Page 15 of Falling for the Enemy

She chuckled. “You aren’t seriously going to tell me that I was sleeping with my head against your shoulder?”

“Like a little baby, one with a slight snore. What’s that shampoo, tea tree? Aha, so you do blush. I wasn’t sure. Now I know. Not a bad look on you.”

She sat back and crossed her arms defensively. “I don’t snore.”

“Right. My mistake I guess.”

“Stop this.”

I looked at her. “Stop what?”

“Stop this whole ‘cool as a cucumber’ act. It’s not you. You’re supposed to be uptight and cranky and complaining. This suave confidence bit is annoying.”

I chuckled. “Right. So, you’d prefer cranky me? ‘Mr. Scrooge vibes,’ I believe you said.”

She pointed at me. “See, you’re doing it again.”

“Not doing anything. It’s just once I realized my hideous fate was sealed, I came to terms with it. That, and Holly got invited to a slumber party, which was far more exciting than a weekend with Dad.”

She had no response.

“What? No snarky reply?”

“No, I’m glad she found something fun to do. I felt bad that her weekend had been ruined. And yes, a slumber party with friends is about the number one fun thing you can do on a weekend.”

“I guess someday going anywhere and doing anything with her dad will be cringe-worthy.”

Another jumble of turbulence caused more tension amongst the passengers. The woman with the open window shade pulled it abruptly down when a lightning bolt flashed incredibly close to the plane. Ava reached under the collar of her shirt and pulled out the silver chain that had been tucked inside of it. She fingered a medallion with a carving of a Celtic cross. She spotted me staring as she rubbed it between her fingers.

She lifted it higher for me to see. “A good luck charm from my grandmother. She believed heavily in magic and spirituality. She had so many superstitions. Sometimes my sisters and I would avoid touching the saltshaker for fear that some of it might spill. And don’t get me started on days when a magpie landed unwittingly in our yard. She knew I loved adventure, so she left me her good luck charm. Her last words to me were ‘Never leave home without the necklace. It’ll see you safely through whatever the world has in store for you.’ So far, so good.” She tucked the necklace under her shirt.

“Interesting. A scientist who believes in the power of a good luck charm. Goes a little against our kind, doesn’t it?”

She twisted in her seat to see me better. “There’s always room for magic. Even in the world of science. The birth of a baby elephant—have you witnessed it firsthand?”

“I have not.”

“Well, it’s nothing short of magical.”

“Uh, I beg to differ, or should I give you a short lesson on the birds and bees?”

“Don’t need any lessons from you. The northern lights—yes, I know about the interaction between the sun’s particles and Earth’s electric fields, yada yada yada, but you must admit, they are nothing short of magical.” She waited for my response. I had none.

Her chin dropped. “Do you mean to tell me you’ve never seen the northern lights? What the heck have you been doing all your life?”

“Some of us had more important things to do—like raise a family. Excuse me if I couldn’t take time away from my responsibilities to gallivant around the world in my hiking sandals, sprinkling magic over everything with my lucky medallion.”

She sat back. “And there he is—ole Ebenezer himself. Now I kind of miss the other guy, even if he did set my teeth on edge. Have you been to Costa Rica?”

“Now you’re just being condescending. Of course, I’ve been there.” The seatbelt sign went off.

“Uh, Professor Lovely,” a voice said from behind. Ava’s quiet and more tolerable student leaned down to talk across me to Ava. “Norman just ran to the bathroom. The turbulence made him nauseous. He told me he has extreme motion sickness, and this was only his second plane ride. The first one was just an hour long.”

Ava blew out an exasperated sigh. “So many things he should have told me before we set out on this trip. Thanks for letting me know, Evan, and thanks for, you know, putting up with him. How is the smell?”

I looked over at Ava. “The smell?”

Evan knew what she meant. “It dissipated after a few hours, but I couldn’t eat the meal because I kept tasting it. Any chance we’ll stop to eat after we land?”

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