Page 73 of A Wolf After My Own Heart
“No, lass, it’s a reliever airport. When MSP gets overloaded, they shift flights here. Now pipe down your chatter, they don’t have an air traffic control tower here.”
Ack!Lila instantly piped down the chatter.
“Not a very long flight,” she said quietly as they taxied. “So that’s nice.”
“Grrtt.” Oz forced that out through gritted teeth, probably “great.” Or “grate,” which made less sense and would be weird, but she shouldn’t rule out the possibility.
There were two kinds of nervous flyers: ones who liked to be talked to, and ones who absolutelyhatedbeing talked to. “So about this make-up lunch…” What could she say? In this moment, he was pitiful. So why not offer a pity lunch, which was bound to be an improvement over a decoy lunch.
“Mmmmm?”
“Maybe you know a few good places?”
“Mmm.”
“I’m pretty easy. Just don’t serve it to me in something deliberately weird, that’s all I ask.”
“Mmmm?”
“Oh, you know. Because it’swhimsicalor whatever-the-hell. ‘Here’s your daiquiri in a bag!’ ‘Here’s your ice cream served on a block of ice.’ ‘Here’s your white chocolate truffles served in a flip-flop.’ ‘Here’s your appetizer served on a two-by-four and wrapped with sandpaper!’8Just give me the damned shrimp cocktail already.”
“Ha!”
Lila jumped; she couldn’t help it. That laugh hadexplodedout of him. She glanced down and saw white knuckles.
“Mm fnnn.”
“Of course you’re fine. I never thought otherwise. You are radiating fine. If I were to grab a dictionary to look up ‘fine,’ your grinning mug would take up half the page.”
“Ha!”
“And since you’re totally fine with what’s happening at the moment, maybe you should buy your own plane. Berne could fly it to you. You’re rich, you could probably buy two. One to keep at the airport, and the other to annoy me by parking it in my driveway.”
“Ha!” Oz turned his head to look at her. “Well. I am. Rich, I mean. But how’d you know?”
“Seriously? Let’s count the ways. The suit. You were still in yesterday’s clothes and whileyouwere a rumpled mess, the suit held up beautifully. So did your shoes. And now you’re wearing a different suit, and this one’s high quality, too. That’s top-notch tailoring, probably from Heimie’s. And Byredo Eleventh Hour aftershave isn’t cheap. And don’t forget your giant metallic pumpkin. And the Louis Vuitton you threw into the backseat of your giant metallic pumpkin. And the breakroom.”
“How’d you even know about the—”
“Macropi and Garsea found it gossip-worthy.” She began prying his fingers from their death-lock on the armrest, then took his hands in hers. “Here’s the thing I can’t figure: you hate flying—”
“I don’t hate it. I’m just terrified because we’re hurtling through the air in a narrow tube thousands of feet off the ground and there’s nowhere to go, and I can’t get out unless Magnusletsme out. But I’m not scared.”
“Gotcha. But this was your idea.”
“Yeah, well.” Oz was facing front again. She could see the muscles in his jaw work as he clenched his teeth, then consciously tried to stop. “I have to do everything in my power to make Sally feel safe again. And this is part of it. You like flying?”
“It’s okay. It’s better than jumping.”
“Y’mean parachuting?”
“No, I meant hurdles.” When he blinked, she added, “Sorry, sometimes I’m on auto-snark. Yes, I meant parachuting. I did it a few years ago.”
“For fun?”
“No, I lost a bet. That’s not snark. It was a real bet.”
“What was it?”
