He'd eaten the entire meal alone. He wondered where Haley was, and whether she'd remembered to eat. The girl was a work horse, which was a fact that gave him a mixed reaction. As her boyfriend, he worried that she would throw herself full force into a project, forgetting to stop and do anything secondary, like eat. Or sleep. But because the work she was always doing benefitted him professionally, he reaped all the reward from her efforts. And they were monumental, he couldn't deny that.
She was a delightful blend of smart and forgetful, determined and flexible, confident and insecure.
She was his, and of that, he was most proud. He had no idea what he'd done to deserve her, but he sure was glad she'd fallen in love with him.
He paid for his meal and a tip with his band credit card and left the restaurant. On the walk back, he placed a call to Haley again. Maybe she was done with her previous phone call and he'd reach her.
Nope. The phone went straight to voicemail again.
IT WAS ONLY BECAUSE Haley was sitting by the window directly over the left wing that she was aware of a problem. And it was only because she was staring out the window, obsessing over her communication failure surrounding Brent's pick up that she wasn't calmly reading a magazine and missing the whole thing.
No, she had the best seat in the house to observe a small metal flap on the far end of the airplane's wing suddenly flip up, drawing her attention with a muffled thud. The strong airstream flowing over the wing caught hold of it, and after a few frantic flaps in the blustery breeze, it ripped away from its connection. Now, instead of being held down firmly in two corners as it was designed to work, one nut and one bolt succumbed to the pressure and disengaged, flying never-to-be-seen-again into the air, while leaving the metal flap rapping wildly against the wing like a rock climber in trouble, determined to hold on for dear life with one arm.
Haley gasped as she stared wide-eyed out the window. She tore away her gaze long enough to reach above her head and push the button to summon the flight attendant. A young woman came a few minutes later. "May I help you?"
Haley pointed out the window. "You see that metal flap? Right out there on the wing? Look, it's hanging on by a thread."
The flight attendant leaned closer and her attention followed the direction of Haley's index finger. "I'm sure it'll be ..."
Before she could finish her sentence, the remaining screw, weakened by all the battering, gave up and flew loose, releasing the metal flap into the air, leaving a three by two inch rectangular chasm in the wing.
The flight attendant looked at Haley, her eyes wide with surprise. Haley was certain, based solely on the woman's age that she had never come upon this situation before. It may have been in her flight attendant training class she had a year or so ago, but practical on-the-job experience didn't aid her here.
"Excuse me," she said and headed quickly up the aisle of the plane, her hip bumping every three seats or so on random passengers’ arm rests.
Haley darted her attention back to the hole in the wing. Searching for a sign of trouble or despair, she was relieved that she couldn't detect one. The flapping sound of metal against metal was now gone. The wing seemed to be operating as expected, despite the portion now exposed.
In ten minutes, a dinging over the sound system alerted everyone to a message. "Good afternoon, everyone. This is Captain Miller in the cockpit. I have an announcement. We have become aware of a minor maintenance issue regarding the left wing of our aircraft. Although we anticipate absolutely no issues or problems at all, we have been asked to make an unscheduled landing in Charlotte en route to Myrtle Beach. The Charlotte Airport has promised us they will provide maintenance professionals to examine our aircraft promptly and make any repairs needed on a priority basis. We do not expect to be off schedule for long however I must warn you that we will most likely arrive at Myrtle Beach later than originally planned." He turned the microphone off briefly, then his deep, calm voice returned, "Please stay in your seats with your seatbelts on until we land. Again, nothing to worry about. Slight delay. Thank you for choosing to fly with us today."
Haley stretched her hands out in front of her, observing the fingers shaking. Delay, delay, delay. She hated being off the grid, especially with a dire need to use her phone. Helpless, she closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing in and out.
