Fortune's Perfect Match Read online

  “All right then. Day after tomorrow. 9:00 a.m. Does that work for you?”

  She had another conference call to take care of, but she could reschedule it. Her father would have a fit, but what else was new? “Sure. Who’s taking me up?” She knew it wouldn’t be Max since he wasn’t an instructor.

  “Ross. He’s good. I’ve flown with him several times.”

  “Have you ever thought about becoming an instructor?”

  “Thought about it and then stopped thinking about it.” He swiveled around to face his computer again and covered the mouse with his hand. “Need a commercial rating first and that alone is a lot of hours and money into the future. Not to mention having to pass the exams.”

  “But if that’s a future you want, it is worth thinking about. Planning for. When that tornado hit, one of the only things I could think about was the future. Not having one.”

  “Fortunately, that’s not the case for you.” He jerked his chin toward the computer screen. “Right now I’m doing well just keeping up with this stuff. Tanner said he wants something aimed at the high school. They already offer an aeronautics class.”

  “So, something age-appropriate for high-schoolers.” Emily pursed her lips. “You might want to talk to Tanner about doing more social media for that. You know. Facebook. Twitter. Blogging, that sort of thing.”

  “Great. More stuff to learn.”

  “It’s not that difficult, believe me. And we can tie it all in with the website. Even the existing site. I’m just not sure a brochure is the way to go, necessarily. Not these days. High school was a long time ago for me.”

  “Yeah, what? Five, six years?”

  She laughed ruefully. “Hardly. Try doubling that.” She studied his sharply defined profile. “When did you graduate high school?”

  “I didn’t.” He didn’t even glance at her. “GED. No Ivy League colleges for me, either.”

  She absorbed that. She’d already selected a sperm donor, who’d listed an Ivy League background just like hers as well as a laundry list of other qualities she’d thought would be even more advantageous to add to the gene pool. “Ivy Leagues aren’t everything, either, despite what their alumni might say.”

  He gave her a look. “It’s a lot. You want your children going to college, don’t you?”

  “If I ever manage to have any.” The admission popped out before she could stop it. And then, because she knew too much about his situation with little Anthony—and the information had not come from him—she shied away from the subject. She pointed at the screen. “But if Tanner wants a print piece for the high school, we’ll give him one. Go ahead and save that file with a new name—whatever’s appropriate. We’ll start with this as a base and modify as we go along. Maybe come up with some ideas for an online presence, as well.”

  And so it went. Through the rest of the afternoon, Emily and Max went from one project to another, sometimes getting close enough to a product that Max was satisfied enough with to take to Tanner for final approval, and sometimes not. They were squabbling over the wording for the high school piece when an attractive brunette stopped in Max’s doorway.

  Her gaze barely took in Emily as she smiled brilliantly at Max. “You going to be ready to go soon?”

  Max looked at the watch strapped around his sinewy wrist. “Yeah. In a few.”

  “Don’t disappoint me, now,” the woman practically purred.

  “Have I ever?” Max asked.

  Emily held back a grimace and focused on the layout draft lying on the desk in front of her. Fortunately, the woman didn’t hang around long after a throaty “can’t wait” and disappeared again.

  “It is getting late,” she said. “You’ve caught on even more quickly than I figured you would, and you probably prefer working without someone looking over your shoulder.” She reached for her purse that she’d stowed once again on top of the filing cabinet. “I know I do. If you have any questions or want to brainstorm or…or whatever…you can call me any time.” She was afraid of sounding as come-hither as the brunette.

  “You don’t have to race off just yet.”

  “You don’t want to disappoint—” she gestured toward the empty doorway “—your friend.”

  “Brandi?” His eyes narrowed a little. “She’s one of the instructors. I’ve got a lesson scheduled with her in an hour.”

  “Oh.” Emily was a little nonplussed. “She seemed very…friendly.”

  His lips tilted slightly. “Brandi’s married. Just had a baby a few months ago.”

