The Love Coupon (Stubborn Hearts 2)

She could be anywhere at O’Hare while she waited. If she didn’t answer her phone, he’d pull the place apart departure lounge by food vendor until he found her.

“Don’t be mad with me,” she said when she answered.

He could hardly speak for the relief of hearing her voice. “I’m not mad.”

“I couldn’t do goodbye. I thought it would be easier to just go.” He couldn’t hear anything to help identify where she was, and she didn’t know he wasn’t calling from home.

“You left some things behind.” The man who loved her, couldn’t imagine not looping the loop with her, having the gravity-defying buzz, flashing lights and music of her in his arms for the rest of his life.

“My watch.”

“Navy shoes, pink T-shirt.” He scanned the concourse of Terminal Two, where her Delta shuttle would depart, kept moving. She’d be somewhere there was coffee, which meant one of the two Starbucks.

“Where did you find—it doesn’t matter, Tom, I can deal.”

“I can bring the stuff you left to you.”

“Or I can visit and pick it up. It’s not important.”

Got her. The Starbucks outside gate E1A. “Yeah, Flick, it is. You were never going to visit.”

There was a pause; it felt like years. “I didn’t want to be a distraction all over again.”

“That’s not how it was.” But it was how he’d made her feel.

“Look, I should go. I, ah, forgot to charge my phone and I—” Her voice cracked. “Tom, I’ll call you when I arrive, okay? I’ll call you.”

“Flick.”

She disconnected, and he watched her shoulders heave and her head drop into her hands.

This might fuck up, but it was the only plan he had.

“Flick!” She spun in her chair toward the sound of his voice, hand to her mouth when she sighted him. He took the half-dozen steps he needed to get to her, slipped into the seat beside her and held up her toothbrush. “Thought you might need this.”

She took it out of his hand. “Miraculously, they sell these in Washington.” She looked at the toothbrush and not at him, and the ribs that guarded his heart creaked at the weight he was asking them to bear.

“But this one looked special. The right kind of shaggy.”

“What are you doing here?” she said.

“Thought you might need me.” I’m the right kind of in love with you.

“You have important things to do today.” She shoved the toothbrush in her purse. “Hey, what are you wearing? No suit.”

“Thought it was important to come with you.”

Her body jerked so hard, she knocked her knee against the edge of the table. “No.”

Oh fuck. “I made a mistake letting you think you weren’t the most vital thing in my life.”

She pushed away from the table and stood. “This is why I left early.” She picked up her carry-on bag and her purse. He dared not try to take them from her. “Goodbyes are too hard.”

She walked out. No other choice—he followed her to a row of empty

seats, facing out toward the runway.

“I don’t need an escort,” she snapped when he caught up. “You need to be at work.”