Page 14 of All Night with the Cowboy
“I have turkey and Swiss cheese sandwiches, or I can fix you something different,” she said, her smile fixed as she spoke. “We are well stocked with fresh fruit, cheese and crackers—”
“The sandwich is fine,” he interrupted. “And an OJ please.”
She nodded and then moved on to Lauren. His view was obscured, but he watched the way Lauren looked up, the polite way she said thank you and enquired about the attendant’s plans for Christmas.
Lauren was familiar enough to make him yearn for what they’d had in the past, yet at the same time she was a complete stranger. He just wasn’t sure whether he wanted to keep things that way, or whether he wanted to know every damn thing there was to know about the woman who’d made him shut off his heart to the world from the day she’d walked away.
***
“It’s not you, it’s me,” Lauren said, arms wrapped tightly around herself as she pulled her shoulders forward, hunched over, stomach concaved. “We’re too young, Tanner, and I’m off to college. Everything’s changing.”
He stared at her, feeling like he’d been sucker punched. “What?”
One minute they’d been making out, her back against the wall, one leg curled around his butt as he pushed hard up against her. He was still catching his breath from kissing her, from having her body warm to his and her fingers clenched in his hair. And now she was breaking up with him?
“Where the hell did this come from? Did your parents put you up to this?”
She shook her head, but he watched the way she sucked in her lower lip, catching it beneath her teeth as she stumbled backwards.
“Tanner, it’s for the best. We’ve been way too serious and we’re too young.”
He clenched his fists. They were Tan and Lol. They were supposed to stay together, they were going to bethe couple who kept it together no matter what. “Lauren, come on. You’re not thinking straight. What the hell is up with you?”
She moved back toward him and pressed her hands to his chest, leaning in. Her mouth touched his, warm and soft, as tears fell to her mouth, salty as he kissed her back.
“Goodbye, Tanner,” she said, stepping away so he could see her tear-stained cheeks before she turned and ran.
He’d stood there, waiting for her to come back, to tell him it was some kind of sick joke. But Lauren had never come back, and no matter how many times he’d slammed his fist into the wall, the pain in his knuckles never caught up to the aching, grinding pain in his chest that almost split him in half.
Chapter 5
LAUREN shut her eyes and dug her fingers into the leather armrests as the jet landed on the tarmac. She never got particularly nervous flying, but there was something about the descent that always made her stomach flip a little. When she opened her eyes, she knew it was time to put on her game face—and those big girl panties she’d talked about before.
“Nowthatwas a long flight,” Tanner said with a groan.
She slowly released her fingers and wiggled them, stretching out her legs and flexing her feet at the same time. “Yeah, you can say that again.”
Trying to ignore Tanner and keep herself occupied for so long had felt like the most tedious task she’d ever faced, but she wasn’t about to confess that to him. She reached for her bag, put her Kindle, iPad, and ear buds into it, and took out her makeup. She hastily glanced in the little mirror, dabbing some concealer beneath her eyes, dusting bronzer over her cheeks and then dabbing on some lip gloss. Her eyes were red and she was readyto find her bed and sleep off the jet lag for at least ten hours.
“We’ll be ready to disembark shortly,” the attendant informed them, appearing from behind the privacy curtain. “Don’t forget to take some bottles of water with you. The humidity here is insane.”
Lauren took the half-empty water bottle, opened the lid, and guzzled it down. She knew better than to get dehydrated leaving a plane—it was one of the key things she always reminded the players to help keep their bodies in good shape. Water, water, and more water.
She looked out the window one last time, then stood. She was about to turn, about to look at Tanner and swallow the lump in her throat and say something, when his hand closed around her wrist.
Lauren looked down at his skin against hers and fought the urge to rip her arm away.
“I’m sorry about before,” he said, his voice gruff.
“It’s fine.”
“No, it’s not fine. If it was fine, we wouldn’t have spent the last fifteen hours in silence.”
He had her there. “How about we agree to forget about the plane ride?” she suggested. “New country, fresh start.”
His deep chuckle sent a trill down her spine as his fingers left her wrist. “How about I request a different attendant for the flight home, huh?”
They both laughed, although Lauren knew her cheeks were pink. She’d always been the straitlaced one and Tanner had been the daredevil—it was why her parents had found their relationship so hard to deal with. He might have grown up and mellowed out a lot, but underneath the stubble and the more weathered appearance she knew he was still the same risk-taking, fun-loving boy he’d always been.
