wanted to be a politician when he grew up. Governor, then president. And you wanted to be a doctor. I never knew that about you. You never told me that.”
I nodded. “I did. I wanted to have a free clinic in Green Valley and spend part of the year with Doctors Without Borders.”
“So? What happened? You’d be an incredible doctor.” Her confusion and curiosity were plain as she propped her chin on a fist, her dark eyes moving between us.
“Life.” I shrugged, not wanting to dig that deeply into the past with Nick at my elbow.
Perhaps sensing my discomfort, Nick stepped in. “The plan was that I was going to hold it down at home most of the year, passing legislation that made life better for people in town and nearby Appalachia. But we agreed I’d travel with her, to keep her safe and maybe help with peace-keeping missions.”
Well, so much for any attempt to downplay the nature of our past relationship.
I risked a look at him, turning my head on a slow swivel to face him. God, he looked so tired. My fingers yearned to coast along the prickled surface of his jaw, to test the depth of weariness under his eyes.
“We were silly, weren’t we?” His smile and his tone somehow seemed too personal, too private for the moment given Adesola was sitting right there. “Just dumb kids.”
I looked away. “Yeah. We were dumb.”
“Well,” Adesola said, in the same overloud voice, “I’m just going to put some music on. So I can get to sleep. I probably won’t be able to hear a thing, so don’t worry about talking to me from here on out.”
Yep. I was gonna kill her. Slowly.
I kept my face in my Kindle until after take-off. When the flight attendant came over to ask if we needed anything else, Nick spoke up.
“Are you sure you don’t want anything? You seem tired. Anything you could use to relax?”
I closed my eyes, wondering what I’d done to become fate’s adversary. Nick and I were practically fully reclined in our chairs now. The armrest between us was lifted away to allow complete access to the fast-charging ports below. Yes, we were in two separate chairs, but it suddenly felt a lot like sleeping in the same bed together, scarcely more than two feet apart. Those biceps, those shoulders, those wicked eyes, that mouth, all less than two feet away. And he was giving me that concerned look I remembered all too well.
My heart was not fashioned from concrete. I doubted I’d survive this flight, survive him. His proximity, the clean smell of him, the ghost of all that had been between us, it all threatened my very existence.
“I’m okay. I don’t need anything.”
He looked past me to the flight attendant. “Get her a warm blanket, please.”
She murmured her assent and disappeared.
I raised an eyebrow at him. “Bossy, aren’t you?”
He shrugged. “You didn’t know you needed it yet.”
I bit back my usual reaction: the impulse to correct him for overriding my wishes. I was tired of fighting. Tired, period.
“You’re not sleeping much.” He lifted a brow as his gaze moved over my face.
“And you are?”
He ran a hand over his lower jaw before shoving it through his hair. “I don’t sleep well in general.”
There had been a time when my hands had always been in his hair, rearranging the mess he’d made or taming that stubborn cowlick at the crown. With all that was unsettled and forgotten between us, I couldn’t understand my current urge to feel those slick, dark locks sliding through my fingers again. I wanted to close the space between us, to revel in the strength of his chest against my own softness. I wanted to feel the steel of his thighs under mine.
Who said human biology was wired for safety or common sense?
“You used to sleep like the dead. What changed?”
“Life.” He said it just as stiffly as I probably had, and I nodded before turning away.
The flight attendant returned in short order, spreading a warm blanket over me that felt like the best hug I’d ever gotten.
I tucked into the romance novel on my Kindle, feeling sleep hovering somewhere in the not-too-distant periphery. The book had come highly recommended by Leigh and sat waiting on my virtual bookshelf for months. It was entertaining from the first page and then . . . I blinked in disbelief as the first chapter unfolded into a highly explicit sex scene.
“What are you reading? You’re breathing funny.”
I