AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Jane took a deep breath, “I hope so. I tried to distract myself, but the last thing I felt like doing was reading or watching a movie. My heart is racing a mile a minute. You can probably hear it,” she explained.
“I can’t hear it,” Austin chuckled, finding her sweetly amusing. “I’ll tell you what, just talk to me,” Austin answered calmly.
“What do you mean?” she asked, looking at him.
“I’ll distract you,” he said in a matter-of-fact tone. “We’ve got a long flight, so just talk to me about something. It will work, trust me. You’ll be distracted in no time.”
Jane smiled at Austin, knowing he was just trying to help. “Talk to you about what? The wedding?”
“Anything,” Austin answered, feeling as if he could fall asleep himself. “Tell me something about yourself that I don’t know.”
“Oh, please,” Jane quickly replied, “I’m sure that’s the last thing you want to hear,” she said, looking out the window as the plane raced along the runway and they started to slowly lift.
“Try me,” Austin answered with a smile, trying his best to distract her.
“You go first,” Jane replied, not finding anything in her brain to share because it was all mush.
Austin looked over at Jane, seeing the fear in her eyes. He couldn’t believe that she would fly across the country for this with this kind of fear. It really showed him just how much she loved, and was committed to, the job.
“You want me to share something first?” He asked, knowing she did.
“Yeah,” she nodded, trying to not look as scared as she actually was. “What’s something I wouldn’t know about you, that maybe even a lot of people don’t either.”
Austin leaned his head back in his seat and chuckled to himself for a moment. He knew what he wanted to share, but he wasn’t sure he should. It was something that nobody in his close circle knew because he didn’t feel the need to go publicize it or anything. He didn’t want it to look like a local publicity stunt, so he tried to keep it under the radar.
“Can you keep a secret?” He asked, looking back over at Jane with curious eyes.
Jane looked back at Austin in confusion, “A secret?”
“Yeah,” he nodded, “a secret. I’ll share something with you, but not many people know about it.”
“So why are you telling me?” Jane asked, finding it odd that he would share something like that with her.
Austin shrugged, knowing that on some level he wanted her to know there was more to him than bad high school memories, and the guy at work, “Because you seem like the kind of person who would keep my secret and, eventually, maybe help me figure out a way to fold this into an event at The Oxford,” he responded with a cool, yet hopeful tone.
“Well,” Jane said, staring at him, “you’ve got my attention now… ”
“You know I was just in Palm Beach for six weeks, right?”
“Yes,” Jane nodded, wondering what was so secret about his six-week vacation.
“Well,” Austin said slowly and hesitantly, looking at Jane and feeling a few nerves start to bubble in his belly, “I was also doing something else while I was there. Something that not even my parents know about yet.”
Jane looked at Austin, waiting for him to reveal his secret, “OK… why am I suddenly worried you’re going to say something that’s illegal?” she shot back in a playful tone.
Austin chuckled, “I promise, it’s nothing illegal.”
“Then, what is it?” Jane asked kindly, sensing that it was something important to him.
“One of my buddies has a foundation in the Boca Raton area that helps fulfill birthday wishes for families in need, so I spent a good part of my six weeks hosting surprise birthday parties for families down there. He was looking for someone to help out financially, and I thought it might be a nice thing to do. I just knew that if I made a big deal about it, or told my family or friends, they’d think I was doing it for the publicity or the attention.”
If Jane’s eyes could have opened any wider, they would have. She sat there stunned silent and not quite sure how to react or even what to say.
“I’m going to guess by the look on your face that you’re surprised,” Austin laughed, looking at Jane, realizing she was still silent.
“Truthfully?” Jane asked, taking a moment to process what he had just shared, “It’s the last thing I expected to come out of your mouth.”
“Why don’t I tell you all about it…” Austin responded, now knowing the last thing on Jane’s mind was their six-hour flight.
