Kade

My weekend had started with me finding a dry cleaners near the airport.

Not one of my finest moments, but the man—thank God it had been a man and not a young girl—had quietly put a sticker on the front of my pants like it happened everyday.

And maybe it did.

But not to me.

Madison was going to drive me crazy if I had to see her every day for three months.

I’d barely seen her at all and already she was driving me insane.

I figured that since most of my time would be spent in the air, I could mostly avoid her. Even though I had a designated office there in the Skye Travels Building, I could do my paperwork on my own iPad and avoid the office.

It would be best.

I turned off of San Felipe and onto another small road. One more left and I pulled into the gated community. The guard was expecting me, but I showed him my identification anyway. I wanted the staff to get to know me well enough that they would feel comfortable talking to me when they needed to.

I parked the car and looked around. Everything looked clean. And secure.

Those things were very important.

When I knocked on the door, it took a few minutes for someone to come and open it.

I recognized the girl immediately. Her name was Susan and I’d hired her myself three months ago.

About the same time I’d made the decision to move back to Houston.

“Come on in,” Susan said with a smile. “She’s in the sunroom.”

Susan was not only capable, but she was one of the most positive people I knew. She always had a smile and something good to say.

I followed her through the house. It was clean and uncluttered. I paid someone for that, too, to keep it that way.

I stepped into a bright sunlit room with walls of glass. Just outside the window there was a birdfeeder, birds fluttering all around it.

There was also a hummingbird feeder. Hummingbirds were her favorite. One buzzed the window just as I walked through the door.

My mother was sitting in a recliner, her feet up, her eyes glued to her iPad. She didn’t know I was there, but she glanced up at the hummingbird.

Trying not to startle her, I walked around to stand in front of her so she could see me.

“Kade?” Her face lit into a smile and she closed the cover on her iPad. “I thought you weren’t coming until tomorrow.”

“I couldn’t wait any longer to see you.”

I went over and gave her a huge, long hug.

It had been two years since I’d seen her. Two years too long.

I’d vowed to myself never to do that again.

Work was important, but not as important as family.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t known how much care she needed until she’d fallen and broken her leg.

“It’s so good to see you,” she said and I heard the tears in her voice.

“I’m sorry, Mother. I’m here now.”

“Yes, you are,” she pushed me back and I straightened. “So let me look at you.”

My mother had aged in two years. I could see it in the lines around her eyes that weren’t so obvious on facetime calls.

But she was taken care of now and I would be able to see her often.

Never again would I let two years keep me away from my family.

Not for work.

Not for anything.

“Sit down,” she said. “I want to hear all about Madison.”

Madison

By the time I got to the office Monday morning, I’d already finished half my venti latte, skinny of course, with extra vanilla.

I wasn’t supposed to be happy about seeing Kade. Not while I was still mad at him.

He would have to come in to the office this morning to sign some papers and get set up.

His first flight wasn’t until morning.

I could tell myself not to be happy about seeing him all day long.

But I couldn’t fight it.

I’d fought it all weekend and I was battle weary.

All I had to do was to admit to myself that I was happy to have the opportunity to catch up with him.

That was my story and I was sticking with it.

Just because I was happy to see him did not mean that we were getting back together.

In fact, there was no way I would get back together with Kade.

Not a chance.

He’d let me just walk away and then he hadn’t had the decency to even call me. Not even once.

And that was after we said we’d stay in touch.

I pushed the button on the elevator and rode up to the third floor.

Ok. I’d spent a little extra time on my makeup this morning. And my hair.

And I’d worn my red blouse beneath my standard black jacket. I was wearing my favorite black skirt—the one that hugged my curves just so and I’d even worn my shoes with the red bottoms.

Basically my standard outfit—the best one, but I just felt good today. Like I had something to look forward to.

Just knowing that Kade was going to be there put a lightness in my step that I hadn’t felt in a long time.

I made it to my work station ten minutes early. Flipped on the computer and the phone.

If someone called early, they’d get me, not the machine. I was here, so why not.

I tucked my handbag in the large drawer at the bottom of the desk and watered the ivy that the last receptionist had left behind.

I’d taken a liking to it even though I’d never been much of a plant person.

It looked like a good hardy plant, so I had high hopes that I wouldn’t kill it.

There. I stood back and looked around.

Everything was ready for the day.

There was something satisfying about having a job to do and knowing that you were good at it.

That’s what the latest psychological research was showing. Life is all about work and relationships.

People need a purpose and they need to feel like they’re making a difference.

I’d be making a bigger difference when started teaching at the end of August, but for now I was determined to make my family’s company the best it could be.

Just as I sat in my chair and put on my headset, I heard male laughter coming from the office area.

I froze.

I knew that laugh.

It was Kade Johnson.

How had he gotten to work before me?

And what was I supposed to do with the sudden rush of adrenalin that shot through my system?

Before I could come up with any ideas, the office phone buzzed.

But it wasn’t a customer, it was Quinn.

“Can you come back here for a few minutes? Kade and I need your help.”

Kade

So much for best laid plans and all that.

I’d planned on avoiding Madison until I figured out exactly how I was going to approach her.

But Quinn was relentless. We’d had breakfast at five a.m. In the office by six thirty.

If Quinn worked this hard all the time, I understood why Noah had put him in charge.

Apparently Quinn had a flight out mid-morning and needed to get me set up before he left.

“Which plane do you fly?” I asked as he turned off the speaker he’d used to call Madison.

Maybe talking about flying airplanes would distract me from thinking about Madison.

Quinn, sitting on the corner of my desk answered quickly. “I don’t fly,” he said.

I thought I might have misunderstood. “You mean today?”

Quinn looked at me, then back to the computer. “No. I’m not a pilot.”

Before I had time to process how a man carrying Noah Worthington’s genes did not hold a pilot’s license, Madison walked in.

So instead of using Quinn and talk of airplanes to distract me from Madison, the opposite happened.

One look at Madison and I forgot all about the mystery of how Quinn Worthington had managed to not learn to fly an airplane.

She was wearing a tight black skirt, falling tastefully to just below her knees, medium high heels, and a black jacket. Underneath the jacket, she wore a bright red blouse that highlighted her red lips.

She saw me, flashed a smile, then turned her attention to Quinn.

Since all the blood had rushed below my belt, I paid little attention to whatever technical thing they were talking about regarding a computer program.

Then Madison was leaning over into my space, putting her fingers on my keyboard.

She smelled like vanilla honeysuckle crossed with jasmine.

It wasn’t a heavy perfume, but simply her soap and maybe her hair products.

Her hair brushed against my cheek for a half second. Long enough to envelope me in her scent.

It was almost more than I could handle. I was a breath away from excusing myself to go to the restroom when she stepped back.

“All done.” She straightened. Then looked into my eyes with a little smirk. “Any questions?”

Her green eyes pulled me in and took me deep. I wanted to kiss that smirk off her lips.

And if Quinn hadn’t been sitting there on my desk, I would have pulled her into my lap and done just that.

But instead, I just looked away. “No,” I said. “No questions.”

That was a lie. I had lots of questions. The most salient being what exactly were her and Quinn talking about.

“Good,” she said. “you know where to find me.”

She turned and walked out of my office.

I watched her walk away. I couldn’t help it.

Even with Quinn sitting there, I couldn’t not look at her.

But Quinn seemed clueless as to how hot his sister was.

Probably a good thing.

Now all I had to was figure out how to use the scheduling program Madison had just demonstrated.