The Littlest Stowaway

by Gina Wilkins

  Both Casey and Steve muttered something appropriate and hurried away, uncomfortable with Janice’s expression of gratitude.

  IT WAS surprisingly difficult for Casey to say goodbye to Annie. She’d known the baby only a couple of days, she reminded herself.

  But she was going to miss her.

  “Be a good girl for Mommy, Annie,” she murmured, pressing a kiss on the baby’s forehead.

  Steve then stepped forward to claim his own baby kiss. “Let her get some sleep tonight, will you, kid? She looks as if she could use it.”

  Carrying Annie’s things, Claybrook escorted Janice out As the door closed behind them, Casey ran a hand through her hair, a bit disoriented that everything had ended so quickly. Only a few hours earlier, they hadn’t even known where Janice was, and now she’d shown up, reclaimed her baby and left again.

  Janice could have no way of knowing, of course, that her choices this weekend had changed Casey’s life so very drastically.

  Steve had turned to Blake. “Thanks, Blake. I really appreciate everything you did. I don’t know how you found Janice, and I doubt that you’d tell me if I asked, but I want you to know...”

  Blake cut in abruptly, as uncomfortable with the gratitude as Casey and Steve had been earlier. “Forget it, Steve. I owed you a hell of a lot more than this. You saved my life in Mexico.”

  Casey blinked. “You saved his life?” she asked Steve, having no idea the “favor” they’d alluded to had been so momentous.

  Steve looked embarrassed. “He’s exaggerating.”

  “Not at all,” Blake murmured. “Nevertheless, a couple of days work is hardly adequate repayment Any time you need me again, feel free to call.”

  Steve shook his friend’s hand. “Same goes. Give my regards to your wife, Blake. And good luck with that new baby.”

  “Thanks.” Blake glanced quickly at Casey before looking at Steve again. “Good luck to you, too.”

  “Thanks.” Steve, too, cast a quick glance at Casey as he spoke.

  She glared at him in return. As kind as he’d been to Janice, she hadn’t forgotten how he’d stabbed her in the back earlier.

  Blake took Casey’s hand, then leaned over to kiss her cheek. “It’s been a pleasure meeting you, ma’am,” he murmured in a humorous drawl. “Give my buddy a break, okay?”

  “I might just give him several breaks,” she muttered in return, making Blake laugh.

  “Looks like you’ve got a real challenge ahead for you now, my friend,” he said to Steve on the way out

  Casey watched as Steve’s smile flashed a bit dangerously. “I’m aware of that. But I’m ready.”

  Casey waited only until Blake was gone before reaching for her purse. “Now that everything is settled, I have to go. I still have time to run by my office for an hour or two this afternoon.”

  “We have to talk.”

  “There’s nothing to say,” she insisted, avoiding his eyes. “Janice and Annie are safe, you and I can feel good about having done a good deed, and now it’s over. We can go back to the way things were before—me running my business, you doing everything you can to undermine my efforts.”

  “Casey, I didn’t steal Jack Alexander away from you.”

  “Oh?” She lifted an eyebrow in disbelief. “So he didn’t sign a contract with you?”

  “Well, yes, but—”

  She nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

  She moved toward the exit.

  Steve placed a hand on the door to keep her from opening it “Jack Alexander came to me two weeks ago,” he said flatly. “He asked me to work him up a bid for regular air charter service. I did so. I had no way of knowing you had given him the idea or that you’d been actively pursuing his business. Nor did I have any way of knowing what terms you offered him. I assumed he would ask you for a bid, too, but that’s only smart business sense. I made him a good offer, and he accepted it. That was all there was to it.”

  “Fine. I wish you well with him. Now, will you please move out of the way so I can go?”

  “No. We’re going to talk about this. Why are you so angry with me? Do you honestly want me to turn away potential customers who come to me just to give you a break? Is that really the way you want this to go, Casey?”

  She scowled, feeling trapped by his words. “I don’t know what I want you to do. I only know that we can’t make this work between you and me. How can we try to destroy each other during the day and be...”

  “Lovers,” he supplied for her when she faltered.

  “...lovers,” she repeated through clenched teeth, finishing the question, “after hours?”

