Winter's Thaw (3 page)

Her hand was so soft and warm, so small in his. He had tugged at her ring. It didn’t look like a wedding band, more like an engagement ring, but what did he know? The wave of possessiveness that went through him as he toyed with it had stunned him. He’d never before felt strongly enough about any woman he’d dated to consider the type of commitment needed to require that sort of public display—to place a ring on his partner’s finger for all to see. But as he’d played with the ring, he’d flashed to an imagining of how that might be.

Her eyes were a beautiful burnished copper as they’d widened in surprise at his touch, and he could see the pain and stress lurking in their depths. A headache, he’d guessed, and no wonder.

He had honestly been just trying to help her get settled when he reached across her to buckle her seatbelt. But the back of his arm had glanced across her breast, and he had felt the peak pressing back against his skin. He hadn’t been able to resist a glance down. A slight glimpse of a lacy red bra had been visible where her blouse gaped between the buttons.

He groaned inwardly now at the recollection. He raked a hand through his hair and leaned back in his seat, careful not to touch her again. Her eyes were closed. However, he somehow knew she was as aware of him as he was of her.

Nick took the opportunity to surreptitiously study her profile as the plane began to take off. Her skin was fair with light freckles scattered across her tilted nose and cheekbones, and at this close range, just a few permanent smile lines were visible. No makeup. He guessed she was probably a bit older than him, likely in her thirties. Her almost-curly, dark hair was past shoulder-length with some lighter glints to it. With those pretty amber eyes instead of the usual blue or ordinary brown, she made an impression. Her hands were clasped across her slim waist, and like him, she wore jeans, which hugged her generous hips and fell to straight legs. She had comfortable-looking sport sandals on, and her legs were stretched out in front of her, loosely crossed at the ankles.

Nick let his gaze drift back up her still form to her simple red blouse. As if she felt his regard, her nipples hardened again, poking at the soft fabric. He sucked in a breath in reaction as he shifted once more. She was blushing again, but her eyes were screwed closed and he reluctantly looked away, trying to respect her obvious desire for privacy.

As the plane began to level off, sensing she was still awake, he finally lost patience, wanting to see her eyes again.

“I’m Nick.”

She continued to rest her head on the seatback, but tilted his way as those heart-stopping eyes opened to zero in on his. The effect was somehow very private and personal, as if he was her sole focus. “Maggie.” She blinked and averted her gaze to somewhere in the vicinity of his shoulder. “I’m sorry if I’m being rude, but I’ve had a really bad day, and I just need to get some rest.”

Even as she voiced her desire for privacy, she angled slightly toward him.

“So I gathered. I’m sorry—I couldn’t help but overhear your phone conversations.” Emboldened by her body language, he took her hand again. “You lost someone today?” he queried in a soft tone of voice.

Maggie felt the first prick of tears in response to his unsolicited sympathy. “My…husband, Wade,” she managed.
Oh no.
She could feel the tears building as she spoke his name out loud for the first time since she’d gotten the news.

Finally beginning to grasp her loss, feeling the dam breaking, she tried to avoid embarrassment and turned away toward the window. Nick took her by the shoulders and pulled her back firmly against his chest, leaning awkwardly across the center console between them, silently holding her as she at last began to weep.

After a couple of minutes of the grief overwhelming her, reality began to intrude. The position wasn’t in the least comfortable with the hard plastic pressing into her lower back, and as if sensing this, Nick leaned forward, easing her more upright as she struggled to get a handle on her emotions, though he kept her braced against him.

As if breaking down and sobbing in the arms of a complete stranger wasn’t bad enough, the flight attendant chose then to come back around and refill drink orders. She reached their row and waited, somewhat impatiently, for their attention.

“Nothing right now.” Nick’s voice came from right by Maggie’s ear as the corresponding rumble in his chest gave her the awareness she needed to pull away. He slowly let her go, allowing her to straighten, and she immediately dove for her purse, needing a tissue in the worst way. She appreciated the gestures, both comforting her then giving her some space, but she missed the support of his strong embrace now that it was gone.

