He smiled, the light returning to his eyes. “Thanks.”
“And now I get to go to Chicago alone and somehow win a massive client without you.”
He winced. “Yeah… good luck with that.”
I arrivedat the airport early enough to buy a snack. I bought one of those yogurt parfaits and mixed it up as I sat in a chair by the gate. While lifting my spoon for the last bite, I stopped my hand in midair.
Approaching me was none other than Colin, sporting a pair of jeans and a white T-shirt. He had a sweater thrown coolly over one shoulder with his other arm dragging his suitcase with him. His eyes zeroed in on me, and the slightest smile played on his lips.
My spoon dropped into the plastic cup.
“No,” I said aloud.
It was impossible for him to have heard me from the distance he was still at, but my expression must have warned him of my mood. When he was but mere feet away, his smile grew, and it resembled the carefree ones of those times after we’d gotten familiar with one another.
“Hello, Kate,” his voice rumbled toward me, dissipating all other sounds in the noisy airport.
“Hi,” I said defiantly. “Why wasn’t I told you’d be here?”
“I intended to surprise you,” he said.
“You said you didn’t like surprises,” I reminded him.
“I don’t likereceivingbad surprises. Am I a bad surprise?” he asked.
I looked away, seething.Was he trying to flirt with me?After all this time? He’d barely looked at me, except when I gave our department updates in the conference room, and even then, all I’d gotten from him was polite indifference.
The one deviation was after one of my stolen accounts I’d successfully retrieved for the agency. I could have sworn that his face had betrayed a look of pride at that moment, but I told myself that was impossible for someone he’d alleged to be a fake.
“I’m surprised that you would care to get on an airplane with me, seeing as you can barely even be in my presence.” I kept my eyes on the gate signage, avoiding his soft gaze.
“If I thought there was a chance you held magical powers and sought to bring down the plane, I might avoid this particular flight.”
“You’re being obtuse,” I said.
“You’re correct.” He sat down next to me.
I flashed my eyes at him. “Why are you here?”
“To do the job we were meant to do months ago,” he said.
“I could have gone on my own.”
He shook his head. “I needed you last time, but we didn’t get the chance. This is a two-person pitch. And I’m not risking it.”
“So you doubt my work, too.”
“I’ve seen nothing but greatness from you since Maggie left, which only confirms what I already suspected from your long tenure at the company. But I’m not lying when I say that this will be a two-person effort.”
His admiration for my successes shocked me. I decided then to tone down my irritation at his tagging along, and we sat in silence until the flight was called to board.
Of course, Kaitlin had booked us next to each other in first class, and when the flight attendant asked if we wanted to drink anything, he ordered a glass of champagne.
“A little early to be celebrating our victory,” I pointed out as I took a book out of my purse.
“I have a personal victory I’m celebrating,” he said cryptically.
“And what might that be?”
