Charlie had to suppress her laughter. She exchanged an amused look with Jeff.
“Since when does a trade show need incentives like that?” Charlie asked dryly.
“I guess these are the tough times.” Jeff grinned.
In the end they went to the ARC Show first before heading to a few more vendors’ tents. Their hotel was above the convention center. Afterwards, they went to dinner at the hotel restaurant.
“It’s half an hour’s wait, at least.” Charlie said after she spoke with the maitre d’ in French.
“Oh, well, we could go to the bar and wait.” Steven said.
“Or we could go somewhere else.” Jeff suggested.
“This is supposed to be a very good restaurant.” Vasil said. “It’s on the Zagat reviews as one of the best of the city.”
“And that’s why Natalia Levkova and Katia Varekova are eating here.” Steven pointed out, nodding towards a window table where several gorgeous models were talking and laughing.
“This is awesome. We should come to this trade show every year.” Tom grinned.
They had a drink and after more than half an hour, Charlie went to check if their table was ready.
As she approached the maitre d’, he was busy talking with a customer. From the back, he looked achingly like Ryle. The height, the breadth, the demeanor, and even his voice sounded like Ryle’s, although the guy was speaking fluent French. Oh, God, was she hallucinating now? She was trying to decide that when she saw his profile.
“Ryle!” She gasped.
He stopped and turned, a smile lit up in his eyes as he looked at her. “Hey.”
“What are you doing here?” She asked, shocked to see him.
“To see you.” He said simply.
“To see me?”
“Yes.”
“Were you just speaking perfect French with the maitre d’?”
“It’s a long story; I’ll tell you tomorrow.”
She was still frowning, completely confused by his presence.
“Come here,” He said, curving an arm around her waist her pulling her towards him to kiss her.
She didn’t need to be asked twice. She curved her arms around him, responding to his kiss hungrily.
“Can we get out of here?” He asked against her mouth.
“I…”
“Looks like Charlie picked up more than just the reservation.” Steven said loudly, grinning.
Charlie was still too bemused by Ryle’s presence and didn’t feel embarrassed being caught kissing him. Ryle didn’t seem to care either as he kept his arm around her as she turned to face her co-workers.
“Hey Ryle!” Steven grinned.
“Hey guys,” Ryle said calmly, exchanging greeting with the group.
The maitre d’ came up to them at that moment to announce their table was ready.
Charlie turned to Ryle. “Will you join us?”
Ryle sighed. “Since I can’t get you alone, I guess I’ll have to.” He murmured against her ear.
They followed the maitre d’ to their table. On the way there, they walked by the models’ table. One of the models stood up as they walked closer. After the maitre d’ walked by, the tall leggy beauty stepped right in front of them, effectively blocking Charlie and Ryle’s way.
“Ryle, what are you doing here?” She demanded, leaning close to kiss him on the mouth. She would have prolonged the kiss except Ryle moved aside after a brief brush of their lips.
“Katia.” Ryle responded lightly and calmly. “Nice to see you again.”
“Is it?” She murmured, arching an eyebrow at him. Then she turned and stared at Charlie, her gaze running over Charlie coolly.
“Katia,” There was a warning tone in Ryle’s voice, although he was still very calm.
“You dumped me for this?” Katia sneered, throwing Charlie an insulting look.
Ryle’s face remained inscrutable. The only change Charlie noticed was that his hand resting on her back had tightened.
When he spoke again, it was in Russian or some kind of Slavic language. Whatever he said, Katia responded, because she pouted prettily and flounced back to her seat.
They made it to the table without further incident.
“Shit, did you just…” Steven was shaking his head disbelievingly at Ryle. “Was she serious? Did you really dump her?” He asked what everyone else at the table was too polite to ask even if they looked more than curious about it.
“I think it’s safer if I don’t answer that.” Ryle said wryly, looking meaningfully toward Charlie, who had been silent since the confrontation with the model. He leaned closer to Charlie, saying softly so only she heard him. “Hey, I’m sorry about Katia. She can be hot tempered but she’s generally harmless.”
“Of course.” Charlie murmured. She wasn’t sure what to make of what happened. It seemed there was one surprise after another, while she was still trying to get over the first one.
The waiter coming to their table to take their order brought some kind of normalcy back. The waiter spoke broken English, and Charlie helped to translate some and Ryle helped with the rest. He was much more fluent than she was, she realized.
While everyone chatted lightly as they waited for their meal, Charlie was finding it hard to assimilate everything that was happening, beginning with Ryle’s presence in Toulouse. Why was he here? What could he have to say that couldn’t wait until she got back to Linwood? Could it be goodbye? She went cold at that thought. But it didn’t make sense. If he was leaving, why would he fly all the way to Toulouse to do it? Ryle’s relationship with the Russian model was obvious, but did he really break up with Katia for her, Charlie? That seemed unbelievable. And what could that mean?
Conversation over dinner was more generalized and centered on the trade show. Charlie relaxed more, now that she was on familiar ground. Ryle didn’t talk much as he was new to the trade show, but he listened with interest as they discussed it. They chatted as they ate. She noticed Jeff had been mostly quiet. But then she wasn’t feeling very talkative either when there were so many questions and doubts swirling in her mind. The rest of the group carried on the conversation while they ate.
