She’d like to see those odds.
Suddenly, a voice came over the plane’s PA system. It was the captain announcing that all passengers should buckle their seat belts because they were headed to the runway.
Cynthia closed her eyes again. “Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale,” she chanted aloud.
Korey chuckled again and patted the hand that was still gripping the armrest. “You’ll be fine. Just focus on something else.”
“Like what?” she cried hysterically, opening her eyes. The flight attendants were demonstrating where the exit doors were on the plane. “What the hell else am I supposed to focus on when I’m surrounded by an airplane on all sides?”
Cynthia could hear something mechanical happening over her shoulder. She snapped her head and turned to look out the window again. The pilot was adjusting the flaps on the wings. She flapped her hands wildly in front of her face. She wanted to unbuckle her seat belt, race to the plane doors, and scream to be let out.
Oh, my God, I’m having a panic attack!
“Focus on our kids, for one,” Korey said. He casually adjusted his seat belt and grabbed the in-flight magazine in the seat pocket in front of him and began to flip its pages. “Think about how the hell we’re supposed to find them once we get to Las Vegas.”
She stopped flapping her hands. “What do you mean how are we supposed to find them? We already know the hotel where they’re staying.”
“Cindy, haven’t you ever been to Vegas? Those hotels are huge! Some have multiple buildings. We may know where they’re staying, but we don’t know their room number.”
“So we ask the reservation desk!”
“But the reservation desk doesn’t have to give it to us just because we ask nicely.”
“I’m not going to ‘ask nicely’!”
Korey was right. She was starting to forget she was in a jet-sized coffin. She was more pissed about him pointing out an obvious obstacle to her plan for finding Clarissa.
“I’m going to tell them to give me the damn room number because she’s my daughter and she used my credit card to get that hotel room!”
Korey snorted and turned another magazine page. “And I’m sure that’ll go over well.”
“So what do you suggest?” she shouted over the noise of the plane as it raced down the runway. “What’s your brilliant idea on how to find the kids?”
“Well, I say when we get there, we be honest with them: We explain the situation. They’re two young people who ran off and now are about to do something really stupid. And if that doesn’t work—we slip the guy at the desk a hundred bucks and ask again.”
“And if that doesn’t work?” she yelled as they were suddenly thrown back in their seats. Cynthia closed her eyes and slapped a hand against her chest as the plane tilted to a forty-five-degree angle. She was going to have a heart attack. She was sure of it! The pressure against her chest and in her ears increased as the plane flew into the air.
Korey thought for a minute or two. “I guess the only other alternative we have is that we get a room at the hotel, hunker down in the lobby, and try to track them down that way.”
Her eyes flew open. “We? What do you mean we’ll get a room?”
“I meant separate rooms, of course. Damn, woman!” He shoved the magazine into the seat pocket in front of him, looking offended.
The plane finally started to level out. Her heart rate decreased a little. She took a deep breath.
“Look, I told you that I wasn’t going to try anything on this trip,” Korey said. “Why are you so convinced I’m trying to get into your pants?”
“Honestly? Because you always tried in the past. There wasn’t a single date we had, Korey, when you weren’t reaching for—”
“Well, that’s in the past,” he said steadfastly, glaring at her. “I’m a grown man now. I know how to control myself. My son’s the one who seems to be going at it like there’s no tomorrow. Trust me! He’s getting a lot more ass than me nowadays.”
Cynthia went stock-still. Her heart started to race again, this time for a very different reason.
“What . . . what do you mean? You’re not . . . you’re not suggesting that he’s having sex with Clarissa, are you?”
Korey started to laugh. “You’re joking, right?”
“No, I’m not joking!”
The orange seat belt sign went off. Over the PA system, the captain said that they were free to move about the cabin and that flight attendants would soon be going around with drinks and snacks.
“Cindy, I think it’s pretty safe to assume that those two are having sex—a lot.”
