“I see.” Nick scrutinized her face, looking puzzled.
“What’s that look for?” she asked.
“What look?”
“You look … perplexed.”
He refilled both their glasses. “Do I?”
She nodded. “Tell me why.”
“Well …” He took a sip of water. “You were fifteen in our senior class. I would have thought someone as smart as you would go into academics. Or research.”
“Ah.” She sat back. “Those weren’t for me. I wanted to deliver babies and work with patients. I wanted the challenges, the variety, all of it. When you do what I do, you never know what’s going to come throughthat door. I can’t imagine being stuck in a classroom or a lab. Kind of like you wanting to go up in the sky instead of studying it through a telescope.”
He nodded. “Put that way, it makes sense. I’m glad you’re doing what you love. Being fulfilled at work is important.”
Her stomach clenched. Oh, if he only knew. She had a lot to say, but she wasn’t about to sit here and unload her problems on him.
For a few moments, they fell silent, but it was a comfortable silence. A smile played about his lips as he sipped his coffee.
“How’s your mom?” she asked.
His smile instantly faded.
Oh no.
“I didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s OK.” A muscle in his jaw flexed. “She passed away.”
“Oh.” She watched his eyes fill with pain and wanted to kick herself. “I’m so sorry.”
She knew he’d been very close to his mother, a sweet woman from Alabama, whose Southern accent Nick had picked up. Though his was barely noticeable, they’d teased him at school for the way he tended to drop his “ing”s. That, and the way he sometimes talked too fast when he got nervous.
“Thank you.” Nick didn’t elaborate. Apparently, the subject was off limits.
A few moments went by with his gaze fixed across the lobby. Jannie sipped her water, searching for something else to say to fill the silence.
“Are you staying long?” she finally asked.
“Only through Sunday. I have some people I’m meeting up with this afternoon.”
Something stirred in her stomach as she remembered Blake’s activities.
“Buddies of mine,” he said. “We don’t have a chance to get together often; it just so happens it worked out this time.”
“Pilots?” she asked.
The smile was back. And, oh, what a smile it was, making her insides do strange, warm, fluttery things.
“Sort of.”
“Sort of?”
Nick smirked. “They’re businessmen. We met in school. They’re rich enough to afford a jet and dangerous as hell when they fly it.”
“Ah, yes.” Jannie laughed softly. “My brothers love those types.”
