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She complied, a slow grin spreading on her lovely face.
In the end, we still had time to spare and sat in the lobby with our bags around us, waiting for Jomo to arrive. He drove up while Kate and I sipped one last coffee, and came inside the hotel lobby.
“Hello, Mr. Drake,” he said with a wide smile. “Here to take you to the airport as requested.” He turned to me. “Miss Katherine.”
We both said hello and watched as Jomo carted our suitcases into his taxi.
While we drove to the airport, he filled us in on his plans for the fall semester and we promised to call him if we were ever back in Nairobi. He loaded our bags onto a cart and I gave him a big tip. Then, we shook hands and said our goodbyes.
After customs, we sat in the waiting area and Kate texted her parents that we were on our way. Kate put her iPhone away and turned to me, excitement on her face.
“I’m sad to go, but I’m so excited to get back.”
I took her hand in mine and squeezed. “Me, too.”
Finally, they announced our flight and we boarded, taking our seats in first class. Kate sat in the window seat and as we took off down the runway, we held hands and watched out the window as the plane lifted off.
The day was perfect, cloudless, the sky clear, the rolling Ngong Hills in the distance almost violet against the far horizon.
I had suggested that we stop off in Amsterdam for a few days, but Kate was anxious to get home to see her father. We flew right through, with only a few hours layover in Amsterdam before our connecting flight to JFK. It would be a grueling sixteen plus hours of flying but we’d be in Manhattan before too late on Tuesday night and at Ethan and Elaine’s in time for a cup of hot tea and a brief visit before bed.
“We’re here,” Kate said as we made our approach to JFK. Beneath us the coast of the USA passed, the ocean giving way to Long Beach. It was early evening and the sun was still high in the sky so we caught the glint of sunlight off the water and then on the buildings and windows of the airport.
The touchdown was smooth and we finally turned on a taxiway and continued on to the terminal. Kate squeezed my hand and I knew how excited she was to be back.
After we disembarked and collected our baggage, we were met by a driver from Ethan’s limo service, holding out a card with Morgan printed on it.
He took our bags and loaded them into the limo while Kate and I took our seats in the back. I sighed with relief that the long flight was over and now we could relax and then sleep.
Kate fastened her seatbelt beside me and then she sighed as well. “I’m so looking forward to going to bed tonight,” she said and leaned her head back, closing her eyes.
“I feel like I could sleep for a week.”
We clasped hands and were silent as we drove from JFK to Manhattan and Ethan’s Park Avenue penthouse.
“It feels so strange coming home,” Kate said as she watched out the window. “Whenever I travel, I always feel like a new person. I see things differently. Everything’s familiar, because I’ve been on this route so many times before, but it feels different each time.”
“I know what you mean,” I said. I felt the same way. For a brief time, the old was new again and you appreciated it in a way you can’t when you’re immersed in it everyday.
I’d spent the better part of my adult life in Manhattan, in a narrow strip of real estate between Chelsea, Columbia University and New York Presbyterian. My life in Baltimore barely registered in my memory. I loved New York, and couldn’t imagine not living there with Kate. Our children would go to the best private schools, and perhaps go to Columbia as both Kate and I had before them.
Before I met Kate, I saw only work and more work ahead of me, with my band and my charity the only thing that lay in my future.
Now, I saw a real life filled with love and family. Only ten months had passed since that night at the bar when I bumped into my fate.
So much had changed. For the better.
While I had been satisfied with my life before I met Kate, I hadn’t been happy. In fact, I barely remember a time when I’d been as happy as I was now.
I pulled her hand to my lips and kissed her knuckles. “We’re home,” I said.
She turned to me, smiling, her cheeks flushed with excitement. “We’re home,” she repeated and leaned over for a kiss.
Who was I to deny her?
CHAPTER SIX
Kate
