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“Yeah, Merry Freaking Christmas.”
With that, I slammed the door, giving him a one-fingered salute before turning and joining the crowd heading inside. A groan escaped as I glanced at the ticket again and up at the signs.
Earbuds would help. I dug them out of my jacket pocket and slipped one into my ear, taking out my phone and hitting a playlist to drown out the noise around me.
At least no one was paying any attention as I made my way to the right counter, too busy with the Christmas rush to care too much about who stood in their midst.
One small Christmas miracle.
“Next…” the voice called from behind the counter.
A frazzled-looking brunette was waving me forward a few spots over to the right.
I stepped forward, pausing the music on my phone. “I’ve got a flight to Miami—” I started, ready to lift my bag up to check in.
“Cancelled.”
“What?”
“Can-celed,” she enunciated each syllable, as if I needed to read her lips. “Every flight for the next few hours is canceled…your best chance is to get down to Albuquerque and see if you can fly out of there. If not, I suggest finding a quiet space, if such a thing exists, somewhere around the airport and settling in for the day…night…or checking into one of Denver’s fine hotels for the duration of the impending storm.”
I stared at her blankly for a moment, letting her words sink in, then lowered my glasses ever so slightly. “Nothing out?”
“Nothing in, nothing out. The storm is hitting earlier than predicted. For Miami, you really should have left two days ago…” She looked back at her computer screen. “I should have left two years ago,” she muttered, then glanced up as if startled to see me still standing there. “There’ll be announcements, but yeah, not today.” She peered past me to the crowd lined up at my back. “No one is getting anywhere today,” she said loudly, and more of an uproar picked up behind me as the news made its way through the line-up.
I groaned, pulling the ticket to nowhere off the counter, and turned to the group of even more weary and disgruntled people at my back. I hurried away, slinging my bag over my shoulder.
No way was I going to stay in the airport.
No point trying to go home—Frank would no doubt show up as soon as he realized I hadn’t made it out of town.
His Plan B likely included me spending the holidays at his house where he could play babysitter and keep an eye on me.
Which left me with one lone option—a Plan B of my own.
And quickly.
I scanned through my phone apps, sidestepping a group of people passing by. One of them turned to glance back at me, and I hurried my pace, hoping enough of me had been covered up to keep from being easily recognized. A very familiar song streamed out the open door of one of the shops on my way, and I hastened toward the exit, taking a deep breath as my fingers hurriedly entering my info into the app.
I needed to get out of there before someone took a really good look at me and chaos ensued.
Chapter Two
J
enna
I finally crept forward to the front of the line and put my little red SUV in park, breathing a sigh of relief, the small cloud of breath hanging momentarily in the air in front of me. I boosted the heater higher as the back door opened and someone slung their luggage inside then slid in.
I opened the app to see where my fifth pick-up of the morning was headed to. My eyes widened, and immediately, I put my gloved hand up. “Sorry. Get out.”
“Excuse me?” came the confused male voice.
“Says here you need to go to Albuquerque. Not only have I never been there, but I’m not going there today.” The sooner he got out, the sooner I could clear him off my app and find someone conveniently local.
Silence.
I waited for the door latch, maybe a few creatively strung curse words slung my way and the door to slam shut.
