Page 59 of Letting it Ride

“Cam!”

I yelp as something hard connects with my shin, making me drop my grip on the sheets altogether. They pull away from me as Addie stands up and wraps herself in one of them, leaving me stark naked and very much awake on the mattress.

“You are the worst morning person ever,” she grumbles, taking my sheets with her as she heads toward the coffee pot.

I drowsily rub my eyes. “Why did you kick me?”

“So you’d let me go. I need coffee.” Addie isn’t much of a morning person today, either.

“Why are you awake?”

“Flight home.” She presses the button, and the noise of the brewing coffee pot fills the room.

I place a pillow over my lap as I sit up and reach for the coffee Addie hands me. We sit together in silence with the steaming paper cups.

“Do you need to take a shower?” I manage to form a complete sentence once I finish my first cup and the caffeine starts to hit my bloodstream.

Addie shakes her head. “I’m good. I’m justgoing to put my hair up for the plane ride.” She takes the last sip. “More coffee?” She gestures with the cup.

I hand her my now very empty one. “Always.”

I watch her walk across the room, still wrapped in the sheet. Is there anything sexier than a woman with hair mussed by sex, that pink tinge to her cheeks, and knowing that you’re the one that got her there?

I feel a strange sense of pride, and at the same time, longing. I need her again.

Addie turns around, a full cup of coffee in hand. “Oh, no you don’t.”

“What?” I ask innocently.

She comes back to stand next to the bed but holds the cup just out of my reach. “We don’t have time to have sex again. We’ll miss our flight. And our track record for getting places on time is not great this vacation.” She drops her voice to a whisper. “But if you want to join the mile high club, I might be up for that.”

That wakes me right up. Talk about good motivation. “Fine. Give me the coffee and I’ll get up.”

She smirks. “It’ll be in the bathroom. Time to get out of bed, sunshine.”

There are two types of people.

The kind that get to the airport two hours early to check in and get through security, even when you’re not checking bags, and the kind that don’t want to wait at the gate and figure that getting there just before they close the plane doors is bordering on too early.

I’m a generally laid-back guy, but airport schedules aren’t known for being flexible. I like to get there ahead of time, relax in the airport, maybe get an overpriced snack while I wait.

Addie is looking at me like I’m crazy, though, now that we’re standing in front of the departures board and she realizes when our plane is scheduled to take off. “Our flight isn’t for another twohours?” she says, incredulous.

“An hour and forty minutes.” Perfect timing, if you ask me.

We got here just before noon. I’ve known Addie long enough to know she’s a last-minute kind of flier, so I told her our flight was at noon. There’s no way we would have made it on time if I’d told her we were really leaving at two. We’d be standing here at 1:55 on the dot.

“What the hell do we do for that long?” she sputters.

I nudge her with my hip. “We relax. Drinkcoffee. Or wine, if you want. Have lunch. Go to the bookstore or something. Whatever we want.”

Addie rolls her eyes at me. “I knew I should have double checked what time we had to leave.”

“You would have had us rushing and stressed. This way is better, trust me.” I sling an arm over her shoulder as we walk down the hallway of the terminal and toward the food court.

Addie perks up once she realizes there are conch fritters available here. We snack on the fried seafood while Addie has a glass of wine and I have a Coke. It’s barely past noon, but time doesn’t seem to matter when you’re in an airport.

There’s still an hour until our flight after we finish eating. We peruse a bookstore, where I pick up a new mystery and Addie gets a book of crosswords, along with a pen.

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