Page 53 of In Flight

He’s reaching up to put his suitcase in the compartment, but he sits down before he takes off his suit coat. He’s turned halfway in his seat so he’s facing me. “River, what the hell is going on?”

“Nothing! I’m sorry.” A couple of tears slip out of my eyes—relief and an overflow of my earlier emotion. “I’m fine.”

“You’re not fine. You’re crying.”

“I’m not crying!” I have to swipe away one more stray tear that’s providing evidence to the contrary of my claim.

“Has something happened?” He’s shrugging out of his jacket now and pulling his tie looser. “Is your family okay?”

“My family is fine. It’s nothing like that at all.”

He frowns, his eyes narrowed and his breathing louder than normal.

“I’m fine! Everything is fine! Stop pestering me about it. I wasn’t even sure you were going to show up.” I’m trying to keep my tone laid-back, but the last sentence is a mistake.

Isaac’s expression changes.

“Stop!” I swat at his shoulder lightly. “Stop that right now!”

“Stop what?” He laughingly defends himself against my swatting.

“Stop thinking whatever you’re thinking. Because you’re wrong!”

“Am I? Because it sure sounds like maybe you were upset that I might not be here.”

“It wasn’t that at all. I said you’re wrong!”

He’s still laughing as he deals with my indignant hand waves by wrapping both arms around me in a slightly awkward hug over the armrest. “I’m sorry I was late,” he murmurs.

It’s impossible to maintain my exasperation in the face of his warm chuckle and soft hug.

I press my face against his shirt and mumble, “I wasn’t upset about that.”

“Uh-huh.”

“You’re being way too smug.”

“Okay. I’ll work on that.”

“Good.” I sniff. He smells like Isaac—that familiar mingling of clean and natural. “It’s just that it wouldn’t have been the first time a guy slept with me and disappeared off the planet.”

“What? Who did that to you?”

“It was years ago.”

“I’d still like their names.”

I pull away, checking his expression and relieved that it’s teasing. “It only happened twice.”

“Two times too many.”

“I think so too.”

“You didn’t really think I was like that, did you?”

“Well, no. Not at all. But I’ve been wrong before. I’ve been trying to be a lot smarter than I used to be, but there’s still a chance I could get things really wrong again.”

“You didn’t get anything wrong about me. I got held up in a meeting that went long and had to race to get here on time. I would have texted you to let you know, but you’ve never given me your number.”

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