AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Breathe, princess,” Derek says, rubbing his thumb over the back of my hand.
The flight attendants had to discontinue drink service due to turbulence. Derek says this is normal for this time of year, that the heat makes the air bumpier. But I saw that drink cart fly into the air.
“It’s gonna be okay. This is totally normal,” he says into my ear. “Close your eyes if you need to.”
I open my mouth to tell him I can’t do that. Because if the plane is about to go down, I need to be able to identify the nearest emergency exit. That and when I close my eyes, it makes me queasy. So instead I squeeze his hand and stare out the window and grit my teeth as the plane goes down.
“It’s not going down,” he says with a little chuckle.
“I said that out loud?”
“You’ve said alotthat I don’t think you realize.” He lifts the armrest between us, and I stop him. What will I hold on to if the window sucks him out?
“You’ll get sucked out first, babe,” he says.
Oh great. I said that out loud too. He pushes the armrest up and wraps his arm around my shoulders, pulling me against him. He keeps holding my hand, but without the armrest, his thumb also brushes against my belly.
My belly is still small, but definitely round and I’ve found it’s more comfortable to wear loose dresses in the heat than my shorts. His thumb strokes my belly again, this time on purpose, and he stares at it, something like awe coloring his features.
He freezes, as if I’ve caught him like a kid caught stealing candy, settling our joined hands on his thigh. I look up at him, waiting for him to meet my gaze.
“Hey,” I say, and he finally does. “It’s okay.” I slowly slide his hand back over, this time pressing it against my tummy.
His touch is warm and I swear I feel a little flutter. I’ve read that early kicks can feel like butterflies and I smile, wondering if that’s in fact what it was. My heart does a little squeeze and flip and I can’t fight the grin from my face.
“What?” he asks, concern in his eyes.
“Nothing,” I say, shaking my head and smiling. “It’s probably too early, but…”
“But what?”
“I think I just felt a kick.”
He stares at me, really stares. It’s intense and distracting, and then he pulls me closer and presses a kiss against my temple, not removing his hand from my stomach.
There’s a loud noise followed by a bump that jolts us all forward, and I cling to him. But when I look out the window, I realize we’ve touched down. Next to me, Derek laughs and then presses another kiss to my temple as I take long breaths to try to even out my hammering heart.
It doesn’t take nearly as long to drive to Pahrump as I hoped it would. We get a room with two double beds in it, which makes me a little sad. But this is all so tenuous. He tells me it’s up to me where I’d like to sleep. He says it just like that, so carefully, so I can’t tell if he wants his own bed or he wants to share with me. But he leaves it up to me. So, I guess just because he shared my bed last night doesn’t mean that he wants me in his bed tonight? Or tomorrow night. It’s all so polite and gentlemanly I could scream.
I take a shower to rinse off the airport and the sweat and dust of the day. When I get out of the bathroom, he’s standing next to the window, talking on the phone.
“Yeah, she’s feeling better,” he says. Followed by a laugh. “Yeah, who would’ve thought?”
He sounds so relaxed, so easy-going and open. I haven’t heard him sound like that since the first night we were together. It squeezes my heart to think he feels like he can’t be relaxed around me.
“Oh, yeah. She’d love to, but she’s not here right now.”
My stomach jerks at the blatant lie. I clear my throat and he looks over his shoulder at me, and just holds up a finger, indicating he’ll be off the phone soon. I go back into the bathroom to finish getting ready for dinner.
I need a moment. Either he’s talking about me and lying, or he’s talking about a different ‘she.’ I suppose we’ve never actually talked about whether we’re seeing other people. When we first met, he told me he doesn’t do relationships, but it’s sinking in now that we’re sharing a hotel room together in my hometown, that I really don’t know him all that well.
“I’m sorry about that,” he says, tucking his phone into his pocket.
“It’s okay,” I say, putting on some red-tinted lip balm.
“I was talking to Deanna,” he says.
Deanna.
