Page 122 of That First Flight

The two people who are the center of my world.

The flight attendant cuts through my thoughts and it feels like déjà vu but with a new woman. Her eyes take their time to scan Oliver in his seat, shamelessly flirting with her eyes. Every muscle in my body tightens.

“Good morning, sir,” she purrs. “Can I get you anything to drink?”

“Ladies first,” he says as his eyes land on mine. His infectious soft smile relaxing the tension I was just feeling.

“I’ll take a soda. Thank you.”

Oliver looks back at the woman. “And I’ll have an orange soda.”

She nods and winks at him before retreating to the back of the plane.

“Some things never change.” I laugh.

The grin on Oliver’s lips never falters when he looks at me. He picks up my hand, clasping it between his palms. I’m sure he can feel how clammy they are under his touch.

He lifts my hand to his lips and presses a delicate kiss to the top of my fingers. “And some things do.”

My heart beats like a drum in my chest because I get exactly what he means.

“The last time we were in this spot,” Oliver continues. “You were a stranger to me. Someone I was insanely intrigued by, might I add. I don’t know how the stars aligned for me. I don’t know what I did to deserve them putting you back in my life, but I’ll always be thankful that some things have changed for the better.”

I swallow past the dryness forming in my throat. “I’m not so sure I deserve it either.”

“One day, I’m going to change that mindset of yours.” He huffs out a laugh.

I tilt my head to the side in question. “What do you mean?”

“When you say you don’t deserve it. Because, Macey Evans”—he releases a long drawn out sigh—“you deserve the entire fucking universe. It makes me see red when I think that anyone in the world made you believe you didn’t. It makes me want to go on a rampage when I think of anyone that made you feel less than who you really are deep down.”

Tears threaten to spill as I stare unblinking at him before I finally mutter, “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“You’ve never made me feel less than. You’ve never made me feel… broken.”

“That’s because you’re not, babe.”

The wordbabeslips off his lips so easily and coincidentally the same time the flight attendant returns with our drinks. This time her uniform shirt a little more unzipped in the front to make a show of her chest for him. But from the look in her eyes, she heard him call me babe and realized that she’s lost her shot.

She hands us our drinks with a fake smile and not a word spoken before she scurries away.

“She was totally checking you out.” I laugh.

“Was she?”

My eyes widen. “I don’t know how you could’ve possibly missed that. Even the zipper on her shirt was extra undone.”

Oliver runs his hands down his face and lets a groan slip free. “Jesus, that’s hot.”

My stomach does a flip despite all the words just poured out of him before this. I can’t help but wonder if I’m reading everything all wrong. Anxiety that I haven’t felt in a long time comes rushing back in.

Feeling his words is like a stab to the gut and the tears I kept at bay now pool in my eyes, forcing me to avert my gaze out the window.

Oliver whips my head back to him by gripping my chin. I blink rapidly, hoping he doesn’t see the jealousy in my eyes.

“You, Macey. Your possessiveness and jealousy over me.” He grins. “That’swhat’s hot.”

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