Love at First Flight (8 page)

“I love you.” Sobs rattled her petite
frame. “I just needed you so much.”

“Jesus Christ, I was asleep.” Another
realization settled in on him. “No condom, Paige! What the
fuck?
” They had never taken any chances in that department. His
head spun, and his stomach lurched from the booze.

She reached for him. “Michael, please.
Talk to me.”

He pulled away from her, got up, went
into the bath-room, and slammed the door behind him.
Goddamn it!
Splashing cold water on his face, he tried to contain
the urge to choke the life out of her. When he came out of the bathroom, he
pulled on sweats.

“Aren't you going to talk to me?” she
asked between sobs.

“I'm all done talking. You need to go to
your room.”

“You're not breaking off this
engagement, Michael.”

“I'm quite certain I already did.”

“
You
can't!
” she wailed.

He picked up her robe off the floor and
threw it at her. “Get dressed. Right now. I've had enough for tonight.” He
watched her work up a head of steam as she pulled on the robe.

“I don't know who you think you're
dealing with, but you are
not
just
walking away from me after four years like I mean nothing to you.”

“I know
exactly
who I'm dealing with—a spoiled, pampered brat. You're not
going to push me around or push me into a job I don't want. And you're
certainly
not going to push me into a
marriage I no longer want.”

She slapped his face. Hard. “You son of
a bitch.”

His hand rolled into a fist at his side.
“Get out,” he said in a low tone that left no room for negotiation. “
Get the fuck out!”

After she slammed the door behind her,
he did some-thing he should have done earlier: he reached for his cell phone to
call a cab. He threw on clothes, packed his bag, and went down the stairs into
the quiet house.

Admiral Simpson appeared in the
darkness. “Going somewhere, Michael?”

“I'm going home.”

“Are you sure you want to do that?”

“I'm positive.”

“So when Paige said you'd called off the
engagement she wasn't being dramatic?”

“No.”

“You might want to think twice about
that.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Of course not. I'm just wondering if
you're seeing the big picture.”

“And what would that be?”

“What will Tom Houlihan think of having
a man on his team who doesn't keep his promises? Have you thought about that?”

“You know what? I don't give a rat's ass
what Tom Houlihan thinks about my private life. Feel free to give him a call.”

The cab driver tooted the horn.

The Admiral gave Michael the steely
stare that had intimidated legions of sailors, but it had no effect on him. Not
anymore. “You're not the man I thought you were, Michael.”

“That's funny because you're
exactly
the man I thought you were. Take
care, Admiral.”

Michael checked into a hotel near the
airport and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep. He woke up late the next
morning, the events of the day before replaying in his mind. And then he
smiled. He was free—of Paige and her parents and their endless manipulation.
Imagining his mother dancing a jig at the news of his broken engagement, he
laughed.

CHAPTER 8

ON THE WAY TO THE AIRPORT ON SUNDAY
AFTERNOON, Jeremy and Juliana stopped for seafood in Jacksonville Beach. The
day was warm so they sat on a deck overlooking the ocean.

After they ate, Jeremy reached across
the table for her hand. “What are we going to do, babe?”

Juliana took a long sip of her wine, put
the glass down on the table, and met his gaze. “We're breaking up. For now.”
She had promised herself she wouldn't cry.

“What?” he asked, startled.

“Three months. We won't talk to or see
each other for three months.”

“Juliana—”

“I've thought about what you said.”

“I want you to forget what I said.”

“I can't. And we can't go forward with
it between us. You were right about something yesterday.”

“What's that?”

“Neither of us has ever been with anyone
else, so how can we know for sure that what we have will last?”

“It's lasted ten years. That has to
count for something.”

She squeezed his hand. “It does. But
like you said, how do we even know that we're having good sex?”

“You can say that after last night?”

“I'm just agreeing with you, Jer. That's
all.”

“Why three months? Why not one or two?”

“Because anything less wouldn't be
enough time.”

He thought it over for a moment. “Supposing
I agree to this, what are the rules?”

“No rules. We're both single and can do
whatever we want.”

He raised an eyebrow. “But you're not
going to, you know—”

“You can, but I can't?”

“You said you never wanted to.”

“That was before I knew you did.”

He dropped her hand. “This is bullshit.
I'm not agreeing to this.”

“Then we're done. I won't spend my life
with you wondering if you're unsatisfied or unfulfilled, or worse yet,
unfaithful. I watched my father cheat on my mother for years before he finally
left. I won't live like that.”

“So either we break up for three months
or we break up forever? That's a hell of a choice.”

“It's up to you.”

“What would happen at the end of the
three months?”

“We either end it for good or we get
married.”

“And would we discuss what happened
during the three months?”

“Never.”

With a deep sigh, he sat back in his
chair. “This is a pretty high-stakes game you're playing here, Jule.”

“It's no game, and it's the hardest
thing I've ever done. I can't imagine a day without talking to you, let alone
ninety of them. But I don't know what else to do.” Her stiff resolve crumbled,
and her eyes filled.

“This is all my fault.” His face
tightened with tension. “The idea of you with someone else...”

