See You Again (Wishful 8)

“Since I had one put in after I started construction on The Babylon. It’s often more convenient to fly than drive. C’mon.”

Sandy accepted his hand up out of the car. “Where’s the pilot?”

“Right here.” He tapped his own chest.

“You can fly a helicopter?” She looked at Louis to see if she was being teased.

“He’s been flying for fifteen years, ma’am.”

“Well, as dates go, this one is definitely thinking outside the box,” she muttered.

“Oh, this isn’t what we’re doing. This just gets us the first leg of the way. We can get to Lawley in about fifteen minutes by air.”

Trey had a helicopter. That he could fly himself. Sandy was still trying to wrap her brain around that, as he took a bag from Louis and led her toward the chopper. Once they were both strapped in, he handed her a headset.

“Just lean on back and enjoy yourself.”

Sandy didn’t talk on the short flight to Lawley. She didn’t want to do anything to distract Trey from what he was doing, and anyway, she was too busy staring at the view below. Her town was so tiny. Talk about a perspective check. Her entire world was microscopic compared to his. She didn’t doubt the importance of her job or her role in the community at large, but he probably employed more people world-wide than the entire population of Wishful.

They landed at a part of the Lawley airport she’d never seen. Not that there was much to the Lawley airport. It was a hub for commuter flights to Jackson, Atlanta, and Memphis. And apparently, today it was hosting Trey’s private jet. A sleek little plane, with the logo for Peyton Consolidated painted on the tail, waited on the tarmac, stairs unfolded, staff already waiting to usher them inside. Sandy could only stare.

Trey took her arm. “You okay?”

“I’m just…a little staggered.” She was more than staggered. She was intimidated. Back in college, he’d never said a word about his family’s wealth. A good thing. She doubted she’d have been able to relax enough around him to get to know who he really was. He’d built on that foundation exponentially in the decades since. Seeing clear evidence of that made it harder to reconcile this man with the boy she’d known.

He grinned at her—boyish and charming—and some of the knots unraveled. “I thought for tonight, I’d go for shock and awe.”

He was certainly succeeding. “Are you flying this, too?”

He laughed. “No. I conduct too much business en route to pilot myself. And for the next few hours, I want to focus on you.”

Hours? Really, where the hell was he taking her?

Trey led her up the stairs and introduced her to the flight attendant—Imogene Glasner— and the pilot—Jon Beale—before taking her back into the plush cabin. The seats were leather and spacious. There was a bar, where champagne chilled in a bucket of ice. A flat screen TV was mounted on one wall. There was even a sofa in the back.

The pre-flight check was a blur. Sandy found herself buckled in and accepting a glass of champagne from Imogene, numbly thanking the other woman.

Trey lost a little of his grin as he took a good look at her. “You’re not afraid to fly, are you?”

“No.” It was all she could manage.

He slipped his hand in hers, as Imogene disappeared into the cockpit for takeoff. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

His thumb stroked across the back of her hand. “Sandy. You’ve hardly said two words since we left Wishful.”

“I…it’s just. This is all so…much. I never even dreamed of something like this. I haven’t traveled all that much. I was a mother, then a single parent, then mayor. There’s just never been a chance.” That had never seemed to matter before. But being in his world made her feel small and inexperienced.

Trey brought her hand to his lips again as they left the ground. “I know. I wanted to give you some of what you had to miss. There’s no pressure here. No expectation. Just enjoy it.”

She looked into his eyes and found him a smile. “I’d enjoy it more if I knew where we were going.”

“Nope. Not gonna happen. I’m sticking to my guns that this is a surprise.”

Deciding she’d better embrace the concept, Sandy settled back into her seat and sipped the champagne. “Then you, sir, had better keep me entertained.”

Chapter 6