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Finn Karlsson was no longer the sweet, gullible man she’d met ten years ago. His baby-blue eyes held secrets, and she was determined to discover them…even if it meant putting her heart in danger again.
* * *
THE FOLLOWING MORNINGhad been such a whirlwind of changing her tire, driving to the shop to get a new one to replace her spare and rushing to the airport to catch their last-minute flight to Walla Walla, Jessica’s anxiety about flying hadn’t had a minute to manifest itself. Now, as the jet’s engines roared beneath her and the plane lifted, she dug her fingernails into the armrest.
She could use one of those canned Bloody Marys from the drink cart, but she didn’t want Finn to think she was a morning drinker. She also didn’t want to have alcohol on her breath when she went to the prison. She squeezed her eyes closed.
Finn bumped her shoulder. “Are you all right? I’m sure I can work something out with the prison and go inside with you.”
Ugh. He assumed her nerves were all about meeting Plank. She loosened her death grip on the armrest and flexed her fingers. “Not a fan of taking off.”
“I’m okay with taking off. I don’t like landing.” He bent forward and dragged his laptop case from beneath the seat in front of him. “Do you mind if I do some work? I canceled a class today, but I still have some papers to grade.”
She hated landing only slightly less than taking off. “Go ahead. Really, you didn’t have to do all of this. I could’vechanged the tire last night and driven down on my spare this morning.”
He widened his eyes. “You’re not meant to drive three hundred miles on a spare.”
“Just do your grading.” She flicked her fingers at his laptop, now open on his tray table. “I have some notes to review.”
She reached up and pressed the light button with her knuckle and pulled her purse into her lap. Digging around in the depths of her bag, she found her notebook and flipped it open. She scanned the words she’d scrawled on the page weeks ago, more to give herself something to do than as a review. She didn’t even need this notebook. She’d had these questions memorized for almost ten years.
The airplane dipped and she gasped, closing her eyes and clutching the notebook to her chest. After a few seconds of smooth sailing, she opened one eye, feeling Finn’s attention from the seat next to hers.
He whispered, “Probably just a pocket of air.” He closed his laptop. “Did I ever tell you the story about the Ferris wheel at the state fair?”
“No.” She threaded her fingers together and pressed her hands against her midsection.
“I had been on all the hair-raising rides all afternoon, even while I filled up on cotton candy and chili dogs and kettle corn and funnel cake. But when night fell, I heard a girl from school wanted to go on the Ferris wheel with me.” He rubbed his hands together. “As a randy fifteen-year-old boy, I figured I’d just gotten lucky.”
She turned her head. “And did you? Get lucky, I mean.”
“Absolutely not.”
Finn then proceeded to tell her a story about his abjectfear of riding the Ferris wheel and trying to impress this girl. Even though Jessica was sure he’d embellished the tale, he had her giggling and covering her eyes at his humiliation.
He followed that story with another about the first time he went scuba diving, which had tears rolling down her face. He’d obviously conquered all these fears because she knew from before that he was an adventurous outdoorsman.
While she mopped her face with the napkin from the Diet Coke she’d ordered, she heard a loud clunk and clapped her hand to her chest. “What was that?”
“The landing gear. We’re getting ready to touch down.” He gave an exaggerated grimace. “I told you this is my least favorite part of flying.”
“Do you want me to hold your hand?” She patted his hand, resting on his laptop. “We don’t want a repeat of the Ferris wheel debacle. You did eat a lot of pretzels.”
He held out his hand, palm up. “Please.”
She slid her palm on top of his palm, curling her fingers around his hand. “Just this once. You’re gonna have to learn to suck it up.”
Even though she knew he was pretending fear to make her feel better, it worked. Or maybe it was the feel of his warm, rough skin against hers. She swooned, along with the plane, but she welcomed the butterflies as long Finn held her hand.
“Thanks.” He grinned as he shoved his computer back into its case with his other hand and nudged it beneath the seat with his foot.
As the airplane whooshed downward, Finn squeezed her hand, and she didn’t mind at all—not even when the wheels touched down.
When the plane came to a stop, they unclipped their seat belts and gathered their bags. She poked Finn in the back as they made their way off the plane. “Thanks.”
“Yeah, I can’t believe a woman who isn’t afraid to face Avery Plank is afraid to fly.”
She shrugged as she hitched her bag over her shoulder. “I can’t control what happens up here.”