Throat aching and a million thoughts racing through her head, she settled back once again in her seat and stared blankly out of the window at the blue sky and wondered at the surreal scene she’d somehow fallen into. Back and forth across the country. Falling into the sympathetic arms of a disarmingly gorgeous man.

Oh, and losing Wade.

Forever.

Maggie shook her head as if that could clear her mind. She couldn’t remember a time when he hadn’t been in her life. She and Wade had been high school sweethearts—well, junior high to tell the truth. They’d gone on to the same college together, been each other’s best friend, married soon after graduation and eventually had Cassie. Everything should have been rosy.

The only portion of their lives that hadn’t really clicked was what had eventually driven them apart. Sex. Or lack thereof. Wade had a high sex drive, while Maggie’s was nearly non-existent, even more so since she’d had Cass. He had begun to resent always being the initiator and she in turn had felt pressured and harassed. Finally, perhaps inevitably, Wade had strayed outside their marriage. His affair had been brief, and many men would likely have hidden the secret relationship away, but in this their long friendship had stood them in good stead. So they’d talked about it as rationally as they could, and the separation had come with pangs of nostalgia, but no real pain.

The divorce had been, according to her friend Sam, ‘ridiculously amicable,’ and they were even technically still sharing the house. Wade had an apartment a couple of miles away. But instead of having Cassie uproot herself for his portion of the visitation, Wade just kept a bedroom in their house and stayed over most weekends, as if the family unit was still whole. They’d agreed that when—or, as she’d always silently amended in her case,
if
—they ever started seeing other people, that would be time enough to begin to completely disentangle their lives. But for now, it worked for them.

Had
worked.

The bludgeoning mental correction to past tense shook Maggie to the core once again. Her thoughts opened her eyes to the realization that she’d be home in a few hours, walking into the house they’d shared—alone. She could probably go stay at Sam’s, but that was ridiculous. It was her home.

Nick had been a quiet presence next to her while she’d composed herself, and she was grateful for his understanding. Pushing all thoughts aside for now, Maggie accepted the warm towel to wash up before the meal arrived. She’d had a somewhat confused moment when the flight attendant had held it out to her with tongs, but had followed Nick’s lead in using it to wash her hands.
Do they always do this in first class? Who knew?
No wonder they pulled the curtain between them and the rest of the plane. Maggie smiled slightly as she wondered what the flight attendant’s reaction would have been if she’d taken it and used it to wipe down her face or maybe drape it across her neck for the warm heat to relieve the tension there. Come to think of it, she really could use a trip to the lav to splash some cold water on her face. The tear tracks had dried and felt a bit crusty and tight and God knew how bad her eyes looked at the moment. Thankfully, she hadn’t worn makeup today. But they were probably red and puffy. She had some eye drops in her purse, she remembered.

Maggie stood and Nick followed suit in order to let her out. She was struck again by his height next to hers. Wade had only been four or five inches taller than her, so the way Nick loomed over her as she passed him and he looked down at her with concern sent a visceral flutter through her chest at his proximity.

Once she’d retreated behind the door of the lav, she grimaced at herself in the mirror. Even taking into account the unflattering light, it wasn’t a pretty sight. She wasn’t trying to impress anyone, but she had her pride. Maggie freshened up, taking time to splash her face with cool water, then made good use of her eye drops and some lotion since her skin was already starting to feel dry.

The meal service had already begun when she emerged and dodged the busy attendant. It looked as though their row had been skipped, which didn’t really bother her any. She had no appetite at the moment.

Nick rose in order to let her in. “I asked her to wait to serve us after you came back. There’s more than one choice of entrée and I wasn’t sure what would appeal to you.” His eyes took her in and he gave her a reassuring smile.

Touched, she reflected that someone had definitely been looking out for her in the seatmate department. She took her seat. “Thank you. But you didn’t have to wait for me.”

