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Rose Everett waited in the airport, almost desperate for her flight number to be called. Her stomach felt like it was going to claw itself out, but there was nothing she could do. She told herself that over and over again.
There’s nothing you can do. There’s nothing you can do.
Rose had quite a large skill-set, but flying a plane wasn’t included.
Her oldest sister, Lily, had called that morning. Her blood pressure was off the charts, and she’d been hospitalized. She’d asked Rose to come help her get the nursery ready, as she wasn’t due for another eight weeks. The medication she’d been given seemed to be working fine, but she’d be staying in the hospital overnight.
Always the worrier of the sisters, Rose glanced toward the gate again. The attendant worked there, but Rose wondered what he was really doing. Probably checking email or social media.
Rose couldn’t wait to meet her new nephew. It would be the first baby in the Everett family, and she’d been trying to get Lily to name the boy Wally for four months. Lily didn’t like the sound of Wally Whittaker, but it made Rose smile every time she thought of it.
And Lily and Beau didn’t have a name picked out yet anyway. Everything Rose suggested was tossed away as if Jeremy and Evan were the worst names in the world.
She should be secretly glad that Lily disliked everything she suggested. Then she could use Wally for her son—if she ever got married. Or met a man with a last name that started with a W.
All the Whittaker men were spoken for now, so she’d have to hunt for someone else.
Nope, she thought, shooting the gate attendant another look. Didn’t he know they were supposed to start boarding fifteen minutes ago? Rose wanted to march over there and demand he do something. But she kept her diva card safely in her pocket. A few people had cast her glances, but for the most part, she’d hidden successfully behind her phone.
Rose secretly hoped she could stay in Coral Canyon for a while. Lily had lived there for a couple of years now. And Vi had just gone back a few months ago. They’d both found the perfect cowboys for them, and Rose couldn’t help thinking that maybe she could too. Maybe she and her sisters could keep recording albums from Wyoming instead of Nashville.
It was probably a fool’s hope. But Rose clung to it, because she didn’t have anything else. She’d given away her chinchilla to take this trip. And she’d been through a string of men in the past eight or nine months that had left her wondering what the point was.
Yes, she had her parents in Nashville, but her mother had even started talking about moving to Coral Canyon to be closer to Lily and Vi—and her new grandson. Rose wasn’t so blind that she didn’t know the real reason her parents would uproot themselves from the city they’d lived in for almost twenty years. Well, at least when her father wasn’t traveling overseas.
And it was the same reason she currently sat in the airport. That baby. Oh, how she loved that baby, and he hadn’t even been born yet.
Rose didn’t want to be left behind. Again. So if she got to Coral Canyon first….
That was the story of her life. Always last. Last to know important things. Last to come into the Everett family. Last to get her opinion asked. And of course, it had happened again in her love life.
Finally, her flight number was called, and those needing special assistance were invited to come forward. Rose didn’t need special assistance, but she did have a first-class ticket and she needed to stretch her back. As she did, she scoped out the other people in the waiting area. She wasn’t sure what she was looking for, but she liked people-watching. She wondered what each person’s story was. Where they came from. Where they were going. Maybe they were traveling to see loved ones. Or maybe they were headed home after a visit.
She caught a young mother’s eye, and smiled before she looked away to collect her purse and carryon bag.
She wasn’t sure why people fascinated her so much, but she knew she liked imagining them whenever she sat down to write songs. After all, country music was about people. People, and the people they loved.
“We now welcome our first-class passengers to flight 6234.”
Relief spread through Rose and she wheeled her bag toward the gate. A scan, a smile, and a few steps and she was on the plane. Finally. She deliberately booked the second row in first class, so she’d have somewhere to put her things under the seat in front of her. It was the best of both worlds, and anyone who traveled as much as she did knew it.
She had a window seat, and she was glad to let the man behind her heave her suitcase into the overhead bin before getting out of the way. She picked up the pillow and blanket left on her seat and sat down. She buckled her seatbelt, even though the flight wouldn’t take off for a good twenty minutes.
The bottle of water next to her separated her and the passenger who’d have the aisle seat. But no one came. The flight attendant kept saying their flight was full and that larger carry-on items would need to be tagged and picked up at the gate in Jackson Hole. And still, no one took the seat beside her.
Just when she thought she’d have a stress-free, no-small-talk flight, a man appeared in the aisle. He had no baggage. Not even a backpack. Just his phone and his wallet, which he shoved in his back pocket. He was clean-shaven, with a nice jawline and the most dazzling pair of aqua eyes Rose had ever seen. Surely he was wearing fake contacts to make his eyes that color. It was like looking into the ocean while the sun lit it up.
“I’m right here,” he said, sliding into his seat.
Rose couldn’t say anything. He smelled like pine trees and fresh rain, and she wondered where he’d been. Certainly not in that waiting area. Rose would’ve definitely seen him.
