Her breath hitched. “Of course I do, but you’re just teasing me.”
“Nope, I’m serious.”
“Okay.” She glanced down at her casual pants and t-shirt. Did she have time to change?
“There’s a catch though. I need a huge favor.”
She laughed. “You want me to fly to Dallas?”
He chuckled. “Any time you want to, but not this time. This time, I’m coming there.”
She smiled into the phone, but kept her voice calm. “Alright.”
“They need to see my birth certificate up here for something. Insurance, I think. My mom had to go to work, but she put it in an envelope and taped it to her back door. If I send you the address, can you go get it, then meet me at the airport? I was thinking it would be a good excuse to see you.”
She bit her lip. “Sure.” She checked the time. It was only nine o’clock, so she had plenty of time. Even time to get home, change clothes, and maybe stop by the Dry Bar to get her hair styled.
They set up the details, and she shut down her computer. She was thankful she had a job that was based on commission, leaving her free to come and go.
While the taxi driver waited, she changed into some jeans and a new green sweater to match her eyes. She threw some makeup in a bag and rushed back to the taxi. Since Samuel had been driving her around, she’d gotten in the habit of using taxis instead of Ubers. He had given her about twenty reasons why she should stick to taxis.
After she had her hair washed and blow dried, she went into their restroom and took extra care with her makeup. She was so excited about this unexpected visit from Samuel that her hands were shaking as she applied mascara.
It was such a wonderful surprise. She’d resigned herself to a boring, lonely week, and Friday couldn’t get here soon enough. Maybe this long-distance thing could work. Sure, he was coming to pick something up, but still, he was coming. She didn’t have to wait all week to see him again.
She called another taxi and gave him the address Samuel had texted her. Today was one day she was second-thinking her no-driving thing. Maybe she would have to looking into getting a car. Especially with a baby coming. She was going to need a car seat and who knew what else. Yes, she was definitely going to start looking for a car after the new year.
She asked the driver to wait while she got out at Samuel’s house. It was a new two-story modern house with a well-manicured lawn. She went around back and stopped to study the pool and the little house on the other side of it where Samuel lived. If the taxi driver hadn’t been waiting for her, she would have peeked through one of his windows. Not in a creepy way, just to catch a glimpse of the way the man she couldn’t stop thinking about lived.
She would be meeting his family in four days. Just four days. In the meantime, she could focus on being productive. It certainly wouldn’t hurt her career to have her weeks free to do nothing but work. She’d take a lunch to work and stay at her desk all day. Immersed in her work, maybe she wouldn’t miss him quite so much.
Chapter 43
Danielle sat in the back seat of the taxi, Samuel’s birth certificate tucked safely in her handbag as they approached George Bush Intercontinental Airport. The driver took her around to the Signature Flight Support building. She was familiar with this type of private area. Unlike commercial flights, she would be allowed to wait for him in the lobby.
She’d loved airports since she was a kid, probably because her father loved airports and airplanes and anything related to flying. His exuberance had been contagious and had become a part of her as well.
Still, she had butterflies in her stomach. It had been five days since she’d seen Samuel, though they’d talked on the phone daily. He would only stay long enough for them to eat lunch, then he’d be on his way back to Fort Worth.
After arriving at her building, she paid the driver and entered the lobby. It smelled like fresh-baked cookies and popcorn. She smiled at the nostalgia associated with private lobbies over the years from flying with her dad.
She was early, so his plane wasn’t there yet. She took a seat where she could watch the incoming planes.
She thought of Samuel now as her boyfriend, though it was going against her rule about not dating pilots. She supposed that since she’d made the rule, she could break it.
Her father and Savannah made it work. Surely she and Samuel could also. How many men would be willing to raise another man’s baby?
She shook her head. She was getting ahead of herself. He’d offered to help her out, he certainly hadn’t committed to raising the baby as his own.
She recognized the plane coming in from pictures he’d shown her before it even landed. The single black stripe down the tail distinguished it from the others. She stood up and leaned against the window to be able to see him the minute he stepped from the plane.
The sky was a beautiful clear blue dome today; a perfect day for flying. He’d promised to take her up this weekend, probably Saturday, since they were having lunch with his family on Sunday. She reached inside her handbag and pulled out the envelope with his birth certificate.
She grinned as he stepped from the plane. He was wearing black pants and a white oxford shirt, the uniform her father insisted on. It was the first time she’d seen him in uniform, and her heart skipped erratically.
After he stepped from the plane, he turned and helped an attractive woman with long wavy brunette hair, looking to be about their age, step from the plane. The woman had on shades, heels, and wore a red trench coat over a short skirt. Once the two of them were on the ground, she took his hand, and they faced each other. They were too far away, but it looked like they were talking. She couldn’t see Samuel’s face, but the girl looked serious, then smiled.
Then they hugged. A long hug. Danielle held her breath, but even when she had to breathe, they still hugged for a few more seconds.
