Kiss Me Katie! & Hug Me Holly! (7 page)

He hadn't considered the possibility her past had driven her to that.

Did she really believe she'd be happy going along with the status quo for the rest of her life, avoiding adventure and excitement, never knowing what she was missing?

Yes, he decided, because she
did
know what she was missing. Hell, she was missing it on purpose so as not to get hurt.

He was outside her office, his hand raised to the doorknob before he knew what he was doing. But her office was empty. He let himself in and stood staring down at her neat-as-a-pin desk, realizing that knowing Katie's past was only half the problem.

The other half was their basic differences.

Nothing was out of place here, not one piece of paper, not a single pencil, not even a paperclip.

Hmm.

Quickly he retraced his steps down the hall, needing to make sure, but—

Yep.

He opened the door to his own office and took in the wild, unorganized mess. Huge piles of pa
perwork were haphazardly stacked everywhere. Some had fallen over onto other piles, creating bigger mountains. When he'd run out of desk room he'd used floor space, nearly every inch of it.

No doubt. They were indeed opposites.

He attempted to straighten out some of the clutter, but no matter where he shifted a pile, the place still looked like a disaster area. Finally, he opened the large drawers on his desk and just shoved some of the paperwork into them. When they were full to overloading, he coaxed and jammed and threatened, and only slammed his fingers once, maybe twice.

Swearing, sucking on his sore fingers, he went to work on the files all over his floor, but he'd gotten exactly nowhere when he looked up at the shadow in his doorway.

Katie stood there, staring down at him with a bemused look on her face. “Did you lose something?”

He was on his hands and knees, surrounded by a mess he had yet to come close to fixing, even after hours of work. Worse, she didn't look surprised, and that really irritated him. Dammit, he could be neat if he had to. He could!

“No,” he said stiffly, and casually kicked a pile
beneath his desk, hoping she didn't notice. “I know exactly where everything is.”

“Uh-huh.”

He ignored her, and when he looked again, she was gone.

The mess wasn't.

And he was very tired of cleaning.

Maybe, he figured, it was time to regroup. Shift gears.

Attempting to make himself more like Matt was a really bad idea. He didn't
want
to be like Matt. He liked himself just fine, and thought Katie probably did, too. She was just scared.

And with good reason.

He wanted to show her that risk could be good, certainly better than stability and neat desks. The scary part was, he wasn't even sure why it all mattered so terribly much.

Why
she
mattered.

Damn, this was getting complicated. Normally, he was good at complicated. But despite having so many sisters, he didn't really do well as it applied to a woman.

“Definitely need a new plan,” he muttered, rubbing a finger along the thick dust on his desk. “A good one.”

He mulled over the facts. One, whether she admitted it or not, Katie felt safe and relaxed with Matt. Two, she did not feel safe and relaxed with Bryan. She felt out of control, hot and itchy.

All he had to do was convince her that out of control, hot and itchy was a good thing.

How hard could that be?

M
ATT CAME BACK
to work the week before Christmas.

The day he did, Katie hid out in her office, pretending everything was peachy, when of course it wasn't. How could it be? In her quest for Mr. Perfect she'd overlooked one minute detail—
his
feelings.

It went even deeper than that. She'd thought her needs simple—she wanted a nice, secure, happy life with a nice, secure, happy man. Someone who knew his goals and responsibly went after them, someone who didn't let fun run his life.

So why then had her dreams been taken over by a man who didn't fit the criteria, a man who lived his life the same way he flew his airplanes? With wild, reckless, adventurous abandon?

Now Matt was back and she was fairly certain her job was in jeopardy. Her stomach rumbled in spite of having bitten all ten fingernails down to
the quick, which was probably a lot more nutritious then her usual breakfast of sugar-coated cereal.

Searching her desk, she came up with three candy bars and happily devoured them all. When she was finished, her skirt felt too tight, but at least the sugar gave her a sense of energy.

Holly poked her head into her office. “My, don't you look…stressed.”

