“Yeah, she’s incredible,” I said instead.
“Maybe we can get a dinner on the books down the road, once I get the mess with our event planner at Carmel Luxe straightened out.”
“I thought you found someone?” I asked as I jumped lanes. “Dad mentioned it to me.”
“Yeah, that guy didn’t work out. We’re still scrambling.”
“Sorry to hear it. Once you’ve got that settled, let’s definitely plan for a group dinner.”
I was speaking it into existence, assuming that Gwen would be open to a second chance.
Or based on her math, athirdchance.
“Great, looking forward to it. Should I call Susan to get on your calendar?”
I had to laugh at my tech-resistant brother. “You’re family, not a business associate. You can textmeyour open dates, you know.”
“No, I can’t. My thumbs are too big for the keys, and I can’t figure out how to undo the gibberish I type.”
I slammed on my brakes to avoid rear-ending the car in front of me. “Whatever, call Susan then.”
“I’m looking forward to it,” he said.
I smiled, despite the line of cars forcing me to a stop. “Yeah, same.”
We hung up, and I took advantage of the molasses traffic to check Waze.
Fuck. An accident had ballooned the remainder of the drive to over an hour. My operations buddy had finally emailed with Gwen’s flight details, and the delay meant I was going to be sprinting to make it to her gate in time.
To tell her face-to-face that from this point on, I’d only be runningtoher, not away.
One of the many benefits of being in the aviation industry was that the usual rules didn’t apply to me, like having to park miles and miles from the terminal. I had a special access card that allowed me to park close in, and it would serve me well this morning. I zipped into a spot, hopped out of my car, and took off jogging while trying to navigate my phone at the same time.
I was down to minutes before her gate closed, and I’d be lucky if she hadn’t already boarded. I wasn’t sure what sort of rank I’d have to pull to try to get to her, but I was willing to use up all of my favors to make it happen.
I watched the clock tick down as I ran through the terminal, dodging families and senior citizens, hoping against hope that I’d make it…
Until I couldn’t hope anymore. I slowed when I saw the flight information disappear off my screen.
“Damnit,” I muttered to myself.
I paced in front of the arrivals and departures monitors, trying to come up with a Plan B. As of now, Ashford Jets only had one craft suitable for international travel, and I hadn’t checked the schedule to see if it was available. There was no way I’d cancel a client’s travel plans, so all I could do was hope as I scrolled through our flight plans for the next few days.
By some stroke of incredible luck, no one had booked it until the following Monday, so it was mine for the taking.
Or rather, it wasavailable,but not actually mine to fly, because I hadn’t flown internationally in ages, and I didn’t have enough recent hours required to safely make the trip. That left one last piece of the puzzle. I dialed my phone quickly, before I could talk myself out of the major favor I was about to request.
“What’s good, my friend?” Kevin asked in his usual chipper voice.
“Odd question for you: What are you up to for the next, oh, twenty-four to forty-eight hours?”
32
GWEN
Iwaited in line to deplane, bleary and wishing I’d at least sprung for business class. Ten hours trapped next to a guy who considered headphones unnecessary as he watched the entireThe Big Bang Theorycatalog had left me exhausted and grumpier than I should’ve been given what was ahead of me.
I was supposed to be excited about the opportunity. A well-established and respected British PR company had contacted me out of the blue about merging with my baby company. Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Once word got out about my role in the Scarlet truce, my inbox kicked into overdrive. I had options—so many options.
