CHAPTER 26
Ian
“Well, look at you, wearing your big boy uniform.”
Adam, too, chuckled as he lowered himself into the right seat. “If someone would have told me a few months ago I’d be sitting here with you as first in command on this plane, I would have said they were nuts.”
“Well, as the saying goes, dreams do come true.”
Adam snorted. “Says the nightmare.”
“Thank you, Little Brother, for busting your ass to save my worthless one and giving me more time at home with the wife I don’t deserve.” Ian smirked, watching Adam finish fastening his harness with a click. “Well, look at that. FO looks good on you.”
Adam shook his head, and then his bemused expression faded, turning serious. “Well done, man. I’m proud of you.”
Flashback to his first solo at sixteen, when Ian had flawlessly landed the Cessna 182 Skylane on which they’d both learned to fly. Adam had said the exact same thing and given him a one-armed hug, and Ian could have sworn he’d seen their dad’s eyes water a bit.
“How does it feel?” Adam asked.
“You know damn well how it feels.”
Adam grinned hugely. “I do.” He donned his headset. “OK, then, get this bird in the air, Captain.”
Soon, they were up above the clouds and squinting at the sun, having left the overcast day way down below.
Ian engaged the autopilot and took a deep breath, reaching back to massage his neck. He knew what he was doing, but it had been his first takeoff as captain.
Adam finished talking to the tower, then hung up the mic and focused on Ian with his signature penetrating stare. “How are you?”
Oh, man. He wasn’t asking about flying. How could he even begin to answer that?
“Good.”
“A monosyllabic reply from you often means the opposite of what you say.” Adam looked out at the horizon. “Eve is worried about you.”
“Is she, now?” Ian knew damned well what his brother was saying: Adam, too, was worried.
They had good reason. Hell, truth be told, Ian was worried about himself.
He’d never believed in depression, but now he was coming close to thinking it may be real, and he was on the edge of that dark hole.
The only thing that kept him from falling in was this new objective and the job it came with.
“Talk to me.”
Ian shrugged. “What about?”
“Angie has been after you for months. I’m surprised she hasn’t already lured you to the back and stripped you naked.”
“Fucking her is against policy.”
Adam’s brow furrowed. “There’s no such… what policy?”
“Mine.”
“Ah.”
They sat in silence for a while, listening to the familiar sound of whining turbines.
“You need to get laid,” Adam finally said.
OK, that made him smile. He remembered saying that to his brother whenever Adam seemed grumpy or too stressed, which was often. Funny that, of late, Adam was never grumpy or stressed.
“Wasn’t it you who used to say you don’t consider a fuck to be a cure for all problems?”
“Depends on the fuck,” Adam shot back, and Ian burst into loud laughter at his own typical reply being tossed at him.
“I overheard the girls talking about you the other day,” Adam said.
Ah, shit. What had they said? “About me?”
Adam nodded. “Apparently, they have a little fuck pool going on.”
“I heard about that.”
Adam’s lips twitched. “Did you also hear about the side bets?”
“Side bets?”
“They’re trying to predict who fucks you first.”
“First?” Ian’s voice came out a bit strangled.
“Well, I understand some of them already have. They’re wanting seconds.”
“Aw, Jesus Christ.” Ian looked up at the switches.
“You have six gorgeous women ready and willing to give you anything you want, and you haven’t touched any of them.
I know for a fact you’ve spent every waking moment since you got to Vegas either studying, in the simulator, or flying.
You’re hardly ever in a good mood, you’ve lost weight, you look like you haven’t slept well in—”
“Is this your way of telling me I look like shit?”
“Don’t change the subject.”
“Fuck, man, I am the subject! Back off!”
“You going without for so long isn’t normal.”
“Yeah, well, nothing is normal anymore,” Ian muttered.
“When was the last time you saw her?”
“You were there. At KISM.”
“Have you two spoken since?”
Ian nodded curtly.
“On FaceTime?”
He nodded again.
“Any phone sex?”
“Christ, man!”
“Whoa, look how he explodes. And you guys tell me I’m the uptight one.” Adam smiled devilishly. “Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it, man. It comes in handy.”
Ian’s eyes widened as he groaned. “I can’t believe you just said that.”
Adam shrugged, still smiling a little. “Oh, well.”
“That’s way too much information even for me.” He glared at Adam. “Never mention that to me ever again.”
Adam guffawed. “Now, who’s uptight?”
“Dude!”
“OK, OK. Apologies for ruffling your pretty plumage.”
That was Adam’s signature way of calling him a chicken, but Ian was damned if he would take the bait this time. He merely glowered at the fluffy blanket of clouds beyond the windshield.
Adam adjusted his headset. “Answer me this. Who did the calling?”
“When we had FaceTime?”
“Yeah.”
“She did.”
“Promising. Is there a reason why you didn’t initiate?”
He wasn’t about to admit to Adam that he’d given up hope. That wouldn’t go over well with his bulldog of a brother, who always sank his teeth into what he wanted, never to let go, no matter what. “I didn’t want to push too hard.”
“Sometimes that’s necessary.”
Case in point. Ian almost rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, I tried that, and it didn’t work. It had the opposite effect.”
“Well, then, you’re one lucky bastard. Not that you deserve it after the way you dropped the goddamned ball and gave up.”
What the hell was Adam saying? Ian looked questioningly at his older brother, his brow furrowing at the sly smile that spread all over Adam’s face. “What do you mean?”
“It looks as if you get another chance. I talked to Jon this morning. Claire’s coming to the wedding.”