After dinner, Charlie and Ryle said goodnight to the others and went up to her room.
“Was that Russian you were speaking earlier?” Charlie asked Ryle as they made their way toward her room.
“Yes. My maternal grandmother was half French, half Russian.” Ryle smiled as if remembering. “She was something special.”
“And she taught you French and Russian?”
“In a way.”
“What do you mean?”
“When I was a boy, she would only answer me if I spoke to her in French or Russian.”
“Really?”
“It was kind of like a game. And then it just became habit. I automatically switched to French or Russian whenever I was with her.”
Charlie looked at him. There was so much she still didn’t know about him. So much more she wanted to know. “You were very close with your mother’s side of the family?” She asked.
“Yes. They were the only relatives I know. My father was an orphan. Tracing back, he might have some very distant relations in Ireland. But there was no one close to him.” He told her.
“Oh.”
“Why all the questions?” He teased her.
“Just curious.” She murmured.
“We’ll talk later.” He said, locking the door behind them and backed her toward the bed. “I’ve missed you.”
She reached for him the same time he reached for her. Their lovemaking was wildly passionate and intense. They couldn’t seem to get enough of each other. She wanted to savor every moment with him. In the back of her mind, she was afraid this was goodbye.
When she woke up the next morning, she was alone in bed. She frowned, sitting up. Did Ryle leave?
“Hey, you’re up.” Ryle walked into the bedroom. He was already dressed.
She smiled. “What time is it?”
; “Eight-thirty.” Ryle came to sit down on the bed. His hand cupped the back of her neck, urging her forward as he bent to kiss her.
He kissed her slow and long, and she was breathless when he finally released her mouth.
“Mmm. Why are you dressed?” She whispered huskily. “Come back to bed.”
Ryle smiled tenderly, kissing her temple. “I have to leave.”
“Leave?” She felt a chill ran down her back. She had been expecting it but it still hit her like a tidal wave.
“Something’s come up.”
“Your grandfather?”
“No. Something else to do with my other work.” He told her. “I’ll explain when I get back.”
“I see.” She murmured. But she didn’t.
“I have to go catch my flight now. I’ll talk to you later?”
She clutched the blanket to her breasts, almost as if trying to shield the inevitable pain. “Yeah, of course.”
Ryle looked at her for a long moment. His hand on the nape of her neck tightened slightly, his fingers tangling into her hair. He kissed her again, this time almost bruising. In fact, when he finally released her, her lips were throbbing.
Ryle never called.
Charlie waited two weeks. Two weeks of hoping that whatever had come up just delayed him from coming back to Linwood. But after two weeks, she had to face facts. Ryle was gone for good. He had left Linwood a week before his contract expired and he was not coming back.
On the third week, Charlie fell apart. Although she had been preparing for this for many weeks, she was still floored by the depth of the pain she felt. She was hurting too much to pretend everything was all right. She stayed in bed for a whole week; for the very first time taking vacation time from work. She cried until there was nothing left. And yet nothing helped. Becky had stayed with her for a couple of nights. Her mom was silently supportive. She never said “I told you so,” Instead she brought food over to the garage apartment and tried to make sure she ate something, anything.
After a week of feeling sorry for herself, she knew she had to get out of the apartment. She got dressed on Monday to go to work. When she walked into the house, her parents were surprised but happy to see her.
“Good morning, Mom, Dad,” Charlie murmured.
“Good morning, darling.” Eva said brightly.
“Good morning, Charlie,” John said, shifting his newspaper to give her an encouraging smile.
After breakfast, Charlie went to work. She was determined to concentrate on her work. She began working even longer hours than before just to forget her pain.
That was eight weeks ago when she went back to work. She was still just going through the motions, inside she was empty. She went to Mandy’s shop on some Saturdays, spending time with Mandy and Megan, and on Saturday evenings, she met Becky and Sean a few times. Even Mandy and Rob came out with them on a couple of the Saturday evenings.
It was now October and the weather was chilly again. Her dad had dropped her off at work today. It was raining heavily when they left, but it tapered off as she made her way from the parking lot to the building. It was still very early, and there were only a dozen or so cars in the parking lot. She could see Jeff’s BWM parked at his usual spot. Like her, Jeff had been working very long hours, and she ran into him many mornings and evenings.
After dropping off her things in her office, she went to the fitness center. To her surprise, Jeff was there on the running track.
“Hey.” He stopped near her, puffing slightly.
“Good morning.” She smiled. “You’re taking up jogging?” She asked him.
He shrugged. “Yeah, thought I’ll give it a try. On days like today, I can’t take my bike out.”
“Mmm.”
“Would you like to run together?”
“Sure.” She said, doing a few stretches before starting.
They jogged together in companionable silence. Jeff was very fit and despite being new to jogging, he was holding up very well.
“That’s it for me,” Jeff said after several laps, puffing as he slowed to a stop.
“You did very well for a beginner.” She teased, stopping beside him.
“Yeah, let’s see if I can walk afterwards.” Jeff grinned. “You go ahead; don’t let me stop you.”