  Of course she did. Everyone was having babies. Except her. But at least Emily had no reason to be envious of Brunette-Brandi’s relationship with Max. “If you’re going flying, it’s no wonder you’re anxious to finish for the day.” She started for the door. “I have a few things on my schedule tomorrow, but like I said, call me if you have any questions.”

  “I do have a question.”

  She hesitated in the doorway, looking back. “What’s that?”

  “Do you want to have dinner? Friday night?”

  All the work that she’d done that day keeping her nerves on ice went right out the window.

  Friday night dinners weren’t about business.

  He was asking her out on a date.

  Maybe hadn’t meant no, after all.

  Her mouth felt dry and her heart chugged unevenly. “I can’t,” she said with real regret. “I have to fly back to Atlanta the day after tomorrow for some meetings on Friday. FortuneSouth is set to take over another company and there are some things that I can’t take care of long-distance.”

  “Are you going back for good?”

  “No.” She shook her head quickly. “Not at all.” She knew that was her father’s plan, but it certainly wasn’t hers. “I’ve gone back several times already to handle one thing or another. Usually make at least one trip a month. Sometimes two or three.”

  “Hell of a commute.”

  “Most of the time I can telecommute, fortunately. But in this instance I’ll be back sometime next week. Tuesday, Wednesday at the latest. And I shouldn’t have to leave again for about three weeks.”

  “Then what about next Friday?”

  She nodded. Smiled, and was embarrassingly aware that it was decidedly shaky. “I’d like that.”

  His eyes darkened a little. “And I’ll see you tomorrow morning. Before you go up.”

  The flight lesson he’d scheduled. She’d nearly forgotten. The prospect of having dinner with him was consuming enough to push nearly everything else out of her head. “Right. Anything I should do to prepare?”

  “Just be ready to have the best experience of your life.”

  Emily’s smile felt even shakier.

  He could have been referring to either the flight lesson or the date. Of course, he meant the flying, though. Her common sense told her that. “Sounds good to me.” And then, because she could have stood there in the doorway for a long time just looking at him, she forced herself to turn around and walk away.

  * * *

  Max loved flying. He could look out the window, see the patchwork ground so far below, and forget all of the mistakes he’d made in his life walking that ground. He didn’t think about the father who’d walked out on them when he was a kid. He didn’t think about the times when their mother had wondered where their next meal would come from. He didn’t think about the struggles he’d had just to get through a day of school. The failures, the insecurities, the scrabbling just to get by…it all disappeared.

  Skimming through the sky, wings slicing through cottony wisps of cloud, anything seemed possible.

  Brandi sat beside him, the headphones on her head allowing them to communicate more easily. She was admittedly a pretty woman. But Max’s only interest in her stemmed from what he could learn from her about flying.

  Emily had definitely shown some jealousy, though.

  He checked the gauges in front of him. Airspeed. Attitude. Altimeter. He was flying instrument only—using only t
he gauges as reference to maneuver the plane, rather than his own view outside the window which was currently inhibited by the special goggles he was wearing—and all looked good. “What’s your favorite restaurant?”

  “Red. I love their monster margaritas, but their desserts are even better. Why?”

  “Just looking for a new place to eat.” He’d already been to Red with Emily. It was a great restaurant. It just wasn’t what he had in mind. And as had been proven already, it was too easy to get interrupted by people they knew. “What about in San Antonio?”

  “Etienne’s,” she said promptly. “Fabulous duck and then this one chocolate dessert that’s to die for. David takes me there every year for our wedding anniversary. It’s not too far from the River Walk. Parking’s a pain, and the waiters are stuffy, but the food is très magnifique. You trying to impress a new girl?”

  Emily was no girl. She was a beautiful woman. She outclassed him, out-educated him, out-everything’d him. The only thing he was, was out of his mind even thinking he had a chance with her.

  But he couldn’t get the feel of her off his hands. Couldn’t get the scent of her hair out of his head. And the next time her lips were against him, he wanted more than just a peck on his cheek. “Something like that.”

