Page 112 of Love Overboard
The guard pivoted and dropped to his knees. “What is wrong?”
Althea moaned. “It’s really the end this time. I’ll get to see my husbands again in heaven.” She beckoned at the clouds. “Open the pearly gates, boys. I’m coming.”
“Oh, Althea.” Emily grabbed the guard’s arm. “Help her. Do something!”
Gerry and Daisy flanked the group. They made a wall with their bodies, blocking Lacey from the guard’s view. Emily stuck her hand behind her back and jerked her thumb at the gate. Lacey hesitated only a second. She ducked under the pole and sprinted, expecting to be tackled at any moment.
“Ohhhhh, it’s the end.” Althea’s voice howled behind her.
Lacey’s feet pounded against the concrete. Good thing she’d changed her shoes. But this was insane. Would they think she was trying to hijack a plane and shoot her?
She ran past parked cars and oil drums, traffic cones, and private planes. Not a soul stopped her. Lacey slowed, stopped, and doubled over, gasping for air. She sucked in a lungful of oxygen and took off around the hangar where Jon’s car had disappeared. As she rounded the corner, she saw the sedan sitting near a small jet with the Monarch crown logo on it. The door was open and the stairs to the ground remained, but the engines whirred to life.
“Wait!” Lacey bolted forward.
Could she get the pilot’s attention? She passed the parked car and ran toward the plane. Footsteps sounded behind her. Had the guard caught up? Lacey tried to dodge, but a hand grabbed her arm and held on. She swatted at the fingers holding her sleeve as someone spun her around.
“Let me go. I have to stop—” Her body swung, and she banged against a familiar torso. She stared up into Jon’s face.
“Did you want to see me?” He observed her without a smile or a frown.
“I thought you were on the plane.”
Jon dropped her arm but didn’t move away. “I was in the car, calling my father.”
Lacey grabbed hold of him in a death grip. “You can’t go to Florida.”
“Why not?”
“Because …” She never had figured out the right words to say. “Because I’m still mad that you lied to me about who you are, and … and I need you to stay with me until I process it. I mean … no matter how angry I feel, it doesn’t change the fact that I … I—”
A commercial aircraft flew low as it approached a nearby runway. The earsplitting sound of the engines drowned out her words. The ground vibrated as the plane roared past.
Lacey tried again. “I’m sorry for how awful I was last night. You didn’t hurt me on purpose. I know that. And I raced here to tell you I—”
Another plane thundered over their heads. Lacey clapped her hands to her ears. Why was this so difficult? As soon as the plane was out of earshot, she removed them and hollered. “I love you!”
Jon’s lips parted in a tiny smile. “Whoa. You don’t have to shout about it.” He placed his hands on her waist. “Are you sure?”
Her chin bobbed. “Before we met, I never realized how happy I could be. The past two and a half years taught me how life looks without you, and I … I didn’t like it.”
“I didn’t like life without you either.”
Lacey paused and put distance between them. “Will you get in a lot of trouble if you don’t go to Florida?”
He shook his head. “I already talked with my father and said I couldn’t leave until my current cruise finished. I told him I have a girlfriend who hates it when someone doesn’t follow through on the job. That scored you Brownie points. He wants to meet you.” Jon took a small step. “I do have a girlfriend again?”
Lacey stumbled forward and wrapped her arms around his waist. “Definitely.”
He swallowed. “And you forgive me?”
Embarrassment hit her in an excruciating wave of awkwardness. She hid against his chest and nodded.
“Thank God.”
Jon placed a finger under her chin and gently tilted it. He lowered his head, and his eyes focused on Lacey’s mouth. A millisecond before he claimed it, she inched back.
“Hold on. If you aren’t quitting, then how were you planning to return to the ship?”