“You don’t know that for a fact! They could just be . . . they could just be kissing on occasion, or making out . . . lots of kissing and rubbing! Kids like to do that. I thought . . . I thought that’s what this whole marriage business was about. Clarissa wouldn’t have sex until they got married, so that’s why they’re rushing to Vegas!”
Korey was laughing even harder now, absolutely infuriating her. For the first time, Cynthia noticed a white-haired old woman sitting in the first-class seat across the aisle. She was staring at them over the top of her romance paperback with a bare-chested hunk on the cover. She was avidly listening to their conversation.
“Mind your own damn business!” Cynthia shouted at her. “Read your book!”
The woman’s eyes snapped back to her book’s pages.
“Cindy, calm down!” Korey said
“I can’t calm down when you’re insinuating that my daughter is having sex with your son!”
“I’m not insinuating. I’m about ninety-nine percent sure the kids are having sex.”
“Why ninety-nine percent?”
“Because I have evidence, sweetheart.”
“What evidence?”
He glanced at the old woman, who was back to listening again but making a poor attempt to mask it. He motioned Cynthia to lean toward him. She did. Then he whispered in her ear, “I gave Jared a box of condoms last year that he didn’t touch for months. I saw the box a few weeks ago and now half of it is empty.”
She leaned back and stared at him.
“Hey, don’t look at me like that! Just be happy they’re using condoms.” His brows knitted together as he grimaced. “I just hope she isn’t pregnant.”
“You better shut your mouth, Korey Walker!”
“It’s not that crazy of an idea. That would definitely explain that whole eloping thing.”
This can’t be happening, she thought as he spoke. Things were spiraling out of control and she couldn’t stop them. She had to get to Clarissa! She had to talk to her before this thing went beyond the point of no return!
“It already has if Korey’s right,” a dire voice in her head warned. “If he’s right, we’ve got a major catastrophe on our hands.”
“I need a drink,” Cynthia muttered. “I need a drink right goddamn now!”
When the flight attendant came by with her rolling cart, Cynthia ordered a gin and tonic. Korey ordered a rum and coke. He sipped his drink. She finished hers in one gulp. Of course, it was just her luck that after she had her gin and tonic, the Xanax finally started to kick in. Instead of feeling as if she had had one drink to soothe her nerves, she felt as if she had just downed five of them!
After an hour, Cynthia took off her seat belt and then her sweater.
God, it’s hot in here, she thought.
She flopped back into her seat and stared out the airplane window at the view. They were somewhere over the Midwest but so high up in the air that she couldn’t see buildings anymore.
All the fluffy clouds. Look at all the pretty fluffy clouds.
The Xanax and alcohol had done the trick. Instead of thinking about crashing to the earth, she wanted to put on a bathing suit and dog-paddle in the clouds outside her window.
Cynthia turned and looked at Korey. He had his headphones on and was staring at the screen in the headrest in front of him, watching the in-flight movie. She gazed
at his face in profile. He was definitely a handsome man and sexy as all hell.
The bastard, she thought.
She wondered if he was still a good kisser. God had given him a mouth to bring a woman infinite pleasures. She reached out and ran her index finger over his full lips, making him jump in surprise. He yanked off his headphones and frowned down at her.
“What are you doing?”
Cynthia smiled dreamily and turned sideways in her seat to face him. She pulled up the armrest and leaned toward him. She was almost in his lap. “Do you . . . do you remember that time senior year when we went down to the lake to go tubing?” she said in a breathy whisper. “Remember? It was a class trip, but we walked off by ourselves.”
“Cindy, are you drunk?”
“We walked to this deserted spot, and you dared me to take off all my clothes and jump in the water with you.”
He hesitated. “Yeah, I remember. I thought I was being spontaneous. I had to get naked first for you to even do it . . . and it was freezing in there.” He shook his head. “It was nothing like the movies. That’s for damn sure.”
