Grounded for Love: A Reunion Romance Novella (3 page)

People in the airport were certainly interesting.
Amy would love to be here and make up stories for all these people.
A guy a few tables over had a Mohawk with pink tips. Across the room, a young mother with a toddler and a baby struggled to keep them entertained. A balding man with a red nose sat at a table reading a newspaper.
Hmm. I bet he is an informant and he’s about to meet a detective here with information about a major crime ring in Denver that implicates the police chief and the mayor, who is actually Elvis Presley’s secret brother
. Serena chuckled to herself. Amy had rubbed off on her.

After finishing a club sandwich, she decided to take a walk down the airport. She wasn’t sure how much longer she’d have to wait for her flight, and she was feeling antsy. Serena made her way over to one of the departure monitors and scanned for her flight. Her heartbeat quickened as she saw
Cancelled
next to flight after flight on the screen.

“No, this isn’t happening. Please, don’t let my flight be one of them.” She finally found her flight number, and her heart sank.

Cancelled
.

Serena backed away from the flight monitors, trying to calm the storm of disappointment swirling inside. Her mom
had
said her father was doing better, but she desperately wanted to see that for herself.
Stupid storm.

She turned and pulled out her phone while walking down the corridor. With her head down, she began texting her mom to let her know that she was going to spend a lot more time in the Denver airport—the last place she wanted to be. Before she could finish the text, she bumped into someone and her phone tumbled to the ground. She immediately bent down to retrieve the phone.

“I’m sorry about that,” came a deep, almost familiar voice.

In what seemed like slow motion, Serena glanced up at the man. Her heart seized, while her mind tried to convince her of who stood before her.

“Serena?” he said, reaching his hand out to help her up.

She stood without his help, still in shock. “Graham?”

“What are you doing here?”

“Flying back to Durango. Except not really, because, well, the storm…” her sentence trailed off.

“I can’t believe—”

“Me either.” She wasn’t sure if she should slap him, yell at him, or run in the opposite direction.

“How have you been?” He said it in the familiar I-care-about-you way he used to talk to her. Until he proved he didn’t care at all.

“Good.” She didn’t want to have a conversation with him. If he was the very last man on the planet, she’d happily jump off a cliff to avoid him.

He touched her on the arm. Anger bubbled inside as her ridiculous heart reacted with a rapid fire of beats. “It’s good to see you.” He smiled with the same smile that used to tug at her heart.

Serena’s tongue felt too big for her mouth. She wanted to say the perfect thing to him. She’d gone over it so many times in her head. But now, with him standing so close to her, she couldn’t muster the words to tell him exactly what she thought of him. And she hated that he looked so good with his thick, dirty blond hair and stupid chocolaty brown eyes. The same eyes that had trapped her in his net of deception.

“Where are you headed?” she asked, then instantly wanted to call the question back, because she didn’t care. At all. If she had her wish, he’d be going to outer Siberia. Alone. With no coat.

“I’m on my way back to Grand Junction. My brother is getting married and I’m the best man.”

“Oh.” Apparently, one man in their family could get married, even if it wasn’t Graham.

“Hey, since we’re stuck here for a while, maybe we could—”

“My flight is cancelled, so I’m going to find a hotel.” She hadn’t intended to leave the airport, but seeing him made her want to get as far away from him as possible.

“Okay.” He seemed genuinely surprised she didn’t want to spend time with him.
Why would I?

“It was good to see you,” she lied. “Have a good trip.”

Serena turned and rushed into the nearest bathroom, her cheeks throbbing with heat. Inside, she went directly to the sink to splash cold water on her face. She drew in some calming breaths then gazed into the mirror, immediately whirling around. It was hard to tell who was more stunned—Serena or the man standing at the urinal. “Oh no. I’m so sorry. I thought this was… Sorry.”

With her face blazing, she raced out of the men’s room. She checked the sign before ducking into the correct restroom. When she was safely in a stall, she shut the door and hit Amy’s number.

“Hello?”

“Amy, my flight to Durango got cancelled. I’m stuck at the Denver airport.”

“Oh no. Why?”

“Some big storm. I don’t know. I don’t care. I’m stuck here and guess who else is here? Never mind, you’d never be able to guess in a million years. I can’t even believe it myself. I hate my life.”

“Slow down, what’s going on?”

“Graham is here.”

“Your Graham?”

“Not
my
Graham. But yes. That one. That dirty, slimy, no-good—”

“In the airport?”

“Yes.”

“What happened?”

“I ran right into him while I was texting my mom. If only I’d stopped, or looked before I texted. I could’ve avoided him. There should be a new slogan.
Don’t walk and text, you could ruin your life. It’s not worth it.
” She raked her fingers through her hair, still flabbergasted she’d seen Graham, of all people. And he had the nerve to look good and talk to her.
How dare he
.

“Maybe this is fate,” Amy suggested.

“Fate? Are you kidding me?”

“For real. Maybe fate has dumped this opportunity into your lap to resolve things.”

“Resolve things? We can’t resolve anything. Besides, I’m totally over it.” She was. Completely.

Amy laughed.

Offended, Serena said, “Excuse me?”

“You are so
not
over it.” She could see Amy’s skeptical expression.

“Uh, yeah. I am. Ancient history.”

“Right.”

“Amy, what kind of friend are you?”

“The kind that tells you to go find that rat and tell him off so you can finally move on with your life. Tell him how he made you feel and get it all off your chest so you don’t have to keep carrying it around.”

Serena bit at her lip. Amy obviously didn’t understand. “I have moved on. Like completely and utterly moved on.”

“Serena,” Amy paused. “You haven’t dated anyone more than once or twice.”