Suddenly Katie found a silver lining and managed a smile. “Be nice. This is probably our last day working together.” She spared a thought to wonder how much unemployment benefits paid. Or how she'd explain the reason for losing this job.
Well, you see, ma'am, it all started when I gave our vice president a concussion while attempting to sexually harass him.

Now wouldn't
that
look good on the old résumé.

“Why would this be our last day together?” Holly asked.

“I don't think giving Matt a bump on the head—” not to mention making him paranoid about mistletoe “—is likely to get me a promotion.”

Holly laughed and perched a slim hip on the corner of Katie's desk. “You're making way too much of a little accident.”

“Uh-huh. Oh, and by the way, thanks for tricking me at the party.”

“I don't know what you're talking about. But then, I rarely do.”

“I know what you did, and even for you, it was really low.”

Matt walked by her office right then, his arms full of paperwork. He didn't so much as peek in. Actually, he sped up, nearly running by.

Holly grinned and looked at Katie. “Guess he's in a hurry.” She rose and moved to the door. “Hello, Matt,” she called, and Katie winced.

“Don't call him in here!” she whispered in panic, slipping out of her chair and onto her knees behind her desk. She ducked. “I'm not ready for the firing!”

“Well then, don't let him see you.” Holly pasted a bright smile on her face as Matt reluctantly came back to the doorway.

“Don't worry,” Katie heard her say to Matt in a soothing voice. “The big, bad accountant is gone.”

“I thought I saw her….”

Katie crouched farther down and decided the heck with getting fired, she was going to end up in prison. For Holly's murder.

“Oh, she's long gone,” Holly said sweetly to Matt, in a voice that said
I'll protect you!

Katie rolled her eyes as they left together, and wished she had more fingernails to bite.

 

A
T LUNCH
Katie took her sandwich and soda outside to watch the planes landing and taking off.

Above her came the drone of an approaching Cessna. The wings gleamed in the sun, reflecting the spectacular blue sky. It swooped in close then soared upward again, the pilot apparently having a ball as he yet again dipped close, this time coming in for his final approach.

As she watched, the wind whipped her face, her hair, and still she just stood there, watching, knowing by the inexplicable tingle in her tummy who it was in the aircraft.

Bryan.

No man had ever given her that tingle before. Certainly not Matt, which, if she was being honest, was what had attracted her to him in the first place.

That tingle scared her to death.

But whether she liked it or not, the truth was very simple. Katie didn't want both Matt and Bryan. She wanted Bryan.

Only Bryan.

She couldn't even say for sure when she'd
stopped fooling herself, when she realized that she and Matt would be truly poorly matched. Yes, he was charming and intelligent. He was security and stability personified. Oh, and let's not forget the third
S
. He was safe. But he was safe only because he didn't make Katie's heart leap with excitement.

The plane came in for a perfect landing.

She sighed, in both appreciation for Bryan's skill, and with regret for what would never be. From deep within her came an ache, an old one. Her father had been that skilled, and that uncontrollable. Her mother had loved him anyway.

He'd nearly destroyed her.

Katie had witnessed it firsthand and yet here she stood, wondering, fantasizing… Had she not learned a thing? Did she think Bryan was any different?

She was a fool.

With a loud roar, the plane rocketed by her. At the end of the runway Bryan executed a U-turn and then headed back toward her for the tie-down spot.

He'd seen her.

Katie would swear it by the way her inner tingle spread, liquefying her limbs. She realized she stood rooted to one spot, practically quivering, waiting for the sight of him.

Then he appeared, his hair ruffled, his skin
deeply tanned, his eyes covered in aviator glasses that reflected her own wide gaze back to her. He hopped down with ease and grace and looked right at her.

Then he grinned.

She nearly responded in kind, nearly went running toward him, but she managed to restrain herself. Barely.

She was pathetic, melting because of a smile!

Over the loudspeaker on the side of the building, came her page. She turned away, so thankful she nearly tripped over her own two feet.

With not near the same amount of ease and grace Bryan had exhibited getting out of the plane, she escaped back to her reality—work.

 

H
E CAUGHT UP WITH HER
.

There were others in the large maintenance hangar; in fact it was fairly crowded, and with three large aircraft in the middle, she couldn't see everyone at once.

