Strong and Sexy (Sky High Air #2)(38)

“Hey.”

He slapped the now-empty soda can back to the counter. “What are you girls gossiping about?”

Shayne searched his pockets for more change, but came up empty. “Damn it, Brod.”

Noah put a hand on Shayne’s shoulder. “We’re discussing why the laid-back surfer dude is as uptight as a guy who hasn’t gotten off in a year.”

“He got laid last night.” Brody eyeballed Shayne. “So that means…huh.”

“What huh?” Noah asked curiously, eyeing Shayne like a bug on a slide.

“He must have gotten dumped. Again. Jesus, you’re on a roll, huh?”

“I did not get dumped again,” Shayne said, shoving free of Noah and glaring at Brody. “Go buy me a f*cking soda.”

“Yeah, he got dumped again,” Noah said, nodding. “Was it the crazy chick?”

“She’s not crazy.”

“Yeah, it was the crazy chick,” Brody decided, watching Shayne carefully. “Go figure.”

Damn it. So he’d spent most of his life fighting off women and wasn’t used to having to talk a woman into wanting him. Whatever. He’d live.

Maddie came out of the storage room wearing a leather miniskirt and two lace tops layered over each other, looking sizzling hot. She moved around the counter to sit in her chair, pulling out her keyboard, her fingers typing away.

Sizzling and effective.

“Don’t you boys have work to do?” she asked without looking up from her work. “Planes to fly? Clients to kiss up to?”

When they didn’t answer, she did glance up.

“Don’t you ever dress like a secretary?” Brody asked.

Maddie arched a brow while Noah and Shayne inwardly winced. “No need, since I’m not a secretary,” she said with glaciers in her voice.

“Shayne got dumped,” Noah said, clearly trying to change the subject so Maddie didn’t kill Brody with her eyes.

“Can’t get dumped when you weren’t available in the first place,” Maddie noted, and when all three men blinked in confused unison, she sighed as if they were idiots. “Look, Shayne was never really available to her, right? He’s never been available to any woman.”

“And why is that?” Noah asked. “Seeing as you’re the resident female expert?”

Maddie smiled. She liked the title. “Because he’s the screwup.”

“Hey,” Shayne said.

“I mean that’s what you’ve been told all your life.” She stopped typing to squeeze his hand before going back to clicking the keyboard with dizzying speed. “You’re the black sheep, the youngest, the f*ckup in a large family of overachievers. You were always told you were never going to amount to anything.” She shrugged. “So you decided to live up to that reputation, yadda yadda.”

“Which is why you got yourself kicked out of all those schools before you met us,” Noah said, ever so helpfully.

“And why you became a pilot instead of a brain surgeon or a big-shot attorney or detective,” Brody added, also ever so helpfully.

Shayne stared at them. “Thanks for the trip down memory lane.”

“Look, long story short,” Maddie went on. “You’re a commitment-phobe, hiding behind the free spirit, easygoing, laid-back bullshit persona.”

“Bullshit persona?”

Maddie smiled sweetly. “Don’t worry, boss. I have a bullshit persona too.” She gestured to her own magenta-tipped blond hair. To her eyebrow piercing. Then, turning her back, she peeled down her already extremely low-rise leather skirt to reveal the small tattoo of a Chinese symbol, high on a first-class ass cheek.

Shayne stared, and Brody slapped him upside the head. “Don’t look!”

“She said to look. And ow.”

Maddie straightened her skirt. “It means dream big. Be whoever you want.” She looked at Shayne. “Even when you’re told you can’t. Don’t let your shortsighted family dictate your life.”

“They aren’t.” But as he stared down at the cell phone in his hand, he shook his head. They were. Unbelievably, he was still letting what they thought of him matter enough to pretend it didn’t bother him.

“See,” Maddie said very gently. “The problem with being the black sheep just to spite them is that when the right woman does come along, you’re not going to be able to snag her up. Because you’ll be busy doing that whole no-commitment thing. You know, to prove that what your family thinks of you is true.”

Noah was nodding. “Exactly. That’s exactly what he’s doing.”

“You’re all f*cked up, man,” Brody said.

“Bite me.”

Noah took Shayne’s cell phone and flipped it open.

“Hey!”

Brody leaned over Noah’s shoulder as they accessed his dialed calls. “Yeah, look at that. He’s tried calling her six times. Dude.”

Shayne snatched his phone back and shoved it in his pocket. “It’s nothing. This is nothing.”

“It’s definitely something,” Noah said. “It’s all over your face.”

Shayne grabbed the schedule. He needed a flight. Now. And perfect, Brody had a flight to San Luis Obispo. It would get him out of here for four hours minimum. “I’m taking your flight.”