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Her mouth opens and closes like a fish, and then she scowls. “He owed me a favor, and we’d ordered the passport a while ago. It’s not like I called up the US government, asked them to send me a passport, and they did it.”

I get up from the chair and cross over to her. Arie starts to inch away, but I put my arm up, blocking her exit. She shrinks a little at the closeness between us, but I don’t give her an inch. “Arie, we have a lot of history. I screwed things up, I was an asshole to you. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t know you like the back of my hand. That doesn’t mean I don’t know you now.”

I don’t know what comes over me, but I find myself leaning in even closer to her, until our faces are barely a breath away from each other. The tension is so thick I can practically reach out and touch it, and all I want to do is throw her down on my bed and fuck her the way she deserves, the way I should have that night all those years ago. Like she’s a queen, a goddess. But right before our lips can touch, before the tension can be released in any sort of mea

ningful way, she ducks under my arm and out into the hallway.

“You don’t know me now, Pierce. You think you know everything, everyone, just because you can read people now. But you don’t know anything.”

She heads down the hallway toward the guest room I’ve designated hers, but she turns right before she walks through the door. I think maybe she will change her mind, that she’ll come back and kiss me, admit she still feels the passion that exists between us.

“Let me know when the messenger gets here,” she says before going in the room and shutting the door.

My shoulders slump, and I’m left standing in the hallway, feeling like a complete ass.

Some things never change.

It took a few days for me to sort out our travel plans, but now the three of us are sitting in JFK waiting for the first leg of our flight to Auckland. It’s going to be a long day, especially because I didn’t have time to stretch out our travel and linger on the way. We’re going from New York, to Los Angeles, to Sydney, to Auckland, and I have a feeling Chloe is going to be a cranky mess by the time we finally get to New Zealand.

However, crankiness can’t begin to compare to Arie, who is sitting next to me in the first-class lounge, shaking like a leaf and downing way too much herbal anti-anxiety medication.

“I can’t believe you’ve never been on an airplane before. You’re how old now?” I ask as I sip from a frosty mug of beer and help Chloe with a wooden puzzle. Arie frowns at me.

“What does my age have to do with it? I’ve never had a reason to go anywhere. Or the time. Or the money. So, I’ve never been on a plane. And instead of being a snob and judging me about it, maybe you could offer some advice on how not to freak out for the next twenty-four hours?” She leans over and puts her head between her legs, which makes Chloe giggle.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. Okay, well. This one time, my unit and I were flying into a firefight in the middle east, and the helicopter we were on got shot down, so we had to bail out over the desert. We only have enough parachutes for three people and there were six of us, so…”

Arie looks up from where she was leaning between her knees, and her eyes are wide with panic. “Are you kidding me right now? I’m freaking out about getting on a massive commercial airliner, in first class no less, and your way of making me feel better is to tell me a story about your plane crashing?”

“I mean, it wasn’t a plane. It was a helicopter. So, not the same thing.”

Arie groans and puts her head back between her legs, and I shrug. Chloe keeps playing with her puzzle, and I answer some emails until priority boarding for the first-class cabin is called. Arie finally looks back up, and her face is practically green.

“This was a bad idea. I’ll just stay here. You can pick me up in the airport when you get back. I’ll make do, live in the terminal, like that Tom Hanks movie. What was it called?”

I snort laugh. “The Terminal?”

“Yeah, that one. Pick me up at Cinnabon in three weeks. I may be a hundred pounds heavier, but you’ll spot me pretty easily.”

I hoist Chloe onto my hip, then grab Arie’s arm and pull her to her feet. “Come on. I don’t pay for priority boarding just so I can get jammed through the line like cattle. Besides, we need to get Chloe settled. This is her first flight too, so you can figure out how to toughen up together.”

Chloe just grins and looks at Arie like she’s the silliest person in the world, which I find endlessly amusing. I have to practically drag Arie to the gate, and when we get there, it’s up to me to hand the ticket agent all of our information.

“Welcome, Mr. Cochran? And do you have your wife and daughter’s tickets as well?”

That snaps Arie back to reality. “I’m not his wife. Not. His. Wife. Arie Blanchard. Do you need my passport? I have my passport. But if there is any kind of problem with the ticket, I’m sure it’s not too late for me to go home.”

I roll my eyes, but the agent just grins, as if she’s seen this a million times before. “No problem, Miss Blanchard. When you get into your seat, let your flight attendant know that Angela said to give you the ‘knuckler special.’ You’ll thank me later.”

Arie looks suspicious, but it distracts her enough that I can push her down the jet way and into her seat. As I watch her grab hold of the armrests, her fingers turning white from a death grip, I can’t help but chuckle.

It’s going to be a very long day.

Arie

I’m still not sure what the “knuckler special” is, but the gate agent was right. I want to thank her. The first-class flight attendant brought me a drink that I chugged down as soon as we got in our seats, and within minutes, I felt like I was flying high on something other than an airplane. I looked over at Pierce with a grin once we were airborne, and let out a long, lazy sigh.

“Flying isn’t so bad.”