“We swam around for a half an hour and then when we came back to shore, you laid down your T-shirt in the grass, in the spot hidden behind a thicket of bushes, and we made love right there, Korey.” She closed her eyes and laid her head against his shoulder, thinking back to the memory. “I think I came three times that day! Gah, you had a mouth on you . . . and you used to do that thing with your tongue! What was that thing?”
Korey glanced at the old woman who sat across the aisle from them. She was staring at them again, totally riveted.
“And those hands. I loved your fingers, Korey! You could make me come that way too.” She smirked. “But it was nothing . . . and I mean nothing compared to that big d—”
“Cindy, why are we talking about this?” he asked, cutting her off.
“Because I was thinking about the fact that I haven’t had sex that good since I was eighteen.” She lazily stroked his arm. “Bill tried in the beginning. Really, he did. But it just wasn’t the same. And Richard couldn’t find a G-spot if it had a siren and flashing lights.” She opened her eyes again and gazed up at him. “That’s just pitiful, Korey. I’m almost forty and I still think about sex that I had on a lake almost twenty years ago.”
He didn’t respond.
“Do you still think about it too?” she whispered, staring at his lips.
“Do I”—he tugged his arm out of her grasp and stared at the screen in the headrest—“do I, uh, still think about what?”
“Do you think about what it was like to touch me, Korey?”
He looked down at her.
“To kiss me . . .”
Now he was staring at her lips too.
“To be inside me?”
She abruptly raised her mouth to his. All the heat she had fought to keep at bay for the past several days now came hurtling forward. She teased his lips with her teeth and tongue and opened her mouth. He accepted her ready invitation and kissed her back just as hungrily, delving his tongue inside her mouth too.
The woman sitting across the aisle had lowered her steamy romance novel to her lap. Her eyes were almost popping out of her head now as she watched them. Why read about it when you had the real thing happening eighteen inches away from you?
Cynthia wrapped her arms around Korey’s neck and let out a soft moan. Oh, she loved this! The kisses were still the same. She knew they would be! They weren’t inflated memories from her teenaged years. His kisses were hot and ravenous . . . and delicious. She pressed herself against him, rubbing her breasts against his chest. He started to wrap his arms around her. Then, abruptly, he reached up and tugged her hands away. He shoved her away from him, catching her by surprise.
“What I remember is you dumping me for Bill,” he said between labored breaths. He adjusted in his seat and tugged at the front of his jeans, where there was now a conspicuous bulge. “That’s what I remember.”
She stared at him as he put his headphones back on and returned his attention to the in-flight movie. The kiss had sobered her up a little, enough for her to feel all the sting of his rejection.
He remembered her dumping him for Bill? Well, what about him cheating on her with Vivian? What about that shit, huh?
She angrily turned around in her seat and lowered the armrest back into place between them. They both sat in silence for almost an hour, pretending to ignore one another.
“You know,” she began, jabbing his shoulder, wanting to pick a fight with him when she couldn’t stand the silence any longer. He took off his headphones again. “I’m still not convinced that Clarissa and Jared are doing it.”
“Why are we back to this? Cindy, how naïve are you? It’s pretty damn obvious that they’re doing it! I told you, half of the condoms are gone, and he sure as hell isn’t making water balloons with them!”
“Just because he’s using condoms, doesn’t mean he’s been using them with Clarissa! Maybe he’s having sex with someone else.”
Korey paused. “Are you calling my boy a man whore?”
She haughtily raised her chin into the air. “Like father, like son.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“You know what it means! You cheated on me! I see no reason why your son wouldn’t cheat on Clarissa.”
“What? When the hell did I ever cheat on you?”
“Oh, please. Don’t insult my intelligence, Korey! Less than two months after we broke up, you were engaged to Vivian and she was already pregnant. Are you honestly trying to tell me that was some kind of a sixty-day whirlwind romance, that you weren’t seeing her behind my back the whole time?”
His jaw tightened. “I didn’t date Viv until you broke up with me to become the trophy wife of some rich man almost twice our age!”
