Page 143 of The Business of Love Box Set 1: Books 1 - 4
PETER
K atie handed our boarding passes and passports to the young woman behind the check-in counter at our airline.
She had blonde hair pulled back in a severe bun, much like all her coworkers up and down the length of the counter, and she wore one of those oddly shaped old-fashioned flight-attendant hats that had always reminded me of the paper origami hats.
We were successfully checked in and our luggage was weighed, tagged, and sent down the conveyer belt to be loaded onto the plane. When we finished up, Katie and I turned away from the counter and she looked from left to right before decidedly nodding to the left.
“The gates are that way,” she said. “Let’s get through security, and once we’re on the other side, we can grab a coffee or something to eat. Sound good?”
“Sounds good,” I said.
It had been an odd morning for me. When Katie invited me to join her at one of her best friend’s wedding this weekend, I’d jumped at the opportunity. Why wouldn’t I want to go stay in a fancy-ass hotel with the sexiest woman alive and enjoy a luxury wedding of the likes I’d probably never seen?
Then she told me it was in Los Angeles.
That changed things. The excitement in my gut had quickly faded from elation to dread as I realized that this meant I would more than likely have to bite the bullet and go see my father.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to see him—or that I did want to see him—but rather, I wanted to bury my head in the sand and pretend that the life I’d always known wasn’t falling apart.
Being on St. John made it a hell of a lot easier to do that. But I knew as soon as I breathed that familiar smoggy Californian air that I would feel like I was home and the crushing weight of the reality I’d run from would return in full force.
I told myself it would be easier because I had Katie with me. However, there was no telling if that would be true or not.
I followed her through the maze of an airport until we reached security. We fell into line behind a family of three with a teenage daughter who looked as unenthused as most sixteen-year-old girls traveling with their parents.
The father wore a Hawaiian shirt and was meticulously going over everything they would have to remove and load into bins for security to scan. After his speech, which lasted a whole three and a half minutes, he asked his daughter if she’d heard him.
She looked up from her phone. “What?”
He started at the beginning and explained it all over again.
The mother sighed tiredly and talked about how badly she needed a drink or five.
Katie flashed me a devilish look over her shoulder. “Drinks sound like a fun idea.”
“It’s ten o’clock in the morning,” I said.
“That’s what mimosas and specialty coffees are for, Peter,” she said like she was talking to a toddler. “We’re on vacation. Shouldn’t we start out on the right foot?”
That logic was hard to argue with, so after making it through security and escaping from the annoying family of three, we found our gate and an airport bar just across the way from it with a view of the runway and the dense green mountains of the island in the background.
We took a seat and flipped through the menus. Katie said she didn’t like to eat heavy meals before she flew because it always made her feel like garbage. “But a little liquid meal never hurt anybody,” she added.
We ordered mimosas and a small appetizer to pick at.
“So Vanessa and Rhys have been together for about a year and a half,” Katie explained when I asked about the soon-to-be newlyweds. “They started dating after they realized she was giving him relationship advice on her radio show.”
“Pardon?”
Katie giggled. “I know. It’s a little complicated and weird, but it’s true.
They were meant to be, honestly. Vanessa has been so looking forward to this wedding.
I can’t wait to see how it turns out. Every time I’ve seen her over the last few months, she’s been telling me about decor and her dress and—” Katie broke off with a nervous laugh.
“I’m sure you don’t care about these kinds of things. Sorry, I just love weddings so much.”
“To be honest, I haven’t been to many weddings. Only a handful, really. My uncle’s when I was a boy, and a cousin’s when I was fresh out of high school.”
Katie stared blankly at me. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.”
“Well, this wedding is going to be one for the books. Trust me. Although it might ruin any and all weddings for you in the future.”
I chuckled. “You talk a big game.”
“I know Vanessa. It will be glamorous and wild. I’m sure of it.”
“Are they honeymooning at your resort?”
Katie shook her head and took a sip of her mimosa. “No, but I did suggest it. I could have swung them a wicked deal. But they have a little one and they decided to do something family friendly, which makes sense.”
“Fair enough.”