But she saw Bryan.

Surely he'd come to talk to one of the mechanics, or even another pilot. Maybe he was simply headed for the pilot's lounge.

He looked right and left, searching, though not for her. That would be silly, pretentious.

Ridiculous.

But then their gazes met. He went utterly still, then slowly reached up and tugged off his aviator glasses, carelessly hanging them on his collar by one earpiece.

Katie didn't so much as breathe. They hadn't spoken much since he'd been practically unmanned by her cat a week earlier. Up until then, he'd always looked at her with what could only be described as a hungry expression, as if she were a scrumptious dessert and he was a starving man.

But today he looked at her differently. With a good amount of hunger still, yes, but she had a feeling that look just might match her own. There was more though, there was—

“Mmm-mmm good,” Holly said over Katie's shoulder, staring at Bryan and licking her chops.

Katie's mood shattered. “What are
you
doing out here?”

“Tracking down a stubborn vice president who forgot to pick up his messages.” She smiled at Matt who was a plane length away. He had a stack of files in his hand, his glasses on his nose and his deep-in-work expression on his face, until he caught Holly's smile.

Flustered, he smiled back and…dropped his files.

Katie stared at him. Why was it whenever she saw Holly, Matt wasn't far behind? Or was it whenever she saw Matt, Holly wasn't far behind?

Before she could digest this, a beefy trucker lumbered into the hangar.

“Delivery,” the man said gruffly, consulting his clipboard which had seen better days and had a sticker across the top of it that said Bite Me.

Holly gave the man the once-over as she walked toward him. “Sugar, don't you guys usually deliver parts to the
back
of the hangar?”

“Um…yeah.” He swallowed hard, clearly rendered an idiot by Holly's wide, welcoming smile. “I don't have parts today, it's a truckload of office supplies. Ordered by—” he referred to his clipboard “—Katie Wilkins.”

“A truckload?” Katie frowned. “But I only ordered the usual. Pencils, paper, stuff like that.” She'd been distracted lately, sure, but could she have been
that
distracted? She glanced at Bryan, felt her pulse race, and admitted the truth. “It couldn't be more than a box or so,” she said with one last hopeful protest.

“Not according to the order slip, lady. You've got an entire truckload of paper here.”

Everyone looked out the front window, where the delivery truck had been parked. The back door
opened with a loud clang and two more beefy men prepared to unload.

“I don't need that much computer paper,” Katie protested.

“You ordered it, lady, not me. And it's not computer paper, it's toilet paper. A truckload of toilet paper.”

 

B
Y THE END
of the day Katie had heard every single toilet paper joke she could take.

Needing…something, she waited until everyone had gone, then made her way to hangar two where the overnight clients had tied down their planes.

The hangar was huge, and since the walls were metal, every little sound echoed. Dark had long ago fallen so she should have been nervous,
would
have been nervous in the past, but for some reason tonight, she wasn't.

She flipped on one low light and stepped inside to be immediately swamped by her senses. The hazy perceptions from the low light, the scent of aviation fuel, the chilly breeze that always raced through because of the high ceilings, she experienced them all.

If anyone could see her right now they'd wonder at her strange urge to come stare into the darkness at airplanes. But she didn't care what anyone
thought—a first for her. She simply wanted to please herself, and the heck with all the others.

Another first.

At least five silent planes greeted her, maybe more. She couldn't see into the far stretches of the yawning hangar. They drew her, these sleek, fast aircraft. Strange, given it had been a plane that once upon a time had destroyed her entire life.

But irrational and terrifying as it was, she did indeed harbor a secret passion for airplanes. Bryan had seen that passion in her and that had terrified her too. He'd seen past her guard, had been able to read her so well when no one else ever had.

Scary stuff, indeed.

She realized she stood in front of Bryan's plane, her hand on the metal like a lover's touch as she was gazing up, wondering what it felt like to sit inside, what it felt like to be high in the sky, soaring wild and free without a thought or care.

“It takes both,” came a deep, familiar voice behind her, assuring her that she'd spoken out loud. “Thought
and
care.”