And then the girl stretched up and kissed him. Danielle couldn’t tell if she kissed him on the cheek or the lips. As they turned and walked toward the limo that had pulled up, she slipped her hand around his elbow, their heads bent close in conversation. She kissed him on the cheek before he relinquished her to the care of the limo driver. He watched as the car drove off.
Stunned, Danielle watched as he walked back to the plane to speak to one of the line crew before approaching the lobby. She was trembling, and her thoughts were completely incoherent.
Her ears ringing, she sat on the nearest chair. She stared at the door he would be coming through shortly.
Samuel came through the lobby door a couple minutes later and quickly spotted her. A wide smile on his face, he strode toward her.
She sat, frozen, watching him walk toward her.
He stopped in front of her, and his smile disappeared. “What’s wrong?” He held out a hand to help her up.
She flinched away. “No,” she breathed.
“Danielle, what is it?”
“No.” She stood up, threw the envelope at his feet, and practically ran toward the exit. The tears were blinding her.
“Danielle. Wait.” He followed, quickly catching up with her.
He grabbed her arm. She could barely see him through the tears. She jerked away. “Leave me alone.” She turned and hurried down the hallway, ignoring the people who stopped to stare at her.
When she was outside, she stood pressed against the wall until she could catch her breath. She’d been wrong about him.
He was no different from the others. No different from Joey. No different from Richard, who’d broken her heart when she was in high school. No different from other pilots who had relationships with flight attendants and passengers. She’d been so gullible. So desperate to be loved, that she’d believed him.
She had believed that he was different.
But he was like all the rest.
Chapter 44
Annabelle Lawson had a crush on Samuel since she was twelve years old. She was sixteen now, but Samuel would bet his life that she could get into
any club with absolutely no problem. Her grandfather, Nathaniel Shannon, had doted on her – a hundred times over the level of doting on his daughter, so it was off the charts. Nathaniel lived in Houston, where he made millions running a company called Steri-Waste – medical waste removal and recycling. His daughter married a man who ran a big oil company in Dallas, so Nathaniel bought a couple of airplanes that he didn’t know how to fly.
He’d gone to Louisiana Tech University and asked the flight director if he knew any recent graduates who could fly him around. Samuel’s chief flight instructor had automatically called Samuel, who’d jumped at the opportunity. He’d logged countless hours flying both Nathaniel and Annabelle back and forth between Houston and Dallas. Nathaniel had preferred flying over driving, so he had kept Samuel busy, and he paid well. Samuel had saved his money, and now, at age twenty-five, he’d bought his first airplane.
As Nathaniel’s flight schedule slowed and Annabelle got caught up in high school cheerleading… and boys, Samuel began looking around for other options. He was in no hurry, and didn’t want to leave Houston, but when a job with Noah Worthington opened up, he had no choice but to take it. In Samuel’s opinion, it was even better than getting on with a major airline.
But now Nathaniel was dying. Annabelle had called him in tears asking for a flight to Houston. The timing couldn’t have been better. He’d done what he could to distract her, but she was devastated. He’d given her his sunshades to cover her swollen eyes.
He’d probably never see Annabelle again until she booked with Skye Travels some day when she was grown up. Even if then, it would be a long time. She was planning to go to university in Europe.
He watched as Danielle took the first taxi away from the airport. Had she seen him hug Annabelle? Was that what this was all about? If so, it was just a misunderstanding. He needed to follow. Would she go home or to the office? Didn’t matter. He’d find her.
His phone chimed.
Damn. It was Noah. He needed him back ASAP.
Chapter 45
Danielle sat in the back of the taxi and stared out the window. She watched the traffic and the buildings of downtown approaching. She wiped her cheeks and batted back the tears that threatened to spill out.
She just needed to get home to her apartment and close out the world.
She’d had nothing good happen since she’d moved here. She’d gotten pregnant with the cheating boyfriend that she’d moved here to be with. She fallen in love with a pilot who’d moved away and now had cheated on her as well.
She’d spent enough years in therapy that she should know how to handle any crisis.
The words of her therapist came back to her with absolute clarity. If your life isn’t going the way you want it to, do something different. Think back to when things were good and try to recreate some of the good things that were working for you.
Los Angeles. When she was in L.A. living with her mother, her life was good. She made better decisions.
She didn’t fall in love in a matter of days. She dated and moved on. Or took her time with a long-term boyfriend. The fact that he eventually cheated didn’t factor into her equation. He cheated in Houston, not L.A.
There was nothing here for her in Houston. She had no real reason to be here.
That was the answer. She would go home.
She laid her head back against the seat and concentrated on the things she needed to do to move. She would have to get out of her lease. But she was pregnant. That shouldn’t be a problem. Extenuating circumstances.
She would quit her job. Either quit or she could work from L.A. Besides one meeting a week, she never saw anyone else at the company anyway. She could work better from the study next to her bedroom. It was much more conducive to creativity than the sterile office environment where she worked now.
Why hadn’t she considered that before? She’d been grieving the loss of Joey, then Samuel had come into her life and clouded her thoughts.