  “Etienne’s a place to impress,” Brandi assured. “But it’s not cheap. Go with your pockets loaded. That’s what David says every time we go.” She was silent for a moment. “Storm clouds are building to the west. Wonder if we’ll get a little rain out of them this time?” She gestured at the gauges. “Go ahead and line up for your approach, and we’ll hit the books for an hour before calling it a day.”

  Max went through the motions, thumbing the mic to communicate with the tower, and soon he set the plane on the ground.

  “Perfect,” Brandi praised when the plane finally came to a stop.

  For the first time since he’d started flying, though, Max’s mind wasn’t on reviewing every aspect of the flight.

  It was on Emily.

  And the chocolate dessert he still owed her.

  * * *

  Emily stared out the window the next morning. She was more dismayed than she’d expected.

  Thunder. Lightning. And pouring buckets of rain.

  “If it clears up later this afternoon, Ross can still take you up,” Max was saying through the phone she was holding at her ear.

  “I can’t this afternoon,” she told him. “I promised my sister I’d babysit MaryAnne so Wendy can run over to San Antonio for an appointment.” Which meant that unless Max asked her for more help, she had no reason to see him before she left town.

  “No problem,” he said easily. If he was disappointed, too, he hid it well. “There’ll be other opportunities. Have a safe trip home.”

  No mention of their Friday night date. “I’ll see you when I get back?” She hated the question in her tone—she feared it made her sound desperate—but couldn’t help it.

  “Definitely. Hope you like French food,” he said.

  She preferred Mexican, but it was the company she was looking forward to, not the cuisine. “I do.”

  “If I don’t talk to you beforehand, I’ll pick you up at your sister’s at seven.”

  “Perfect. And, um, don’t forget. If you want to talk advertising or about the website, anything, just say the word.”

  “I will.”

  Emily heard the click of the line as he hung up. She sighed, and held her phone to her chest.

  “That sounded suspiciously longing,” Wendy said.

  Emily turned and looked at her sister. “It’s raining.”

  Wendy’s eyebrows rose. “I noticed. I love the rain.” Then her brows lowered again and her eyes danced merrily. “Oh, right. No flying lesson, I guess. Or is it no Max this morning that has you sighing like that?”

  “It’s crazy.” Emily flipped the slender phone end over end between her fingers. “Max isn’t part of my plan.”

  “Your mommy project, you mean?” Wendy looked amused. “Who says that he can’t be part of it?”

  “I don’t want a boyfriend.”

  “What about a husband?”

  “Please.” The idea shocked her. “Marriage has never been one of my life’s goals.”

  “To our mother’s dismay.” Wendy threw herself down on the couch and stretched her arms above her head. “You were all about a career with FortuneSouth and getting dear old Dad’s approval.”

  “He asked me out on a date,” she said.

  Wendy’s eyebrows shot up. “Dad?”

  “Max. Next Friday.”

  “So all of that ‘just business’ crap was just that? Crap?” Wendy looked positively gleeful. “I knew you were lying yesterday.” She rubbed her hands together. “I love being right.”

  Emily picked up a decorative pillow from the chair beside her and threw it at her sister’s face.

  Wendy just laughed and caught it. “Emily and Max are sitting in a tree,” she chanted, “k-i-s-s-i-n-g.”

  “What are you? Ten years old?”

  “You saying you don’t want any kissing where Max is concerned?” Wendy sat forward. “It’s not a crime to want to sleep with a guy,” she said conspiratorially.

  “I know that.”

  “Really? When was the last time?”

  “Wendy!”

  “Come on. We’re sisters. You can tell me.”

  “Five years ago.”

  Wendy’s jaw dropped. “No way! That practically makes you a virgin all over again.”

  Emily grimaced. “I knew I shouldn’t have told you.” The truth was, her sister undoubtedly had more experience with such matters than Emily did.

  “Who was it?”

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake. What does it matter?” She sighed noisily. “Tommy Black.”

