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“I am,” she said. “I’m going to Los Angeles first. Get the furthest out of the way. Then Chicago and last Manhattan.”
“You’re gone three weeks straight?” her father asked. “I thought you were back in between?”
She sighed. “I wish I could fly there, then go to Chicago and last Manhattan rather than there and back and there and back. So yes, a few days at each place. Friday through Sunday, I’ll be home Mondays before I leave again on Friday.”
“You weren’t able to go with my daughter, Carson?” her father asked.
“No,” he said. “I’m on nights for two weeks, when she’s in LA and Chicago. Nights normally mean the weekends and then when I get back on days I’m on weekends too. It’s not easy to get time off last minute for a full weekend unless it’s an emergency.”
Laine hadn’t even known he was trying to go with her. It never came up.
There was a tiny part of her that was annoyed, but then she told herself he probably wanted to see if he could even do it before he asked.
She’d find that out when they were flying back.
Over an hour later, her mother was leaving with her leftovers. Mario was packing food for her and Carson and then another box for Lincoln. She wondered if her father was trying to butter the pilot up to bring her back and forth any time she wanted.
“It was nice spending the day with you, Dad,” she said, hugging him. “I know how hard it is for you to stay away from work this long.”
“I do it for my daughter.”
“You’ll be working before the door hits me on the hinny.”
“You know me well,” her father said. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Carson.”
“The same,” Carson said and shook her father’s hand. She caught her father whispering something to her boyfriend and would have to find that out too.
Mario drove them to where Lincoln would be landing when they heard him coming in the distance.
“Have a safe trip home, Ms. Laine,” Mario said.
“And you keep my father in line,” she said. She and Carson climbed in the helicopter, buckled in and had their headsets on when she told Lincoln, “That one box of food is for you. Not just desserts either.”
Lincoln started to laugh. “Anytime you want a lift back here, you text me directly. I’m claiming you. Egan isn’t getting any of this.”
She laughed. “No claiming my girl,” Carson said.
“I’m not property,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “And speaking of that...what did my father say to you before you left?”
Lincoln laughed and started to whistle to himself as if he wasn’t listening in on their conversation.
“He told me that Roger will be gone soon and it’s up to me now to let him know if you have any problems. I don’t believe Roger will be gone completely. Not based on what you’ve said.”
Her jaw dropped. “What did you say to that?”
“That you can take care of yourself and I’m only there as your backup dancer.”
She burst out laughing. Her mother wasn’t the only lucky one to find the perfect man.
27
BACKUP DANCER
They were back at Laine’s house a little after seven and putting the food away.
“That was a long day,” she said to him. “You were a great sport about it too.”
“Anything for you,” he said.