“Not true.” Serena leaned against the tiled wall. “There was the guy from the coffee shop and the one from the grocery store. Oh, and Brad. I went out with him several times. Until he threw away his TV because he said the government was spying on him through it. He even asked me if I worked for the government and was only there to watch him.”

Amy laughed again. “Yeah, Brad. He was a winner.”

“See, so I’ve dated. Clearly, I am over Graham.”

“Okay. If you say so. But I think this is the perfect chance to tell him what you think of him and then you can totally let it go.” Amy started to sing.

“Please stop that. No Disney songs.” Amy’s voice was getting on Serena’s last nerve.

“I will
if
you go talk to him.”

“Why? It doesn’t even matter after all this time. It’s been three years. And I’m sure he doesn’t care what I think anyway.” Serena looked at herself in the mirror and wiped at her red cheeks.

“How did he act when he saw you?”

“Charming. Sweet. Nice. Too nice. Made me want to punch him.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Totally over him.” Amy’s disbelief was coming through loud and strong.

Serena heard someone come into the restroom, so she lowered her voice. “Fine. Maybe I still need a little more time. But I’m not going to talk to him.”

“Are you going to hide in the bathroom until you get another flight?”

“That would be silly.”

“Because you’re acting so rational right now?”

She gazed up at the ceiling. “Why did I even call you?”

“Because I’m your best friend. And you need to listen to me.”

“Well, I’m going to camp out in here until I’m sure he’s nowhere in sight. Then I’ll go to a hotel for the night, come back tomorrow, get on a flight and never look back.”

“Avoiding it seems to have worked so well this far.”

“Ahhh. Why did he have to be in this airport today? Of all the places in the whole world, why here? Why?” Serena rubbed her forehead.

“Fate.”

“Okay, I’m hanging up now. I’ll talk to you later.”

She shoved her phone into her purse. Amy was ridiculous. She didn’t know what she was talking about. Maybe Serena was acting a little irrationally, but talking to Graham was out of the question. For sure. Especially because it really didn’t matter anymore.

Serena peeked out the door. No lying ex-boyfriend in sight. She headed for the airport exit, hoping to find a taxi that could take her to a hotel. Of course, all the other stranded passengers would be looking for accommodations as well, and the roads would be terrible in this storm, but she refused to stay in the airport. She couldn’t risk seeing the one man she’d given her heart to and who had then chopped it up into little pieces. She was much more willing to brave snowy roads and search for a hotel than risk seeing Graham again.

Serena walked outside the doors and pulled her coat tighter, thankful she’d worn it on the plane instead of packing it. Large, white flakes fell steadily. After growing up in Durango, she knew that big flakes generally meant quick accumulation. Aside from the inconvenience and running into the man she thought she’d marry, the falling snow made the outside scene look like a picture-perfect postcard.

A yellow taxi pulled up to the curb and Serena rushed over to it. She flung open the door and asked, “Can you get me to a Holiday Inn?”

“Sure,” said the dark-skinned man with an accent. “Do you have any luggage?”

“No. With this mess, they told me I couldn’t access my suitcase. I sure hope it makes it to Durango.”

Serena scooted across the seat and without warning someone else muscled into the cab. She turned. “What are you doing?”

“Catching a ride. I don’t want to sleep in the airport.” Graham smiled, and she hated that she noticed the way his eyes twinkled. Thankfully, she was immune to it.

“Can’t you find another taxi? This one is mine.”

“Why can’t we share?”

“Because.”

He nodded. “I’ll go to the same hotel as her.”

Serena sat back against the seat, fuming. How dare he commandeer her cab. And sit so close to her. And worse, how dare he still wear the same musky cologne. “Fine.”

The taxi driver put it in gear and they slid out into the lane of traffic. Serena braced for an impact and was relieved when they only fishtailed on the road.

“Look, I think we need to talk,” Graham said.

“About what, exactly?”

“About how you disappeared three years ago.”

“You noticed?”

“Of course I did.” He almost seemed like he cared that she left.

“And I didn’t disappear. You knew I was in San Francisco.”

“But you wouldn’t answer my texts, my calls. I even sent some letters.”

The cab driver let out an expletive then yelled, “Learn how to drive.” He glanced at the rearview mirror. “Oh. I so sorry.”

“I’m sure half the people at the airport have already found rooms. Do you think the Holiday Inn will have a vacancy?” Serena said, not caring if Graham had a room or not.

“Yeah, yeah. Other hotels are close by too.”

Serena wanted to get out of the car and away from Graham as soon as she could. Sooner if possible. “You can take him somewhere else.”

The driver glanced in the rearview mirror with a look of confusion.

“Take us both to the Holiday Inn,” Graham said.

Serena puffed out a breath. The last thing she wanted was to spend time with Graham. Sure she loved him once. A long time ago. A
very
long time ago. But that was before she saw his true colors and realized what a dirtbag he was. She only wished she’d learned that sooner and hadn’t wasted most of her senior year in college dating him. “Why are you doing this?”

“Fate has brought us together.”

Not another reference to fate. As if they were fated to be together.
Please.
“For real? Fate?”

“How else would you explain that we both ended up in the same airport at the same time?”

“I’d call it an extremely bad coincidence.”

A six-story building with a green sign came into view.

“Here we are,” the cab driver said.

Being so close to Graham, and all the memories it provoked, made her lightheaded. She wanted out of the cab immediately. She wished Graham would take the hint and find another hotel. In Russia. “Thank you,” she said to the driver.

“I wait to see if you get a room?” the cab driver asked.

Serena handed him some cash. “No. There are a few other hotels on this road. I’ll find something. Thank you.”

Graham also handed the driver some cash. “Thanks for the ride.”

“I hope you two work out,” the man said with a crooked smile. “Lovers’ quarrel no good.”

Serena huffed as she got out of the car.
Lovers’ quarrel?
Work out? Never gonna happen. Ever.