  “I think we can find a way. It’s going to take some creative thinking, of course, a few compromises, but there’s no reason we can’t work something out that would be beneficial to both of us. There really is room for two charter services in this area, Casey. We can find a way to handle this.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t,” she answered simply. “Every time I lose a customer to you, I would feel betrayed. Maybe that isn’t professional and mature, but I can’t help it I can’t see you as both a lover and a rival.”

  “Then how about just a lover?” Steve said quietly.

  Her frown deepened. “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “How would you like to buy a couple of planes for your company at a good price? And of course you’ll need a couple more pilots to fly them for you. I know two who would be available. B.J., and myself. And I’d like you to try to find a position for Madelyn. She’ll earn her salary, believe me.”

  She blinked a couple of times, then shook her head. “I’m not buying this. You’re just trying to make a grand gesture to prove a point or something. Well, it won’t work, Steve. I—”

  “I am completely serious,” he said, his expression utterly sincere. “If Lockhart Air is an unsurmountable obstacle between us, then we have to remove it You’re more important to me than my name on a shingle.”

  She reached out blindly to lay a land on the nearest wall, stunned by his offer. By the realization that he really was serious. “Have you lost your mind?”

  “No,” he answered simply. “I’ve lost my heart”

  Her own heart pounding frantically, she shook her head again. “No. You don’t mean it You love that company. It’s been your dream. Your passion. It’s everything to you. You said so yourself.”

  “I love you. You are my dream. My passion. You mean everything to me. The business is just a job—admittedly, one that I’ve enjoyed, but as long as I can fly, and as long as I can be with you, I’ll be happy.”

  She couldn’t seem to stop shaking her head. Panic had gripped her, and seemed to be squeezing her throat. It was very difficult for her to speak. “You can’t—you don’t—you aren’t—”

  His smile was crooked. “All of the above. I can. I do. And I am. I love you, Casey.”

  “Oh, my God.”

  “I’ll give you a little time to think about it before you give me an answer, of course. You think half an hour will be long enough?”

  “Don’t—”

  “Okay, an hour. I really don’t think I can wait any longer than that I’ve been waiting so long already.”

  Her head was spinning. She put her free hand to her temple. “You really think you’ve been in...in love with me for months?”

  “I don’t think it I know it. And so do B.J. and Madelyn. They’ve ribbed me about it mercilessly.”

  “Steve, you hardly even know me.”

  “I know you better than you know yourself, I think,” he replied, his voice so warm and tender that it brought a new lump to her already tight throat. “And you’re everything I’ve ever wanted. Every time I saw you holding Annie this weekend, all I could think about was how much I wished she was our baby. I don’t know how you feel about kids, but I’m crazy about them. You don’t have a problem with being my boss and my wife, do you?”

  “Oh, God.” This was getting worse and worse. She felt as though he
r whole body was going weak “You said you couldn’t work for someone like me.”

  “I’ll learn. And so will B.J. Although I can’t guarantee he’s going to like those neat little khaki shirts you make your pilots wear. They really aren’t his style, you know. But you can discuss that with him.”

  Casey was appalled to realize that tears were trickling down her cheeks. Steve had just offered to give up the business he loved so deeply. For her. So she could continue to run the business that had always been her father’s dream, and never her own.

  She shook her head. “I can’t do it. I can’t let you give up Lockhart Air. You’d hate me.”

  “Never.”

  “I don’t care what you say now, it won’t work. I won’t do it.”

  “Then would you consider a partnership?” he suggested instead, seeming to take encouragement from something he saw in her eyes. “We make a good team, you know. Look at how well we handled this weird weekend. You’re a whiz with numbers and business forecasts and organization. I’ve been known to be pretty good with planes and people. Between the two of us, we could probably figure out a way to put both our talents to work for one big company, don’t you think? Jansen-Lockhart Charter Services. Partners. Fifty-fifty.”

  Jansen-Lockhart. There was a certain ring to it, she thought dazedly. And her father’s name still came first. “Maybe it could work.”

