He caught her eyes over the rim of his sunglasses and winked. “That would be the flirting portion of our flight.”

She laughed then. A nervous laugh that seemed to surprise her as the sound escaped.

He handed her the extra headset and buckled in.

Once her ears were in place he could hear the quickening of her breath. He powered up and switched his radio to air traffic control.

“This is Bravo Papa one.”

“I hear you, Bravo Papa one, over.”

“I’m en route to you. Can I get a weather reading? Over.”

Trent listened to the wind report and received an all clear of the fog lifting.

The hum of the helicopter wrapped around him with a warm welcome. He glanced over to see Monica’s fists clenched in her lap.

“Do you want to copilot?”

She rolled her eyes at him. “I fell for that once, Barefoot. I’m not that gullible twice.”

So he was Barefoot again. “Took your mind off the flight the first time.” He removed a stick of gum from its pack and handed it to her.

“And what, gum is going to do it this time?” She took the gum and unwrapped it.

“No, but it helps the ear popping.”

She placed the gum in her mouth and took a deep breath.

“Ready?”

She shook her head. “You sure we can’t drive?”

He patted her knee as he would a child. “If it makes you feel better, I’ve been flying since I was fourteen. Two solid years longer than I’ve been driving.”

“I’m not sure that helps.”

He smiled, and lifted the aircraft off the ground. Once he was above the trees, he turned the chopper around and headed toward the airport.

Her white knuckles were not a sign of his flying, he reminded himself. “How long have you been a nurse?” he asked, hoping to calm her down.

“Three years… almost four.”

He would have thought it was much longer based on what he’d witnessed the day before.

“Did you follow in your mother’s footsteps?”

She sputtered a laugh. “Not hardly.”

That’s a loaded answer. “She’s not a nurse?”

“She’s not anything. Go nowhere jobs. Go nowhere husbands.”

As in plural.

“What about you? Is your dad a pilot?”

“He was one of the best.”

“He doesn’t fly anymore?”

“He passed away.”

Trent felt her eyes on him. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged. “Some dads teach their kids how to ride a bike or throw a ball. My dad taught us how to fly.”

“I’ll bet your friends were insane with jealousy.”

Trent had always been thankful for his parents’ desire for him and his brothers to fly. He glanced over and noticed Monica’s hands resting loosely in her lap. Their conversation was distracting her. Trent did something he almost never did. He talked about his past. “On my eighteenth birthday a buddy of mine convinced me to go for a joyride.”

“A joyride? In one of these?” Her voice rose with alarm.

“We took a couple of girls up. I thought I’d show off my skills.”

“Strut for the ladies?”

“Some guys show off their cars. I showed off my dad’s helicopter.”

She glanced out the window as if noticing that she was still in the air. “Did you stay this close to the ground on the joyride?”

“No. It was a clear fall day.”

“Clear fall days allow you to fly higher? Or are you staying close to the ground to keep me from freaking out?”

“Is staying low keeping you from freaking?”

“No,” she said laughing.

“Staying low is necessary today.” He didn’t want to worry her about flying conditions and kept his explanations simple. “Not on my eighteenth birthday.”

“So what happened? Did your skills get you lucky?”

There was an innocence about discussing one’s youth with a virtual stranger. “It almost landed me in jail.”

“Seriously?”

“Security at the private airstrip notified my father that his bird was missing. After he found and quizzed my older brothers, he assumed someone had stolen it. It never occurred to him that I’d take it.”

“You weren’t a wild child?”

Oh, he was wild. His parents had very little idea of how wild. “I wasn’t bad.”

“Why don’t I believe you?” Her tone teased and when he looked over he noticed her slow steady breaths pushing her br**sts against her clothing.

“Anyway. When we landed, the police were there and put us all in handcuffs. My parents were livid,” he told her, taking his eyes off her chest.

“I can’t imagine why. Did you ever see the girl again?”

The lights of the airstrip appeared in the distance. “Her parents forbid it.”

“That doesn’t usually stop teens from anything.”

Trent banked the chopper in a wide turn. “I think it was the handcuffs that turned her off.”

Monica smiled. “Handcuffs wouldn’t bode well for a second date. Unless the girl is into that sort of thing.”

Trent turned to stare at her and had to erase the thought of Monica in handcuffs… the fuzzy kind, in order to swallow.

Chapter Five

Shameless flirt! Monica shook her head and chastised herself as she exited Trent’s helicopter for the second time. She had to admit, this flight had been much better than the first. Maybe the key to kicking her fear of heights was sexual tension. That and talk of handcuffs. Oh, she’d read her share of those books, but never once acted on them. The penetrating stare coming from the pilot’s seat had been worth the snark and innuendo. The stress of the past thirty hours didn’t weigh on her nearly as much as it had before she’d gone to sleep the night before, well, the morning before. She hadn’t fallen into her cot until after one.