Flight of Her Life
Page 7
She listened to him splutter for a second or two.
“And, another thing…I quit.”
She tapped the screen of her phone with her broken acrylic nail and gave a satisfied huff as the screen went blank. She tucked the ugly diamond ring into its box, dumped it into the bottom of her handbag, and let out a long, relieved sigh. When she got to where she was going, wherever that might be, she’d send it secure delivery right back to Phillip’s mother.
She leaned back in her chair, the trembling of emotions calmed, stilled. She’d just completely trashed her entire life plan. Thank God.
The call for her flight was announced over the intercom just as she stood up. She walked with determination to her gate, shoulders back, chin up and waited in line for the passengers to filter through. By the time she had explained to the attendant she had changed her mind and required her luggage to be removed from the flight, and the attendant had explained in return the likelihood was she wouldn’t be getting her luggage back until the New Year, the concourse was virtually empty.
She started to re-trace her steps, caught sight of a long, lean cowboy as he stood up from the last seat in the row, and removed his Stetson, a wry quirk to his mouth. His thick, dark hair lending contrast to his bright blue eyes.
Her heart thundered and the raging torrent rushing through her brain deafened her to everything but him.
She raised a hand, released the band restricting her hair and let it ping across the floor. With a quick shake of her head, she allowed her hair to tumble around her shoulders, and she couldn’t help the smile spreading wide as she plucked the small piece of mistletoe out of her pocket. She’d found it stuck to the bottom of her foot when she’d left his bedroom the night before. She held it above her head and took a step toward him, and then another, the intro to “Santa Baby” starting to play in her head.
He dipped his hand into the inside pocket of his coat and withdrew his boarding card. He held it up, and with her twenty/twenty contact lens vision, she could see the word Maui clearly printed.
Her smile stumbled to a halt, Marilyn stopped singing, and a finger of doubt poked at her. She chewed her bottom lip. After all this, it appeared he was going to Maui anyway.
He slipped his fingers across the card, fanned it out, and a second one appeared behind it. A slow smile stretched across his face and his eyes crinkled at the edges as he patted his chest with his free hand.
“Just for a moment there…when you went to the desk, you gave me one hell of a fright. You nearly stopped my heart, darlin’.”
She stepped up to him, slipped her free arm around his waist and held the mistletoe above their heads as she touched her lips to his.
“What would you have done if I’d gone?”
“Waited until you came back.”
She placed her cheek on his heart and rested it there.
“Sebastian.” The word barely made it through her throat.
It was difficult to fathom how much this beautiful, quiet cowboy loved her. Enough to let her go. Enough to wait forever for her. Humbled, she squeezed him tight with the realization she would never keep him waiting again.
She smiled up at him, cupped his cheek with her hand, and then stood on tiptoe to touch her lips against his again.
“I love you.”
He smiled and wrapped his arms around her, drawing her in close.
“I know. You just needed a little time to realize.” He took her mouth with his warm, inviting one for a whole minute before he withdrew, to take her hand in his. “How about the flight of your life? Maui for Christmas?”
Happily, she trotted along beside him.
“I have no clothes. I only have suits and heels in my case, which I may never see again.”
“Barefoot and naked is fine with me.”
“Do I have time to pick up some bikinis?”
He glanced at his watch.
“Sure. We have forty minutes before we have to board.”
He’d cut it close. She smiled broadly, happy tremors scampering through her veins as she scuttled to keep up with his long-legged stride, taking them past the other gates with queues of passengers.
Nothing could go wrong now.
She withdrew her hand from his, adjusted her purse on her shoulder, and caught sight of a little old lady, standing in front of a Christmas tree. She was dressed in tweed and had a fox fur draped around her neck and huge owl-like eyes staring straight at her.
It occurred to Bailey that perhaps she should apologize to the woman. She turned her head as they quickly passed on by, and then she looked behind her, still holding eye contact with the old lady. She craned her neck, wondering whether she had time to stop and go back to her.
Her body hit the rail of one of the moving walkways; the forward motion spun her around, her feet flicked from underneath her and her breath whooshed out in a loud grunt as her ass hit the floor. She faced in the direction she had come. The moving walkway slowly carried her away from the old lady, whose face was crinkled from edge to edge. Her mouth opened in a toothless maw as she bent over, cradled her stomach and guffawed. The white lights of the Christmas tree appeared to surround her in a twinkling halo.
Bailey craned her neck and gazed up at the handsome cowboy, who gave a small shake of his head, and a wry smile.
“Whoops.”
»»•««
Sebastian plucked the champagne saturated denim material from his thigh, and thanked the Lord it wasn’t hot coffee. He closed his eyes briefly and couldn’t help the wide grin that spread across his face.
“I only asked if you would marry me. I realize now I should have waited until you were naked and flat out in my bed. It seems to be the only place we’re both safe.”
He glanced sideways at her, and his heart gave a swift jolt as he stared into soft brown eyes, overflowing with tears. Dear God, the woman had the ability to fell him with a look.
“…if you don’t want to.” He gave a casual shrug as pain filled his chest and doubt edged into his heart.
“Don’t want to?” She wriggled around, kneeled on the airplane seat, and turned to face him, a wide smile plastered across her face as she swiped a tear from her cheek.
“What will Daddy say?”
“I’m not asking your daddy. I’m asking you.”
She gave an unladylike snort. “Well, then, the answer is a definite yes.” She made an attempt to leap into his arms and gave a pained grunt as the seat belt jerked her to a halt. She let out a disgusted huff, flicked the seatbelt undone, wrenched the armrest upright and launched herself at him, touching the end of her nose to the tip of his.
“After all, he knows I’ve spent a month in Maui with his right hand man, he’s going to have a shotgun aimed at you when you take me home.” She placed a delicious kiss on his open lips and made him squirm in his seat.
“He won’t need it, if you slip this onto your finger before we land, I might not get hurt.”
Her small gasp of delight filled his heart until it throbbed against his ribs.
The delicate ruby ring fit to perfection as he slid it onto her finger. The very same ring she had admired at the jewelers in Maui the first week they had arrived.
Her smile stretched even further and she leaned forward to kiss him again.
“I love the ring. I love you.” She placed her lips against his ear and feathered a breath across his skin “…and I would love to marry you.”
“What about your job? You wanted to be in the city.”
She stroked her finger down his cheek.
“I don’t want to go back to the city. I wasn’t myself there. I never realized how much I missed home. Besides, Joey Fontaine said if I ever wanted to join his practice as a junior lawyer back home, I’d have a great chance of making partner in a few years.”
He stroked her wild hair back from her sun-kissed skin and closed his eyes as she dipped in for a tender kiss.
Her knee pressed against the seat button and his chair back jerked
all the way down flat, sending Bailey sprawling across his chest and almost over the top of him as his skull whacked against the head-rest. He cautiously opened his eyes to gape at a grinning Bailey. Rolling his head backward he came face to face with the passenger whose lap his head-rest resided on. Huge owl-like eyes stared back at him in horrified fascination. The old woman opened her toothless mouth and said.
“Whoops.”
About the Author
Diane Saxon lives in the Shropshire countryside in England with her tall, dark, handsome husband, two gorgeous daughters, a Dalmatian, a one-eyed kitten, a ginger cat, six chickens, and a gorgeous black Labrador puppy called Beau—a name she’s borrowed for her hero in For Heaven’s Cakes.
After working for years in a demanding job, on-call and traveling great distances, Diane gave it all up to write when her husband said, “Follow that dream.”
Having been hidden all too long, her characters have burst forth demanding plot lines of their own, and she’s found the more she lets them, the more they’re inclined to run wild.
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