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Shock flooded her as Jackson eased the plane back to the front of the hangar. She sat in utter silence, letting his words penetrate her mind. Once they were parked, he shut the plane down and abruptly exited as if he had nothing else to say to her. Olivia let him go, because she truly had no clue how to respond.
Tears pricked her eyes and she knew s
he was at a point where she was going to have to get some answers before she could fully move on. She was going to have to revisit that time when she’d left, and Jackson was going to have to fill her in because, no, she’d had no clue her father had been sick.
And that bit of information just changed the dynamics of this entire situation.
Chapter Five
Jax didn’t give a shit what Olivia did. He’d put the plane up later. She could call a friend to come get her or she could come in and ask him. But right now, he just needed space.
It wasn’t a stretch to say that Paul Daniels was like a father to Jax. With both of Jax’s parents deceased, he’d grown up with his grandfather, who was wonderful, but he was older and tired. Paul had been amazing, teaching an eager Jax everything he’d known about planes and flying.
Jax had started tinkering after school, and then that turned into the weekends and summer breaks. He’d learned to fly a plane before he knew how to drive a car and he knew much more about the engine in a Skyhawk than he had about the one in his old Mustang.
But when Paul had gotten sick, Jax wondered why he hadn’t told his wife and daughter. At the time Jax had only been thirteen, so he didn’t feel it was his place to step in and say anything. Paul had his reasons, stating he didn’t want them to stay out of pity. He’d been a proud man, a man of integrity and compassion. Jax absolutely hated that Livie thought the worst of her father. The man would’ve done anything for her, but in the end, time had run out.
Jax paced the empty hangar, raking a hand over his hair, then rubbing his jaw. The bristles scraping against his palm reminded him he hadn’t shaved in a couple days. Having Olivia show up had thrown him off, and he was never thrown off his game.
Something about the hoity-toity city woman he’d once had a school-age crush on had set him into overdrive. Part of him wanted her to get the hell out and never return, just leave him alone with his business. But the other part, the strictly male part, wanted to kiss the hell out of her and mess up that perfect persona she portrayed.
Jax knew that same girl who used to have grease beneath her nails as she helped her father with his planes still lived in that big-city-girl body. She’d loved flying when they’d been up. He’d seen her gripping her hands and he knew she wanted to take the controls. Something that deeply rooted didn’t just disappear simply because you wanted it to.
“You can’t just drop news like that and walk away.”
Jax kept his back to Livie. Her footsteps echoed in the open hangar. “I shouldn’t have told you anything,” he stated. “Your father didn’t want you to know.”
“Why the hell not?” she demanded.
Jax spun around and for the first time since she’d come back, he saw something he didn’t think existed in Livie . . . guilt. That’s exactly what Paul didn’t want.
“He didn’t want you or your mother to stay out of pity.” Jax figured now that Paul was gone, revealing the truth wouldn’t much matter. Maybe if Livie saw exactly how things went, she wouldn’t be so bitter. “He loved you both. Yes, he had an odd way of showing it, but you have to know that everything he did was for you.”
Livie crossed her arms, pushing her breasts up in that scooped tank. Damn if she wasn’t one of the sexiest women he’d ever seen. That crush as a preteen and teenager had been mild compared to the ache and need he had flooding him now.
But he’d gotten tangled with a beautiful woman once before and Livie wasn’t sticking around. She wanted the hell out of Haven once and for all.
“Since you know so much about my father, please, enlighten me.”
Propping his hands on his hips, Jax pulled in a deep breath and willed himself to remain calm. “It’s a moot point now, Livie. He’s gone. We’re at a standstill until you can come to grips with the fact that I will never sell. Ever. There’s no money you can wave in my face, there’s no way you can mastermind your way into this sale. The airport, flying, and the people that need these services are the second most important things in my life.”
Her eyes never wavered from his and he wondered if he was actually making headway with her. Was she grasping exactly what he was saying? He was done playing games, he was done trying to be nice about the situation. She was wasting her time and she was wearing him out.
“What happens if I go back to Atlanta?” she asked. “We’re still legally partners in this business. I should have equal say.”
Jax laughed. He couldn’t help himself. “So now you want to be partners? As in, you want to decide what’s best for the airport so you can rake in half the money? I assure you, it’s not much.”
He’d been scraping every extra penny and dime for years to get a new Skyhawk. He’d managed to squander away a good amount so far, but planes were damn expensive, even used ones. But he knew this Cessna wouldn’t last forever. No matter how much he babied the beautiful piece, it was nearing time to retire. He wanted to invest in the future, in a plane that would hopefully be something he passed to Piper as she grew older. If she loved the sport as much as he did and opted to turn it into a career, he wanted to be able to give her something nice.
“You can keep the money, but this place needs some sprucing up in a major way.”
“There you go with the material things again,” he told her as he took a step toward her. “As long as my plane flies and my clients get to where they need to be, they don’t care if the building needs paint or if the weeds are out of control. It’s a small town, Livie. I work by reputation alone, not the beauty of my building.”
“Our building,” she corrected.
Jax stepped forward once again, towering over her. Her eyes flared as she stared up at him.
“Is that how you’re going to play this game?” he murmured, raking his eyes over each one of her striking features. “You think you’re going to keep up your half of this legal binding?”
