“I’m not in any shape to fly.”
Dad went over to the coffee machine and got a pot started.
“As for the girl, I assume, we are talking about Jolene.” Hearing her name only reminded me of her expression when she left. I almost went to ask Cara about it, but I didn’t trust her to tell me the truth. “Go get her,” Dad added.
“She said her piece. What will be, will be,” I said, reaching for a bottle to stop the stabbing pain in my head.
“No, son. To get what you want, you can’t wait for fate. You have to pursue it.”
What he said sank in and I got to my wobbling feet.
“I’ll grab a shower.”
I didn’t believe his advice applied to all my problems, but there was one thing I could work on, my career. Flying had calmed me during my darkest days. It gave me a sense of calm. Being in the air was the first step to getting my life on track.
That didn’t mean I didn’t have moments of weakness. Nights I texted Jolene. Things like Are you okay?, How is your grandmother?, and the deleted messages like I miss you.
Her responses were always short and left no room for interpretation for how she felt about me.
Over the next few months, I texted less and less, needing to let go of the past. Despite the scare from the virus, I had offers to hook up. From the old, young, and everyone in between, there were women I could pass the time with. Most were clients, of course, as I wasn’t hanging out at bars. But I still had rules. The number one of which was I didn’t do clients. Even if I did, I had no desire to be with anyone else, which hadn’t been my reaction when Cara and I had broken up.
Fate, or rather a chartered flight to Palm Beach, finally broke me. I rented a car and used the address I’d found in client records to drive to a place in Hobe Sound, just outside of Palm Beach.
I pulled into a short, circular drive in front of a blue house bang on the beach. It fit the woman I knew. Not old and not new, and not too fancy, but it was bigger than my cabin by the judge of it from the outside.
Though I was a confident guy, my heart thundered in my chest when I rang the bell. As I waited, I checked out the other car parked out front. It was a small, modest, red car, also something so her. After a few minutes, I opted to walk around to the beach side, hoping I’d find her there.
That was where she was, feet in the sand, facing the water alone. She wore a flowy dress that reminded me of the Little Red Riding Hood outfit she wore the first time we met, except this one was blue. It covered her bent legs tucked close to her chest. The breeze blew the material and her hair as I stood there taking in the lovely sight before she noticed me.
With a hand to block the sun, her eyes finally met mine. Five months hadn’t dulled her beauty.
“Grant,” she said.
I had a speech prepared, but everything disappeared from my mind.
“You’re here,” she added.
Not wanting to tower over her, I sat in the sand next to her, leaving some distance between us.
“First, I want you to know I’m safe. I’ve been tested. In fact, I’m tested before every flight. Our mayor has connections. He got us rapid tests for the virus in an effort to promote tourism to our small town,” I rambled on. “He’s using our remote location as a draw.”
“I trust you,” she said.
Though I wanted to hear that, it didn’t explain her sudden departure from my life.
“There’s something I want to say, and I want you to know you don’t have to say anything in response.”
She nodded.
“I’m in love with you.” Her eyes widened in alarm. I held up a hand. “I know we spent a little over two weeks together. But there’s something to be said about spending almost twenty-four hours a day with someone. Just the two of us. I equate that time to months of causally dating.”
“Grant—”
“Let me just finish. I had this whole thing prepared, but they’re just words. For the last few months, I haven’t been able to get you out of my mind. I reach for you every morning, and I’m disappointed every night because you’re not there. If it was little more than a crush or lust, I would be over it now and I’m not. I want you to know how I feel because I’m not going to make the same mistake again.”
“Cara?” she asked.
“Yeah. I didn’t fight for her. Of course, now I know I let the rumors about her and Jeff spending time together when I was gone on a chartered flight eat away at me. But instead of saying something, I said nothing.”