“I’m going for a swim.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll see you later, Jeff.”
“Yeah, later.” He murmured, watching her as she walked away.
Later that day, Jeff and some members of his team joined her team’s table in the cafeteria. It seemed like old times, before they dated. She and Jeff were talking and spending more time together, usually in a group.
“So how’s the Toulouse reveal looking?” Tom asked.
“We put in the applications this week.” Charlie told him.
“I’m so excited!” Julie grinned. “My first trip to France!”
“Your husband trusts you to go on your own?” Steven teased.
“Just let him try and stop me.” Julie said ominously.
Charlie smiled. “We still have a lot of work to do before Toulouse in December.”
“Yeah, the side trips to Chicago, yeah.” Julie grinned.
Charlie smiled, but there was an almost haunted look in her eyes. Both Chicago and Toulouse would be hard for her. Both places had so many memories of Ryle. Just thinking about it made her want to run and hide. Especially Toulouse. She dreaded going back to the city. She was excited about the AIR230 presentation, but all she could think about was the morning when Ryle said goodbye. To made it more difficult, she was due next week to go to Prescott Aerodynamics’ Chicago headquarters to give a series of presentations to the executives on the AIR230 test program.
She had given presentations at their HQ before. She felt comfortable and confident. But now, she couldn’t drive into Chicago without remembering all she shared there with Ryle.
Charlie spent the rest of the afternoon in her office. There were more reports to write and various other preparations for her trip to Chicago.
“Karen, can you print me the files for the Beech report?” Charlie asked.
“Right away,” Karen said cheerfully.
Charlie went to get herself some coffee while she waited. She walked back into her office and set the hot mug of coffee down, when there was a brief knock on her door.
“Thanks Karen, I…” Charlie stopped abruptly as she realized the tall powerful form filling the doorway was definitely not Karen.
“Hey,”
Ryle! Her knees nearly buckled. For a long moment all she could do was stare at him. He looked as incredibly attractive as she remembered. In dark jeans and a soft long sleeved brown T-shirt, his dark hair shorter than before, his azure eyes twinkling; he was the most amazing sight.
He was holding a single stem of tulip, blush pink, and wrapped with a little bow of silver gossamer ribbon.
“Charlie Brison, will you marry me?” He asked huskily, his eyes looking directly into hers.
“I…” She was suddenly blinded by tears streaming down her face. All those weeks of pain faded into the background. For now it didn’t matter why he never called. It didn’t matter why it took him so long to come back. All it mattered was that he was here. He was here and he came back to see her. And he asked her to marry him. “Yes, yes!” She choked as she stepped toward him.
He met her halfway, taking the couple of steps to pull her into his arms. His arms felt so strong and so right around her. She slipped her arms around his neck, tangling into his hair as she rose on tiptoes to kiss him. He devoured her, his mouth moving over hers hungrily, his tongue sensuously demanding. And she gave it to him, meeting his kiss with equal fervor.
“I love you.” He said against her mouth, pulling back a little to look at her. His fingers came up to gently wipe at her tears. “You are the most amazing woman I’ve ever met.”
“Oh, Ryle,” She choked, her voice husky with tears of happiness. “I love you so much.”
>
“I’m sorry it took me so long to get back.” He said, holding her against him as if he couldn’t bear to let her go. “I’ve wanted to call you a million times.”
“Why didn’t you?” She asked, trying to hide the hurt.
“The first couple of weeks I got to Paris, it was crazy and I never got a moment to myself.” Ryle told her. “And when it looked like I’ll be there for a while longer, I didn’t want to call you because then I’ll be tempted to hop on the first plane and come back here. It was a large scope project and I couldn’t afford to be distracted. I owe it that much to the company, to my business partner, and to the clients.”
She leaned back slightly so she could see his face. “Why do I have a feeling this has nothing to do with Prescott Aerodynamics?”
“You’re right. There are other things I need to explain to you.”
“More to explain? That sounds serious.” Her eyes narrowed.
“I’ll tell you when we get back to my place.” He said persuasively.
“Ryle…”
“Hey, shouldn’t you put on the ring?” He asked, handing her the flower.
“Ring?” She murmured, taking the flower. One of the overhead spotlights caught the ribbon and something flashed brilliantly. She looked closer at it and saw a ring tied to the ribbon. A large princess cut diamond solitaire, simple and elegant, and it sparkled dazzlingly under the light. “Oh, Ryle, it’s beautiful.” She said breathlessly.
“It was my mother’s.” He told her softly, taking the ring and slowly slipped it onto her finger. “We can take it in and choose a new mounting for it.”
“Thank you, it’s so beautiful.” She said.
“I’ve had that in my pocket for the last few months.” He told her. “I brought it with me to Toulouse to propose.”
“You did?” Her eyes widened.
“Yeah, I wanted to put my claim on you before I had to leave Linwood.” He grinned sheepishly. “But as it turned out I got a call that morning. And I didn’t want to propose and run out on you; I wanted to do it properly.”
“So you just left.”
“Hey, I’m sorry.” He said huskily, looking at her. “Will you forgive me?”
“Yes, I’ll forgive you.” She murmured.
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