He shrugged. She bit back a sigh. Heaven help her, she was surrounded by Alpha males determined to lead the pack. "You have to admit this sounds rather suspicious. Why would you help us for nothing, because, trust me, the pay's next to nothing."
"You can lower the defensiveness. I do want something out of this bargain that has nothing to do with money."
Uh-oh. Dry-lightning alert. The hairs on her arms rose while the rest of her tingled with thoughts of want and need and fulfillment. "Like what?"
"Flight hours."
Huh? "Flight hours?"
"I'll get free civilian flight hours, and that actually is worth more than you would expect outside the military world." With his wrist draped over the steering wheel, he drummed his fingers along the dash as if picking out a tune. "Here's my pitch, I'll hang out to fly you and your brother on your rounds in exchange for using your plane to log in some hours on my own when you're off duty. The Cessna's a different plane, different challenge than the C-17, and it does cost to fly. A lot."
And didn't she know it? She'd about choked when she saw the appraisal for Seth's plane.
Even used, it was priced at about the same as a decent-size house.
Bo's logic made sense, and it wasn't his fault her husband had been dishonest. Bo didn't deserve her defensiveness, and he most especially didn't deserve her anger, but where was she supposed to put it all?
"You're only offering to save my pride," she said with a feeble last attempt at self-preservation.
"I'm offering to save your fine ass from a crash." He angled closer over the bench seat.
Not that anything would happen with Kirstie asleep in the back, but sheesh he was in her space big-time. "What did I say a second ago? Don't go looking for a hidden agenda. And you do have a fine—"
"Stop. Please." Laughter tickled her raw stomach lining. God, it was fun to be lighthearted in the middle of the mess her life had become. "No more ass discussions, if you don't mind."
"I'm a man. I enjoyed the view. So sue me." He smiled, showing off those too-cute, slightly crooked front teeth again. His smile faded to seriousness. "But don't do something stupid like turn down my offer."
He had such a way of making things sound logical. Or was that cute smile of his addling her brain? "If you go around helping everyone this much, it's a wonder you have time to work."
"Don't make me out to be some altar boy who searches for needy folks to help. Believe me, the picture doesn't fit."
"So you weren't an altar server?"
Red stained his skin just above his collar. Who'd have thought bad boys blushed?
Boy?
All man.
"Okay, so I was an altar server. But I was a very bad one."
That, she believed. "So why does this bad man want to help me?"
"I can't just stand by doing nothing when there's a problem and I have the means to solve it."
Spoken like a true Alpha, which actually brought some peace and understanding. There might be more to his agenda and she should probably keep digging, but bottom line, she had to accept. There wasn't really any other choice. Vic was probably already firing the temporary pilot, anyway.
Maybe she could resurrect her economy-size bottle of Tums for a couple of weeks, not a crutch, but more of a survival ration around this man. "You're right. It's an incredibly generous offer that I can't afford to turn down."
That wits-addling smile began to creep over his face again.
Paige held up a pointer finger. "I still have to talk to my brother and cousin, though." She gestured out toward the thin strip of runway where the blurry pilot leaped from the craft while a big blond blob she assumed was her brother slumped against the side. Uh-oh.
That awful, huh? "It's Vic's vet practice and Seth's plane. And they would also have to deal with firing the other guy, who happens to be a student of Seth's from his stint teaching at a flight school before he joined up with Vic."
Although even Seth admitted the guy was rock bottom of his class.
"Fair enough."