Flight to Paradise (Flight Trilogy, Book 1) (34 page)

Once in the car, the awkward silence seethed with anticipation. He put the key in the ignition and started the car. Neither of them spoke. He hoped she would be the first to break the eerie silence. Instead, she stared out the passenger window as if she were cataloging her memories. He left her alone with her thoughts.

He checked his side mirror for oncoming traffic then pulled out and drove away. The silence grew stronger with each minute. From the main road, he entered the on-ramp to Highway 73: the toll road to John Wayne Airport.

He heard a sniffle and saw that she was holding a tissue in her hand.

“Are you okay? She turned her head. Tears filled her eyes.

“I’m sorry.” Trying to smile, she carefully blotted the tears. “I didn’t want you to see me like this.”

“What’s wrong?”

She took a deep cleansing breath. “It’s been hard. I don’t know if I should get into it now.” She pulled the visor down looking more closely at her eyes in the small mirror, wiping mascara from her tear-stained cheeks.

“Remember, I’m a good listener,” he offered, not sure what was upsetting her but glad they were talking.

She looked at him and smiled. “Yes, I remember. First of all, I need to tell you I’m so sorry about last night.”

He wanted to comment but refrained.

“I know that must have been awkward for you.” She paused.

Again, he let her talk without interrupting.

“I had no idea. But to be honest, after the shock left me I can’t tell you how happy I was to see you.”

He felt her stare and turned. For a brief moment, their eyes connected, leaving him with an uncomfortable, yet welcomed tightening in his chest. “Why, Rex?” he asked.

“He approached me after your wedding and asked me out.”

“And you went out with him? Just like that?”

“At the time, I had so many unanswered questions about you. Rex was your best friend. Who better to find out about you than from your best friend?”

“So, you sorta, used Rex?”

“In a way…” she trailed off, making another check of her make-up.

“But why Rex, of all people?”

“Rex came along when I was at my lowest. Once I found out he was close to you, I guess I felt being with him would, in a way, let me be with you.” She sniffled as she touched the tissue to the corner of her eye. “I know it sounds crazy, but for me, at that time, Rex was all that was left of you.”

“Hmmm…interesting,” he said.

“I wanted so badly to be the one that you loved. I wanted to love you back. The main reason I moved out to California was to see if maybe we could get back together. I had no idea about Emily until your mother wrote me a letter telling me about the wedding.

In time, Rex convinced me I needed to move on; to let you go. Reluctantly, I did just that. I wanted you to be happy. Up until that point, Rex had only been a friend to me. But once I accepted you were gone, I started looking at Rex differently. I guess you could call it the classic rebound.”

She paused briefly. With harshness, she said, “But I know now he was a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and I was a stupid little lamb. I really screwed up.”

He released a chuckle. “Talk about stupid, I’m the poster child.”

“Whatever happened to Emily?”

“Oh, you’ll love this: the night I returned home from New York, I discovered she had taken off.” He glanced over at her. “Perfect timing, huh?”

“I’d say.”

“But she was kind enough to leave me a parting gift, although I didn’t discover it until I returned from Atlanta.”

“What’s that?”

“She took advances on all of our credit cards—maxing them out—leaving me holding a truck-load of debt.”

“No!”

“Yeah, she must have been working on the little scheme for months. It buried me for almost a year and would have been much longer if her lawyer—during the divorce settlement—for some miraculous reason, hadn’t agreed that she would take care of the debts.”

“Where did she go?”

“The best I could find out, she ran off with some rich guy that owned the company where she worked. Listening to her lawyer describe him, the guy must have been old enough to be her father.”

“That’s sad.”

“Well, I hope she finds what she’s looking for. I’m just glad to be rid of her.”

He exited the toll road toward John Wayne Airport.

“When Emily finally left me, all I could think about was you—us. I desperately wanted to talk to you. While I was in Atlanta moving my mother, I called your house, and your mother informed me”—sarcasm bathing his words—“that I had just missed your wedding, and you were on your honeymoon.”

“If I had only known about Emily,” she said.

