Page 17 of Away We Go

His laugh is rich and I wish I could bottle it up. “It makes me jittery,” he admits, his eyes following me as I walk around the kitchen. It’s disconcerting, to say the least.

“A fate worse than death.” I carry my coffee and sit across from him, pulling my knees up and under my sweatshirt, balancing my cup on top of them.

“How was your flight here?”

I look at him lounging on the couch, his air-dried hair curling on top of his head, day-old stubble coating his jawline. He looks like the man I grew up with. Grew up adoring.

“Um, okay?”

He tilts his head, examining me. “Just okay?”

I hum under my breath, wondering how much to share. Knowing him as well as I do, if I admit to my fear of flying, he’ll rush off to solve it for me. Or worse, he’ll send me home and cancel the rest of my contract given my time with the team includes many, many flights in my future.

“I couldn’t get comfortable. I found it difficult to fall asleep with a stranger sitting next to me,” I tell him, a half-lie. It is difficultto get comfortable while picturing yourself plummeting to your death on a continuous loop.

“Next time, you’ll be with me.”

Oh boy, this man has no idea how his off-handed comments affect my poor little heart.

“Great.”

We sit in silence, Nicky staring at me, my eyes darting between him and any other surface in the room.What is he looking at? Do I have something on my face?

“So…” I smooth my hair back, wondering if it had turned into a bird’s nest while I was sleeping. “You must be in foodie heaven here. All the Chinese food you can eat. Or I guess it’s just called food here.” I clamp my mouth shut to stem more ridiculous words from falling out.What did I just say to him?

His brown eyes brighten as he stares at me, a smile finally breaking free. “You’re right, it is just called food here.”

I throw a cushion at him, bathing in his rich laughter as he ducks out of its path. “I just mean, I remember it being your favourite.”

Back home, we’d only had one Chinese restaurant in town growing up. Matt and Nicky had been obsessed with it, and every Friday night they’d gorge themselves on fried rice and lemon chicken while I devoured all the fortune cookies they left to the side.

“It still is,” he says now. “And if I remember, you were a fan of the fortune cookies. You’d open them all until you found one you liked the best.”

I press my coffee cup to my cheek, hiding the blush that I just know is creeping up. He’s right. That’s what I’d done; I even have one I keep in my wallet. At the time it had resonated with me, so I keptit as my mantra:

A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.

Or woman, in this case. Too bad I’d lost sight of this during my time with Troy.

“Anyway.” I shift in my seat, not liking where my thoughts were taking me. “What’s planned for today?”

He sighs, looking at his watch with a frown. “I have to meet with the team soon to go over race strategy. I’ll be out for most of the day and evening. Will you be alright here on your own?”

I bristle. “I’ll be fine. In fact, I’m going out.”

His eyes snap to mine. “Out?”

“Yes.” I wave towards the window and the big wide city of Shanghai just waiting to be explored. “Serena and I are going sightseeing.”

His dark brows furrow further. “Where?”

I put down my coffee cup and fish my phone out of the front pocket of my sweatshirt. “Here.” I sit next to him and show him a picture of the Yu Garden on my screen. It’s been voted the number one tourist attraction in Shanghai and I can’t wait to see it. This is why I jumped at the opportunity to do this job after all, the chance to see the world.

And spend time with the man next to me, of course.

“Hmm, maybe you should take James?”

“Why?” I laugh. “I’m not you. I’m not famous. To the outside world, I’m just another ordinary face in the crowd.”

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