Chapter Nineteen
BLAKE FINISHED DRESSING for tonight's concert, left his hotel room and headed for the front. The limousine that would transport the band to the venue waited outside. He glanced around for Haley and then rolled his eyes, chuckling to himself. Creature of habit. Haley wouldn't be joining them tonight. She was probably at this moment driving over to the airport to pick up Brent. Like he hadn't thought about Brent a thousand times today, a shiver of excitement went through his shoulders.
He still hadn't actually connected with Haley. It was odd, but maybe she was busy with Ace in the Hole stuff. She was usually pretty good about leaving him out of the details so he could go into each performance unencumbered.
He climbed in and settled into a seat. He looked around at his bandmates. "Big show tonight, guys. My baby brother will be in the audience."
"Cool!" Lola, the keyboardist, said. "Can we meet him?"
"Of course. In fact, I'd love to get a photo of him with all of us." He launched into his normal brief explanation. He hated for anyone meeting Brent to be caught off guard and expose Brent to an uncomfortable greeting. "Just so you guys know, my brother is a paraplegic. He's permanently in a wheelchair."
Murmurs of what was probably sympathy, acceptance or surprise filled the limo. "What happened to him?" someone asked.
Blake smiled. No way was he going to transform their carefree ride into an emotional story about the tragic house fire that killed his father and mother and permanently disabled his brother. It was too fun a night for that. So he said, "He jumped out of a window."
They stared at him in surprise, then they all laughed and moved on to a new topic. "Where's Randall tonight?" Blake asked, noticing his absence in the limousine.
"He had to leave, had some personal business to take care of today. He won't be at the concert but he'll be back tomorrow or the next day."
The ride to the venue went smoothly and they all exited the vehicle and entered the huge concert hall through the back doors. Randall had told them it was their biggest venue yet, seating nearly twenty thousand fans. Blake claimed his green room, set out his few belongings, and started his stretches and vocal warmups. About a half hour in, his hair and makeup artist arrived. He was halfway through preparations when his phone rang. It was Aunt Gloria.
"Hey, Aunt Glo. You get Brent off okay?"
"Well, yes I did." Her tentative voice caused him to tense immediately. "He got on his plane fine, but that's why I'm calling. He just called me. He's at the Pittsburgh Airport but Haley isn't there to greet him."
"What?"
"Yeah, the airline associates helped him off the plane and into his wheelchair, but he's not sure where to go next."
Blake frowned. This wasn't like Haley, who was always so reliable and on top of all the details. "Aunt Glo, let me make some calls. I'll let you know what I come up with."
"Okay honey," she said. Blake detected the nerves in her voice. Although Aunt Gloria wasn't the overprotective type, this was a new experience for Brent. He hadn't taken a solo flight since his paralysis, and admittedly, they were both a little nervous about it.
"I'll call you back." He ended the call and called Haley. He felt huge relief when she answered on the first ring.
"Blake! Oh my gosh!"
"What's going on?"
Her elevated stress was evident in her normally calm voice. "We had an unexpected detour. The wing had a mechanical problem and we had to land in Charlotte. I'm delayed."
Blake frowned at his phone. "What are you talking about?"
"My flight to Myrtle Beach. We had to make a landing in Charlotte for mechanical problems."
He huffe
d his frustration. "Haley, why are you going to Myrtle Beach today? You're supposed to be picking up my brother in Pittsburgh and bringing him to the concert."
"I know, I know. I've been trying to get a hold of Randall to do that but I haven't been able to reach him."
All his triggers were tripped simultaneously and even though he knew he'd regret it later, Blake let his anger take over. He raised his voice and barked into the phone, "Haley! Randall's out of town. Brent's flight landed and he's all alone with no one to help him."
"Oh, my gosh," she started, and he interrupted her.
"You knew how important this was to me. My family is my top priority, and you assured me you'd take care of him." Blake's hair girl went still, eyes widened and tiptoed away, leaving him alone in his green room.
"I'm sorry, I ...,"
"Let me guess, this has something to do with Lindsay. You're abandoning my brother and rushing off to Myrtle Beach half-cocked because of Lindsay."
Her hesitation told him he'd hit the mark. He lowered his voice. "I can't believe this. I can't believe you'd do this, Haley."
