“Good.” His voice dips intimately. “I’m glad I caught you, and I’m counting down the days until I see you again.”
As soon as I blow him a kiss goodbye, a big, fat, cold raindrop plops onto my nose. I glare up at the sheet of gray clouds, as if they’re testing me—and sure enough, they pelt me harder. I wipe water from my eyes and pull up my hood.
“Well?” I look down at Maverick in question.
He waits for me to answer my own question. Will I keep my word about not seeing Nathan again even if it means walking home in the rain?
My options include heading back for the train now, hiding out in the coffee shop to wait out the rain, or calling Nathan. I’m afraid that if I warm up and rest in the coffee shop, I’ll be too relaxed to jog back down the trail. If I’m going to go, we need to go now.
Maybe Maverick has the answer all along. I quote his namesake. “I feel the need ... the need for speed.”
I’m halfway down the trail with my feet kicking up icy puddles, clothes plastered to my skin, and rain threatening to blind me, before my phone vibrates again. I don’t even suspect it to be Crew Scheduling this time. It’s probably Nathan.
I smear water across my face with a sleeve with all the effectiveness of a worthless windshield wiper, then retrieve my slippery phone while continuing to run. The phone is too wet to function properly. Or perhaps my numb fingers are too cold to activate it with their touch. I can’t answer here. At least I’ll be back at the train station in the next fifteen minutes, so I’ll call Nathan when I get there to keep him from worrying.
I laugh at the insanity of my situation as well as how I must look right now. But for some reason it feels good. Crazy how it took doing something I thought might kill me to feel alive again.
Chapter Eighteen
Nathan
There isanarttoflying. Theknack lies inlearning howtothrow yourself attheground andmiss.
—DOUGLASADAMS
During those fifteen minutes when Claire didn’t answer her phone, I was close to taking down a load-bearing wall. I’d called her at first because of the rain, but when my calls went unanswered, I feared the worst.
It had been a challenge to keep my distance when she’d shown up at my door unannounced, all smiles and bouncy ponytail. I’d felt sorry for myself, yet a little proud of the discipline it took to give her directions to my favorite trail, lend her my dog, and send her off into an unknown city without so much as a soda in a sock to use for a weapon. What had I been thinking?
She finally called, laughing and out of breath, and I felt as if I’d missed out by not getting soaked in the rain with her. Then she arrived at my door as soggy as she was sweet. I still kept my distance, but I couldn’t keep my eyes off her as she shared the joy of her journey and her newfound love of running.
I also invited her in and offered her a towel, because I would do that for anyone who showed up at my door in a rainstorm, but she’d waved a hand and jogged away, leaving me with nothing but a wet dog. I didn’t evencare about the wet-dog smell. I was just jealous Maverick got to spend time with Claire while I didn’t.
And now I’m stuck on a trip with the flight attendant who speaks to me in baby talk.
“Excuse me,” I say to get around her and out the main cabin door. We’re in Tucson, so the temperature is nice enough to hang outside in the sunshine until it’s time to fly home.
“You’re leaving me, Stuart?” she whines after me.
That’s another thing. She also calls pilots by their last name for some reason.
I just call her Eva, since it’s her name. I’d been a passenger on one of her flights before the two of us ever worked together. She’s young and plays up her youthfulness by having uniforms tailored to accentuate her narrow waist and dangerous curves. I admit to having found her alluring at first. She’d enticed me by using her big-girl voice for announcements and sounding almost sophisticated and professional.
I was on the rebound from Joey and honestly only wanted to date Eva for revenge. I pictured taking her back with me to Leavenworth to meet my dad, though I cared more about having her on my arm when running into Joey.
Vincent had warned me against this without even knowing my plan, but I’d arrogantly ignored his advice and introduced myself to Eva on our deadhead. I even told her I hoped to work with her in the future. After that she’d break out the baby talk whenever she saw me, which was much more often than I would like.
That was when I learned to listen to Vincent and thus I’ve been keeping my distance from Claire. I doubt Claire would ever act so immaturely, but at least I’m keeping us both innocent.
Anyway, my favorite part of this whole trip is how Desiree keeps calling Eva “baby.” It’s simply normal conversation for Desiree, but I have to hide a smile every time. Of course, if she were to call Eva “little one,” as Claire said she does to actual babies, I’d completely lose it.
Vincent joins me on the metal grated stairway, Clubmaster sunglasseson his face and hands in his pockets. He doesn’t have to be out here at all, but getting to experience blue skies and warm weather year round is one of the best perks of our job. It makes living in Seattle bearable during our rainy nine months of the year.
He rocks from heel to toe and back. “So have you seen Claire?”
I give him a knowing smirk and shake my head. Not because I haven’t seen her but because it sounds as if he already knows I have. “I knocked down an upstairs wall this time.”
He crosses his arms. “Maybe you should start building things rather than destroying them. Then you’ll be ready for the right woman when she comes into your life.”
