Don't Need You - Lilian Monroe

1

Kit

The plane’s communications intercom buzzes. Exchanging a glance with my copilot, Robbie, I groan. I know it’s a flight attendant calling to find out how much longer we’ll be sitting on the runway.

Again.

Robbie, the pilot in charge, snorts as he looks at me. “They must be getting antsy back there.”

“I don’t blame them,” I say, pressing a button to pick up her call. “Hi, Lisa.”

“I’m sorry to bother you, Kit. Have you heard from the air traffic controllers?”

“Not yet. I’ll get Robbie to make an announcement to pacify the passengers.”

“Thank you.” She lets out a long sigh, and I’m glad I’m locked in the cockpit away from the unwashed masses. I can hear at least two babies screeching in my headset, and Lisa’s voice sounds even more strained than it did five minutes ago. I hang up the call and glance at Robbie.

He grins. “Giving me all the grunt work, huh?”

“You have a better pilot voice than I do.”

“Right.” Robbie takes over the intercom system, speaking into his headset as he presses a button on the dash.

“This is your pilot speaking,” he starts, dropping his voice to a monotonous drone. “Thank you for your patience, folks. There are three planes ahead of us in the queue at the moment, so we’ll have to sit tight for another ten to fifteen minutes. We should be taking off shortly. Please remain in your seats with the seat belts fastened, and we’ll do our best to make this a smooth flight over to Bradley International Airport.”

He takes his finger off the button, glancing at me.

“Ten to fifteen minutes?” I arch my brows.

“Gives them a bit of hope.” He grins.

“You know it’ll be longer than that.”

Robbie shrugs. “I don’t know how long it’ll be. Air traffic control isn’t telling us shit.”

I grunt, staring out at the strip of asphalt ahead of us. I’ve been staring at the same view for at least half an hour, with no word on when we’ll be allowed to taxi to the runway.

“Times like this, I bet you miss flying the smaller planes,” Robbie says. “Less red tape. Just hop in a plane and take off.”

My heart squeezes. “Not really,” I lie. “This is good too. Longer flights. More money.”

“More sitting around,” he adds.

“That too.”

“You’ve done well for your first few months, though. Really.”

I give Robbie a tight smile, adjusting my tie as I nod. “Thanks, man.”

I smooth my hands over my hair and let out a sigh. This job is good. It is. It’s stable and it pays better than the skydiving business I used to run with my former best friend, Finn. I should be happy here, instead of wishing I were watching Finn jump out of our little red plane.

The skin around my eyes tightens as I try to shake away that thought. I won’t think of him right now.

Robbie looks at me and laughs. “Calm down, man. You need to learn to chill out. This happens all the time. Get used to it.”

“It’s fine,” I say, glancing at him. “But we won’t be landing on time.”

Robbie shrugs. “Loosen up, Kit. It’s out of our control. Just trust the process.”

Ah, trust. That old chestnut. How am I supposed to trust anything when my entire life has been one long exercise in all the reasons I shouldn’t trust anything or anyone but myself?

First, my bipolar mother led me through a chaotic first fourteen years of life. When my father got custody, things got better.

Sort of.

I trusted him. And what does he do? He goes and dies. Oh, and then my half-sister, Esme, gets lymphoma and has to fight cancer for six years throughout her teens and young adulthood. But I should just trust that everything works out, right?

Then, last summer, things are looking up. Esme’s in remission. My business is booming. I trust the universe to give me an easy ride for a while.

Ha.

The universe just says LOL and makes Esme fall in love with my ex-business partner, Finn, and they start sneaking around behind my back while I reconnect with my long-lost, terminally ill mother. Then my mother dies, my friendship and business with Finn implodes, and suddenly I’m the bad guy who doesn’t believe in true love between my sister and my piece of shit ex-best friend.

But yeah. I’ll trust the process. Because that has been successful so far.

Not.

“My family will be able to loosen you up.” Robbie grins, pulling me from my thoughts. “You’ll have to deal with the chaos of two dozen Italians for