Free Kiss Me Katie! & Hug Me Holly! by Jill Shalvis Page B

starving man.
    But today he looked at her differently. With a good amount of hunger still, yes, but she had a feeling that look just might match her own. There was more though, there was—
    â€œMmm-mmm good,” Holly said over Katie’s shoulder, staring at Bryan and licking her chops.
    Katie’s mood shattered. “What are you doing out here?”
    â€œTracking down a stubborn vice president who forgot to pick up his messages.” She smiled at Matt who was a plane length away. He had a stack of files in his hand, his glasses on his nose and his deep-in-work expression on his face, until he caught Holly’s smile.
    Flustered, he smiled back and…dropped his files.
    Katie stared at him. Why was it whenever she saw Holly, Matt wasn’t far behind? Or was it whenever she saw Matt, Holly wasn’t far behind?
    Before she could digest this, a beefy trucker lumbered into the hangar.
    â€œDelivery,” the man said gruffly, consulting his clipboard which had seen better days and had a sticker across the top of it that said Bite Me.
    Holly gave the man the once-over as she walked toward him. “Sugar, don’t you guys usually deliver parts to the back of the hangar?”
    â€œUm…yeah.” He swallowed hard, clearly rendered an idiot by Holly’s wide, welcoming smile. “I don’t have parts today, it’s a truckload of office supplies. Ordered by—” he referred to his clipboard “—Katie Wilkins.”
    â€œA truckload?” Katie frowned. “But I only ordered the usual. Pencils, paper, stuff like that.” She’d been distracted lately, sure, but could she have been that distracted? She glanced at Bryan, felt her pulse race, and admitted the truth. “It couldn’t be more than a box or so,” she said with one last hopeful protest.
    â€œNot according to the order slip, lady. You’ve got an entire truckload of paper here.”
    Everyone looked out the front window, where the delivery truck had been parked. The back dooropened with a loud clang and two more beefy men prepared to unload.
    â€œI don’t need that much computer paper,” Katie protested.
    â€œYou ordered it, lady, not me. And it’s not computer paper, it’s toilet paper. A truckload of toilet paper.”
    Â 
    B Y THE END of the day Katie had heard every single toilet paper joke she could take.
    Needing…something, she waited until everyone had gone, then made her way to hangar two where the overnight clients had tied down their planes.
    The hangar was huge, and since the walls were metal, every little sound echoed. Dark had long ago fallen so she should have been nervous, would have been nervous in the past, but for some reason tonight, she wasn’t.
    She flipped on one low light and stepped inside to be immediately swamped by her senses. The hazy perceptions from the low light, the scent of aviation fuel, the chilly breeze that always raced through because of the high ceilings, she experienced them all.
    If anyone could see her right now they’d wonder at her strange urge to come stare into the darkness at airplanes. But she didn’t care what anyonethought—a first for her. She simply wanted to please herself, and the heck with all the others.
    Another first.
    At least five silent planes greeted her, maybe more. She couldn’t see into the far stretches of the yawning hangar. They drew her, these sleek, fast aircraft. Strange, given it had been a plane that once upon a time had destroyed her entire life.
    But irrational and terrifying as it was, she did indeed harbor a secret passion for airplanes. Bryan had seen that passion in her and that had terrified her too. He’d seen past her guard, had been able to read her so well when no one else ever had.
    Scary stuff, indeed.
    She realized she stood in front of Bryan’s plane, her hand on the metal like a lover’s touch as she was gazing up, wondering what