Brace for Impact

by Becky Harmon

  “Are you missing a bag, Ms. Meyers?”

  “Well, I don’t believe so.”

  “The Atlanta Police Department believe they found a bag belonging to you at our gate at the airport.”

  “Oh my. Is that what this is about? I thought I had it.” Beatrice stood. “Can I check?”

  Lucy knew she didn’t have it, but it was best to let Beatrice confirm this information on her own. There was absolutely no reason to argue or put any additional stress on the woman. “Of course.”

  Lucy followed her back to her seat and helped her open the compartment above her seat.

  “Oh my, it’s not here! And I bought new massage slippers just for this trip.” She turned to Lucy. “How will I get them?”

  “Contact your airline and they’ll be able to make arrangements to get it back to you.”

  “Okay. Thank you, dear,” Beatrice said, collapsing into her seat. “Oh, wait. Do I still have to change seats?”

  Lucy laughed. “No, you’re fine here.”

  Beatrice sighed and immediately pulled the yarn ball from her bag. She seemed to find comfort in the winding motion and Lucy left her explaining to her seatmate how her slippers were lost at the Atlanta airport. She was pretty sure Beatrice had no idea how airport security reacted to an unattended bag.

  She gave Thomas an all-clear wave and headed back to her seat. She would fill him in later. It was one of those humorous stories that would be told for years. She casually glanced around at the other passengers. No one seemed interested in what she had been doing, and she settled back into her seat right as the beverage cart reached her. A cold Coke over ice and a few pretzels later, her stomach was finally beginning to settle. An interruption to a quiet day was nice now and then, but she was looking forward to getting to the hotel later that night.

  * * *

  Dex listened to the automated voice count down their height above ground level as she pushed the button to slow the Boeing 737. She was more than a little excited about her first landing at the Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. She had hoped to see the Eiffel Tower from the air, but Rick had informed her that wasn’t possible coming in from the US. Some flights leaving to the south would fly over the city and have a view of the tower, but for her coming in and out wouldn’t provide that opportunity.

  Rick Portis gently touched the wheels of the airplane to the runway and guided it to the directed gate. He was a few years younger than Dex and single. She knew this because she had spent the last four thousand four hundred and forty miles fending off his advances. He wasn’t shy about his desires but had been extremely careful to remain slightly above the sexual harassment line. He wasn’t the first man to pursue her, but Dex wasn’t sure she would ever get used to it.

  She quickly left the cockpit before Rick had removed his headset. Standing in the doorway, she greeted the passengers as they departed, wishing them a pleasant stay in Paris. When everyone had exited and the cleaning crew had boarded, she grabbed her bag and gave Rick a wave. As the senior officer, Rick would handle most of the paperwork, but Dex carried her portion with her. She wasn’t willing to spend another minute alone with him inside the cockpit. Once they were inside the Eastern Airlines office, they would be surrounded by others and Rick would be on his best behavior.

  An hour later, Dex closed the door on the airline office and swung her bag over her shoulder. Two days in the great city of Paris. She was really looking forward to seeing the Eiffel Tower in person. Her only regret was that she would be alone in the “City of Love.” An image of Lucy flashed in front of her again and she shook it away. The chance of anything ever existing between them was nonexistent and she was starting to come to terms with that truth.

  Her gaze swept over a woman sitting alone at an empty gate. Her head was bent over the device she held in her hands. As Dex passed her, something inside her stirred. Was that Lucy? She slowed her pace. Unbelievable! Now she was imagining she saw this fantasy woman everywhere she went. She needed to get laid. She hated to admit it, but that’s really what she needed. Something that would curb this insatiable desire that kept rising up in her. She lengthened her stride and picked up her pace.

  After a few steps, she slowed to a stop. She couldn’t walk away without knowing for sure that wasn’t Lucy. She quickly walked back to the gate. The woman in a navy blue Milwaukee Brewers T-shirt and faded jeans still sat there alone. Dex stood for a second watching her, trying to decide if she was prepared to make a fool out of herself to confirm this wasn’t the woman of her dreams.

