TheBillionairesPilot (14 page)

Chapter Thirteen

“
I’m sorry,
Mom,” Evan apologized as soon as his mother opened the front door of her
Southampton house. He reached out and gave her a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
She looked good; her face had a bit of color, as if she’d been enjoying spring
walks along the beach in the fresh air.

When she’d called him earlier at his
office to invite him and his new fiancée for dinner tonight at her house, her
tone of voice had clearly expressed her disappointment with him.

“I should have called you this morning
before the media spread the news,” he added.

The problem was he’d been a little
preoccupied with giving Cassie a proper good morning before he had to slip out
of her apartment in the predawn hours to get home to shower and change for
work. She was inexperienced, but so willing to learn how to please him.

“Advanced notice would have been
appreciated before those hounds cornered me at the market this morning,” his
mother reprimanded him. Then a broad smile deepened the lines around her mouth
and at the edges of her eyes as she turned her attention toward Cassie. “Now,
introduce me to your fiancée, Evan.”

With his arm around Cassie’s waist, Evan
pulled her into his side. “Mom, this is Cassie Maynard. Cassie, this is my
mother.”

Cassie extended her right hand. “It’s a
pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Mitchell.”

“Mrs. Mitchell was my mother-in-law.
Please call me, Sandra.” Evan’s mother took Cassie’s hand. “It is delightful to
meet the woman who has tamed my son.”

Cassie’s eyes widened as she glanced back
and forth between him and his mother. “I’m not sure I’ve tamed him, or even
that he needed taming. I think he’s just perfect the way he is.”

Sandra laughed richly. “Then I am happy
to meet the one woman Evan found worthy of settling down with. I’ve been
waiting a long time for this day.” She stepped back from the doorway. “Please
come in. We can have a drink in the living room and get to know each other
better before going in to dinner.”

As they entered the house, Cassie’s gaze
discreetly swept over the marble foyer and grand staircase of Evan’s family’s
weekend retreat. Though, now that his mother lived here most of the year, he
should probably stop thinking of it as the weekend place. But there was
something about hopping out here on the helicopter that always put him in the
weekend frame of mind, and now he had the pleasure of introducing his pilot to
one of his favorite places.

He’d offered to have Ron fly them here,
so Cassie could enjoy the flight as a passenger, but she’d insisted she never
enjoyed flying as much as when she was in the pilot’s seat. So, after they’d
landed, he’d had the odd experience of watching his pilot walk into the East
Hampton airport and his date walk out, after she’d changed from her flight suit
into a black cocktail dress and heels.

In the living room now, Evan first served
his mother and his fiancée; then he took his glass of wine and joined Cassie on
the sofa. His mother sat in the facing armchair, studying them, and Evan
worried she’d see right through his scam. Cassie wasn’t like any other woman
Evan had brought home before, and he was anxious about his mother’s reaction.

“I wish your father was here to see
everything you’ve accomplished with the business and in your personal life,”
she started.

Cassie held his hand lightly in quiet
support as if she were remembering their conversation about how Evan had let
down his father. This soft touch was much nicer than when she’d squeezed him so
hard she’d left nail tracks in his palm in San Miguel after he’d announced
their fake engagement to Xavier.

She rubbed her thumb along his knuckles,
and he could tell by his mother’s raised eyebrow she hadn’t missed the
connection between him and Cassie. Maybe the real chemistry between them was
obvious, and it would distract his mother from asking the sticky questions
about the origins of their relationship. Just perhaps, they would get through
this evening positively fine.

“Your father would be so proud of you,”
his mother continued. “He always was.”

“He couldn’t have been proud of my
rebellion.” Evan felt obliged to acknowledge his childish behavior.

His mother shook her head. “You never got
to know him as a man, rather than just as your father. He understood your
rebellion. In fact, he appreciated it. He didn’t want you to fall in line
behind him without experiencing your own life first.”

Evan’s chest tightened as he considered
his mother’s words, even though they were hard to fathom. He’d never seen any
indications from his father that he approved of Evan’s racing days. Mostly, he
thought his father had ignored what Evan was doing as a sign of silent disapproval.
As far as Evan knew, his parents had never been to a single race, even though
he’d sent them tickets for every one.

“Your father figured he’d give you a few
more years of doing what inspired you before sitting you down for a talk,” she
continued. “He never expected his time would be cut so short.” The lines at the
corners of her eyes intensified with her sorrow.

“I’m sorry, Mom. If I’d come back sooner
and taken some of the burden off Dad’s shoulders, maybe…” He couldn’t finish
the thought. The guilt tore at his gut.

Cassie gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

“You’re not hearing me, Evan,” his mother
admonished him. “He was giving you time to enjoy your life, to find your own
path, just as he did as a young man.” Her eyes focused on something in the
distance over his shoulder. “He was a wild man when I met him, following his
passion.”

“My father?” Evan couldn’t believe it.

She grinned at him, and years seemed to
disappear from her face. “Oh, yes. At eighteen, he was full of big plans and
outrageous schemes. He was a daring risk taker. How else do you think he
accomplished everything he did at Mitchell Industries in one too-short
lifetime?”

Evan shook his head at these new insights
into his father’s character. His mother was right. Evan had only known his dad
as the firm-handed, but kind-hearted businessman father. He never knew what had
made him into that man.

“Thank God for Dan Jacobs,” his mother
added.

“Yes, he’s a very good assistant,” Evan
agreed.

“More importantly, he kept your father’s
feet on the ground when Frank wanted to fly off to the moon more times than I
can count.”

