Page 49 of Committed to You

He freezes and turns back to me.

I don’t know what I’m doing. Maybe it’s all the emotions of the day catching up to me, but I grab his head, push my forehead next to his, and close my eyes. “Have a safe flight.”

He nods against my forehead.

I pull back and look out the window, not able to watch him walk away. I hear him get out of the car, and Quinn gets back in the driver’s seat. “Vivian, are you going to come up front?”

“No. I need a few minutes. Can I stay back here?”

“Sure.” She starts the car, and we leave the airport.

As we drive away, I wonder if I’m a sucker for punishment and if I’m going to regret giving Chase a chance to “make it right” when I don’t even know what that means.

11

Chase

Scraps.I fed her scraps.

How could I have done that to her?

The messages I reviewed the previous night pop up in my mind.

My gut flips over and over as I think about what I’ve done to her.

I’m jolted out of my thoughts when Jamison elbows me. “Chase.”

“Sorry. What’s up?”

“Do you want a drink, sir?” The flight attendant asks.

“No thanks.”

Jamison stares. “You okay?”

“I need to clean up my mess.”

“What do you mean?”

“Time to let go of the past and make sure I don’t lose my future,” I tell him.

“Assuming you’re referring to Vivian?”

I nod.

“What are you going to do?”

“Whatever it takes,” I tell him.

“Not to change the subject, but we didn’t do any of the work we needed to do while we were out there. I think we got a tad sidetracked.”

“Gee, you think?”

“Maybe we should plan a trip and not tell anyone we’re in town so we can get it done,” he jokes.

“Sorry. I forgot to tell you. I’m flying back Friday to check out properties with Vivian.”

“Okay, that’s good. If we don’t get our locations secure, we won’t be able to close the deals with the hospitals. Time is ticking.”

---