Love Under Two Flyboys [The Lusty, Texas Collection] Cara Covington (short story to read txt) 📖

back when. Well, reckon you’re safe enough there. You want me to send Virgil on down, let him have a look-see at the Piper?”

Virgil Grant was another friend of Uncle Goodwin’s. He used to come ’round once a week to play cards with the other two men who made up their little group, Homer and Otis. Two years before, Homer had died. Last winter, Otis moved over to Florida to be near his son and daughter-in-law.

Things hadn’t been the same for her uncle since, which was the major reason Tamara wanted this crop-dusting business to get off the ground. When he’d found the Piper, Uncle Goodwin had perked up like he hadn’t done in months.

But Virgil was eighty if he was a day, and his eyesight wasn’t the sharpest. It was more than a hundred miles from San Marcos to here, and in her opinion, Virgil Grant had no business driving even one of those miles. “No. I’ll see if there’s someone closer by who can fix it. They have an airfield, so more than likely they know of someone who’ll come out.”

“Well, all righty, then. You be sure to keep me updated there, girl. I’ll go online and dump some extra cash in your account, reckon you may need it to fix that Piper and take care of yourself. Don’t care what it costs. Looking forward to getting that business of ours up and running.”

Tamara said good-bye and then closed her cell phone. Dumb, dumb, dumb. Why didn’t she tell him to send Virgil? Or tell him the plane needed more than she could manage and then make other arrangements to get the damn thing home?

Tamara looked over at the Kendall brothers, two long drinks of Texas water, standing, arms akimbo, staring right back at her. They were the foxes, she was the hen, and she had the distinct feeling that one of them was about to try and gobble her down.

Divide and conquer. Yes, that’s what she’d do. As soon as one made a pass at her, she’d whimper to the other. With just the right touch, the brothers would soon be too busy beating on each other to bother with her.

She could stay close by, elicit their help, and get back up in the air and home again without having to surrender anything of herself in the process. In the meantime, she could enjoy being around a couple of grade A prime studs, maybe cop a dinner or two out of the deal, with no harm done, and no foul committed. A damn fine plan if I do say so myself.

“So.” She gave them a bright smile. “Do either of you gentlemen happen to know any good airplane mechanics in these parts?”

* * * *

“As a matter of fact.” Henry looked over at Morgan. He raised one eyebrow, and when Morgan nodded, he understood that he and his brother were definitely on the same page where Ms. Tamara Jones was concerned.

Top of their to-do list was keeping the lovely little spitfire very close at hand until they could figure her out.

Number two on that same list was to get her into their bed and keep her there.

“Why don’t you come with us?” Henry gave her a big smile. “There’s an office of sorts in the Lear hangar. We’ll make some calls and see what we can come up with.”

Tamara blinked then let her gaze slide over to the Piper.

“Do you want us to tow her into the hangar?” Morgan asked. “Only one of the jets is here, the other is in New York and will be for a while yet, so there’s plenty of room.”

“Oh, I don’t want to impose.”

“No imposition at all,” Henry said. “If it’s in the hangar, then the mechanic can work on it, rain or shine, day or night.” He kept his tone pleasant and watched Tamara’s eyes go huge. If he was any judge, the woman was adding up dollars and cents in her head and coming up with a very big number.

“That’s what I thought,” Morgan said. “Terrence Jessop, a cousin of ours, works on the flight line at Dyess AFB in Abilene. If it flies, he can fix it. I’m not sure when his next relief days are exactly, but I’m pretty certain I heard his sister Tracy say he was due home for a two-week break this weekend.”

“Oh. But I don’t want to intrude on his time off!”

Henry smiled. “Trust me, you won’t be. After two days’ leave, Terry is usually haunting the hangars here looking to see if there’s anything he can fix.”

“Oh.” Tamara blinked then looked back at Henry. “If you’re certain your cousin won’t mind helping…”

“He won’t,” Henry said.

“Then why do you want to go to the hangar to make phone calls? You said, ‘to see what we can come up with.’ If you’ve already come up with your cousin—”

Morgan grinned at Henry. “She’s sharp. You have to like that.”

“I do like that.” Henry waited a moment until he saw a frown gathering on Tamara’s face. Man, she was so easy to goad. “What I meant was to see where we can put you up at least until next weekend, when Terry comes home.”

“Your motels are so jam-packed you have to make phone calls to reserve a room?” The look of disbelief on her face only egged Henry on. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d enjoyed tussling with a woman so much.

Nothing worse than a woman who was boring out of bed.

“We don’t have any motels in Lusty. The nearest one is clear on out off the highway. We’ll take you to it, of course, if you insist. Or,” Morgan said, “you can go on home and we’ll let you know how the repairs are coming with your Piper. By and by.”

“That is not an option.”

Oh, Itty-Bitty, you sure do like to keep control of things, don’t you? Of course, Henry wasn’t stupid enough to say that out loud. Instead he said, “Then let’s go