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1
The woman next to Holden Pryce was crying. She was being subtle about it, just occasionally swiping at her tears while staring down at the e-reader in her hand, but she was definitely crying.
For a good twenty minutes, she’d stared down at the same page in whatever book she was reading. Not that he was spying or anything. He was supposed to be watching the movie he’d chosen for his pre-dinner entertainment on this first-class flight that seemed like it would never end.
England to Chicago and Chicago to Knoxville. He didn’t even bother upgrading to first class for the second leg of the trip. It was such a short flight, it wasn’t worth it. But he couldn’t imagine doing this eight-hour flight without legroom and a big cushy seat.
The flight attendant seemed to appear from out of nowhere, yanking Holden’s attention from the tiny screen mounted on the back of the seat in front of him. “Beef, chicken, or veggie?”
“I don’t suppose you have a big, juicy ribeye?” he asked the flight attendant.
She probably thought he was flirting. He came across that way sometimes without meaning to. He just had a friendly personality and a look that some women seemed to like.
The flight attendant shook her head, remaining coolly professional. “No, sir.”
He breathed a sigh of relief that this wouldn’t become a thing. He had enough going on with the drama to his left.
“Chicken,” he said.
“And your wife?”
The flight attendant’s question threw him. Wife? He’d been married once, to a woman who’d given him his daughter, Jules. It hadn’t worked out, so they’d divorced, and later, she died of cancer, leaving him to raise their daughter alone.
Holden followed the flight attendant’s stare to the woman seated next to him. His supposed “wife.” One look at the woman’s face rendered him speechless.
He’d traveled the world. He lived in one of the nicest neighborhoods in Brooklyn for a while so his daughter would have access to the best schools. He’d been married to a former teen beauty pageant winner and high school homecoming queen. But the woman next to him had a beauty that stopped him in his tracks.
She had long, thick lashes that served in sharp contrast to her long, blonde hair. That hair fell in waves around her face, accentuating her high cheekbones and full, utterly kissable lips. She reached up and wiped a tear with one finger, then looked over at the flight attendant as though having just been awoken.
“Sorry?” the woman said to the flight attendant.
“Beef, chicken, or veggie,” the flight attendant shot back, her smile still as coolly professional as before.
“Chicken,” the woman said. As the flight attendant jotted that down and started to move to the next aisle, his passenger-neighbor called out, “Wait. No, beef. I deserve beef.”
The flight attendant looked just as startled by the strange statement as he did. She deserved beef? Was chicken some sort of punishment and beef a reward? He’d had some good fried chicken in his day, so he’d probably argue with that. And he’d never turn down a chicken-fried steak, especially now that he was living in the South.
But there were more important things to address here than the merits of different types of protein. “Are you okay?” he asked in a quiet voice.
They were completely alone in this row. Just the two of them. The seat next to the window remained empty. He’d expected her to shift over, but she’d stayed firmly planted in the middle seat long after it’d been clear no one was showing up to claim it.
She looked over at him then, and he worried her stare would render him speechless. He was being silly. Like a man who’d never seen a beautiful woman before. He had to keep his cool.
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “Just going home for the holidays. There’s a lot of pressure, you know.”
He gave her a sympathetic nod but struggled to respond. He couldn’t really relate. His family was his daughter. It was just the two of them. His mother died when he was a teenager, and his father had never really been a part of his life. He was the stereotypical guy who seemed to have it all…until you dug a little deeper.
“Navigating family dynamics during the holidays can be tough,” he said.
He hoped that sounded sympathetic enough. He was suddenly grateful for the quiet Christmas he had planned with his daughter, J.J. Yes, he might have the headache of finding a nanny when he had to get back to work at the start of the year, but at least he wasn’t dealing with a critical parent or a politically divisive brother-in-law like some people.
“It’s worse than that,” she said. “They think I’m bringing my fiancé home.”
The plane might as well have plunged hundreds of feet the way his insides reacted to those words. So, she was engaged. Of course, she was. A beautiful woman like her wouldn’t be available. Besides, it didn’t matter. He’d vowed not to date until J.J. was out of high school, at least, and that meant he’d stay single for another decade, at minimum.
“He couldn’t get away?” Holden asked, curious about a man who would leave a beautiful woman to travel across the ocean alone.
“He dumped me,” she said. “Just two months after he asked me to marry him.”