She would have her mother and Grayson to help with her baby.
A smile fluttered about the corner of her lips as she realized that she and her mother could raise their babies together. They would be like siblings.
Stranger things had happened.
She let herself into her apartment. She would gather up her personal items, pack a suitcase, and call a moving company to ship everything else she needed back to L.A. The apartment had come furnished, so she didn’t have furniture or appliances to deal with. The apartment had been easy to move into and would be easy to move out of.
Without looking back, she turned and walked to the apartment office. Thirty minutes later, she was free. She had until the end of the month to get out.
She could be out by this time tomorrow.
She got on the phone and arranged the moving company and set up a flight out for tomorrow afternoon. It would have been so very much easier to just call her father and have him come get her.
But she wasn’t ready to tell him.
She felt like her life was a total wreck, and she didn’t want him to know just yet how bad things were going for her.
Tomorrow morning, she would go to work and talk to her boss about either quitting or working from L.A. All she had to do was to tell them she was pregnant. Everyone so far had reacted in such a cooperative way. Pregnancy was like a golden ticket to getting whatever she needed.
She hauled one suitcase onto the bed and began packing her clothes. After a few minutes, she rolled out her large suitcase. Just about everything she owned was going to fit in these two suitcases.
Her phone rang while she was in her closet gathering up shoes. She recognized the ring tone. It was Samuel. She didn’t answer.
A few minutes later, her phone indicated that he’d left a message. He rarely left messages. He said he always managed to bungle them up.
As she pulled underwear from the dresser, she got a text. She ignored that, too.
She had nothing to say to Samuel Johnson and didn’t want to hear anything he had to say.
She was done. She was going to take herself and her baby out of here.
By sundown, she had two suitcases standing by her front door and yellow sticky notes on everything she wanted to have shipped. Her Apple TV, a painting she’d brought with her, and a few other things.
She pulled out a trash bag and emptied the refrigerator. As she dragged it out to the trash bin at the curb, her phone rang again.
She went back inside and looked around. Everything was done.
She took a glass of orange juice from the refrigerator, one of the few things left, and went to sit on her sofa next to the teddy bear Samuel had made for her - Pappa. With his little flight suit and goggles, wearing a little stuffed camera around his neck.
What she wouldn’t give for glass of wine right now.
She put her feet on the sofa and picked up the baby name book she and Samuel had spent so much time highlighting and laughing about. There were times she’d forgotten, and it had felt like it was their baby she was carrying.
She was exhausted. She remembered how he’d cooked for her while she rested. But Samuel wasn’t there to make dinner. Or rub her feet.
Those days were over. Yet she was surrounded by reminders of him.
With the baby name book in her lap, she unlocked her phone and played back her messages.
Chapter 46
As Samuel taxied down the runway at Dallas Fort Worth Airport, he checked his phone. His only message was from Noah.
Nothing from Danielle.
He called her number, but she didn’t answer.
“Danielle, it’s me. I really need to talk to you. Please call me back.” He paused. He hated leaving messages. Once something was said, it couldn’t be taken back. “I’m confused about what happened. Noah called me back to Dallas. I didn’t know what to do, so I’m back here to see what he needs. But anyway I’ll call back as soon as I know. I hope you’re okay.”
Irritated now that he hadn’t been able to follow
Danielle, he went into Noah’s office with a scowl on his face.
“Where have you been?” Noah asked.
“I just flew to Houston to pick up my birth certificate.”
“Oh. Ok.” Noah frowned at him. “And?”
“And I had plans to eat lunch with Danielle when you called me back.” He left out the part about where she had run away from him in tears for some reason he could only guess about. Yet, the more he thought about it and replayed the whole thing in his mind, the more he realized that she must have misconstrued his interactions with Annabelle. He had to fix this. He had to make this right.
Noah relaxed. “It’s okay. She’s used to the pilot’s schedule.”
Exactly. Noah missed the whole point. The pilot’s schedule was the major thing she didn’t like about him. That and his hug with Annabelle.
“You have something on your cheek.” Noah pointed out.
Samuel rubbed his cheek and came away with red lipstick on his fingertips. He groaned. He’d forgotten that Annabelle had kissed him.
This was not good. He had to fix this.
“I think she’s upset. I need to go to her. To fix this.”
“Does this have anything to do with a girl named Annabelle?”
Samuel blinked and had nothing to say. “I saw the flight logs. You can have tomorrow off to fix it.”
“Thank you, sir.” And that was exactly why Noah had endeared himself to the pilots who worked for him. “What did you need?”
“I need you to take a client to Phoenix.”
“Now?”
Noah smiled. “Welcome to my world. You’ll be back late.”
Chapter 47
Danielle sat holding her phone with her face in the teddy bear’s fur. She was crying so hard that she could barely breathe. The person she needed the most wasn’t there.
He’d apologized, though he said he didn’t know what it was he had done. She hadn’t answered. Not a single text or phone call.
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