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“Words are worthless sometimes.” My father had told me he loved me over and over. Lies. Every bit of it lies.
“And sometimes we do stuff that directly contradicts how we feel,” he said. I had a difficult time imagining Stone not being forthcoming about anything.
“Like keeping the possibility of prison from me?” Bitterness seeped back in. I still couldn’t grasp how Daniel had lied to me.
“That just goes in the stupid column.”
I snorted. “Will you tell him that?”
“If you want.” He shrugged. “But just because he did something stupid doesn’t mean he loves you any less.”
“I get that. I just—” I twirled my hair around my finger. “I’m having a hard time with it.”
“A little fresh Texas air will put everything in perspective.”
“Is that so?” I asked, skeptical. Distraction seemed a more apt description for this trip.
“It’s a proven fact.”
A couple hoursinto the flight, Stone’s phone rang. He answered it, listened for a minute, then let out a huff of air.
“Friday morning? I thought the crew was off until Monday.”
He frowned as he pressed the phone against his ear.
“This is a huge mistake. I can’t be there by Friday. I’m somewhere over the Pacific Ocean as we speak.”
He slouched. “Iknowwhat the contract says. But the schedule is clear until Monday.”
His face darkened as the person on the other end spoke. “I’ll be there.”
He threw the phone on the sofa beside him.
“What’s wrong?”
“They scheduled to have a couple of streets blocked off on Friday instead of Monday.” He punched the seat cushion. “I have to go to New York.”
Disappointment swirled between us. We’d both been excited about the trip, maybe me a little more than I’d realized. I rose to my feet. “I’ll let the captain know.”
When I returned,Stone was bent forward, elbows on his knees, head in hands.
“We’re stopping in L.A. to refuel, so she said we’ll change course from there.”
I slid onto the sofa beside him and lifted my hand to rub his back, but then I dropped it back to my lap. The night before had been a huge step I had yet to fully process, and I didn’t want to lead him on.
“They need me. And I’m not there.Again.” The blame he placed on himself had my fingers wiggling, the itch to soothe him almost too much to ignore.
“Daniel will put everything in place.”
“Ishould be the one on the front line. Not shoveling it off on my friends.” He yanked on his hair.
“Stop it. You’ll do what you can and ask for help with what you can’t.” Protective instincts took over. I had to defend him, even if it was against himself.
“I don’t want to tell them I’m not coming,” he said quietly, sinking lower in the seat.
“They’ll understand.”
“I’m tired of them having to understand. They mean more to me than any of this crap, yet they always end up on the back burner.” He looked over at me, regret in every line on his face. “It just feels like I’m choosing the wrong thing.”
