Chapter Nine

“Dominic is fine. He has a concussion and a few cuts and bruises. He’ll need someone to watch him and that will be you since you’ll be sleeping alone tonight.” Mandy was the splitting image of her sister only in scrubs.

“Fine,” he grunted. August didn’t give a shit. He was happy his friend was okay and he just wanted to get the hell out of there. Away from all the reminders of Sandi. The liar. “How long until we can leave?”

“We need to run some tests so it’ll take a few hours.”

Dom smiled up at Mandy. “I hope you’re running the tests.” He winked.

Mandy laughed. “Sandi was right, you are a charmer. Too bad your head injury makes me doubt you.”

August listened to them flirt back and forth as his insides churned. How could he have been such an idiot again? “Dammit!”

“Can you give us a moment Doc? Me and Ms. Congeniality need to have a chat.”

“Ten minutes then we need to take some pictures of that brain,” she told Dom and breezed from the room. She moved lighter, more languid than her sister who made every move count.

“What the fuck, August? She saved me and the client who freaked out in the air and that’s how you treat her?”

He frowned. “If she’d checked the weather you wouldn’t even be in here at all.”

Dom grunted as he tried to move. “I think my ribs are bruised. Anyway we both checked and the storm came out of nowhere.” Eyes closed for a long beat, he opened brown eyes up at August. “She saved me you jackass, do you get that?”

August didn’t know what to say about that. He was sure this was all Sandi’s fault somehow and he would figure it out. Soon. “I get that, but that’s part of her job.”

Dom shook his head. “You’re a dumbshit and she’s probably going to quit.”

August looked at him, ignoring the piercing feeling in his heart, and shook his head. “There are still three months left on her contract.”

“Yep. Definitely a dumbshit.”

August ignored him and focused on returning emails on his phone until Not Sandi came and took Dom for tests. He moved to the waiting room, doing his best to focus on nothing but the words floating on his screen. He couldn’t think of anything else or he’d fall apart. He especially couldn’t look at the hurt and disappointment in Sandi’s eyes when he’d gone off on her. And he’d definitely gone off, saying exactly what he knew would hurt her the most.

A shadow passed over him and he looked up. “He’s being discharged so go on back. He has all of his instructions but the nurse will explain them to you.” Mandy turned on her heels and walked away without another word.

He couldn’t blame her. He was an ass.

* * *

“You can’t quit Sandi.” Dom blew out a breath. “I know you want to and I don’t blame you at all but your contract still has time on it.”

“And August will sue me if I even think about breaking it?” She wasn’t surprised, her first assessment of him being a world class asshole hadn’t changed. Sure he’d distracted her from that with hot sex, but it was her impression of him that changed. Not him. “I figured as much and I have no plans to breach my contract Dom.” She would love it if she could spend as little time with August as possible, but asking for it might dent her pride more than she could handle at the moment.

She heard his relieved sigh over the line. “Good. So you’ll be there today? I have you booked for a three hour air tour plus climbing Huntress Mountain.”

Sandi stifled the desire to hum the Gilligan’s Island theme song because she figured it would be just her luck she’d get stranded on an island somewhere. With August. “I’ll be there. Is it a solo tour?” The silence told her it wasn’t. “Whatever. I’ll be there.”

Ninety minutes later all the pre-flight checks were done and she was waiting for the clients plus her co-guide. The married couple approached and she fixed a smile on her face. “Nancy and Scott? I’m Sandi your pilot and guide.” She got them settled into the plane and was just settling into her seat when August climbed up.

“Hi guys, I’m August.” He chatted them up throughout the tour, on the way to the clearing and kept them busy as they climbed the mountain.

Sandi kept her distance at the back of the line, happy to be left alone with her thoughts. It wasn’t so bad being around August as long as she kept her distance. And they didn’t speak. But in three months’ time she would definitely leave Wilde Adventures behind.

At the summit of Huntress Mountain she dutifully took photos of the climbers together, alone and with August and quietly followed them back down. The sun was starting to set as the plane glided through the air and Sandi realized how much she enjoyed this day of silence. Not talking suited her, she smiled to herself.

The plane touched down and she bade the couple farewell and quickly did her post-flight checks and cleanup. It had been a short day as far as she was concerned, but being around August was just hard enough to drain her energy so she hightailed it across the parking as soon as her tasks were completed.

“Can we talk?” August’s voice was serious when he spoke behind her.

“No. There’s no point, unless you have something work related to talk about?” She’d figured, after a long crying jag, that the best way to deal with him was to keep it strictly professional. Compulsively professional.

“You know damn well it’s not.”

