I saluted her. “You got it. Give me a couple days at most. By then, I should have an actual update.”
She nodded, sending me a wide smile. “Give ‘em hell down there.”
“Will do.”
A few seconds later, I had the duffle swung over my shoulder and I was wheeling the carry-on behind me, jogging toward Jesse’s plane. As soon as I’d ascended the stairs, they lifted behind me, the crew already preparing for takeoff.
The engines hummed softly beneath my feet as I buckled into one of the leather recliners. We were just waiting for departure clearance. Then I’d officially be on my way back to her. My girl.
My stomach twisted itself into knots of excitement and terror. Alex was going to murder me when he found out, but while I would speak to him, I just had to get out of Illinois first. If I asked for permission, I wouldn’t get it.
Forgiveness, though, was a whole different ballgame.
When my phone rang with a call from Colin, I inhaled a deep breath, trying to center myself before I answered. “Hey, man. How’s it going over there?”
“Why were you living in a motel for so long?” he asked instead of greeting me. “I’ve barely been here twenty-four hours and do you know what else they’ve got here? Airbnbs. Dozens of them. Some are really nice, too.”
“So is the motel.”
He snorted. “Yeah, if we were in the eighties. Speaking of which, what exactly is wrong with Frieda? She cornered me for forty minutes while insulting my haircut and telling me that my shoes were impractical.”
“They probably are, but yeah. Frieda is honest to a fault. You’ll learn to love her, though.”
“I very much doubt that,” he said. “Also, who exactly is Raquel? I have no why you didn’t even mention her. She’s fucking stunning, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“Oh, I noticed.” Hearing her name made my heart do these crazy somersaults that could not have been good for my health. I leaned back in my seat as the jet started taxiing and closed my eyes, a relieved smile spreading across my lips. “You found her then, huh? I’m glad. She’s a safer bet to talk to than Avery.”
“So I heard,” he said, then paused for a long beat. “She asked about you. There’s a lot more to this story than you trying to help a family who won’t help themselves, isn’t there?”
“Yeah,” I finally admitted. “There really is.”
“Well, are you going to tell me?”
“Do you want me to do it over the phone or in person?” I asked. “I should be there in a few hours.”
“You’re coming here?”
“Yes.” I looked out the windows as the engines whined, preparing for takeoff. “I’ll be in the air within the next few minutes.”
“Then I suppose you’d better start by telling me everything.” He sighed. “Does Alex know?”
“No.”
“For fuck’s sake,” he muttered, but as he listened to me explaining what had happened, I slowly started winning him over to my side, and in the end, he was fully onboard. “Okay, so you’re coming here to confront Avery and fix things with Raquel. I’ll meet you at the airstrip. Where to first?”
“Raquel,” I said without even having to think about it. “Thanks, buddy. I’ll see you soon.”
For the rest of the flight, I was torn between sending an email to Alex to explain and trying to figure out how the hell I was going to deal with Avery. Big brothers, man. They’re the worst.
Either way, by the time the plane began its descent toward the private airstrip about an hour outside of Quartz Pass, I was ready. The sun was starting to dip toward the horizon, the desert landscape painted in vibrant pinks and oranges.
Colin stood next to a rental SUV when I disembarked, his expression caught between disapproval, resignation, and excitement. I strode across the tarmac toward him, breathing in the warm air and knowing everywhere inside that this had been the right call.
“You’re insane,” he said as he popped open the trunk for my bags. “Alex is going to kill you and Jane is probably going to killmefor being an accomplice.”
“Tell her I threatened you with a coyote?”
He laughed. “A coyote?”
