Holy. Fuck.
“I suggest you get off it.”
“Oh, goddamn it, Chip. This is a disaster!”
L.L. knew better than to be spontaneous when it came to romantic gestures. What the hell had she been thinking?
She leapt to her feet and grabbed her bag, just as an attendant came over the intercom and announced the doors were closing.
“Wait!” L.L. cried out as she rushed down the aisle. “I have to disembark.”
Another attendant informed her, “If you leave now, you won’t be able to get back on the plane.”
40
“That’s fine,” she curtly said and slipped through the narrow passage, making her great escape. In the nick of time.
She ran down the jetway, through the terminal and out to the taxi queue, heaving from the physical exertion, though desperation propelled her forward. If Tague rescheduled for the evening or a different airport she could end up missing him. She needed to find him and tell him she wanted to go to Tokyo with him.
Goddamn it!
Since he wasn’t here…
Please let him be at his apartment!
She tried him on his cell as well, but her calls also went directly to voicemail. Christ, why couldn’t she reach him?
Apprehension and adrenaline had her all spun up. She hit the speed-dial number for him once more.
“Come on,” she whispered agitatedly. “Pick up. Pick up!”
“L.L.”
“Tague!” She started to speak, but then his recorded message filled her ear.
What the actual fuck?
“L.L.,” he repeated.
Her head snapped up. Her heart launched into her throat. Tears pooled in her eyes.
It wasn’t just his voice on the phone she heard. It was his voice in person!
Here he was. Her perfectly dark and devastatingly handsome knight in shining armor.
“What are you doing here?” he asked as he joined the queue, looking deeply perplexed. Stunned. Yet…hopeful?
She threw her arms around him. Held on tight.
“Oh, Jesus. Tague,” she sobbed. And couldn’t stop the waterworks to tell him she didn’t want him to leave the country and start a whole new life…
Not without her.
Tague had no idea how long they stood there, L.L. wrapped in his embrace.
Seeing her did all kinds of crazy things to his insides. But it didn’t make sense that she was at the airport when they’d parted ways this morning at his apartment.
So, eventually, he detangled himself from her, wiped away some of her tears and then clasped her biceps. He looked into her misty eyes and quietly demanded once more, “What are you doing here?”