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CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The flight home seemedto take forever.
During the long layover in Los Angeles, Lucy aimlessly walked the hallways filled with harried travelers dragging carry-ons and parents wrangling tired and cranky children, while trying to keep her thoughts from straying back to her last hours in Hawaii.
She found an airport restaurant where she could linger over a cheeseburger, coffee, and her Kindle to escape the melee.
Then she put in another ten thousand steps, according to her watch, before finding another place to hang out for a while.
But wherever she went, she kept seeing Nick just ahead in the crowd—a tall, broad-shouldered man with his same thick, dark hair. A man with his easy, athletic stride.
It was never him, of course.
When the stranger turned, he didn’t have the twinkle in Nick’s warm brown eyes or his strong jaw. His captivating, masculine smile.
She had to be more tired and stressed than she realized.
At her next layover in Dallas, she tried calling Bree for the tenth time today. She checked her e-mail on her iPad, hoping there was news about Adam. Nothing.
But just before she shut it down, her eye caught on an email address in her Inbox and her heart lifted. Relief flowed through her when she read the message.
Thank You, Lord, she whispered.At least I’ll have a job.
It was from the top-notch agency she’d wanted most of all the applications she’d completed before leaving for Hawaii.
As a traveling neonatal intensive care nurse within the Twin Cities area, she would always be close enough to home. Enjoy some variety. And she would be making much more than she ever had before.
Feeling a little giddy, she picked up her phone to share the good news.
But Bree was probably in and out of airports today herself. Adam wouldn’t pick up his phone. And Nick...
Nick was back in Waikiki with Sniper, loving his free and easy days and planning to live there for the rest of his life.
There was no point in calling him. He would be staying in her past because she would never move so far from home to be with him.
Her kids needed her more.
* * * *
LUCY DROVE HER SUVstraight from the long-term parking lot at the Minneapolis airport to her condo in Minnetonka.
The icy roads and slow traffic were a fitting end to a long day of travel, and once she stepped inside her home, she flopped onto the sofa with pure relief.
At a knock on her door a few minutes later, she went to her front door, where her neighbor Harry was holding a plastic tub with her mail.
“I tried calling you first,” he said gruffly. “But you didn’t answer.”
She rolled her eyes. “My phone was stolen in Hawaii. I’m hoping the replacement has already arrived.”
“Might be in here with your mail and newspapers. The bigger boxes are still at my place.” He started down the front steps, then turned. “Your son was here late one night, pounding on your door. But by the time I grabbed my shoes and jacket to come over, he’d already left.”
Her breath caught. “He washere?”
“A couple days after you left.”
