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Eric nodded, staring at the list. “SEA?” SEA was the airport code for Seattle, the plane Jasmine and her son were on.
“Are you taking that one or is Tahigan?” Another local pilot who worked for a regional airline. He flew the planes under another company and didn’t own his own charter business like Eric did.
“I thought I was. Let me check.” Eric dialled on his phone and walked out of earshot, likely chatting with Tahigan over the outbound flight.
I just wanted Jasmine off the island and didn’t give a rat’s ass who was taking her. My fingers jabbed the keyboard and seriously slowed my progress at typing.
“Jasmine’s leaving today.” Was that sadness in his tone, like a version of grief? That woman cost him so much by showing up to Cheshire Bay unannounced and carrying more baggage than allowed.
I grabbed a nearby pencil, ready to make any changes to the schedule. “Yeah, I know. I saw her name on the passengerlist.”
“She’s really a nice lady.”
My hands curled around each end of the pencil, bending it until it snapped. My voice thickened into a growl. “As you keep telling me.”
I tossed the pencil into the wastebasket and took a deep breath to try and control myself.
“You’d like her if you gave her half a chance.”
“Are you for real?” I stood up again and slammed my palm against the countertop, rattling the vase of flowers. “You’d think I’d like the woman who is tearing us apart?”
Mitch scrunched his face. There were dark circles under his eyes and his shoulders were rolled so far inwards, he was nearly bent double. “What do you mean?”
“I’m moving out, Mitch. We’re over. I thought that was clear.”
“No,” he straightened up to his full height and squared his shoulders as he rounded the desk to get closer. “We’re not breaking up.” His hand flicked out to touch mine, and the moment it did, I yanked my arm away. “You needed to take some time to think this over. Please.”
“And I have thought it over. We’re done.” A sharp pain radiated through my chest as the heat rose in my body.
“But we can’t be. How can you throw all we have away?” There was a crack deepening in his voice, enough to tug on my remaining intact heartstrings.
I stood behind my chair and stabbed the air between us with my finger. “I didn’t throw anything away. You did. Before we even got started.” My arms fell beside me, and I lowered my voice. “You lied to me. You cheated on me. You betrayed me.” I let the last three words linger in the air.
“Jesus, that was years ago.” He pinched the bridge of his nose, a sign of an incoming headache.
I threw my pity away, he deserved to suffer. Even if just for a little. “You still did it. And now you have this other woman in your life, and this child you had with her.”
“I didn’t ask for her to get pregnant.” His voice was firm.
My bottom lip took the brunt of my frustration and my hands were trembling. “Maybe not, but it happened, and now for the rest of our lives we’re going to know about it. Aren’t you going to wonder how he’s doing in school or what sports he’s playing? If he does anything like you?”
It’s what I’d be thinking about if I had offspring out there running around. Jackson wasn’t even my kid and I’d already spent time pondering his future, and questioning what kind of home he lived in and if his mother was warm and comforting, or was she cold and clinical? I didn’t know the woman well enough to know, but it wasn’t on my list of things to do either.
Mitch shrugged. “I didn’t give it any thought.”
“Yeah, well I have.” I flexed my fingers to bring blood back into them and tapped them against my temple. “That’s all I’ve been doing lately is thinking about my future, your future, and what kind of a future with Jackson that would be.”
A loud, sigh rolled out of him. “If you must know, I didn’t even think I’d ever have kids, so it wasn’t something I spent all my time thinking about.”
“Even after we got serious, you never considered a future with us?” The whole conversation was going down a road I no longer wanted to be on. At least not in this moment.
A nervous smile crept across his features. “Of course, I saw you and me together, like we were up until a week ago. I didn’t think there was anything more for us because we were happy. Living our best lives. Doing jobs we loved. Hanging out with people we respected and admired. I believed in us and thought that was enough.”
I wanted to burst into tears right on the spot because itwas true. Prior to last week, that’s what I thought too. We were enough, but I always believed we could be even more and the two lines on the pregnancy stick said as much too.
Eric sauntered back over to us, his eyebrows drawn together, and his lips pursed tightly. “I know you need to work out whatever’s going on between you two, but can you do it after hours? We have guests.” He nodded to the door where an older couple was coming in. “I’ll be taking the YQQ.”
“Yes, of course.” Mitch stepped back and ran his hands over his face.
