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ChapterOne
Maddie
It’s official.The universe has something against me.
In the last seventy-two hours, it had seen fit to shit on me repeatedly and from a great height.For example:
Relationship trashed (quite literally) by fiancé—tick.
Previously immaculate suitcase covered in mold—tick.
Drooled on by a sleeping man for (very delayed) flight duration—big, slimy tick.
I stood in the Louisville airport arrivals hall, limbs heavy with fatigue from the long journey, and considered the nearest row of plastic chairs.I’d read on a review that these chairs were the best place to sleep here—or theleast worst,anyway.It was this or propping myself up at the altar of the 24-hour Starbucks several meters away until six a.m.at the earliest because every hotel within a twenty-minute taxi ride was full.
I parked my enormous suitcase by the nearest chair and dropped down into it, weighing my options as I sat.You know what?It’s pretty comfortable.I could just nap here.
Although that opened up the possibility of my possessions being removed as I slept.
Icouldcall the man my cousin had arranged to collect me.
I held my phone, tapping my thumb on the screen as my thoughts tumbled over each other, flip flopping over whether to press the call button for one Rick Callahan, a man I’d never met.
It wasn’t his fault that my flight had been so badly delayed.He probably wouldn’t appreciate being called so early.Even if he’d been keeping tabs on the airline’s website, he might have gone to bed.
All I knew about him was that he worked as a carpenter, and tended not to speak that much.
I imagined him, this grandpa-type man, sleepily rubbing his eyes at the shrill ring of the phone, then having to shake off the mantle of slumber.
No, Maddie.It’s one in the bloody morning.
I’d wait until a reasonable hour.
Who crosses an entire ocean to avoid someone?
Me, apparently.
Welcome to Loserville,I thought miserably, not even smiling at my own crappy joke, and I always laughed at bad jokes.Population: Me.
I looked at my watch again.Look on the bright side,I told myself.Only five hours to go until I can call Rick.
The janitor, turning very slow circles in a ride-on floor polisher, gave me a long, sympathetic look.Or was it pity?Hard to tell under the harsh airport strip lighting.
I wiggled on the chair, but the plastic didn’t give.Should I pillow my head on my hoodie, take off my shoes, try to get as comfy as the chairs would allow?
In the end, I lay down, draping my coat over myself, closed my eyes, and mentally listed things I could do if sleep eluded me.I’d watched a video on the flight of fun ways to waste time at an airport, but I was pretty convinced that races on moving walkways weremuchless fun when I could only race myself.
Time passed.I let myself drift into a doze by the low rumble of the floor polisher and the white-noise quiet of the airport.
“Maddie Liu?”
Hearing my name jerked me awake.
I snapped my eyes open to see a mansogorgeous, I couldn’t be sure I wasn't still dreaming.
He was big.
Tall, broad shoulders held my gaze for several seconds before I noticed his face.Sharp cheekbones.He'd broken his nose once, and the kink gave his face some character.His honey-coloured hair curled a little over his forehead, lending him a charming, rough-and-tumble look that belied the stern set of his mouth.