“So, Mr. Jacob’s always been around to
help Mitchell Industries run smoothly?” Cassie asked.

“From the very beginning,” Sandra
explained, including Cassie in the conversation. “Frank hired Dan before he
could even afford an assistant. They were devoted to each other. I’ve never
known a partnership to work as well as theirs, especially because they came
from such different backgrounds.”

“I’ve never heard about this before,”
Evan said.

“Oh, yes. Frank’s family was comfortably
middle class, but Dan was actually from a well-to-do family that had made some
poor financial decisions and lost most of their money. Even though his family
maintained their society connections and their good name, Dan was a humble man
who believed in hard work.”

“That sounds like the Mr. Jacobs I’ve
met,” Cassie said.

“I’ve always thought it was quite
remarkable he’s been content all these years to remain in the background while
your father took Mitchell Industries as far as he did.”

“I think Dan played a bigger role than
any of us realize to make Mitchell Industries the success that it is,” Evan
said. “I know he has been invaluable in helping me find my way.”

“I’m so glad he’s there for you, Evan.”
His mother stood with her half empty wineglass in hand. “Now, enough talk of
business. Let’s go into the dining room and enjoy some dinner. Then you can
tell me all about how the two of you met, and why today was the first I’ve
heard of the new woman in my son’s life.”

Apprehension filled Evan’s gut, and he
cast a quick look in Cassie’s direction as they got up from the sofa. She
smiled up at him reassuringly as she took his offered arm.

With his mother a few steps ahead of
them, Cassie leaned close to him and whispered, “Use the same story we told my
dad.” She patted his arm. “It’ll be okay.”

But now, as he prepared to tell his
mother the fictitious story, Evan thoroughly understood Cassie’s earlier
reluctance to lie to her father. It was much harder to continue this fabricated
tale with a family member than it was with a business associate or the media.

Throughout dinner, as much as he could,
he minimized the time they spent discussing the origins of his relationship
with Cassie. Instead, he directed the conversation to extolling her talents and
virtues, which she found embarrassing based on the semi-permanent blush on her
cheeks. But he found it too endearing to make himself stop. His tough
helicopter pilot had a softer side that he loved exploring in and out of the bedroom.

At the end of their enjoyable evening, as
Cassie was stepping into the hired car, Evan’s mother grabbed his arm and
whispered into his ear, “I like her.”

Evan grinned down at her. “I do too.”

“Then no matter how this thing between
you two
really
started,” she cocked an eye at him as he started to
protest, “make sure she doesn’t get away.”

“Thanks, Mom.” He kissed her cheek and
slid into the back of the town car as he marveled at his mother’s keen sense of
sight. How the hell had she seen through the pretense? What could he or Cassie
possibly have said to tip off his mother?

He chalked it up to one of those freaky
abilities mothers developed when they gave birth to children. Just like her
ability to always have the right words to let him know how much she loved him.

* * * *

Turning her head on
the pillow, Cassie stared at the red illuminated digits of her alarm clock as
she lay in Evan’s arms, the numbers reminding her that her time as his fiancée
was limited. Sooner, rather than later, the deal with Xavier would be cemented,
and Evan would lose his need of her.

For the past few weeks, she’d allowed
herself the indulgence of their intimate relationship at night, while she
continued to fly him to his various manufacturing plants and meetings with
business leaders in the eastern seaboard cities during the day.

They had dinner out at fine restaurants
twice a week, so they could be seen together in public for the tabloids, and
most times they ended back at her apartment in her bed with Evan taking her sub
training to the next level. He slept over so often he’d placed a spare
toothbrush in her medicine cabinet and an emergency change of clothes in her
closet, in case he didn’t have time to return to his penthouse before heading
into work in the morning.

Most days she refused to acknowledge to
herself she’d fallen into the same trap with Evan as she had with her last boss
by letting down her defenses. But for some reason on this night during their
fourth week together, she couldn’t turn off her inner critic and settle into
sleep, as she lay curled against Evan’s side.

She eased herself from his warm embrace,
rolling away from him. Her stomach clenched as she thought about how horrible
it was going to be when this relationship ended. This breakup would be a million
times worse than when Trent dumped her because Evan had burrowed deep into her
heart. Tearing him out was going to leave a gaping hole.

Having gotten to know Evan over the past
several weeks, she understood what kind of man he was. How could she not have
fallen in love with him? He was intelligent and ambitious with great leadership
abilities, but he also had a more sensitive side that he’d shared with her.

He still carried guilt for staying away
from the family business while he’d chased the checkered flag. Even though he’d
been away from his parents most of his adult life, he had a tremendous love for
them and a deep sense of responsibility to make them proud of him.

Yes, the longer she stayed with Evan the
harder it would be to walk away. When they broke off their engagement, she
would lose everything in her life again, the man she loved and her job. She was
such a fool to let her emotions lead her down this same path.

The only thing for her to do now was to
start planning how she was going to get out of this with minimum damage. She
and Evan needed to start talking about an evacuation plan, but no amount of
planning the logistics was going to ease the emotional pain.

She groaned softly at the impossible
situation she’d gotten herself into.

Evan rolled over to spoon against her
back. With a gentle touch, he brushed his fingers across her cheek. “What’s
wrong?” he whispered.

“Nothing. Sorry I woke you.”

“Why aren’t you sleeping?” He kissed the
sensitive spot behind her ear.

She fumbled with an excuse, but she must
have taken too long.