Page 68 of Drop Pass

“How?” I gently touched the ruby gems as the opal sparkled.

“When I said I was looking at something for Grant, I went back and got it.”

I smiled. “You sneaky guy.”

He beamed. “Do you like it.”

“I love it.” I held out my wrist. “Will you put it on?”

He undid the clasp and wrapped it around before closing it. I held up my hand and smiled. “It’s perfect.”

“Rubies are your birthstone, right?”

I was shocked. “Yeah, how’d you know?”

He shrugged. “You mentioned it a few weeks ago.”

Huh. I didn’t remember that. “July twentieth.”

He nodded and seemed to think about it for a moment.

“When’s yours?”

“October third.”

I laughed. “No way.”

His eyebrow raised. “What?”

“Opal is October’s gemstone.”

His eyes went to the bracelet and he grinned. “It was meant to be.”

I nodded and looked down at his gift. It was even more perfect now.

* * *

Spending the day lounging with Nikolay had been the perfect Christmas. We watched movies and snacked on cookies and caramel popcorn until we were sick. It was the perfect break from the chaos of the last week, but now things were back to going a hundred miles an hour.

I finished my reports and left work an hour early so I could go to the airport with Nikolay. He was anxious even though his mom checked in with him before they left their layover in Paris. They were on the plane and it wasn’t delayed. All we could do was wait.

“What’s taking so long?” Nikolay grumbled at the traffic in front of us. We were almost to the airport but the freeway was moving slowly.

“It’s right after the holidays I’m sure it’s just busy.”

He mumbled in Russian under his breath and inched forward.

I grabbed his hand and squeezed. “They still won’t land for an hour. We have time.”

He was stressed out about getting there in enough time, even though it only took twenty minutes on a normal day. Good thing we’d left early, though. I didn’t expect this much traffic.

Each minute that passed he seemed to tense. Finally, we passed an accident that was causing the delay and were able to get to the airport quickly. He parked and I jogged behind him to keep up.

I laughed at his pace. We still had thirty minutes before they landed, but I wasn’t going to mention that. Nothing would calm him down until he saw his family and held them.

I found a seat near the exit where arriving passengers came through and watched him pace along the baggage claim carousels. The sign on the second one changed and I saw their flight number appear. They were almost here. I thought about mentioning it to him, but that would just make him worse. I was worried he’d start yelling at the airport staff demanding updates if he thought we were waiting too long.

I just sat back and hoped no one recognized him storming around like a mad man.