“Her name was Gina,” Romeo said, bending toward his task. “After last call, she told me she had an early flight to catch and needed to get some sleep. So I was left to jack my own beanstalk.”
“Poor baby,” Chrissy crooned and both men jolted around, looking as guilty as teenage boys caught flipping through a girlie magazine.
Alex couldn’t hide her chuckle.
Her humor dried up quickly, however, when she heard Wolf, who’d been helping Uncle John arrange supplies in the cargo hold, shout, “It’s about damn time, man! Ten more minutes and we were sendin’ out a search party!”
Spinning around, she scanned the tarmac. There he was. The man of the hour.
No mistaking him, really. Not with those shoulders that blocked out the sun.
His hair was wet from a recent shower, and his face sported the dark shadow of a full day without the touch of a razor. Seeing his walk, it was obvious he’d been in the military. There was a marching quality to the way he carried himself.
Alex was tempted to break into a run, anxious to confront him about where the hell he’d been and tell him she’d been worried sick. But her feet glued themselves to the ground because, just over his shoulder and beyond the fence surrounding the airport, she saw a Smurf-blue scooter. The brunette sitting atop it was none other than Donna.
Something hard and sharp lodged under Alex’s lungs, nicking the organs until every breath hurt. She suddenly understood what Chrissy meant when she said even good guys could be bad news.
Never mind that Alex hadmadehim kiss her. Never mind that he’d regretted it immediately. Never mind that Donna had a prior claim to him. And never mind that Alex had promised to be his friend.
How could he have locked lips withAlex, getting all hot and bothered in the process, and then go to spend the night with Donna?
Honestly, Alex didn’t know who she was more upset for, herself or Donna.
Donna, she quickly decided.Because no woman should be forced to slake a lust inspired by another.
Any guilt she’d felt for the look on Mason’s face outside her hotel room disappeared quicker than a signed copy ofThe Wealth of Nationsat a historical society event.
His eyes lasered across the distance separating them, stopping once he found her angry gaze. Despite her pique, being the sole subject of his attention was still like being hit by a thunderbolt from the clear blue sky. She caught her breath. Every nerve in her body fired at once.
Chrissy spied Donna as she motored away and said, “Oh hell.”
Oh hell is right,Alex thought.As in, oh hell, who would have thought Mason McCarthy would turn out to be a total asshole?
Mason continued to make a beeline toward her, and Chrissy took the opportunity to lean over and whisper in her ear, “I’ll walk over there. Far enough away to give you some privacy, but not so far away that I can’t eavesdrop.”
Alex paid her little mind because suddenly Mason was in front of her. “Good morning, Alex,” he said so calmly that the spark of hostility that had ignited inside of her when she saw him arrive with Donna grew into a conflagration.
She thought she heard Chrissy mutter, “Oh, no he didn’t,” but she couldn’t be sure. The blood rushing in her ears was so loud it reminded her of the time her parents had done a lecture at the University of Buffalo and afterward had taken her to see Niagara Falls. The pounding and power of that big water was something she would never forget.
Just like she would never forget this moment when the man of her dreams fell straight off the pedestal she’d put him on only to land flat on his ass.
“Looks like it was a good morning foryou.” She tried, but she couldn’t keep the frostiness from her tone. “I was going to thank you for lending me your dog for the night. But now I realize it was less of a loan and more of a dog-sitting assignment.”
Mason shook his head. “I’m sorry?”
“Yeah,” she quickly agreed. “You’ve been saying that a lot lately.”
Behind her, Romeo asked Doc, “Is that Wolf calling us?” No doubt he wanted to skedaddle before the situation got evenmoreawkward.
“I’m staying put,” Doc muttered.
“No.” Alex gave Doc a grateful nod. “I got this. Go on.”
Doc looked hesitant, but jerked his chin in acceptance before slowly making his way to the other side of the plane. Romeo, on the other hand, moved so quickly he lost a flip-flop. He had to hop back to retrieve it before running to catch up with Doc.
Mason frowned after his friends and then turned his attention back to her. “Am I missing something?” She couldn’t tell if the confusion in his eyes was feigned or genuine.
Before she could call him on being a complete and total asshat, Uncle John yelled, “Everybody load up!”
