Page 46 of A Spot of Tea
“Not at all. I’ll sit in the back. You won’t even notice me.”
“Are you sure? You won’t be able to see my good hands from there.”
She shook her head. “I’m never telling you anything ever again.”
He laughed. “You don’t mean it.”
They returned to the plane and Eliza planted herself in the back seat. She was happy to have a different view and a chance to be alone with her thoughts.
Though it was disturbing how much the bank manager seemingly had the hots for the robber, it was insightful. Eliza had assumed he was older, but she had based that off his pretending to be frail when she met him.
He wasn’t some wise old bank robber – he was a young guy. Strong, apparently, with big forearms.
Eliza hadn’t seen that in his oversized leather jacket. What else had she missed? What else had she assumed?
Russell’s agent got onto the plane, taking a seat in the front. Eliza said hello but otherwise kept to herself, still daydreaming, her mind interrogating the memories she had from that day.
They were back in the air in no time. Eliza leaned over, looking at the islands below, when she felt something pressing into her back. She shoved her hand between the seat cushions and pulled out the offending object: a brown leather tassel with gold thread.
She gasped.
“Everything okay?” Joey asked, his eyes darting back at her.
She shoved the tassel under her leg. “Good, yeah.”
There was no mistaking it. The golden thread, the dash of pink – this was the robber’s tassel.
Why was it in Joey’s plane?
Seventeen
The sea pen kept building momentum. Joey spent half his time flying Hollywood people to and from Seattle, and one had even asked if he could “drop him off in LA,” as if it were as easy as popping over a few mountains.
The flights were endless, looping back and forth like the thoughts in his mind. They circled the same thing, the same person. The same set of eyes.
On game night, he was sure Eliza had looked at him a certain way. That her intense gaze had lingered, that there wassomethingbehind those mysterious eyes.
He’d braced himself for their trip to Anacortes a few days later, sure she’d betray some sentiment he’d have to shoot down in the interest of their robber search, but bafflingly, she acted completely normal. She had no jealousy when the bank manager tried to flirt with him, going as far as to scoff at the whole thing.
It hit him like a goose getting sucked into a plane’s engine. Eliza hadn’t been looking at him any special way that night. She didn’t feel anything for him.
It washim. He was the one with the feelings.
He was the one with the problem.
Joey flew back and forth, circling this undeniable fact. It should have made him upset, but it made him feel like he was getting away with something.
Spending time with Eliza was a thrill. Every smile, every laugh sent a zing down his spine. He was the proverbial moth near the flame, close without having to risk being sucked in.
The perfect situation – until their last flight, when Eliza told him they should take a break from investigating.
“I feel like we’re not getting anywhere,” she said when they landed. “And I have guests here now and…”
His heart sank. “We can’t give up! We’re getting closer.”
“Not give up,” she said slowly. “Just take a break.”
Eliza opened the plane door and hopped out.