"I'm so sorry. Didn't you get my note that I was going to Myrtle today?"
"Note? No note. Where?" He hadn't seen a text, a voicemail, a private message. If she'd left him a note he hadn't seen it. "Never mind. I'm gonna have to go to the airport myself and hope I can get him back before the show starts."
"No, Blake. Just ask someone ..."
"Haley, Brent is my responsibility. I thought you understood that. I trusted you with him. Now, I will pick him up." She started to speak again, but his anger and now the urgency in leaving for the airport got the better of him. "Good bye, Haley." He disconnected the call, rose out of his makeup chair and raced off.
HALEY SOBBED, HER EYES filling with tears that dropped down her cheeks as her shoulders wracked. She struggled to cry soundlessly to attract less attention in the busy airport, but she couldn't. She didn't cry often, but this one had the weight of the world behind it and she let it all out, her despair emitting from her. To discourage attention, she dropped her head and placed her hands over her eyes. Nothing to see here, just keep moving. A clean tissue infiltrated the barrier she'd built around herself and she grabbed it, lifting her head to see the back of a kind woman who'd tried to meet her physical needs without interrupting her misery.
Haley allowed herself a solid, unremitting cry for ten minutes and then dragged herself to her feet. She made her way to a public restroom. She took one look at her face in the mirror and wanted to cry again. Every last shred of makeup was either gone, or running a dirty track down her cheeks. She washed her face thoroughly with soap and water, then pulled her makeup kit from her small bag and reapplied. A quick brush of her long hair, and she could almost convince herself that she looked fine.
For it being the worst day of her life.
She'd blown it. She'd never heard Blake's voice infused with so much anger. In all the time she'd known him, he'd never so much as raised his voice. To anyone, let alone her. Even when they'd had the uncomfortable conversation about her job performance, he'd done it kindly. Sharing bad news with a gentle demeanor was so much better than with anger.
But today, she pushed him over the edge. She'd made him so angry that he yelled at her. Worse, she'd let him down and disappointed him in the worst way possible. She'd neglected her commitment to pick up Brent, when she knew what a big deal it was.
She was aware that couples fought at times and recovered. But Blake was so easy going and kind that she doubted that this was reversible. She made her way back to her seat in the terminal, waiting for the plane to be fixed. They were trapped in the Charlotte Airport while the world went about its activities outside of here. They had no control over when they would leave, when they would arrive.
Meanwhile, she had limitless time to think. And worry. And obsess.
Yes, she knew exactly how important Blake's family was to him. She knew exactly how Blake and Aunt Gloria took care of Brent. And this one time when Haley was in charge, Brent paid the price with her forgetfulness. He was stuck, unattended to, in a strange airport. Who had helped him into his wheelchair? Who had guided him to the baggage claim? That had been her job, and she'd dropped the ball.
Would Blake ever forgive her? How about Aunt Gloria? She'd only met the woman once, but Haley's regard for her was very high. She admired Aunt Gloria for the unselfish act she'd demonstrated all those years ago. She had let Aunt Gloria down too.
So Blake was, at this moment, racing to the airport. She wondered if he somehow found a car to drive himself, or did he ask the limo driver to take him? Would he get back to the concert in time? Would they have to extend the warm up acts and delay Frontier Fire's start time? They'd never had to do that yet. Frontier Fire's concerts were always professional and executed like clockwork. Until today. If Blake's tardiness caused a change to the concert timing, Haley would never forgive herself.
She wondered if Blake would break up with her over this. Could their relationship recover? The threat of renewed tears made her stop going down that line of thought. No more crying. She was done with that. If Blake broke up with her, she'd have to deal with it. It wouldn't be the end of her life.
Despite the fact that she was in love with him.
She closed her eyes to try to stop the flow of thoughts in her head. She tried to doze but her mind was still too active.
If Blake did break up with her, would that be the end of her job with Ace in the Hole? Could they ever work together after this? Would he even trust her with his band's business, or would he fire her over this?
