Chapter One
Jade McKenzie would rather point her sporty car in any direction other than Haven, Georgia’s small-town airport. Because heading to the airport meant she’d be flying on up to Nashville for her cousin’s wedding, where she’d be forced to wear a hideous orange chiffon gown guaranteed to clash with her rich, red hair.
Orange? Who the hell chose that as a wedding color?
Oh, but it wasn’t just the dress that had thrust Jade into a foul mood. Pretty much any family gathering drove her to the point of needing an entire bottle of cabernet to get through. Of course, if she had that, she ran the risk of getting a nice red wine all over her tacky dress. If she thought that would get her out of the whole ordeal, she’d gladly make the sacrifice.
Jade never fit in with her family; she never wanted to fit in. The high-class, pinky-dangling, pretentious group just weren’t her people. Since birth, her parents had tried to mold her, to create her into someone she wasn’t. Well, more her mother than her father. He’d passed away when Jade had been a toddler, so she didn’t recall his role in her life. Her mom expected pleated pants, perfectly coiffed hair, and a smile at all times.
There was only one person in the entire McKenzie clan Jade actually wanted to see, and that was her spunky, out-spoken, eighty-year-old nana.
Jade didn’t know where she had ever truly fit in and felt like part of a unit, but she knew who her people were. The people who would have her back and share a glass of wine while discussing a bad blind date. They were her best friends and the sole reason she was still here in this tiny town with more specialty shops than streetlights.
As Jade turned on to the one-lane road leading to the small airport owned by her best friend, Livie Daniels, and her husband, Jax Morgan, Jade smiled. This place had been nearly falling apart when she, Livie, and their other friend, Melanie, had rolled into town over a year ago. Now, through the help of their small circle—not to mention several grants for funding—Livie and Jax were expanding and making this airport something grand for the town of Haven.
The movie industry had been all over Georgia for the past few years offering another option, one quainter and more personable, and to celebrities as their main goal once they were officially up and running.
Jade pulled her car up next to the hangar where Jax kept his Cessna Skycatcher. She’d learned quite a bit since coming to town and joining forces to revamp this place. Now she knew the difference between a taildragger and a nose wheel. Things she never thought she’d need to know at the age of thirty-two, but here she was, discovering aviation was not only fascinating, she found the sport rather sexy.
She parked her car out of the way of the construction crew’s mess and shut off the engine. The main building was nearly complete, with the addition to allow for a restaurant and gift shop, and she positively couldn’t wait to get that going. There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that this place would become another tourist attraction for the growing town.
As Jade sat there, she imagined various landscape ideas for the bleak grounds. They would need magnolias for sure, plus some lush greenery and accent rocks. It couldn’t get too feminine and had to look professional and classy.
And she was stalling. Jade would much rather think of the manual labor of planting shrubs than get on that plane for a wedding she’d rather give up her favorite running shoes than to attend.
On a deep sigh, Jade pushed her door open, grabbed her purse, and rounded the car to the trunk. Might as well get this over with. One rehearsal and dinner, one wedding and reception, then she’d be heading back home in two days. That was all she had to survive of her family and then she didn’t have to see them again until . . . well, most likely another cousin got married and she was expected to pretend to be the doting bridesmaid.
The McKenzies had long ago given up asking her to join them for the holidays, for which she was eternally grateful. But there were still certain events she was obligated to attend because her mother never dropped the pretense that they were a loving, close-knit family. She’d only spoken to her mother on the phone a handful of times since “the incident”—her mother’s words.
The incident would be the scandal Jade had the nerve to bring upon their family. Not that her mother cared, but Jade refused to put up with sexual harassment so, yeah, she’d come forward, and she wasn’t the least bit sorry.
Jade jerked her suitcase from the trunk and extended the handle. As she wheeled it behind her, she clicked the key fob to lock her car and
pushed “the incident” from her mind. She was over that whole nightmare and she’d come out on top . . . just like she always did.
She may be floundering her way through life, but at least she never failed. And honestly, she was having a good time not knowing what each day would bring. Who knew she’d start sowing those proverbial wild oats at this age?
The hot Georgia sun beat down on her back as Jade made her way across the grassy field toward the back door of the hangar. She gripped the suitcase with one hand and shielded her eyes with the other. The sun’s reflection bounced off the new metal roof and nearly caused her to stumble, but she charged on and reached the door without so much as a scuff to her new gold sandals.
The wind whipped her hair across her eyes and a few strands clung to her lip gloss just as she pushed open the new metal door. The second she stepped inside and shook her hair away from her face, she stared across the hangar and nearly growled.
Could this weekend get any worse?
She shoved her sunglasses on top of her head. “What are you doing here?”
Vincent “just call me Cash” Miller stood beside his Cessna Skycatcher. Jax’s plane sat in the opposite bay, but there was no sign of Jax.
Cash propped his hands on his narrow hips and flashed her that smile that curled her toes and made her wonder why she ever let this man affect her so. Her body betrayed her at every opportunity because while he annoyed the hell out of her, he also turned her on.
Damn him. Nobody infuriated her the way he did. He purposely pushed her buttons, and she could only blame herself. They’d started off on the wrong foot and stayed there for over a year. If she hadn’t been in such a vulnerable place in her life at that time, she could’ve easily handled his charms and tossed them back in his face. As it was, she suffered each and every time she had to be near him.
Because he was sexy as hell and he knew it. Granted, he would never know that she thought so. Oh, no. There was no way she’d ever let him have that leverage. Cash Miller had that whole dark, brooding, tattoo thing going on. He wasn’t the least bit polished, but damn it, he did have those good ol’ boy, Southern manners.
In all honesty, it was simply absurd that she found him attractive at all. He had too much ink, too much beard, too many muscles . . .
Nope. None of that appealed to her—she wouldn’t be so clichéd as to let that delicious packaging hinder her judgment.
Cash didn’t answer; he merely smiled like he knew some secret she wasn’t in on, and Jade tipped her chin and squared her shoulders. She gripped her suitcase handle and started across the hangar, the small heel on her sandals clicking against the concrete.
“Cash, what are you doing here?” she repeated as she came to stand within a few feet of him. “Where’s Jax? And what the hell happened to your face?”
He had quite the shiner on his right eye, which for some asinine reason only added to his badass sex appeal. Probably got in some fight over a woman. That would be just like Cash. Throw punches and then throw a woman over his shoulder and cart her off to his lair.
“It’s good to see you, too, Red.”