“I know.”

He checked his watch. “Damn it. We have
to go.”

“So what do you say?”

“You haven't given me much of a choice.
Since I'm not prepared to lose you forever, I guess we're breaking up for three
months.” He threw some cash on the table and guided her from the restaurant.

They drove to the airport in silence,
but he kept a firm grip on her hand. He walked her in, and when he couldn't go
any further with her, he folded her into a long hug. “I'll miss you. Every
minute of every day, I'll be thinking about you.”

The huge lump in her throat made it
impossible for her to speak so she just nodded.

“Three months,” he said with tears in
his eyes. “Not one minute more.”

“Okay.”

“I'll call you three months from today.”
She nodded.

He tilted her chin up and kissed her
with a fierce, possessive passion that left her breathless and then despondent
when it ended. “Don't go falling in love with someone else.”

“I won't. I couldn't. Don't you, either.”

“Never,” he said, letting her go with
great reluctance.

“Three months,” she said one last time
as she moved into the security line.

“Not one minute more.” He watched her
until she was through to the other side.

She waved, blew a kiss, and walked away.

***

Michael found her halfway down the long
concourse twenty minutes later. She sat on the floor against a wall with her
face pressed into her arms, but he remembered that shiny dark hair. He sat down
next to her. “Hey.”

Startled, she looked over at him and
didn't seem to recognize him for a second, probably because he was wearing a
sweater and jeans rather than a suit. “Oh, hi,” she said, wiping tears from her
face.

“I take it things didn't go well.” Even
with her soft brown eyes swollen from crying, Michael thought she was nothing
short of exotic.

She shook her head as a fresh wave of
sobs overtook her.

Her misery touched him, and with only
the slightest of hesitations he put his arm around her.

For a few minutes she rested against him
and then seemed to realize she was crying all over someone she hardly knew. She
sat up. “I'm sorry.”

“Don't be. Do you want to talk about it?”

She shrugged.

“You might feel better unloading on a
stranger you'll never see again.”

“That's true.”

“I have three sisters,” he said with a
coaxing grin. “I'm a good listener.”

She returned his grin with a weak one of
her own.

He stood up and offered her a hand. “First
we have to get to the gate, or we're going to miss our plane.”

“Good thing you came along.” She wiped
her face. “I probably would've still been here when it took off.”

“Maguire to the rescue.” He pulled her
up and tossed her carry-on bag over his shoulder with his own bag.

“How was your weekend?” she asked on the
way to the gate where the plane was boarding.

He smiled. “Total disaster, but you
first. What happened?”

While they stood in line to board the
plane, she told him the whole story.

“Hmm.” He scratched at the stubble on
his chin. “So what happens at the end of the three months?” Michael took her
boarding pass and handed both of them to the gate agent.

“I told him we'll either break up for
good or get married.”

“What if he meets someone else?”

Juliana winced.

“Sorry.”

“I know it's a big gamble, but how could
I marry him knowing he has all this curiosity about other women?”

“How will you marry him without knowing
if he acted on it?”

They found seats together on the plane. “Why
couldn't I have just let it go? Why did I have to make such a big deal out of
it? He said if it was a choice between me and sowing his wild oats, he'd choose
me.”

“So then why'd you insist on the
separation?”

Juliana looked out the window for a
moment before she answered him. “My father cheated on my mother for years. Everyone
knew it. Even she knew, but she ignored it because he always came back. Then I
guess he fell for one of them because we haven't seen him in five years.”

“I'm sorry.”

She shrugged. “It's old news now, but
that's not how I want to live. Just the idea of it...”

“Then you did the right thing. At the
end of the three months you'll know where you stand with each other, and you
can figure out where to go from there.”

Her eyes sparkled with tears. “There
hasn't been a day in the last ten years that I haven't talked to him. Not one
day.”

Michael reached for her hand. “You'll be
okay. I'll bet you're tougher than you think. The time will just fly by.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Michael kept her hand between both of
his as the plane raced down the runway and took off into a sky streaked by the
setting sun.

“Thank you,” she said when they were
airborne.

“For what?”

“Listening and offering comfort. I'll
bet you'd make a good friend.”

“I wish there was something I could say
to make you feel better.”

“You're helping. You got me on the
plane, right?” He laughed. “Yes, I guess I did.”

“Tell me about your disaster. Give me
something else to think about.”

He sighed and released her hand. “That
bad?”

“Thermonuclear meltdown.”

She turned to him. “What happened?”

“I broke off the engagement.”

She gasped. “Oh my God! Before or after
the party?”

“During,” he said with a sheepish grin.

“No way.
You did not
!”

“I did,” he said, relaying the story of
the weekend from hell.

“Jeez,” she said when he was done. “We
should've started with you. I don't know what to say. Are you okay?”

“I think I am. Maybe in a day or two
when it has time to register I won't be, but I know I did the right thing. I
can't be marching to her father's drum my whole life. It wouldn't have bothered
me half as much if she'd tried to stop it, but she was only thinking of
herself. Nothing new there.”

“It's always disappointing when someone
turns out to be less than you thought they were.”