  “Lucy?” Dex asked as she approached. She froze as her eyes met Lucy’s. “Please tell me you just arrived.”

  Lucy shook her head.

  “Do you remember me?”

  Lucy shook her head again, but Dex could see the recognition in her face.

  “When do you leave?”

  Lucy glanced at her watch and back at Dex. “In about two hours.”

  Dex took a step back. What was she supposed to do now? Here was her chance to connect with Lucy, but she couldn’t help remembering that Lucy had blown her off the first time she had tried. Maybe the interest was completely one-sided. How much was she willing to risk to find out?

  She took a deep breath. It was now or never. “Look, I know you say you don’t know me—”

  “And yet you know my name.”

  “I looked at the passenger manifest.” Dex stopped talking. Why was she explaining? Clearly she was the only one who wanted to pursue anything. She turned her back to Lucy and then quickly spun back again.

  Lucy stood in front of her with a devilish grin on her face.

  Dex had never acted on impulse with a woman and she certainly didn’t kiss them without an invitation, but at the moment kissing Lucy—pressing her lips to the pink succulent ones on the adorable face right in front of her—was all she could think about.

  “Come with me,” she said as she grasped Lucy’s arm and pulled her through a set of double doors into a maintenance hallway. Relieved to find it empty, she turned to face Lucy, dropping her bag at her feet. She pushed Lucy against the wall and elatedly fulfilled her desire.

  At the first contact of their lips, Lucy gasped and pushed Dex away. Her brown eyes flashed as she studied Dex’s face. A second passed and then she placed a hand behind Dex’s head and pulled their lips together again.

  Dex surrendered to the pressure of Lucy’s lips as their kiss deepened. She had never felt the instant arousal that now engulfed her. Her hands slid under Lucy’s jacket and found the warm flesh between her jeans and T-shirt.

  Lucy pushed her away again. “I don’t sleep with pilots,” she stated.

  Dex chuckled softly. “So you do remember me.”

  Lucy’s face spread into the grin that made Dex’s heart race as she looked Dex up and down.

  Dex blushed as she realized she was still wearing her uniform. “Can I get your number?”

  Lucy shook her head. “I don’t sleep with pilots and I don’t do relationships.” She pushed open one of the doors and turned back before stepping through. “And I can see that you are both of those.” Lucy let the door fall closed behind her.

  Dex collapsed against the wall and sucked in a breath. Kissing Lucy had been everything she had imagined. How could anyone walk away so easily after that? Remembering Lucy’s flashing brown eyes, she knew she wasn’t the only one who had felt the fire between them. She picked up her bag, sliding the strap over her shoulder, and pushed through the doors. She resisted the urge to look toward the departure gates, instead striding in the opposite direction. With two days alone in the City of Love, how was she supposed to forget the most passionate kiss of her life?

  * * *

  Lucy darted into the closest family bathroom and quickly locked the door behind her. She needed a few minutes to catch her breath without the risk that Dex could follow her. She dropped her bag on the floor and leaned over the sink. Splashing cold water on her face, she ran her wet fingers through her hair. She looked up
and stared into the mirror, looking into her own eyes. Dex had really done a number on her. It was only a kiss. “Only a kiss,” she chanted softly to herself.

  After a few minutes, she threw the strap of her bag over her shoulder and left the restroom. She didn’t look around to see if Dex was waiting. She knew her resistance wouldn’t survive another encounter. She went straight to her gate and buried her face in her iPad. No romance novel this time. She needed a nice murder mystery with lots of blood and guts.

  Chapter Eight

  Dex leaned her head against the back of the couch and ran her fingers through Curly’s fur, watching her dad sleeping in the recliner across from her. At a glance, a stranger wouldn’t realize there was anything wrong with him. He looked healthy, though she could see he had dropped a few pounds in the three weeks since she had last seen him.

  Deidra squeezed her shoulder as she dropped onto the cushion beside her.

  “He almost fell asleep during dinner,” Dex said stoically.

  “I don’t think he recognized me when I picked him up this morning.”

  “I got that idea too. I told him I was his daughter so he wouldn’t have to ask who I was.”

  “Yeah, me too. The nurse said we won’t be able to take him out of the nursing home once he passes that point,” Deidra explained. “She said he will need constant supervision to keep him from wandering off.”

  “Are you about ready? I’m exhausted.” Dex sighed.

  Deidra patted her leg. “I’m ready to take you home, but I wish I could keep Dad.”

  “I know. It’s hard to wake him only to make him leave.”

  Dex helped her sister wake their dad and get him into the car. They drove the distance to the nursing home in silence. He had dropped back to sleep as soon as the car started to move. They woke him again and with the help from a nursing home attendant they managed to get him into his bed.

  “Thank you for the help,” Deidra said. “I’ll bring him back earlier next week.”

  “We put most of the residents to bed by eight because of that issue.”

  Dex didn’t feel like the nurse was chastising them, that she was only stating a fact. Deidra was here a lot and seemed to know her.

  Dex closed the door to their father’s room and stepped closer to hear the soft conversation between her sister and the nurse.

  “Are you guys seeing a big change in him?” Deidra asked.

  “We did notice his memory loss is more of a constant rather than intermittent as it was in the beginning.” The nurse smiled at them. “But he hasn’t forgotten food yet. He grabs his fork as soon as we place the tray in front of him.”

  Deidra hugged her. “I’ll see you on Wednesday to check on him. Call me if I need to come by sooner.”

  Dex slid into the car and buckled her seat belt. She didn’t want to think any more about death and loss. When her mother had passed away, she had had the military to distract her, but how would she cope with the loss of her father? Seeing how frail his body had become in the last year was as much of an emotional toll as she could handle. Today anyway.

  Deidra seemed lost in her own thoughts as well so Dex stared out the window at the passing traffic. The high-rise buildings of Toronto loomed in the distance like steel monsters reaching toward the sky. She liked living in Toronto. It was a city bustling with excitement, and yet it had a feeling of peace. She liked the convenience of subway travel as well as the elevator ride to the grocery store beneath her building.

  Deidra shifted in her seat and cleared her throat. “Do you want to talk about Dad?”

  “Not really.”

  “The nursing staff has started making little comments every time I visit. Like they’re trying to prepare me for the day his mind will be lost inside his body.”

  “I said no, Deidra.”

  “I heard you.”

  Dex could see Deidra fighting to remain silent. And then she couldn’t.

  “You act like my children. Not talking about it won’t make it go away. Soon he’ll only be a shell and our father won’t be in there anymore.”

  Dex stared longingly at the city, mentally trying to pull it closer. Deidra was wrong. Not talking did make things go away. Some things, anyway. She pushed away thoughts of the man she had spent the day with and called to mind earlier years when he had taken her to baseball games and for ice cream. When her mother had been by his side and it seemed like the world would never change. Back before she had even considered joining the military and never even thought about how a modern day war would be fought.

  “So have you met anyone date-worthy yet?”

  Dex turned to glare at her sister.

  “What? I was only trying to find a new topic of conversation.”

  “Really? And that’s what you came up with. I’ve barely been out of the military for two months. The last thing I’m thinking about is who to date.”

  As the words left her mouth, Dex could feel her cheeks flush. She had thought plenty about Lucy, but even more so since the kiss they had shared in Paris. She had analyzed every second of that most pleasurable moment in her life. Had Lucy felt everything she had felt? Had she felt the promise of more to come?

  A huge grin spread across Deidra’s face.

  “What?” Dex demanded.

  “You have. You’ve met someone.”

  “Honestly, Deidra. Can’t we talk about something other than my love life? Why would you even think I’ve met someone or that I’m even looking?”

  “That’s the beauty of love. I know you’re not looking and that’s when love hits you.” She shrugged. “You’ve been different today. Distracted but not sad. Even Trevor mentioned he had seen you lost in thought with a smile on your face.”

  “Trevor noticed.” Dex groaned.

  “So tell me about her.”

  “We only met in passing and I can’t imagine that I’ll ever see her again.”

  “Why not? Track her down and plant yourself in front of her.”

  “Real life doesn’t work like a romance novel. I can’t just track her down. And that’s called stalking anyway. Besides, the airline world is bigger than you think. We don’t even work for the same company.”

  Deidra pulled to a stop in front of Dex’s building.

  “Okay, but I haven’t seen you interested in anyone since the fifth grade when you chased Julia Perez across the playground.”

  “Why do you always bring that up? We were playing chase.”

  “I know. Too bad she didn’t know.”

  Dex swatted her arm as she opened the door. Moving quickly, she avoided Deidra’s return swipe. “I’ll let you know my schedule when I get it tomorrow.”

  “Okay. Think about tracking that woman down. She makes you smile.”

  Dex shook her head as she climbed the stairs into the lobby of her building. Lucy did make her smile. She also made her heart race and her palms sweat. How could a woman she had never even had a conversation with do so much? Clearly it was all her imagination. The farther she got from their meeting in Paris the bigger the kiss became. She needed to think logically about this situation. She didn’t know Lucy and fantasizing about her only made her and their interaction larger than life.

  Dex had never been one to fabricate or embellish the truth, so why was she letting her mind do that now? Lucy was only a woman. Granted she was an appealing woman. More than appealing, actually, she was adorable. The way she occupied a space, like she owned it. The way she gave the appearance of being relaxed in her environment but was extremely aware of her surroundings. Ready to act in any situation. Even to a kiss.

  Dex unlocked her apartment door and stepped inside. The white walls and light blue carpet screamed clean and comfortable to her. It was the reason she had chosen this apartment. After so many years living in an army green world with sand under her feet, she needed clean. She didn’t like clutter, so the couch and coffee table were the only pieces of furniture in the living room. A few pictures adorned the built-in bookshelves, but th
ere wasn’t anything else in the room that would identify it as hers. The bedroom held even less. A bed and nothing else. All clothing was put away neatly inside the closet. Even underwear and socks, which were tucked into a small shelving unit hidden inside the closet.

  She had rented a storage unit to hold the six boxes of army paraphernalia she had brought with her. At least for the moment, she didn’t want anything camouflage-colored inside her house or even in her life. Passing soldiers in airports during her travel was more than enough for now. She knew at some point she would have to sort through the boxes and decide what to keep. But right now she needed time away from her previous life. Time for wounds to heal and memories to fade. Time to forget the pain of war.

  * * *

  Unlike most people, Lucy was happy to work on holidays. Not that she wanted anything to happen on her flights, but the elevated risk that came with them certainly made her more vigilant. Thanksgiving wasn’t the biggest holiday of the year, but it was one of the most heavily traveled, and she knew the idea of killing people on a day of thanks would give a sick thrill to a terrorist somewhere in the world.

  Sheila and Karen had switched their Thanksgiving dinner to Friday to accommodate her schedule. It was the first time since she’d left home that she would be sharing a turkey with people she knew rather than with strangers in a restaurant. Her schedule had her arriving in Atlanta around nine p.m. Thursday night, but a delayed takeoff in Miami had made her a few hours later. She had planned to drive home as soon as they landed, but now she was considering staying in Atlanta for the night. What was one more night in a hotel anyway?

  She walked through the terminal, following the signs to baggage claim and ground transportation. She stepped outside into the cool Georgia night air. When she looked to the left to locate a taxicab, her eyes caught the flash of a dark ponytail. Her mind was instantly transported back to Paris and her encounter with Dex. Her body flushed with heat.

  She had tried hard over the last several weeks to forget Dex. The memory of the firm pressure of her incredibly soft lips pressed against her own still haunted her. She had reasoned with herself that she would not give in if they met again, but deep inside she hoped her resolve would not be challenged. She wasn’t sure if she could stand strong against the reality of Dex’s velvety skin if it was within reach of her fingertips.