She waved away his denial. “Sure, you didn’t. Everyone in school knew she was after you. I did too. I saw the way she looked at you. I just trusted you when you said there was nothing going on between you two.”
“Because there was nothing going on between us!”
“Yeah, right,” she murmured, gazing out the window. “I was gullible back then, Korey, but I’m not anymore. So you can just save it!”
“Fine, believe whatever the hell you want, but I know the truth! I married Viv because she picked my heart up off the ground after you ran over it! She offered me a warm embrace and, yes, a warm bed while she was at it. But what did I know? I was eighteen years old! I didn’t know any better! So when she came to me in tears and said she was pregnant, what was I supposed to do? I asked her to marry me. I wasn’t in love with her, but I thought I owed it to her to marry her after what she did for me!”
Cynthia bit down on her lower lip as she glared at the clouds outside her window. Was he telling the truth?
“And I don’t regret my decision,” Korey continued. “My marriage to Viv wasn’t the greatest, but we produced a great kid. I love Jared. I’d do anything for him! That’s why I’m here.”
She slowly turned to face him. “I love Clarissa too. That’s . . . that’s why I’m here.”
“Good, so we both agree that’s why we’re here, for the kids—and that’s all. So let’s not muddy the water with bullshit about the past.”
She pursed her lips and nodded. He put his headphones back on and glared at the TV screen.
He said not to muddy the water, but it was too late. If he was telling the truth about not cheating on her with Vivian all those years ago, then that changed everything. Cynthia had to see the past in a new light, and she didn’t like what she saw.
Chapter 11
“You ready to go in, baby?” Crisanto asked.
Lauren Gibbons-Weaver distractedly looked up at her husband. She forced a smile as she stepped away from their car. “Of course,” she said as he shut her door for her. She then linked her arm through Cris’s just as he handed the waiting valet his ECU key to his Aston Martin convertible.
The smiling young man, who had to be no more than eighteen, nodded before eagerly climbing behind the wheel and pausing to admire the car’s leather interior and the varnish on the dashboard. He looked practically giddy when the engine purred as he pulled off, leaving Cris and Lauren standing at the foot of an asphalt driveway bordered by two stone lion statues.
Lauren was surprised that there was a valet at this party, considering they were parking at a three-story home on a two-acre lot and not some ritzy restaurant downtown. But she should have known their host would make a big production out of tonight. There was even a red carpet on the brick walkway.
Subtle, Marvin, Lauren thought sarcastically.
Like many others in Chesterton, Marvin Payton, the owner of a small chain of lawn-care retail stores, had been trying to get into Cris’s good graces since Cris moved into town more than two years ago. Marvin had plenty of rich friends, but none were a former star player for the Dallas Cowboys or a Heisman trophy winner like Cris. To count Cris as one of his pals would definitely earn Marvin plenty of respect in town. So Lauren wasn’t surprised that Marvin had immediately stepped forward to host a party to help kick off Cris’s mayoral run.
“It would be an honor, Cris,” Marvin had said a week ago. She thought he might bow or prostrate himself at Cris’s feet. “It would be my true honor to host a party for you!”
And it looked like Marvin hadn’t spared any expense on the party, judging from the valet, the red carpet, and the live band she could see through the home’s bay of windows. She also could see a gaggle of partygoers milling about inside. The place looked packed.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Cris asked. He frowned down at his wife as they made their way up the driveway toward the carpet that led to the colonial’s front door.
Lauren nodded. “I’m fine. I’m just . . . you know, a little anxious.”
“Anxious?”
“About the party.” She laughed awkwardly and patted his arm. “You know I’m not very good at hobnobbing. Never have been.”
When he continued to squint down at her, looking incredulous, she pursed her lips.
Lauren had never been very good at hiding things from Cris. He had made it clear early on in their relationship that he didn’t want her to ever lie to him, and now that he knew her well enough, he could always see the truth on her face anyway. It was best just to tell him what she was really thinking.
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