Page 12 of That First Flight

Macey is nowhere to be found.

My mouth is salivating reading the menu of this little hole in the wall bar. The double bacon cheeseburger with a side of French fries is screaming my name. A drink also sounds really good right about now.

“How did you find me?”

A voice cuts through my thoughts of food.

Not just any voice…hervoice.

The voice that I haven’t stopped thinking about since this summer when I met her on a flight from Montana to New York.

It forces me to drop my menu and snap my head to the green-eyed beauty staring at me from across the bar.

Her black hair cascades across her shoulders and is long enough to cover her chest. Her olive skin looks sun-kissed despite it being the dead of winter. She’s still just as beautiful as I can remember.

“What are you doing here?” I ask skeptically.

“I asked a question first.”

Damn, that sass. Hot.

“But to answer your question, I thought the apron would give it away.” She smirks. “Most people who stand on this side of the bar and wear an apron are here to work.”

I bark out a laugh. “Ooh, she’s got jokes.”

A smile touches her lips and it dawns on me that I never really got a good look at her on the flight. I mean I know it’s not the easiest thing to do when you’re sitting shoulder to shoulder with someone for a few hours.

I thought Macey was beautiful then. Hell, I was even enamored by her and wanted to know more about her. However, now, sitting across from her while she stands behind the bar… it’s a whole new level.

Something was off on our flight. The more I thought about it after we got off the plane, the more I assumed it was just jitters from flying. But I still couldn’t stop thinking about it.

I never stopped thinking about her.

She adjusts her apron, the smile never leaving her face.

My eyes narrow at her. “Don’t you think this is kind of a far drive for work?”

“It’s not that bad.” She glides around the bar with ease as if she’s been here forever. “What can I get you to drink?”

I sit back on the chair, cross my arms over my chest as my eyes scan her from head to toe. I can feel an involuntary smirk form on my lips and I can’t help it. “Here I thought we were friends.”

“Ahhh, that’s right.” She nods, raising her pointer finger in the air and pulling a drinking glass from below the bar. Macey’s green eyes flicker to me, her smiling growing as she fills the cup with ice before using the soda gun to fill it. “Orange soda.”

My eyes catch a glimpse of the same dragonfly tattoo on her forearm. Her shirt isn’t as oversized as the last one she was wearing, which exposes more of her sleeve and I notice pieces of a cherry blossom peeking out of her t-shirt sleeve.

“I knew you didn’t forget about me, dragonfly.”

She shakes her head. The grin on her face hasn’t left since I saw her. “I didn’t.”

Something about her admission sends a shiver shooting through every part of my body. I didn’t forget about her. I thought about her more than I care to admit. Which is totally unlike me because I don’t think about women this much. I was annoyed as shit that I couldn’t even get her number and I thought she was just… gone when I finally got off the plane.

And now she’s here.

Standing across the bar from me.

Working in this small town where my brother bought a cabin.

“Can I get you anything to eat? Or are you only here for our stellar orange soda?”

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