Page 52 of Away With You
“He said he’d send a car. I thought he meant an Uber.”
My bestie throws her head back and laughs, a full-belly chuckle. “Katie, when are you going to learn? That man is throwing out all the stops to impress you, and you think he’s sending some lowly Uber driver to get you?”
“I don’t know. It’s all too much.” I pat my stomach to settle the butterflies who are dancing at her words. “And stop saying things like that. It’s putting all the wrong ideas in my head.”
“Wrong in this case is open to interpretation,” she replies with a toothy grin.
“Fine, whatever.” I give up and grab a suitcase by a handle, lamenting how many trips it’s going to take me to get all these bags down all these stairs. “Gosh, I hope Nathan upgraded the luggage allowance for my ticket.”
Jade’s laughter kicks up a notch, bordering on a ruckus, and I ignore her, opening my door and stumbling to a halt instead.
“Dr Winslow?”
I blink. “Yes? That’s me.”
The man in a sharp black suit, white shirt and a black tie smiles at me. “I’m Graham. Mr Jackson sent me to escort you to the airport.”
“Right. Yes, thank you, Graham.”
He motions to the bags behind me. “I’ll get your bags sorted, if you want to make your way down to the car.”
“Um.” I scan Graham and then the mountain of luggage I can’t possibly need for the next seven days. “How about I help you?”
His answering smile is swift and kind. “It’s okay. I can manage.”
Glancing between the driver and a grinning Jade, I give up. “Well, thank you. I’ll just say goodbye to my cat and meet you down there.”
Graham nods and grabs hold of three suitcases at once. Clearly, he’s used to dealing with over-packers.
“Right, now are you sure you’re happy to take care of Nuke while I’m gone?”
Jade nods. “Of course. It will be easy. She loves me more than you.”
Again, I don’t argue. It’s true. That cat loves everyone more than me. “Well, thanks.” I pull her in for a full-body hug. “For everything. But especially for giving up part of your Christmas to make me Nathan-worthy.”
She pulls back, her perfect brows drawn down. “That wasn’t it at all, Katie. You are more than Nathan worthy, just as you are. This”—she waves up and down my body—“This is to give you confidence when you’re dealing with those people. That’s all. You are a stunning, amazingdoctorwho doesn’t need a fancy wardrobe or polished nails to win a man. In fact, I’m pretty sure you’ve already won him. All this stuff? It’s window dressing. Once they see who you are, none of it will matter.”
My eyes fill as her words wash over me. She sounds like my mum, and I fall a bit more in love with my best friend because of it.
“Thank you. I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
She blinks her watery eyes and waggles a finger at me. “Now, no tears. That mascara is amazing, but not waterproof.”
I nod and hug her one last time. “I’ll see you in a week. Take care of Nuke and the tree for me.”
She beams a brilliant smile at me. “Have the best time ever. And be gentle with Nathan. He’s a mere man, after all; his heart stands no chance against you.”
I scoff and wave her delusions away. Reaching over, I run a quick hand over Nucleus, the most affection she will accept from me. Then, with a sigh of excitement—nerves? trepidation?—I head downstairs, where Graham has packed his fancy car with my fancy luggage as I head to the fanciest destination I can imagine.
It’s a week. Not much can happen in seven days. Before I know it, I’ll be back here, just Katie and her cat and her lab. Just like I like it.
Right?
?·?·?
“This is you.”
Graham pulls his fancy car to a halt in front of a section of Heathrow Airport I’ve never seen before. I didn’t even know it existed. The handful of times I’ve visited this place involved crushing crowds of disgruntled and harried travellers, all standing in unmoving lines and complaining about how slow and inefficient this airport is.
