Page 2 of Two Tickets to Paradise

"Cool." The guard turned away, calling into his radio as he went. "Sanchez here, what's going on?"

It turnedout that Vince's hope for a quick fix to his situation wasn't going to happen.

The more he looked for answers, the worse things looked. The storm grew in size but not power, leaving it sitting in a huge cloud over that part of the country. He'd been passed from desk to desk before deciding to take the chance and clear TSA. He knew that there was an Alaska Airlines office in the terminal where his flight was leaving from and he had a feeling that there might be a chance, as slight as it was, to get somewhere in that office.

That's how he ended up standing at a counter, his gaze fixed on a woman who was doing her best to find him a way to get to Portland, Maine in the next twenty-four hours.

And so far, she wasn't having a whole lot of success.

Almost on cue, she looked up at him and gave him a wincing smile. "Sorry, sir. I'm not having a lot of success."

He nodded and almost smiled. "Thanks for trying."

Vince picked up his ID and his wallet and started to put it away.

"Oh, I'm not done yet, sir. I have one more trick I can try."

"Trick?" He smiled and leaned back toward the counter. "What does that entail?"

She cast a side-long look at the large clock on the wall. "Well, I'm hoping she walks through that door in a moment or two."

"Okay." He felt his brow furrow a little over the bridge of his nose. "You would know better than anyone else."

She smiled and looked back down at the keyboard. "I know the schedule and you don't."

He opened his mouth to agree with her but before he could say a word, the door opened and two women stepped out. One was the definition of a blonde bombshell. Her clothes accentuated her hourglass figure and her make up added the finishing touches on what could be described as a doll-like appearance, if dolls were six-feet tall, but it was the other woman who caught and kept Vince's attention.

She was a brunette with a killer smile and fuck, he'd never actually met a woman who lit up a room when she walked in, but there she was.

Okay, so he hadn't met her yet, but there was hope.

"Corrie?"

The woman across the counter looked back at him and he was fairly sure that she'd winked at him.

The brunette started in their direction, but stopped when the blonde put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, seriously, while you're on vacation, find out if your brother is still single, hmm?"

With a slight roll of her eyes, the gorgeous brunette held out her hands in a helpless gesture. "The last thing he'd want to talk about is his personal life."

"What?" The blonde folded her arms across her chest, lifting her ample chest into what he might have considered a dazzling display, but it didn't do much for him. "I bet he'd love to comehere for a little vacation, or I could go to Hawaii and show him a good time."

The brunette covered her ears with her hands. "No. Stop." She was laughing but Vince felt like she was just trying to laugh it off, but she didn't find it funny. "Seriously," she slowly lowered her hands from her ears, "he's so busy on base with his Team. He really doesn't have a social life."

The blonde pouted and opened her mouth to say something, but the brunette was on the move.

And damn, he found himself standing a little taller the closer she came.

"Hi. I'm Cora."

He was startled at the sound of her name. He'd been focused on her since the moment she'd walked into the room, but the others had called her Corrie.

Vince frowned at the thought, murmuring under his breath. “Not Corrie…”

She darted a look at the ticketing agent on the other side of the counter. "Uh..."

The ticketing agent cleared her throat. "Corrie, sorry to bother you, especially because you're off the clock, but I could really use some help here."

Cora's eyes brightened as if the request excited her. "Oh! What's going on?"

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