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Tyler leans in closer. “What are you thinking right now, Bella?”
“I’m not sure I moved the wash to the dryer.”
He laughs again, and I don’t remember him laughing in the past, as in at all, let alone the numerous times he has with me today. He’s a complicated man, one with layers and layers of emotional baggage he guards well. And yet, he’s let that guard down today with me.
An announcement sounds over the intercom. The short version of the message: we’re taking off. I react by easing into my seat, always a bit edgy at this portion of a flight. Tyler glances over at me, those blue eyes of his seeing way too much. “Nervous flyer, are you?”
“I just don’t like takeoff or landing. Those are the times you’re most likely to crash. Everything in between is fine.”
“You’re afraid of what you can’t control,” he states as if it’s obvious. “It’s not the same way I look at control. I want it in all things. You simply dislike those things that can’t be affected by anything you say or do.”
It’s true, of course, and I’m surprised by how well he understands my psyche even more so than my brother, and I’m close to Dash. “Per the counselor I saw at the hospital, this typeof thing is normal for someone who lost a parent they were close to at a fairly young age. Though I’m not sure twenty-one is all that young.”
“She died five years ago of an aneurysm, right? I believe Dash told me that, at some point.”
“She was only forty-nine, with so much left to do in this world.”
“The founder of the Alice Shopping Network, Alice herself. I have no doubt she did. If I remember correctly, from your job interview, you said she’d gone public and gotten out of the company?”
“Yes, she didn’t like what the company looked like after the offering, but she was plotting new ways to take over the world.” I tilt my head and look at him. “You didn’t want to hire me because I came from money.”
“I never said that.”
I laugh. “You said it directly, Tyler Hawk.” I deepen my voice. “‘I’m going to be frank, Ms. Bailey, I don’t hire people who aren’t hungry. I assume you inherited a lot of money from your mother. Your father is also a rich man. It’s hard to believe you could ever be what I consider hungry.’”
“Ah, that’s right. To which you asked, ‘Weren’t you born into money and in the shadow of your successful parents? Don’t you want to prove you can win because you’re you?’”
“And with that, you sold me. And now, you have your success.”
“I won’t feel like it if this deal falls apart.”
“Nothing to worry about, Bella. Per Allie, we’re the dream team, remember?”
There is something in his voice, in the air between us, when he says those words. I tell myself it’s all about sex. I’m in lust with him. He’s in lust with me. But I’ve known him for years and there is a bond between us that already existed.
The plane starts to taxi at rapid speed, and I squeeze my eyes shut, feeling as if I’m about to crash and burn, and not on this plane, but with Tyler.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Bella
The plane levels off and I glance over at Tyler, all comfy in his seat and sipping his drink while I’m on a proverbial ledge, about to crash.
“I guess flying doesn’t bother you?”
“So much so that I got a pilot’s license a few years back. Up here in the sky is the one place the rest of the world can’t touch you. It’s like a timeout from the chaos.”
I’m not surprised he has a pilot’s license. It seems like something the ultimate alpha control freak would want in his arsenal, along with a wall that is ten feet high. We hit a bump and I’m clearly on edge because I gasp. “It doesn’t feel like a timeout."
His eyes brim with amusement. “It’s just a little choppy air. It’ll pass.”
“Says the man who’s a control freak. How do you not want to go check on the pilot?”
“I’m a control freak about what I can control. We’re up here now. Whatever is going to happen, is going to happen. Believe it or not, flying helped me understand that there are things in life we can’t change.”
“Like my mother dying?” I say, slightly triggered by this topic, having far too many people in my life lecture me about my mother’s death being unavoidable.And I can easily assume his trigger as well. “Or who your father is?” It’s out before I can stop it. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that, but I’ve—well, just thought of you and the struggle this must be often since he died and—”
His lips press together. “Stop trying to save me, Bella. He’s gone. The end.”
