Page 78 of Sunset Tides
“It’s so nice to meet you, Lucy!” one of the women said.
“IloveThe Grand Madrona. Claire comes into my tea shop, and I was horrified to hear about that condemnation.”
Lucy smiled, nodded, and said hello, trying her best to seem like a normal human.
But she didn’t feel like a normal human. This was a nightmare. She must’ve fallen asleep. She wasn’t actually on a plane. The pilot wasn’t closing the door. He wasn’t handing her a headset.
This was not happening!
Except it most certainly was.
Chapter Thirty-three
His flight landed at the King County Airport. It was much larger than the airport on Orcas, but still small compared to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport he was headed to next.
It felt like he was taking baby steps into his new life. First Seattle, then New York, then…what?
An adventure, apparently.
Rob turned his phone on once he got into the terminal and saw he had a missed call from Lucy.
Hope bubbled in his chest. He’d spent the entire flight thinking about her, regretting what he’d failed to say. There was so much, and he’d just left it like a bumbling fool.
Was there a chance he’d said something intelligible enough for her to want to keep the lines of communication open?
He quickly tried calling her back, but no response. He tapped out a message. “Sorry I missed your call. I did decide to take your advice and not die. I’m in Seattle, on my way to SEATAC now, but feel free to call any time.”
After hitting send, he regretted his last comment. It made him sound like he was trying to sell her something.
In a way he was trying to sell something: himself. Until recently, he’d been quite good at it. Now he had the task of rebuilding who he was. There was bound to be some awkwardness.
Rob hadn’t thought of how to get to the Seattle airport, and in his excitement about Lucy, made the mistake of getting into a cab. Only after he was stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic did hedo an online search and realize he could’ve taken the light rail and saved himself a lot of time and money.
Oh well. This was new Rob, apparently, and he needed to slow down and take the time to look around.
When he finally got to the airport, he paid the hefty taxi bill, hauled his bag out of the trunk, and walked into the terminal. He still hadn’t heard from Lucy – she might keep him waiting all day, and he was fine with that, as long as she called him back eventually.
The airport was busy and pleasantly distracting. There were people from all walks of life – students in rowdy groups and couples chasing down their small kids like escaped geese. There were older couples, too, in matching outfits, and younger couples displaying far too much public affection.
Actually, the more he looked around, it seemed like it was almost all couples. Rob stood and stared. It had never bothered him to travel alone before, but now it really struck him.
He was alone. Completely alone. No one wanted to go on a trip with him. There wasn’t even anyone who wanted to wear matching Costco cargo shorts with him.
How long had he planned to live his life alone like this? Why had he let it go on so long?
It wasn’t until Lucy had practically smacked him in the face that he’d woken up. This was another thing to add to the list. New job, new lifestyle, new outlook on love.
He got into the security line and inched forward, continuing his game of people watching. If Lucy were here, he could tell her the stories he was making up about everyone nearby.
The tired looking couple was on the way to their honeymoon after an exhausting wedding with pushy relatives. The two next to him weren’t speaking because the guy had dropped his wife’s toothbrush in the toilet that morning and refused to apologize, telling her it was her fault for leaving it so close to the bowl.
He smiled at that one. Lucy would’ve liked it. It seemed like an argument they could’ve gotten into one day, if he hadn’t ruined everything. He was staring off, daydreaming, when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
Rob startled and turned around. “I think someone’s trying to get your attention,” said the woman behind him whom he’d decided was traveling to a sandcastle-building competition.
“Oh, thanks.” Rob looked where she was pointing and had to do a double take. It was a woman who looked just like Lucy.
No – it was Lucy!