  “Wasn’t he one of Dad’s assistants?”

  “Briefly.” Tommy’s tenure at FortuneSouth had been terminally brief. As brief as his and Emily’s two-date fling.

  “No fireworks?”

  Certainly not with Tommy. Or with Stewart, who’d been several years before that. “Fireworks are overrated,” she dismissed.

  “So says a woman who hasn’t had any,” Wendy assessed. “Or you’d never make that statement again.”

  “Not everything’s about sex.”

  “Again…so says the woman who isn’t having any. Maybe Max’ll be the one to light a fuse or two. Or four or five.”

  Emily could feel her face getting hot. She picked up a second pillow and threw it, too. Her aim was slightly better, catching her sister in the head. “I’m just having dinner with the man.”

  “Loosen up. Dinner can lead to dessert.” Wendy clutched the pillow to her chest. “And yummy…yummy dessert. Aren’t you thinking about it just the teensiest bit?”

  Thinking about it. Dreaming about it. “No.”

  “Liar. You’re a normal woman and you haven’t had any in five years. You’re thinking about it, big-time.”

  “Then why’d you ask?”

  “Because it kills me that you’re pretending otherwise! There’s no shame in wanting the weight of a man on you, Em. That’s generally the way most women get babies in their lives. And believe me, once you’re pregnant, you’ll realize the fireworks that came before were nothing. Marcos could be talking about a food service order, be two rooms away, and I’d want to be hanging from the chandelier having hot, monkey sex with him.”

  Emily winced, blotting out the image. “I’m not planning to use Max for stud service.”

  “You sure? You’ve made no secret how determined you are to have a baby of your own and I’ve never once seen you not bring one of your famous plans to fruition.”

  “Yes.” She realized as she said it that she was sure. And it relieved her no end. “I wouldn’t do that to him. And I already have another artificial insemination scheduled, anyway.” All she had to do was wait until she was ovulating.

  “So you’re not going to sleep with Max.”

&nbs
p; “I didn’t say that.” She regretted the admission as soon as the words escaped.

  “Thank goodness,” Wendy declared. “Now I know you are human like the rest of us.”

  “Of course I’m human!”

  “Emily. I love you, I really do. But the Ms. Perfect thing you’ve got down pat is a little intimidating.”

  “I’m not remotely perfect.”

  Wendy hooked her arm around Emily’s shoulder and gave her a smacking kiss on the cheek. “I know that now. And it makes you ever so much more fun. Now, come on. I need coffee before MaryAnn wakes up again.”

  * * *

  Emily was taking a charter out of Red Rock back to Atlanta. Max knew it, because he’d made a point of finding out. Just as he made a point of being over in the terminal when she was scheduled to be there.

  He’d already seen her pilots heading toward the gate, the flight attendant hurrying to keep up with them, and figured they’d be wheels-up within minutes of Emily arriving.

  Which didn’t give them much time.

  He’d been waiting about twenty minutes when he spotted her striding up the corridor that—six months earlier—had been torn to pieces by the tornado and wondered if she was thinking about that day or if her mind was already on the business waiting for her in Atlanta.

  She definitely looked in her usual business mode, wearing a slim-fitting black suit with her blond hair pulled back in that same smooth ponytail at the back of her head. She had a caramel-colored briefcase hanging off one shoulder and was talking on her cell phone, her skinny, black-framed glasses hovering low on her narrow nose.

  She’d probably be shocked silly if she knew just how sexy she looked.

  And then she spotted Max and came to a dead stop.

  She nudged her glasses up with one finger, said a few more words into the phone and then slid it into a pocket on her briefcase, slowly closing the distance between them. A faint smile hovered around her lips. “This is a nice surprise,” she greeted.

  “I was in the area,” he said dryly.

  Her smile widened a little. “How’re the brochures coming?”

  “Tanner approved the first one that we’ll include in the Sunday newspaper.”

  “Excellent.” She looked genuinely pleased.