoughts of his girth straining her and his length penetrating her turned her nipples to stone and set her core on fire.
She turned to Tiffany with a look that only another woman would recognize as a claim. “I will rearrange you if you touch my man again, and I can’t guarantee anyone will be able to put you back together.”
Pete squabbled from the stroller and put up his arms. “Daddy, daddy! Hecka!”
BJ’s face lit up with a huge grin. He removed the toddler from his stroller. “There’s my big boy. You want to go for a ride in daddy’s helicopter?”
Pete continued to babble. “Hecka, hecka, hecka!” He clapped his little hands in glee.
“I don’t see a ring,” Tiffany sneered.
“That isn’t any of your business. The only thing you need to know is that I’m not going to sign off on your application. Please find another instructor for your next lesson.”
Tiffany glanced at Megan’s hand and snorted in disgust. “Well if that’s the best ring you could give your woman, I don’t want you as much as I thought. Maybe you’re not the right Tobin.”
“A horrible pilot and a gold digger to boot. I’m the right Tobin. We bought a helicopter instead of a huge rock. She’ll get her two carats.” He pulled Megan closer and kissed the top of her head. “Sooner than she thinks.”
Megan felt as if her own private ray of sunshine had broken through the hangar’s tin roof, bathing her in a warm glow. Her heart raced and her stomach felt as if she was strapped on top of BJ’s helicopter as he practiced dive-bombing. Heat rose from deep in her chest and bloomed up her neck to color her cheeks a deep red.
Slow down, Megs. This is a little role-playing. Fairy tales don’t come true. Not for people like you.
But Ethan had found his happily ever after, maybe she could too.
“Babe, you know I don’t need a big diamond. Your love is all I need. As long as your handsome face is the last thing I see at night and the first thing I see in the morning, I’m a lucky lady.” Okay, so that was laying it on a little thick, but a girl could dream, couldn’t she?
BJ agreed with her. “Like your famous Thunder Cake and ice cream, babe, you can have both. You can have it all because I’m kinda fond of what comes before the sleep.” He kissed the top of her head again. “And after.”
Tiffany wasn’t ready to give up. “I’ll call you later in the week for the names of some other instructors.” She glared at Megan.
Megan returned her hostility.
BJ put his arm around Megan. “There’s this wonderful new invention out there called the internet. Google it.”
Tiffany stared at Megan but talked to BJ. “Call me the next time you’re in the mood for a little strange.” She stomped out the door.
CHAPTER 41
BJ waited for the sound of the door crashing behind Tiffany before letting out a long low sigh. “Strange is exactly the right word. I owe you big for that.” He planted a chaste kiss on her forehead. “She’s a terrible pilot, and I told her I wouldn’t sign off on her application. She was trying to change my mind.” But my mind is already made up. “So other than you, what smells so good?”
She shrugged. “A simple Beef Stroganoff. Nothing fancy.” She pulled the Styrofoam container from its spot on the back of Pete’s stroller and started arranging its contents on the conference table.
“Nothing fancy? Is that a humble brag? You’re talking to a guy who eats cold Chinese take-out from the container while standing in front of an open fridge looking for something else to eat, then gives up and hits some drive thru. Sitting at a table with proper silverware is fancy to me unless I’m eating out.”
Megan made a face. “I don’t like to eat out much. I’ve worked in more than a few restaurants, and some of the things that go on in the kitchens would turn your stomach. I want to know what is, and isn’t, in my food, especially now that I have Pete to worry about.”
She set out a thermal dish of egg noodles and sliced a generous slab of butter to melt into them, then pushed the butter and a basket of crusty rolls toward him.
He took a roll and slathered it generously. “Real butter? Wow, this is a treat.”
“I wouldn’t put anything else on my world-famous rolls, except the strawberry jam I put up a few weeks ago. I’m going to die of something, I might as well enjoy good food along the way.” She opened a second thermal dish and carefully folded sour cream into the rich mixture before serving lunch.
BJ chewed a bite of the savory stew and groaned as he swallowed. “I think I have a new favorite food. My God, woman, this is the most incredible thing I’ve ever tasted.”
She handed a bottle of formula to Pete. “Thank you. I like to cook, but I love to bake more. It helps relieve stress. Thanks to Smitty’s life insurance, his grandmother’s estate, and the settlement Ethan got for Smitty’s accident, I have the luxury of running Foster Buddies from the comfort of my dining room table. It’s almost like being a stay-at-home mom.”
BJ watched Pete suck with abandon. “You’re not breastfeeding him anymore?” It seemed like a personal question, and he fully expected a flip, none-of-your business kind of answer, but hey, it was the type of question one friend would ask another, right? It was worth a shot.
Megan answered without thinking. “It was time. For me. I never thought having someone sucking on me twenty-four-seven would get so painful.” She looked at BJ. “I’m sorry, that was t
oo much information.”
BJ tilted his head to one side. “I’ve always been a breast man. I can never get too much information on that topic. It sounds like a fun weekend to me.”
She frowned and shook her head. “Trust me, my boobs wouldn’t do a thing for you.”
“They’re called breasts,” he teased, using the chastisement he’d heard from almost every woman he’d ever dated. “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”
Megan shot him a look that spoke for itself. BJ decided, out of self-preservation, to change the subject. “What do you say when we’re done, we strap the knee-nibbler into the back of the old girl and flip gravity the bird? I know a great little seafood place on Long Island for dinner. We could call it our first official date.”
* * *
Megan smiled. “Knee-nibbler, you remembered.” She didn’t know why, but that he’d recalled that small detail from weeks ago fluttered her heart. It made her feel important, and that was a feeling she didn’t have a lot of experience with.
BJ took her hand in his. “I’m finding it more and more difficult to remember anything but you. Let me help you clean up so we can get out of here, and let the wooing begin.”
Outside, Megan watched her son nearly explode with excitement. A real, honest to God helicopter that he could sit in. On BJ’s lap, of course. Joy flooded her as she watched BJ place the baby’s hand on the joystick and gently rock it back and forth while making engine noises. She could see BJ as a toddler, playing with his own toys, emitting the same sounds that were making her son squeal with delight. BJ’s deep voice made the sounds much more realistic.
He patiently pointed to each dial, switch, and button, teaching Pete the names and functions of every gizmo in the cockpit. He gently coaxed Pete to repeat the names, knowing full well the child wouldn’t be able to. Yet. That would come. At least she hoped BJ would be around to teach him.
Fly Boy: A Friends to Lovers Standalone Romance (Tobin Tribe Book 2) Page 16