“Would it have made a difference? I mean, would you have still married Rex?”

“If I had known there was the slightest hope for us, I would have
never
married Rex, or anyone.” She pulled a pair of sunglasses from her purse and slipped them on.

“Speaking of ‘anyone’, whatever happened to Bill?”

“Poor Bill, he ran out in front of a car and was killed.”

“How tragic,” Ryan said. He had heard of joggers being hit while running too close to the road.

“Yeah, I never could break him of chasing cars.”

Ryan whipped his head around. “What?”

With the visor pulled down, her left hand lifted her glasses, making a quick check of her makeup. She had not seen the startled look on Ryan’s face.

“Yeah, I always feared he would get hit. That’s why I never let him out of the house without being on a leash.” She flipped the visor up and turned to Ryan. “What’s wrong?”

“I thought Bill was the guy you almost married! The pilot. Remember? You told me about him in your letter.”

“What are you talking about? Bill was my dog—”

“Your dog!”

“I told you in the first letter I sent you. I told you I named him after the Naval Academy’s mascot, Bill, the goat. Seeing him, reminded me to think of you.”

Ryan pulled up in front of the terminal building on the top level, put the car in park, and turned to Keri. In a serious tone, he asked, “Do you remember what you said in that letter?”

“I told you about the little Westie I bought and that I named him Bill. I also told you I was transferring to California. I hoped we could be friends but would understand if you felt it would be too stressful.”

She looked off in thought then reached up and wiped a tear from her cheek that had rolled from behind her glasses. “I also said I had thought we would one day be together, but I would never stand in the way of your happiness, and that I couldn’t wait to meet the girl that had won your heart.”

“Wait a minute! What made you think there was a girl?” Without giving her a chance to respond, he continued, “At the time I wrote, I wasn’t even dating anyone. I barely had time for myself. When I called mom to wish her a happy birthday, that’s when she gave me your address. I wrote to tell you I was leaving the Navy and wanted to find out if you were dating anyone. Mom said she was pretty sure you were still single. I put my number in the letter hoping you would call. You never did.”

“Ryan, the only thing you said in your letter, about seeing me, was when you mentioned that you hoped I would come to your wedding.”

“What?” His face twisted with disbelief.

“Later, after I heard you were marrying Emily, I assumed she was the woman in the letter.”

“That’s impossible! At the time I sent the letter, I hadn’t even
met
Emily!” He paused. “Something weird is going on.” He shifted in the seat, turning more toward her. “Keri, all this time, I never stopped loving you and realize now what a jerk I was for not writing to you more. I always remembered you telling me if it was meant to be, nothing could stop us from eventually getting together. All those years I was in the Navy, I clung to those words. Then, when I received your letter telling me you were seriously in love with some guy named,
Bill
—who I now know was a dog—I gave up on us.”

“Ryan, this is crazy.”

“I know. The letters. The past. Us. You being married. None of it makes sense.”

They stared at each other for a long moment. “What’s going on?” Keri asked.

After a brief silence, Ryan asked, “What did you mean when you said ‘the first letter’? I only got one letter from you.”

“Ryan, I sent you five more letters after I moved to California. I guess the last two must have
really
scared you. By then I was desperate. I poured my heart out, thinking I could somehow stop you from marrying Emily.”

“Keri, I never got any of those letters!”

“What? How could that be? How could the post office lose five of my letters?”

His mind quickly sorted the timeline of events. He remembered Rex’s words after he’d read the only letter he knew of, “She’s no good for you.” Then he remembered how excited Rex had been about taking him out to look for girls. He also recalled how interested Rex had suddenly become in checking the mail. He’d said he was waiting to hear from some of the airlines he’d written.

“I think I know,” he said.

“What?”

“Rex. That’s what.”

She took in his words. Her eyes widened. “No! You don’t think he—”

He nodded. “Yep. I think our friend Rex pulled a fast one on us.”

An officer appeared beside the car. “Excuse me. You’re going to have to move this car.”

“Yes sir.” Ryan pushed the car door open, trying not to hit the officer. He stood a head taller than the cop. “Let me get her bags out of the trunk and I’ll be on my way.”