If she lost her job with Ace in the Hole, what would she do? Her parents had already disowned her due to her tendency to flit from job to job with no direction. Getting fired from this job that was supposedly her niche would just cement their accusations. She’d been so sure that she'd found her career, the one thing that she excelled at, that she naturally gravitated to and delivered solid results. But if she could no longer work with Ace in the Hole, would any other band hire her?
She jolted her eyes open. She was driving herself crazy inside her own head. Her thoughts were leading her toward one worst case scenario after another. She needed to put all that aside for now and focus on getting to Myrtle Beach and helping Ace in the Hole deal with the potential Lindsay threat. Maybe it was the last task she'd ever accomplish with Ace, but she was determined to make sure that they were safe tonight. She had no idea how, or what she would do tonight if Lindsay tried something, but she had to be there.
Chapter Twenty
NINE PM.
Nine o'clock in the fricking night!
Haley's blood tumbled through her veins so fast that her pulse could be seen pumping under the skin at her wrists. It had been a torturous, never-ending, horrible afternoon and evening of waiting, but finally, the wing of their plane had been fixed, the inspector arrived from a distant airport to look at it, he declared it safe, they re-boarded and flew to Myrtle Beach.
Now, they were deplaning at nine o'clock. Ace in the Hole's gig had just started across town. She needed to get there ASAP. As she raced through the airport to the front door, she summoned the Uber app on her phone. Thankfully, she lived in an age where she only had four minutes to wait for a car to pick her up and take her directly to her destination.
As she stood on the sidewalk outside, her mind went to Blake. Had he gotten Brent without incident? Had he arrived safely back at the concert? Did everything go off on time, without a hitch? The absence of any communication from Blake spoke volumes. Normally, they were right in sync on work tasks. If she hadn't made such a huge mistake and left Brent hanging without a ride, Blake would've naturally contacted her, Got him. Got back safely. Everything's fine. His silence had to mean either they hadn't gotten back safely, or he had and specifically chose not to tell her. Which meant that he no longer thought of her as a trusted teammate.
Tears poked her eyes but she wiped them away. Her Uber arrived and she had a job
to do. She'd worry about her love life later. Maybe Lindsay had nothing nefarious planned for The Bowery. Maybe this whole unfortunate day was a big flub.
But what if it wasn't?
The Uber driver took her to The Bowery and she tipped him heavily, thanking him for his promptness. She entered the big bar, and immediately the atmosphere sucked her in, the darkened lights, the massive crowd of people, the bodies pushing all around her, but most of all, the festive sound of Ace in the Hole, rocking it. She took a moment to listen. The flawless sound ascended and circulated above the heads of the crowd. They were covering a popular upbeat Radley Ray song and the blended instrumentals filled the room with music while Sam took control of the lyrics. He sure looked the part of a top-rate country singer up there, dressed in tight jeans faded in all the right places, snug cotton shirt, rounded off with cowboy boots and hat. And he knew how to move. Ace was in good hands while waiting for Blake to return.
The crowd thought so too. Many of them were standing still around the perimeter, sipping on a drink and listening, but a good number had taken the dance floor, couples swinging each other around, or groups of girls dancing together while facing the stage, keeping their eyes fastened on Sam.
Back to work. The room was so dark, Haley couldn't scan the crowd for familiar faces. She'd need to move around, inspecting each section for Lindsay. It would be a big job since it was such a large place, and so full with fans. Haley started. She made her way around the perimeter walls first, pushing through the crowd, not disruptively, just trying to cover ground. The dance floor was a little easier. Dancers often pushed between each other trying to claim a better spot on the floor, so she serpentined, putting eyes on each and every one.
After forty minutes of searching, she'd covered every square inch, but hadn't located Lindsay. This was a good thing. No Lindsay, no danger. If Lindsay showed up for the second night of Ace's gig, what other motivation could she have, other than trouble? If she spotted Lindsay, she'd better be prepared to act.
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