Page 99 of Take Me Away, Cowboy

“You need to get the hell down from there right now before we have you arrested,” a TSA agent said, sliding up next to Owen with his hand on his side piece. Owen nodded, jumped off the platform, but looked to the crowd. They parted for him. He laughed, made a whoop of his own and ran as far as he could through the line, his fellow passengers cheering him on. He made it to the front of the line and a ticket agent waved him over, a broad smile on her face.

“You just made my day, sir,” she told him.

“Thanks. Can I get a ticket to Turks and Caicos?”

She shook her head. “International flights need an hour out to book,” she told him, her smile fading.

“That’s fine,” he told her, “just get me anywhere close to her gate.” That was all it took for her to start clicking away on her keyboard.

“My lousy boyfriend. Bought me a pack of gum the other day, said he was thinking about me. Wait till I tell him this story,” she muttered half to herself, half to Owen. He smiled politely, but his foot tapped with all the energy he wanted to spend chasing down Paige.

Finally, she handed over his ticket.

“Good luck,” she called after him. He waved back at her, his luck turning for the better when the line for security was a quarter what it was at the ticket counter. Even that line must have known him from his speech because he was met with “Good luck” and “Go get her” as folks let him pass.

He thanked them as he ran up to the TSA agent, flashing his boarding pass that he only just noticed was going to Topeka, Kansas.

Ha.Not if he could help it.

With barely enough time to realize it, Owen was through the last obstacle between him and Paige. All the pent-up worry and energy flooded his system and he took off in a dead sprint towards her gate—A22, according to the ticketing agent. He pulled up to the gate just as they announced final boarding to Turks and Caicos.

“I need to talk to someone on that flight,” he said, breathless with beads of sweat on his brow.

“Do you have a ticket?”

He could only shake his head and show her the ticket he did have.

“I bought this so I could come back here, ask the woman of my dreams not to leave. Please. I need to talk to her.” His voice cracked, and the rest of his veneer almost did too when she told him she was sorry, there wasn’t anything she could do, and would he please move to the side, a passenger was heading towards them.

He shook his head, refusing to admit defeat.

It couldn’t end this way, it couldn’t. He’d go to customer service, change his flight to the next one out to Turks, but how would he find her when he got there? His heart started to crack at all the broken places. He and Paige had gone through so much to get them to this point, and now because of a technicality it was over?

No.He wouldn’t accept it.

“Excuse me,” he heard from behind him.

There it was.

The voice that he’d ran all this way to hear. He turned and looked down at Paige, standing there, looking frustrated as she dug through her bag. His pulse slowed; his breathing regulated. A rogue tear fell on his cheek.

“I know it’s in here,” she mumbled. “Maybe I left it in the bathroom?” She sighed, then looked up and gasped. “Owen,” she whispered, dropping her whole bag to the ground.

“Miss, we need to finish the boarding process,” the gate agent said.

Both Owen and Paige’s hands shot up in a way that would have made Marge proud. They laughed.

“What are you—” she began.

“I wanted to tell you—” he started at the same time. He gestured to her to continue.

“What are you doing here, Owen?”

“This,” he answered, grabbing her cheeks in his palms and bringing his head down to hers. His lips found hers willing and open, and as soon as he tasted her, tears came rolling down his cheeks. She pulled away and dabbed at them. “I love you, Paige, and I don’t want you to go,” he told her, drying his eyes with one sleeve, the other hand unable to move from Paige’s skin.

“I love you, too, Owen, but I don’t know what to do. I don’t think I would hate staying, but what if I did? How could I tell you goodbye again?”

He laughed, choking out a sob at the end.

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