He buckled up as the flight attendants started going over the safety procedures. He’d been one of the very last people on the plane, and it didn’t seem to bother him at all. Rose watched him out of the corner of her eye, hoping she wasn’t being too obvious.
She already had her headphones plugged into her phone, and the music playing. She had one earbud in and the other draped over her ear as she pretended to listen to the flight attendants talk about a water landing.
The gorgeous stranger next to her didn’t seem to care about the demonstration. He turned his head toward her and said, “Are you staying in Wyoming when we get there?”
Oh, so he was one of those kind of people. One who’d want to talk for the whole three-hour flight. Despite his stunning looks, Rose wasn’t interested in that. No, thank you.
“For a bit,” she said evasively. She did not ask him the same question, though curiosity touched her mind. Maybe if he was in town, they could—
She cut the thought off. Coral Canyon was an hour’s drive from Jackson Hole, where they were flying into. He wouldn’t be staying anywhere near her.
And she wasn’t interested anyway.
“What are you doing there?” he asked.
She glared at him, but he’d clearly endured such things before, because it didn’t ruffle him in the slightest. Oh, boy. One of those people.
“My sister is going to have her baby soon.”
“Oh, fantastic.” His beautiful teeth made an appearance as he smiled. Rose got stuck on the movement of his lips, forgetting to be annoyed with him for a moment. “Boy or girl?”
“Boy,” she said. “She’s having trouble with her blood pressure.” Why she’d said that, she wasn’t sure. She’d had plenty of experience making small talk with strangers, and she’d learned from the time she was twelve not to engage them if she didn’t want to keep talking.
“Is she on Labetalol?” He looked at her with genuine interest in those eyes.
Rose blinked. “Was that English?”
He chuckled and glanced at the flight attendant. “It was, though I can say it in Spanish, Portuguese, and Swahili.”
Rose rolled her eyes then and looked out the window. He was one of those people. Someone who had to let everyone know how freaking smart they were.
No, thank you.
She put in her second earbud and pressed up the volume on her phone though the flight attendant hadn’t finished with the instructions should they need to make an emergency landing. She didn’t care. She’d flown hundreds of times, and today wasn’t going to be the day the plane crashed.
Rose closed her eyes and tried not to breathe in too deeply. Then she wouldn’t be reminded of the handsome man beside her and do something insane—like talk to him.
* * *
Rose woke to a delightfully warm hand on her arm. She startled, first looking into that pair of clear, teal eyes, and then dropping her gaze to where the man’s hand still rested on her arm.
His mouth moved, but she couldn’t hear him over the pounding music coming through her headphones. How she’d fallen asleep, she had no idea. She practically ripped the earbuds out of her ears and asked, “What?”
It was more of a yell, really. Embarrassment heated her, as if she wasn’t already warm enough from being asleep.
“Do you have a bag?” he asked, his voice somehow deeper than before. Or maybe Rose was still trying to throw off the dregs of slumber.
“Yes,” she said. “It’s right above us. It’s black.”
It’s black. She shook her head. Ninety-nine percent of the traveling population had a black bag.
“It has a rose on the top,” she said.
“This one?” He hefted her bag to the aisle.
“That’s it.” She stepped out behind him, wondering if he was going to take her personal belongings hostage. But once they were in the jetway, he handed her the bag.
“Why the rose?” he asked.
“Um, that’s my name,” she said. “Rose.”
Their eyes met again, and if he couldn’t feel that electricity between them, he’d have to be dead. Rose felt tingly from head to toe, as if she’d been struck by lightning.
“Nice to meet you, Rose. I’m Liam.” He extended his hand, and she thankfully had enough brain cells to put her hand in his. My, his skin felt nice and smooth and warm….
She blinked and gave him a proper handshake. She didn’t want to be the dazed woman with a limp noodle shake.
“Nice nails,” he said as he released her hand. “Are they real?”
“Yes,” she said, glancing at her fingernails. She adored getting her nails done, and today, they were bright pink to match the lipstick she’d been favoring this month. After all, it was almost Valentine’s Day—in another month—and the holiday practically screamed for pink.
He walked ahead of her, and though Rose worked out regularly, she couldn’t quite catch him. Once they made it into the airport in Jackson Hole, he turned, smiled, and said, “Maybe we’ll run into each other again.”
“Maybe,” she said, the second syllable falling into open space as Liam walked away from her, a wave over his shoulder. He was obviously off to somewhere very important.
Someone probably needs a Swahili translator, she thought with a scoff, still watching him weave through the crowd. In fact, she stood there watching him in his pressed cotton pants and black polo until he disappeared.
“Liam,” she said to herself. One of her greatest skills was Googling for information, but even she couldn’t do much with only a first name.
But she wasn’t going to let that stop her from trying.
Liam intrigued her, and she wanted her “maybe” to become a “definitely.”
Oh, yes, she definitely wanted to run into Liam again.
