Kade

Back at my hotel room, I dropped my keys and wallet on the table just inside the door.

Shrugged out of my jacket and hung it in the closet.

I should have gotten an apartment already, but I wanted to wait.

Get a feel for the area before making that kind of commitment.

Now I had to either find a place in the next three days before my first flight with Skye Travels or live in the hotel and take my time looking for a place whenever I could find the time.

I untied my shoes and kicked them off.

But right now all I wanted to do was think about Madison.

When I’d taken this job with Skye Travels, I’d known it was possible that I would see Madison.

One day.

I hadn’t expected it to be today.

Later.

Seeing her brought so many memories rushing back.

It had been love at first sight.

Something that had never happened to me again.

The two of us had been inseparable for three years.

Then graduate school had separated us.

I remembered the conversation well. We’d sat at our favorite taco pub, discussed our options, and calmly made the decision that we should pursue our own separate careers. Aviation for me. Psychology for her.

Grad school for her. A flight internship for me.

Different directions.

She was moving to Austin and I was moving to Auburn.

I’d been a year ahead of her, but somehow she’d managed to catch up and we’d graduated undergrad at the same time.

I distinctly remembered sitting there, calm on the outside while my heart was breaking.

I’d decided right then and there that I wasn’t going to push her. She deserved to focus on graduate school without me holding her back.

I would not call her.

And I hadn’t.

It had been hard at first, but over time it had gotten easier.

I’d folded that first Christmas eve. I’d been sitting with my family when I’d stepped outside and dialed her number.

A stranger answered—a man—and I hung up.

That had been that.

God, I’d missed her.

And now.

Wow. Now I couldn’t even begin to believe how sexy she’d gotten.

I wanted to untuck her shirt. Slide my hands up and slip my fingers beneath her bra.

Torturing her would be so sweet.

Then I’d unbutton her shirt with my teeth. Was that even possible?

I’d unhook her bra and lick her nipples until they were hard.

While I’d suck on her nipples, unbutton my shirt.

Then I’d have her out of that sexy as fuck skirt. Wrap my hands around that plump ass and slide right into that wet, tight pussy.

Oh hell.

I looked down. My cock was straining against the zipper of my pants.

Just thinking about Madison had always gotten me hard.

But the grown-up Madison was making me come undone.

I unzipped my pants, freeing my hard as rock cock.

I wrapped my hands around my length and cupped my balls.

Still thinking about Madison’s hot, wet pussy, it only took a few strokes before I came all over my pants.

Damn it. How was I going to explain this to the dry cleaner?

Madison

I jogged down the familiar path at Memorial Park, taking the long way around.

It was a beautiful spring morning. Not a cloud in the sky.

It would be a good day for flying.

Daddy had me behind the wheel of a Cessna before I could even walk.

He would have loved it if I’d taken to flying.

But it didn’t take and my sister Ainsley had been the one to grow up in our father’s footsteps.

One of the best pilots in the country and only one of his five children took to flying airplanes.

I felt bad for Daddy. But me. I took after Momma. Though she’d gotten a bit of a late start, Mom had been a top-notch psychologist. Still was. Part time.

Now that was something that intrigued me. She’d been the one whose footsteps I’d followed. It had come so easy for me.

Didn’t mean I still wasn’t Daddy’s favorite.

It was an ongoing argument between me and my sisters.

Noah insisted that he loved us all equally.

But I knew that I had to be his favorite since I was most like Mom.

The sun was warm on my skin, but the breeze was light.

I was wearing a baseball cap, my hair pulled high in a ponytail in the back. I had on tights and a little skirt.

It was early, but I wasn’t the only jogger out early.

Today was Saturday and I had the weekend off.

I hadn’t seen Kade at work yesterday, but I hadn’t expected to.

He didn’t start work until Monday.

That hadn’t kept me from watching for him. It had been quite distracting.

Fortunately, we hadn’t had any visitors and the phones had been relatively quiet.

I looked down at my hand. At the numbers Kade had written on my skin. Little shivers ran through my system.

I’d been careful not to scrub the ink off, but it had faded a little anyway. By tomorrow, there would be no evidence left.

When I thought about how he’d so seamlessly replicated that first day we’d met, my eyes misted over and I had to wipe my eyes with the back of my hand.

I would have bet he didn’t even remember how we’d met, but he must have remembered as clearly as I did.

I kicked a pinecone off the path, sending it flying out of the way.

But he’d let me go.

I’d be stupid to just fall back into his arms.

Besides, I was leaving for Denver in three months.

I’d thought about going early. Getting settled into the city.

It would have been the smart thing to do. To get ready for my new job.

But nope.

I had to come back here.

To spend the summer with my family.

At my old job.

A job I certainly didn’t need.

I was a psychologist now. Not a student.

Dr. Worthington.

It had taken me eight years of school to achieve that. After undergrad.

It should have taken me six, but I’d done an extra postdoc, then a year of training at a neuropsych institute.

Every one of my supervisors had tried to convince me that I needed to practice psychology, not take a job as a professor.

But they didn’t understand. It was a goal I’d set in undergrad and once I set a goal, I went for it.

I veered left and sprinted the rest of the way toward my car.

A man with a beautiful black lab was jogging toward me.

My heart skipped a beat. Just for a moment, I thought it was Kade.

But then he ran past me and I knew it had just been my imagination.

This was going to be a difficult summer.

But there was one thing I was happy about.

I was happy that I’d decided to spend the summer here in Houston.

Even though I was still mad at him, I felt like the stars had somehow aligned to put us back in the same place at the same time.