The flight attendant brought her drink and Megan sipped it faster than she’d intended, trying to quell her nerves. The knots in her shoulders were just loosening up when one of attendants started to shut the cabin door. The woman stopped mid-action, holding the door open to let one last passenger on board. He stood in the front of the aisle, his gaze taking in the empty seat next to hers.
Megan wasn’t the only woman to notice him, even if her attention was less pointed than the others’. At least six feet tall, he had to stoop slightly to keep from bumping his head on the ceiling. The blond flight attendant who’d brought Megan’s drink gave him a sideways glance of appreciation, even if he didn’t notice. Then again, Megan was sure a guy like him, who epitomized the words tall, dark, and handsome, was used to women staring. Jay certainly was.
The attendant rested her hand lightly on his arm and looked up at him through heavily mascaraed eyelashes, saying something softly so that she had to lean into him to be heard. Looking slightly irritated, he showed her his ticket and she pointed to the empty seat.
Megan had neighbor.
He stuffed his overnight bag in the overhead bin and sat next to her, buckling his seat belt. He was, without a doubt, a better option than the financial planner, but maybe not by much. She guessed him to be close to her age, and he didn’t have the typical laid-back Seattle vibe. He bore a resemblance to Jay. His thick, dark brown, wavy hair wasn’t long and unruly, but it wasn’t trimmed as closely as her ex-fiancé’s always was. His looks didn’t concern her. It was the determined gleam in his eyes and the way his jaw was perpetually clenched, as though he was preparing to do something unpleasant like complete a mission, at any cost.
Momentary fear mingled with the inebriated fog in her head. “Are you a terrorist?” she asked, before she could stop herself.
“What?” he asked, his eyes wide as he turned to her in horror.
She shook her head, the movement making her dizzy. “Sorry. You just had a crazed look…” She waved her hand in circles in front of her face to help justify her statement, then quickly dropped it to her lap. What on earth had possessed her to say that?
Moments later, the flirty attendant came back and leaned across the man to grab the empty glass on Megan’s tray. Still bent over, the blonde turned to face him, her face less than a foot from his. “Don’t you worry, Mr. McMillan.” She patted his arm again. “I’ll come take care of you just as soon as I can.”
His mouth parted slightly before he grunted, “Thanks.”
Megan had to wonder what the attendant’s definition of taking care of him included.
The flight crew started the safety demonstration and Megan leaned her head against the seat, her fingers digging into the armrest. How was she going to face her mother?
“Afraid of flying?” the man next to her asked, not sounding happy at the prospect.
“No, just crashing and burning.” Which was exactly what was going to happen to her after they landed.
Chapter Two
It was his turn to ask “What?”
“Not the plane.” The brunette’s brown eyes fluttered open, glistening with tears. “My life.”
Josh nearly panicked. He could deal with paranoid people worried about plane crashes, but he hoped to God this woman wasn’t going to cry. He didn’t think he could take it.
He wasn’t supposed to be here—on this plane, with this woman, at this point in his life.
Josh McMillan wasn’t the kind of man to take leaps. Every step he took was carefully plotted beforehand. Except for this one.
Ever since Josh was eight years old, he’d wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an engineer. Josh was sixteen when his father died, but the loss only cemented his resolve. His older brother, already an engineer, took over the family business, and Josh joined him when he graduated from college.
The firm had struggled since their father’s death and the bad turn in the economy hadn’t helped. But then Josh had created a revolutionary part that could be used on wind turbines to help produce more electricity with the same amount of wind power. The part had the potential to make millions. So they’d hired a patent attorney and spent a fortune they didn’t have to get the patent process started, hinging the future of their business on it. And it had worked. They’d acquired interest from a serious investor who could help take their engineering firm to a whole other level.
Until last Friday, when their patent had been denied.
A firm in Kansas City, Missouri, had received approval for an identical plan, but how could a firm in Kansas City have so exactly duplicated the esoteric part? Especially since Josh had stumbled upon the design by accident.
Josh’s company would have to pay thousands to an attorney to fight the ruling. Thousands more they couldn’t afford to lose. And the investor had caught wind and threatened to pull out of their agreement if it wasn’t resolved within a week. The two brothers went out for drinks to strategize about the ruling. After a couple of rounds, no doubt to steel his courage, Noah confessed he’d shown the plans to a friend of a friend at a conference three years before.