  “You bet it could.” He reached out to skim his knuckles over her cheek, leaving a trail of tingles behind. “Give us a chance, Casey, darlin’. I’ll make sure you aren’t sorry.”

  A fresh wave of tears followed the first. “I didn’t want to fall in love with you.”

  “I know you didn’t. It was downright mean of me to make you, wasn’t it?”

  “I didn’t trust you.”

  “No. But you should have. I’ve never done anything to purposefully hurt you. I never will.”

  “I was afraid of you.”

  He wiped a tear away from her cheek with his thumb. “I know you were, darlin’. And you terrified me from the time I first saw you and felt my heart fall on the ground at your feet. I guess that’s just part of this falling in love thing.”

  “Maybe it is,” she whispered.

  His mouth hovered an inch above hers. “Casey?”

  “I love you, Steve. I still don’t know if it makes sense, but I love you. I guess...I guess I have for as long as I’ve known you. Why else would I have fought it so hard?”

  He was smiling when he kissed her. But the smile quickly faded into fervent need. She locked her arms around his neck and returned an embrace that nearly overwhelmed her.

  Steve did everything with passion, she mused, knowing that was part of what had drawn her to him.

  He was everything she wasn’t Everything she wanted, she thought

  And now he could be hers, with only a word from her.

  He lifted her head. “Well?”

  She paused only long enough to make him worry a little. He deserved that, she thought, considering how many times he’d done the same to her. And then she smiled. “Yes,” she said simply.

  His hug nearly crushed her ribcage. For once, she didn’t complain.

  “ABOUT THOSE KHAKI SHIRTS,” Steve murmured, hours later.

  She smiled and ran a hand over his bare chest as she lay nude and exhausted against him. “What about them?”

  “I really don’t think we’re going to get B.J. into them.”

  “Maybe if he tried it, he’d like it”

  “Don’t count on it.”

  She gave an exaggerated sigh. “Oh, well. I suppose we can make a few exceptions.”

  “You aren’t going to insist that I wear one, are you.”

  Chuckling, she walked her fingers down his chest to his belly button. “I don’t know. I think they’re kind of sexy. I think I’d really enjoy taking them off you.”

  He groaned. “Maybe I wouldn’t mind wearing khaki, after all. As long as I get to choose your clothes, of course.”

  Picturing fishnet and Lycra, Casey laughed and shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  “Well, it was worth a shot,” he said, capturing her hand as it wandered into dangerous territory. He lifted it to his lips and placed a kiss in her palm. “This is going to be a very interesting relationship, you know.”

  “I know.” She still couldn’t believe it was real. But she was getting there.

  “Casey?”

  “Hmm?” She was concentrating on how good it felt to nuzzle his throat and feel his pulse against her cheek.

  “How do you think your father would feel about this?”

  She went still for a moment, then shrugged. “I think he would approve. He always rather admired you, you know. He wouldn’t have been so worried about you if he hadn’t thought you were good at what you did.”

  “So you’re okay with it? You’ve put all that to rest?”

  She lifted her head to look at him. “I loved my father. I spent my whole life trying to please him. Sometimes I succeeded, sometimes I didn’t. But he’s gone now, and it’s time I start pleasing myself. That means making my own choices—following my own dreams—for the first time in my life. Maybe I’ll enjoy running the business end of Jansen-Lockhart Charter Service. Maybe I’ll want to hand it all over to you and do something else eventually. I don’t know. But whatever I decide, it’ll be for my sake, not for my father’s.”

  “Whatever you decide, I’ll be there beside you, cheering you on,” Steve told her, approval written on his face. “I have every faith that you can do anything you want to do.”

  “Oh, really. Well, the first thing I want to do...” She leaned over to whisper something into his ear.

  Steve’s laugh was a bit rough-edged. “I will definitely cheer you on,” he assured her. “I’m ready when you are, Casey, darlin’. Let’s fly.”

  Laughing with him, she opened her arms to him in preparation for takeoff.

  She believed her longtime fear of flying was well on the way to being conquered for good.

  ISBN : 978-1-4592-5765-8

  THE LITTLEST STOWAWAY

  Copyright © 1999 by Gina Wilkins.

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including xerography, photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, Is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

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