“Make it fast. You’ve been sitting here too long already.” The officer walked off to police more cars standing two-deep against the curb.

Ryan pulled Keri’s bags from the trunk. “I’ll meet you on the other side of security by gate nine,” he said.

“Okay.”

He drove off to return the rental car, and she headed for the terminal. Wheeling the car through the underground parking garage, he couldn’t stop thinking about what Rex had done and how he’d done it.

How
could
he
live
with
himself
?

A simple little prank had altered the entire course of his life. He wondered what would have possibly happened if Rex had not done what he did. Would he and Keri be happily married? Would they have a son named David?

CHAPTER 63

“That was fast,” Keri said, seeing Ryan approach her after clearing security.

“So, where do you want to sit?” he asked.

“My flight departs from gate ten.”

Ryan looked up at the electronic board displaying arrival and departure flights for the different airlines. “You know what?”

“What?”

“It just dawned on me. I’ll be flying on your flight back to Dallas.”

“That’s great!”

“What position are you working?”

“First.”

“In that case, I’ll see if they have any openings in first.”

He looked out through the wall of glass to the jet bridge. The plane wasn’t there. “Looks like we’ve got some time to talk,” he said.

“I talked with the agent before you came, and she said the plane would be a little late. It’s coming out of Dallas and was delayed because of the weather.”

After scanning the seating area next to the gate check-in, he motioned with his head. “Let’s sit over there. We’ll be out-of-the-way.”

From where they were sitting he had a clear view of the jet bridge through the large plate-glass window. He knew once the plane pulled up to the bridge it would still take another ten to fifteen minutes to unload the passengers.

Ryan started, “I can’t believe Rex—”

Keri quickly interrupted, “Ryan, there is something else. I think Rex is running around on me.”

“What?” Sounding alarmed.

“I think Rex is seeing another woman.”

“Are you sure?” All he could think about was the day in the harbor and the way Rex had acted.

“I’m not sure
who
it is or even if it’s only one woman. As far as I know, he could be screwing the nanny, as we speak.”

“Sara?”

“Yeah.”

“When did you start suspecting all this?”

“Pretty much, right after we were married. I remember once when he was supposed to be on a three-day trip, I found his company ID on his dresser. When I asked him about it, he said he had managed to slip by without it. You and I both know that would have been impossible. And on a regular basis, he comes home from his trips late.”

“What do you mean by ‘late’?”

“For example, a few weeks ago, his sequence showed him landing at LAX around noon, but he didn’t get home until six that night.”

“What did he say?”

“That particular time he said he had to give the pilot he was working with a ride home, and that he’d gotten tied up in traffic.”

“What’s to say he wasn’t telling the truth?”

“Maybe. But it has happened more than a couple of times. He always has a different excuse.”

Pushing his lips together tight in frustration, he said, “I wish I could have warned you about Rex. I don’t understand
why
he ever got married.”

She reached over and took his hand, putting it in hers. “I am so sorry. Can you ever forgive me?”

“Listen, it’s not your fault. If Rex hadn’t screwed around with our lives none of this would have ever happened.”

She gazed deep into his eyes. “Ryan, seeing you again has given me hope.” His heart gave a giant unexpected thump in his chest. “I just don’t want to lose you again.”

“Keri. There’s nothing I want more than to be with you. But unless you know for certain Rex is messing around on you, you can’t just leave him because we all-of-a-sudden realize that we both made mistakes. Have you confronted him about this? I mean have you specifically told him what you think he’s doing?”

“No. I can’t prove it, but trust me, a woman knows when a man is not there—so to speak—and Rex is definitely somewhere else.”

“Well, I have to confront him about the letters,” he said.

The rest of Keri’s crew approached, dressed in their dark blue company uniforms, each pulling a roller bag. Ryan introduced himself.

As they were talking, the agent for the flight appeared and told the crew the plane was on the ground and that she wanted to board the passengers as soon as possible. After Keri acknowledged the agent and agreed to help rush the boarding, the agent scurried off.