“It’s okay. Better to not have to move my things. And I was raised better than that. My mom would have given me ‘the look’ if she knew I started eating before a lady.”

That coaxed a smile from her. “Old-fashioned mom?”

Nick narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. “Not particularly in her ideas on things, but she was from the East Coast and her family was well-off. Old money. They entertained a lot, and so social manners were a big thing with them.” He grinned. “She made sure we knew which utensil to use so we wouldn’t embarrass her when we went back to Grandmother’s. But she’s pretty liberal in her thinking and can do the secret eye-roll with the best of them when the stuffed shirts get going on certain topics. Like this…”

The flight attendant had returned to take their choices for their entrées and he had her smiling as he demonstrated the surreptitious eye-roll. Nick’s humorous account of his mom’s antics continued until the food came.

After a murmured “
Bon appétit
” from Nick, they shared their meal in a not uncomfortable silence. He really was a good companion. He seemed to know exactly when to talk and when to give her space.

Maggie struggled to find any enjoyment in the surprisingly good food, but knew she had to get something into her stomach. She slowly ate as much as she could, trying to focus on each bite. After things had been cleared away and they’d stowed their tables back in the armrests, Maggie found herself turning to the man next to her.

She opened her mouth to speak, then found she didn’t know quite what to say and closed it again, but his attention had already been garnered.
Oh well
. She was struggling for a grip on some sort of conversational ball when he thankfully jumped in instead.

“Would you like something else to drink?”

Maggie was stuffed and the thought of adding more was unappealing. “No, but thanks for asking.” She took a deep breath then exhaled. Part of her wanted to talk but her mind was so scattered at the moment she just couldn’t seem to settle on any kind of direction to take a conversation.

The silence stretched on as he waited expectantly.

What’s wrong with me? This guy has me tongue-tied
.

She wasn’t sure she liked the implications of that realization. She usually wasn’t one to be concerned about the expectations of others though for some reason she didn’t want Nick to have a poor opinion of her.

Chapter Three

Nick waited for Maggie to say something, but took mercy on her when she seemed stymied for a topic. “How is your head feeling?”

She blinked and took a moment before she answered, “It’s okay. Better, but still just…full.”

He could only imagine. “You want to talk about it, or do idle chit-chat?”

She sent a grateful look his way. “Chit-chat is good.”

So they spent the next half hour talking about random things, and if periodically she would steer away from certain topics, likely linked in her mind to the elephant in the room, he let her direct the flow.

The video compilation finally settled into the movie, and they donned their headphones. Nick really had no interest in watching the rom-com, but went ahead for appearances’ sake to take some of the pressure off Maggie—that strange compulsion to talk to the person next to you on a flight. He felt sort of bad for talking her ear off for the last while, but she’d demonstrated earlier that she had no qualms about tuning people out when she really wanted to, so he could only assume that their rambling conversation was serving as a distraction of sorts from her current situation. He’d been through enough training on grief before in his line of work to know that people reacted in different ways but needing the appearance of normalcy was very common.

When the movie finished, they’d been sitting next to one another for hours, and Nick reflected that the sheer proximity gave him a sort of comfortable knowledge of Maggie. Oh, she still pushed his buttons, but he was in his twenties, not some out-of-control hormonal kid. So the low-level glow of attraction simply warmed, an undertone to the ease with which he was becoming familiar with his seatmate.

The delicate way she picked at her food first before visibly forcing herself to eat. The constant shifting in her seat, which spoke of being unused to sitting for such a long stretch. Her clothing choices, which put comfort ahead of trends. All these observations combined to paint a picture of her in Nick’s mind—one of a woman who concentrated less on herself and more on the people and activities around her. She was well-spoken and polite, even with the trauma she was currently undergoing, and she most definitely loved her dead husband.

Nick shook his head in sad wonder. To have such a deep connection then lose it so suddenly… It was amazing she was doing as well as she was. She was probably still in shock, he decided, and he hoped she had someone in town to support her when she got back. That brought his mind back around to the message he’d heard her leave earlier.