“To what?”
“Ward.”
She looked toward the hangar.
Ethan was helping Mia with a bicycle chain.
“What does that mean?”
“You stayed overnight.”
“So?”
“You had dinner with him.”
Vivian’s expression froze.
“How do you know?”
Silence.
“Grant.”
“We have local intelligence.”
“Stop.”
“Vivian.”
“Stop monitoring him.”
“We’re monitoring an acquisition target.”
“He is a person.”
“He is blocking a billion-dollar program.”
“So am I now.”
Grant stopped.
Vivian continued:
“All acquisition pressure is suspended.”
“You can’t do that unilaterally.”
“I’m CEO.”
“The board committee authorized it.”
“I chair the committee.”
“And the board can replace you.”
There it was.
The threat no one liked saying aloud.
Vivian looked toward Rescue Six.
“You think they will?”
Grant’s answer was quiet.
“If you turn a strategic acquisition into a morality play over one dying airfield, yes.”
Vivian ended the call.
Ethan had heard none of it.
But when she approached, he read her face.
“Bad?”
“Yes.”
“How bad?”
“My COO thinks your airfield is worth my job.”
Ethan returned the bicycle chain to Mia’s bike.
“Is it?”
Vivian frowned.
“That isn’t funny.”
“I’m not joking.”
He looked toward her.
“Is it?”
She thought.
“I don’t know.”
Ethan nodded.
“Good.”
“How is that good?”
“Means you’re asking.”
She stared.
“I hate when you do that.”
“What?”
“Turn irritating into wisdom.”
“I’m mostly irritating.”
Mia called:
“True.”
Ethan looked over.
“Homework.”
“It’s Saturday.”
“Reading.”
“Oppression.”
Vivian smiled despite herself.
Then Ethan’s expression became serious.
“Vivian.”
“What?”
“If protecting this place costs your entire company…”
He paused.
“I’m not asking you to do that.”
She looked at him.
“I know.”
“Do you?”
“Yes.”
She sat on the edge of a tool cart.
“I don’t want to save Briar Ridge because your wife saved me.”
“Good.”
“I don’t want to stop the deal because I like your daughter.”
“Also good.”
“And I absolutely don’t want to make a billion-dollar decision because I’m attracted to you.”
Ethan froze.
Mia was too far away to hear.
Vivian realized what she had said.
She could have corrected.
She did not.
Ethan leaned against the helicopter.
“You’re attracted to me?”
“Unfortunately.”
He smiled slowly.
“That sounds difficult.”
“It is.”
“Your standards are slipping.”
“Clearly.”
He looked at her for a long moment.
Then: