Mariah looked bored as she stared out the window of the car. They were on their way to Annie’s house before Chrissy had to leave for Costa Rica. Mariah hadn’t been very talkative since Chrissy told her she needed to go away for a while. A knot formed in Chrissy’s stomach. Was she doing the right thing? Since Mariah had been born, she hadn’t been separated from her for more than a few days.
“It’s fine, Mama.” Mariah’s voice was flat.
Worry nagged at her. As she pulled into Annie’s apartment complex, Chrissy was going through scenarios that allowed her to back out from the trip. Would food poisoning be believable? Probably not. How about a flat tire? They’d just send another car to pick her up. A death in the family? That could work if Chrissy wasn’t absolutely positive that would cause Karma to come around and really kill someone. Karma was a bitch, after all.
Slamming the car into park, Chrissy turned to tell Mariah they could go back home with just a word. What she saw when she turned was pure excitement. Tristan was waiting for Mariah outside with a little sign that said Welcome Princess Mariah from Prince Tristan the Terrific. Chrissy smiled as Mariah jumped out of the car and ran up to him dropping her backpack on the ground then running over to the “castle” which was a refrigerator box with a hole cut out of it.
Chrissy stepped out of the car grabbing Mariah’s suitcase before shutting the door. Annie had made her way out and picked up Mariah’s discarded backpack. She smiled as she watched the kids run around the castle pretending to save each other from an evil dragon.
“Are you sure about this?” Chrissy asked Annie.
“Absolutely. We will have a great time.” Annie smiled then looked at her watch. “Shouldn’t you be heading out?”
“Yeah. I just want to give that little girl a hug first. Mariah!”
Mariah continued to play.
“Mariah!” Chrissy yelled louder but was still ignored.
“Mariah Opal! Get over here!” She put steel into her voice.
Mariah reluctantly stomped over to her. With her arms crossed in front of her she asked, “What, Mama? We were playing, and it was my turn to save Tristan.”
“I’m leaving. Don’t you want to give me a hug?” Chrissy opened her arms for a hug.
Shaking her head Mariah said, “Stop being weird, Mama.”
Chrissy dropped her arms as Mariah leaned quickly into her then pulled back. “I’m gonna miss you, Mariah.”
“Uh-huh…ok,” Mariah said absently. “Tristan, it’s still my turn. Don’t try to skip my turn.” She ran back over to the castle.
“Is she six or sixteen? I thought I still had time to be cool mom for a while before being embarrassing mom.” Chrissy tried not to be hurt by Mariah’s actions but her heart broke.
“Give it a couple days.” Annie walked with Chrissy to the car. “Try to enjoy yourself. I know it’s work but it’s still Costa Rica.”
Chrissy smiled and watched Mariah and Tristan play. “I’m gonna miss that kid.”
“I know. She will miss you, too. She’s just too busy having fun with her friend right now.”
Annie pulled her into a hug. With a smile, she opened the door getting in her car. When she started it up, Mariah stopped and stared at her. Her hands hung limply at her side as her bottom lip began to tremble. Dropping the cardboard sword, Mariah took off toward the car. Chrissy hopped out of the running car then kneeled to catch her.
“I’m gonna miss you, Mama.” She sniffled into Chrissy’s shoulder.
Chrissy inhaled a deep breath to push the tears back. “I’m going to miss you, too. We can talk whenever you want, ok?”
Mariah nodded her head then wiped her nose on Chrissy’s shoulder. She cringed a bit but immediately hid it when Mariah’s big watery eyes looked at her. “Ok, Mama. Love you.”
“I love you, too, munchkin.” Chrissy used the nickname she’d given her when she was a baby.
Mariah wrinkled her nose then ran back over to Tristan who was patiently waiting for her to return. Using the back of her hand, she wiped her tears away. Her heart was breaking but it was something she needed to do so that she could provide a good life for that little girl. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the now dried snot stain on her black shirt. With a shrug, she got back into the car and pulled away. She allowed herself a small wave then forced herself to keep her eyes on the road that for some reason kept getting wavy every time she thought of Mariah.
“Ms. Benson?” the flight attendant asked.
“Yes.”
She smiled, escorting her onto the spacious plane. “Please have a seat. We are still waiting for a few people. They should be here shortly. If you need anything, please ask. My name is Cynthia.”
“Thank you,” Chrissy muttered heading toward the back of the plane.
She passed a few faces she recognized but most of the people on board seemed more interested in their phones than her. When she passed Frank Stone he glanced up from the laptop in his lap and gave her a knowing smile. Immediately, she looked away and found her seat a few rows away from him.
“Hey, Chrissy!” James sat in the seat facing her.
“James? What are you doing here?” Icy fear coated her heart when a multitude of reasons crossed her mind on why her boss felt the need to join them now.
“My grandfather or I always go for the first week of production.” Her face must have belied her panic because he waved his hand. “After the first week, we will depend on you entirely. Believe me when I say we know we are leaving everything in very capable hands.”
James leaned forward and squeezed her hands in reassurance.
“Ok. I will be sure to give you and Bill very detailed reports.”
“Good,” James said absently as a confused look crossed his face as he looked at his phone.
“Is everything ok?”
“Uh, what?” He blinked at her.
“You seemed like something on your phone bothered you.”
“No. It will be fine.” He looked around then asked, “Why are we waiting?”
“I have no clue. Cynthia said we were still waiting for some people.”
James stood from his seat and looked around the plane. She could see him mentally taking role for everyone who was supposed to be on the plane.
“She’s right. We are missing one person.”
As James sat, a commotion attracted the attention of the whole plane. Max marched past Cynthia who struggled under the weight of his luggage. A mousy woman with thick glasses followed him making excuses for his rudeness.
“Glad you could make it, Hamilton,” Frank Stone snapped.
“Shut up, director. Mind your own business. When I need direction, I will come to you.” Max sneered and found a seat across the aisle from them. The little librarian attempted to sit next to him, but he said something to her that Chrissy couldn’t hear. She blushed and moved to a seat in front of him.
“This is going to be a fun flight,” James said with a sigh.
“I wonder why he’s being particularly douchey today.”
James looked over at Max then turned back toward Chrissy. Leaning forward he said, “I’ve known Max since college. We were roommates our freshman year. Thanks to him I passed freshman English. However, Max was prone to temper tantrums when things didn’t go his way. He hasn’t changed in all the years I’ve known him. So, it could be almost anything.”
Max reclined in his seat and stared out the window. Something seemed off with him. She’d seen him act like an ass on more than one occasion. What he was doing didn’t feel right to her. In one smooth move, Chrissy rose and moved next to Max.
“Chris—” James started but was stopped with a raised hand.
“Iris, I said to find your own—” Max stopped when he saw Chrissy buckling her seatbelt.
After she was buckled, an announcement floated over the passengers preparing them for the flight. The pilot anticipated an uneventful flight that would take close to six hours. With a final request of all passeng
ers be seated and buckled, the intercom clicked off.
Max stared at Chrissy the entire time the pilot spoke. She refused to acknowledge his stare with one of her own. After a few minutes of quiet between them he said, “What are you doing?”
She pursed her lips. “I could ask the same thing.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, why are you acting like a pompous brat?”
“A pompous brat?”
“Well, that was me being nice.” Chrissy finally turned toward him. “What’s going on?”
He blinked at her.
Heaving a bit of a dramatic sigh, she said, “You were a complete ass toward that young lady. Why?”
“I don’t want her here.” He crossed his arms defiantly.
“See.” Chrissy pointed to his crossed arms and “toddler ready to tantrum” pose. “This is why I said you are acting like a pompous brat. Maybe I should add spoiled in there, too.”
“I am not a spoiled brat.”
“Bullshit. Something happened that you didn’t like and now you are hell bent on treating everyone around you as if they are trash.”
“No, I am not,” he protested.
Chrissy closed her eyes to help center her thoughts and not do what she wanted to do to the spoiled star in front of her. While she tried to find her happy place, she felt the plane take off. Max grasped her hand tightly in his. Her eyes snapped to their joined hands.
“What happened, Max?” she asked softly.
Squeezing their hands, he continued to stare out the window. “My family.”
A weight she didn’t realize she’d held lifted slightly. Family she could help with. If it was another woman or penis problems, she’d have been moving seats pretty quickly.
“What about them?” Chrissy knew nothing about Max’s family. He’d never talked about them.
“My grandmother is dying.”
“Oh, no! I am so sorry, Max. Are you close with her?” Chrissy turned toward him and put her hand on their still joined ones.
“Yes, she lives with my parents in Scotland.”
“Did your parents call you?”
Max shook his head. “My sister told me when she showed up on my doorstep this morning. Apparently, the doctor she needs is in L.A. and my parents are sending her to stay with me. If my sister hadn’t shown up, my gran would have come to my house without me being home.”
Chrissy blinked. “Wow.”
“Yeah. Lissa, that’s my sister, has always been a bit wild. She’s traveled the world with boyfriends and lives more like a nomad. She’d told my parents she was living with me so when they told her to tell me about Gran she felt she needed to show up.” He sighed and looked out the window.
“I’m sorry you are going through all this. Families are complicated.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” Max turned toward her. “Thank you for making me talk. I feel better.”
Chrissy smiled. “Anytime you need to talk I am here.”
“Good.”
Untangling their hands, Max retrieved a tablet from his bag. Taking that as the signal that their share time was over, she reached into her own bag and took out the book she was reading. It was one of her favorite authors. She wrote about sexy highlanders and the women who loved them.
Chrissy wiggled in her seat to get comfortable. She’d left off at a very juicy spot and couldn’t wait to find if the highlander was finally going to relent and take the sassy maiden. As she opened her book and began reading, she felt eyes on her. It was distracting. Looking to her left she saw Max staring at the book in her hand.
“What?”
“You like that crap?” he asked.
Before she could answer, the flight attendant approached. Something was different with Cynthia. Chrissy watched her march toward them. She smiled at them while holding a tray of drinks. When she lowered the drinks, Chrissy saw what was different. Her once buttoned shirt was now unbuttoned and showing a large amount of cleavage. Also, she hadn’t been smiling at Chrissy at all. It was all for the movie star next to her.
“Would you like a drink, Mr. Hamilton?” Cynthia asked.
Max reached for an offered drink. “Thank you,” he said.
With a wink she turned to me. “Drink?”
“Sure.” Disgust laced her tone.
Grabbing a drink and napkin, she placed it in the cup holder attached to her chair. Cynthia shook her cleavage awkwardly toward Max. She only managed to almost spill the drinks on Chrissy while she tried to sashay toward James. Cynthia made a point to continue to try to make eye contact with Max. Chrissy’s blood boiled as jealousy surged through her system. When she glanced at Max, he wasn’t even looking at Cynthia. His face was buried in his tablet.
“No need to be jealous,” he said still not looking at anything other than his tablet.
“I’m not jealous.” She sat up straighter opening her book to go back to reading.
“You’re so jealous.” She opened her mouth to refuse again but he interrupted her. “No need to be. She has nothing on you.”
No words came to her at that moment. Before she said something idiotic like take me now, stud, she snapped her mouth shut.
He chuckled and kept swiping on his tablet. Chrissy decided that going back to reading would be the best thing to ignore him. Focusing on the words in front of her was a challenge. Every time the story described the handsome highlander all her brain did was put Max in a kilt. It was getting her lady bits excited for something that wasn’t going to happen.
“What are you reading?” he asked.
“The same book as before,” she said without looking up from the book.
“Well, yes, but what is the title? I see it’s some kind of bodice ripping romance.”
Chrissy rolled her eyes at his term. “It’s called Beauty meets the Highland Beast. It’s a take on the Beauty and the Beast fairytale.”
Max nodded then went back to his tablet and his furious scrolling. She hoped that was going to be the last of his interruptions. Tucking back into the book Chrissy found herself in the Scottish Highlands with Max as the hero. She was so deep into the story it took a few minutes to realize that Max was laughing loud enough for others to look at them.
“What are you laughing at?” she asked.
“This woman has never been to Scotland. She doesn’t even know anything about the culture.”
Chrissy looked at him like he had three heads. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Your precious romance. The colors of the tartans are all wrong. Their language is clearly more Irish than Scottish. The main character wouldn’t have been dressed like that during the time of year the story takes place. It’s too fecking cold.” A strange lilt tinted his last sentence.
“Are you talking about my book?”
“Yes. Keep up.”
Before he could critique any more, she interrupted him. “What do you know about the book I’m reading? You’ve never read it.”
He shrugged. “I just bought it.”
“You bought it. Why?”
“I thought we could talk about it, but I don’t think I can read this rubbish. It’s utterly ridiculous.”
Chrissy felt offended on behalf of her favorite author. “Well, don’t read it then.”
He ignored her and kept his face plastered to the tablet. Another giggle escaped him. Chrissy was so annoyed she unbuckled her seatbelt and stood.
Her movement caught his attention. “Where are you going?”
“I’m moving to sit by James. At least he won’t be obnoxious about my book.”
“I’m not being obnoxious. I’m just pointing out the obvious.” He leaned close to her. “If you want to see a real kilt on a sexy Scotsman, I can do that for you.” His eyebrows wiggled suggestively.
Chrissy blushed, inadvertently letting him know she’d already placed him in that role in her mind. Smacking him with her book, she moved to the seat she’d started the trip in. The disturbance forced James’
attention to the two of them.
“Hey, James. Be sure not to tell her the truth about Scottish Highlanders. She will get pissy.”
“Uh, ok.” James said with a look toward her.
Chrissy shot daggers at Max. If only she had her own broadsword at the moment, she would totally impale him. Snapping the book back open with a huff she was determined to ignore all of the arrogant men around her.
Chapter 19
The Van Ride from Hell
Steamy air hit Chrissy the moment she exited the plane. The abrupt change from A/C to sauna level heat felt like a slap to the face. She looked out on the small airport. The plane landed in Liberia, Costa Rica. She descended the stairs from the private plane where a few vans and one luxury SUV waited. Chrissy picked up her bag and lugged it toward one of the vans.
“This way,” Max said indicating the SUV with his head.
“I’m good with the van.”
She handed her luggage to the van driver then climbed to the back of the van. Dropping her carry-on in her lap she pulled out her phone. With nimble fingers she texted a message to all who would be worried about her.
“Hey.”
She was so engrossed in her texting she just moved closer to the window to give the person now sitting next to her some room.
“I haven’t ridden in a van with the crew in a long time.”
Once she hit send, she finally looked up. Max was plastered against her causing quite the uproar. The other crew in the van stared at the oblivious movie star.
“What are you doing in here?”
“If you’re riding in here, I’m going to ride in here too.”
“Please Mr. Hamilton. The SUV is much more comfortable. You shouldn’t be riding with these people.” The mousy assistant frantically paced in front of the open van door.
“Jeannie, why don’t you go ride in the SUV? I will be fine here with these people,” he snapped.
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