I thumbed my eyebrow. He made a good point.
“I’m leaving tomorrow,” I said instead of defending myself.
Blake nodded. “I heard.”
“I’m sorry?—”
“No,” he said, cutting me off. Then he walked toward me and pulled me into the kind of brotherly hug I hadn’t knownI’d missed until it was here. “It doesn’t matter, Mitch. We all do what we need to do to survive.”
“Hey, Winona,” he said when he pulled back.
Winona had stepped out of the car and had a hand up in greeting. “Hey Blake.” She straightened her coat, tucking her hair behind her ears. “Cassandra in there?”
The passenger door opened and Cassandra got out. She waved, but walked to Winona, embracing her. But there was something about the way Cassandra pulled Winona quietly aside that had me jerking my gaze to Blake. Something about the desperate nature of that hug.
“What’s happened?” I asked. Something was wrong, I knew it. It’s why he slammed on the brakes.
My chest tightened. “Is it Mom?”
Blake shook his head. “It’s Dad, Mitchie. He’s gone.”
CHAPTER 33
It’s Complicated
WINONA
ONE WEEK LATER
“Calling passengers Smith, Wu, Patel, and Johnson. Please come to gate 49…”
The airport announcement voice was a human this time. For the past hour, I’d been listening to robotic, prerecorded voice deliver canned messages to watch my bags and don’t forget to get a massage in the executive lounge.
The voice made me miss Anita.
Ice cubes clinked in a glass next to me.
I sensed the man who’d just sat down, but I didn’t look up. That was dangerous in a bar, especially an airplane bar, where people tended to feel lonely. Ask me how I knew. I still had an hour to kill before my flight, too.
“Don’t look now,” a male voice said, “but I think that guy’s working up the nerve to buy you a drink.”
I looked up from my book. I’d been trying to immerse myself in a fantasy world, which was better than being immersed in the depression I’d been floundering in for the past week since Mitchell left.A woman lostat sea.
The man who’d sat a full stool away from me was good-looking. Tall and lean with a tan despite the time of year, bracelets and a slutty little necklace, as Cher would call it. With a leaf on it, I noticed. Young though. I’d put him at maybe twenty-four or five.
“That sounds like a line,” I said, looking back at my book.
“I promise it’s not.” He pointed his chin to the opposite end of the bar, where a pink-necked businessman sat nursing a cocktail. He turned pinker as I looked at him and raised his glass. Even from here I could see the white line on his finger where his ring should have been.
“Ugh,” I said. “Guess I should thank you.” I gave the guy my full attention for a brief moment. That wasn’t a crime. I wasn’t cheating on Mitchell.
My stomach lurched. I couldn’t even think his name without a physical reaction like that.
The guy inspected me a minute, then chuckled and looked away, taking a sip of the drink he’d brought over. “Okay, so full disclosure. Iwasgoing to hit on you. Regardless of Philip the Philanderer over there. I mean, I was playing interference on him too. And I was going to be polite about it.” He let out a weary sigh. “But I see now you’re taken.”
I frowned. “How do you see that?” I looked at my fingers as if there was a ring I’d missed.
That only made my stomach clench harder. I was a little worried about throwing up.