Katie leaned back in her chair. “Is there anything you wanted to do while we’re in LA?”
I blinked. “Sorry?”
“In LA,” she clarified. “Was there anything else you wanted to do or see while we were there? I know you’re from there. If you wanted to see anybody or whatever.”
“No.” I shook my head. Shit, just be honest with her! “No, I don’t think so.”
Katie hesitated for a moment. “Okay.”
She left it alone. Maybe she bought that I really had no interest in seeing anyone. Or maybe she realized there was something under the surface getting to me and she didn’t want to force me to talk about it. Either way, I was grateful for it.
I hadn’t yet decided if I wanted to tell Katie about my old man and his current condition. It seemed like too heavy a thing to share so early in an undefined relationship, and things between us were going so well that I didn’t want to burden it with reality.
Why share the truth when you can keep your head in the clouds?
I knew how warped that thinking was and how it would likely come back to bite me in the ass, but right then when everything felt so right, I didn’t want to spoil anything.
I certainly didn’t want to think about my dad. I just wanted to enjoy my time with Katie.
We finished our drinks shortly before boarding for our flight began. We made our way to our gate and lounged in the leather chairs until our boarding time, after which we flashed our boarding passes to the check-in attendant and made our way down the ramp to the plane.
After showing yet another stewardess our passes, we were directed to the first row of seats in the plane.
I frowned as Katie slid into the window seat.
The seat was massive and there was way more space up here than I was used to.
The chairs were leather, not that scratchy cotton stuff, and they reclined way farther back.
There was plenty of leg room and the trays came up from the armrests, not from the back of the seat in front.
“Are these our seats?” I asked dumbly.
Katie nodded. “Sure are, handsome. Come on. Sit down. Vanessa and Rhys refused to let us fly anything other than first class.”
I took a seat. For a guy of my size, flying had never been all that comfortable. But this? This was much better than what I was used to.
“I think I’m going to like these friends of yours,” I said.
Katie laughed and nodded. “I think you will, too. And they’ll like you.”
I didn’t know if that was important to her or not.
Had she invited me on this trip just so she didn’t have to go to the wedding alone?
Did she want me to meet her friends and her brother?
Was it a matter of convenience, or did she see this thing between us becoming something real? Something concrete?
Something I might have to change all my plans for.
After takeoff, we ordered more drinks. Katie sipped white wine, and I drank beer, and we laughed and joked about the in-flight entertainment before Katie pulled out a deck of cards she’d packed in her purse to kill time.
She kicked my ass.
By the time the flight landed, we both had a bit of a buzz going, and it took us some time to collect ourselves out of our seats and make the long trek from the plane to baggage claim, where our luggage was predictably delayed.
Katie leaned against me and rested her head on my shoulder while we waited. I wrapped an arm around her and held her close, and she closed her eyes.
I caught her smiling before the baggage-claim buzzer sounded, a red light flashed, and the belt started to turn.
Our bags were among the first off. I pulled them off the belt and we made a quick getaway outside to find the personal car Rhys had sent for us to take us to the hotel.
The driver waited with a sign that read “SMITHE,” and we loaded our bags in the trunk, slid into the back seat, and snuggled up against each other as the airport disappeared in the rearview mirror.
The hotel was an hour drive from the airport. Katie fell asleep against my side and I played mindlessly with her hair and rubbed her back.
All the while, I wondered how I’d ended up there.
I wasn’t the guy who got the girl. At least, I never had been.
I was the guy the girls waved at and accepted a drink from at the bar before they bumped into the guy they wanted to go home with.
That guy always had his shit together. He’d be nicely dressed, and he wouldn’t be clumsy like me.
Where I was more likely to knock girls over in bars or spill my drinks on them, he was more likely to twirl them around the dance floor and charm their panties off.
Literally.
I didn’t want to be that guy. I just wanted to be the guy the girl might look twice at.
And Katie had certainly looked twice. Hell, she’d looked over and over. And she was still here.
Feeling a sense of warmth and peace spreading through me, I kissed the top of her head, rested my cheek upon it, and closed my eyes for the rest of the drive to the hotel.