Page 5 of Wedding Daddy

Grabbing the arms of her chair, she closed her eyes and prayed feverishly that they didn’t suddenly drop out of the sky and crash. Her stomach twisted and turned, and she felt faint. Out of nowhere, she felt a hand close over hers on the chair. It was warm and comforting. Like an anchor, it held her down, making her feel like nothing bad would happen if she held on to him.

“Breathe,” he whispered, and she realized she’d been holding her breath.

She gulped in air and started panting. “Easy now,” he continued in that deep, soothing voice. “Slowly breathe in and out. That’s it. That’s my girl.”

In a flash, she went from panic mode to something else entirely. Something she couldn’t put her finger on. Something she wanted to happen again. Finally, the plane was flying smoothly in the sky, and he let go of her hand. Jill fought the urge to grab it back.

“Feel better?” he asked.

She nodded. “Thank you. I know I shouldn’t, but I get really scared when we leave the ground or come back down.”

“That’s understandable. Took a while for me to get used to that unsettling feeling myself.”

“You used to be scared of flying too?”

“You sound surprised,” he said with a small chuckle.

“You don’t look scared at all. You look like you’ve been flying forever.”

“I won’t say that exactly, but I've been on my fair share of planes.”

“How long have you been flying?”

“Long enough,” he replied, holding back a smile.

She narrowed her eyes. “How old are you?”

His lips quivered as he continued to fight a smile. “Old enough.”

“That’s not an answer.” She scowled at him.

“It answers your question, doesn’t it?” He glanced at her and smiled when he saw her scowling at him. “Fine, how old are you?”

“Old enough,” she replied tongue-in-cheek, her scowl turning upside down.

“That’s not an answer.”

“It answers your question,” she said, grinning at him as they stared at each other.

It was hard to describe, but something was strange about sitting with him like this. The screen door was closed, so they were in their own private cocoon. Or maybe it was the fact that they were in the air, headed toward Italy. Why wait to get to Italy to do the things she wanted to do when she was sitting next to a gorgeous man with a voice like honey and eyes she could drown in?

So what if he was older than her and spoke to her like she was a little girl? Somehow, it made it even hotter, and she was not ready to explore why. That was something sensible Jill would do. She had left sensible Jill at the airport. This version of herself was open to taking risks, having as much fun as she could, and living life to the fullest. And that started with the man in a first-class cabin with her.

The problem was she had no idea how to do any of that. She’d only lived one way all her life, and it would be hard for her to do things differently. So instead of doing things her way, she was going to ask herself what Kim would do. If Kim found herself in a private cabin with a strange, sexy man, only one thing would be on her mind. And that would be to flirt her ass off.

“So what do you do?” he asked before she could say anything.

“Nothing for now. I just graduated from college, and I'm trying to decide what to do next. Are you married?” she blurted out.

His brows went up. “What?”

Jill’s face heated, and she almost lost her nerve. She was not good at flirting and had no idea what to do, but she was in now, and there was no going back. “You said you have a daughter, and I don’t see a wedding ring, so I’m wondering if her mother is still in the picture?”

He was quiet for a few moments, humor swimming in his eyes. “No, I’m not married. I was, but I lost my wife a few years ago.”

“Oh...” Jill groaned inwardly as her attempt to flirt got off to a terrible start. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to... I was not prying or anything. I just...” She looked down. “I wanted to know if you invited me to join you here because...”

“Because what?” he asked when she stopped talking.

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