She shrugged. “Then I have no desire to talk to you.” Sliding into her car, she cranked the engine and sped away like the hounds from Hades were chasing after her. When she arrived home, Sandi blew out a breath of relief. And a tiny sigh of disappointment. Shoving the latter down, she went inside and went straight to her bedroom. She needed a shower, a glass of wine and her bed.

After the hot shower, she finally felt human again. Like a human that had been put through the ringer, but she was clean and fresh and right now, that was enough. “What smells so good?”

“It’s maple glazed salmon,” a deep voice spoke from the kitchen.

Dammit. She glared at her sister who only shrugged and disappeared down the hall with a smug grin. Ignoring his presence, she walked around him, made herself a plate and poured a glass of wine. The food was good, she could feel the moist and flaky fish on her tongue but it all tasted like sawdust to her.

“I’m sorry Sandi. I completely overreacted.” He shook his head and dropped into the chair across from her. He looked so distraught she wanted to reach out to him, but bit her cheek to stop the impulse. No good would come from comforting him, not that he deserved to be comforted anyway.

Rolling her eyes, Sandi let the cutlery fall to her plate with a clatter. “Bullshit August. You were waiting for a reason to prove you were right about me. About all women. If it hadn’t been this, it would have been something else, you would have made sure of it. I’m just glad I found out now, before it was too hard to walk away.”

“I can’t walk away,” he said to her, his green eyes pleading with her to understand.

“You already did.”

* * *

August sat at Sandi’s dining room table for what felt like hours, before pushing back and standing, woodenly walking to the door and somehow, making his way home. Seeing her today and having her freeze him out told August just how much he’d really hurt her. As much as it gutted him to see her hurting, he saw it as a good thing.

It meant she had feelings for him too. And feeling meant she might change her mind about him. About them. All he knew was that he had to find a way to get her to forgive him. Right now he didn’t think it was possible, but her own feelings gave him something he hadn’t had in a long time.

Hope.

But three days later he’d run clean out of hope. He’d changed the schedule to ensure he worked with Sandi as much as possible, but she hadn’t said one word to him that wasn’t related to work. No matter what he did—sending flowers, sending apology steaks, love notes—she kept it all professional. But August could see the pain in her eyes whenever he spoke to her. Whenever she was forced to speak to him.

It killed him to know that look of heartache and pain she wore was his doing. But not enough to stop or give her the peace she seemed to want so desperately.

August sat back in his chair and stared at the black screen of his monitor. Should he just let her go? No. The answer came immediately. He couldn’t do it. Somehow Sandi had become important to him. She was someone he wanted in his life, in his bed and in his heart.

“Man you have to stop this.” Dom walked into the office with stiff posture and closed the door behind him. “Stop changing the schedule. You’re making this harder than it has to be for her.”

“It’s hard for me too, Dom.” He turned a hard glare at his alleged best friend.

Dom sighed and rubbed his temples. “Yes but this is your company and she can’t quit. Because you’ll sue her.” He looked confounded and August felt like crap.

“You’re right but I can’t stop. She has to forgive me Dom.” Why was he the only person who understood this?

“But all you’re doing is pissing her off and strengthening her resolve to not speak to you.” Dom raked a hand through his hair. “How are you not getting this? You were awful to her and she should forgive you because you realize it?”

“I apologized.”

He sighed again. “Just because you apologized doesn’t mean she’s required to forgive you Auggie. She was exhausted, wet, cold and scared yet she got the scared climber down, got me down and took care of me until emergency services arrived. Then she sat worried that I might have brain damage and you storm in and blame it all on her. Hell man, I’m pissed at you.”

He frowned. “But you’re talking to me.”

Dom shrugged. “I’m not sleeping with you and I’m not in love with you.”

“You think she’s in love with me?”

“Are you in love with her,” his friend countered.

Was he? He knew the answer but saying it aloud would make it real. He couldn’t take it back no matter what happened. He took a deep breath and blew it out, looking his friend straight on. “Yes.”

Dom beamed a smile at him. “You should probably start with that.”

He shook his head. “She wouldn’t believe it. Sandi thinks I don’t like or respect women.” He waited for his buddy to be as outraged as he was. “What?”

“You have the worst opinion of women I’ve ever seen.” He held his hands up defensively. “I get why, but you’ve punished her since you met her for someone else’s sins.”

Had he done that? He thought back to his disbelief that first day in the Sunset Flights parking lots and his disbelief she was a pilot. His request for a test flight as a condition of hiring her. August slumped in his seat. “How will she ever forgive me when I’ve been a sexist ass the whole time?”

“Prove to her that there’s more to you than your sexist assery. Let her see that the good with you outweighs the bad.”

August thought over his friend’s advice for a long time. Was there any good that came with being with him for a woman who didn’t care about his money or power? He wasn’t sure.

But he would sure find out.