Dani leaned across the armrest and gave him a kiss. “Never a dull moment with you, is there?”
“You know me. Total adrenaline junkie.”
“I’d better sneak into the bathroom and tidy up. God only knows how bad my makeup looks right now.” She bent down and plucked her panties from the floor. “Yikes. Can’t forget these.” She scooted past him.
Cole’s mind started making plans as soon as Dani was gone. Would she be up for coming out to the ranch with him tonight? Or would she invite him over to her house? He couldn’t stand the thought of putting off his admission or his questions about the boys any longer. It had to happen tonight. He decided he would ask her as soon as they were back in his truck and leaving the airfield.
Dani returned and Cole took his chance to use the restroom and put his clothes back together in a way that made it look at least slightly less obvious that he and Dani had just had sex on the plane. As he strolled back down the aisle, he was struck by a sharp pain at his temple. He grabbed the seat back and clamped his eyes shut. He couldn’t see past the pain. It was like a thunderbolt of white, like someone was shining a searchlight square in his eyes.
“Cole. Are you okay?” Dani asked.
His eyes were still shut. The instant he tried to open them, he regretted it. The flash of agony that ripped through his head was unlike anything he’d ever experienced. And he’d been through a lot of pain in his life. The plane was dipping and pitching again. He found it hard to stand up straight. Somewhere he could hear Dani’s voice, but it was coming in and out, like someone was turning the dial on a radio.
He could feel her touch, though, her insistent hands on his biceps pulling him down. The next thing he knew he was sitting.
“Cole Sullivan, talk to me right now or I will never speak to you again.”
Therewas her voice. He heard it clear as a whistle now. It made him smile, but only slightly. Just moving his lips made his head hurt more.
“Headache,” he managed to say. “Bad headache.”
“Like a migraine?”
Cole nodded. He’d never had a migraine before, but his mother suffered from them and he knew that they often involved extreme reactions to light and they could came on very suddenly. He hoped to hell a migraine was all it was.
“What can I do?”
He shook his head as slightly as possible. What could she do? Nothing right now. “Hold my hand.”
She wrapped her fingers around his. That prompted another smile from him, one that hurt less than the last one. Maybe this wasn’t a big deal. He really hoped that was the case.
“Cole, you’re worrying me.”
“I’ll be fine.” His words were raspy and dry. He almost didn’t recognize his own voice.
“We’re supposed to land in ten minutes. We can take you straight to the hospital.”
Cole shook his head. He didn’t even care how much it hurt. He did not want to go there. Bad things happened there. Bad news. Life-altering news. He couldn’t live with that. Not when he had a chance to have Dani again.
* * *
Aside from the time the boys got strep throat, Dani had never been so worried in her whole life. She held on to Cole’s hand, studying every movement of his face since he wasn’t saying much. His eyes were closed, but the muscles of his forehead and around his eyes twitched from time to time. He was in immense pain. She could see the way he flinched from nothing at all.
“Folks, we’re making our final approach into Royal,” the captain said.
As the nose of the plane dipped down, Dani wrapped her other hand around Cole’s, not wanting to let go. Worry was consuming her. Cole was tough as nails. Almost too tough. He did not like for people to see him in a compromised state—he saw it as weakness. Dani only saw how human he was. Which meant whatever was going on right now was bad. How could she go from the high of the sting to the slow burn of making love on the plane to being worried sick about Cole? It was a miracle she could manage a single coherent thought right now.
Luckily, the landing was smooth as silk. Dani didn’t want anything jostling Cole too much. “You stay right here. I’ll go get the car and bring it around. Then I’ll get the pilot to help me get you off this plane.”
Cole shook his head and opened one eye. “I’m fine.”
“You are not fine. Keep your butt in this seat and I’ll be right back.”
As if Dani needed confirmation that Cole was indeed hurting badly, he nodded and slumped back in the chair. He almost never listened to her. Again, the worry ate at her. What in the world was going on?
She got the pilot up to speed and he sat with Cole while Dani ran—in heels and her mermaid dress, no less—to get Cole’s car. Thank goodness they’d been able to fly in a private plane in and out of Royal. She never would’ve been able to get him through the airport terminal in Houston. She would’ve needed a wheelchair, and if she knew one thing about Cole, it was that he would not put up with that. The amount of negotiating she and the head nurse at Royal Memorial had had to do after his big accident six years ago was ridiculous. Cole was as stubborn as a mule.
She tore up the stairs to the plane. Cole was in the same spot, but his eyes were open and he was talking to the pilot. Dani had to wonder if he was actually feeling better or if he was just putting on a show because there was another man present.
