Page 95 of The Parkers' Handsome Holiday
I held my hands up apologetically. “I’m so sorry. I’m not getting on a plane. I’m trying to catch a girl.”
The women swooned. The men rolled their eyes and shook their fists at me. I didn’t give a damn. Nothing was going to stop me from getting to Lina. This moment was what it had all led up to. I was supposed to track her down like this. I was supposed to make a grand gesture that showed her just how much I loved her.
I wasn’t supposed to let her go like I did fifteen years ago.
I got to the ticket counter, completely out of breath. “I’m trying to catch Lina Nelson before she gets on a plane. Please, can you help me?”
“What is your relation to her?” the man behind the counter asked.
“I’m in love with her,” I said. “And she has memory loss, and I’m trying to help her remember that we’re supposed to be together.” I knew that last bit might be a bit extra, but I needed the short-haired, pimply faced young man on the other side of the counter to help me. I would pull out all the stops if I had to.
“Memory loss?” he asked, his eyebrows creeping up toward his hairline.
I nodded, still a bit out of breath. “You heard me. It’s been a wild December for us. Please help me.”
Someone in the crowd behind me piped up. “Help the guy out. It’s the New Year. Give them a break!”
The kid in front of me frowned. “I’m not supposed to give out passenger information like that, sir.”
“Please.”
“Come on, just tell him!” someone cried. “Then the rest of us can check in! I don’t want to miss my flight!”
I looked imploringly at him. “Please? Just tell me if she’s left yet or not. I have to find her.”
He sighed and turned his gaze to his computer. He asked me for Lina’s name, and I gave it to him. Then he asked me to spell it. I spelled it, and he typed every letter with agonizing slowness.
I leaned over the counter and watched as he hit Enter.
Time slowed down. I held my breath. His eyes scanned the computer screen, and then he looked up at me. “I’m sorry, sir, but her flight took off an hour and a half ago. I’m afraid you’ve just missed her.”
I hung my head. Groans came from the crowd behind me. Some people tried to say some encouraging things, but I didn’t listen. I sighed and stepped away from the counter. “Thanks for your help.” I faced the crowd. “Sorry for holding you folks up. Have a good flight.”
“Good luck,” a young woman called to me. A few others chimed in as I slid my hands in my pockets and sulked off.
I’d rehearsed my whole speech for no reason.
The car ride home was long and quiet. My thoughts were dark and terribly lonely, and I didn’t turn on the music to distract myself. I wallowed in my self-pity and thought of Lina up in the sky right now, heading back to her old life.
The life that had no room for me.
I pulled into the driveway a good hour and a half after leaving the house. My father’s car was gone. He and Asher must have gone out to kill some time. I was glad that I wasn’t going to have to tell my father that I’d been too late. I could take some time to recover from the disappointment.
I walked up to the door, completely immune to the cold that bit at my bare arms, and let myself in.
And found Lina standing in my entranceway.
“Hi, Cal,” she said with a smile that erased all the disappointment and bitterness that had settled inside me.
“Hey,” I said, standing there like an idiot with my mouth open.
38
LINA
“I didn’t get on the plane,” I said.
“I can see that.” Cal was standing with his arms hanging slack at his sides. He was wearing a long-sleeved Henley, but the sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, revealing thick forearms decorated in veins.
