Emerald Fire (Christian Romance) (The Jewel Series) (14 page)

MAXINE
enjoyed the plane ride. She got along well with Barry’s friends and their wives. Dealing with clients on a regular basis made her feel at ease in social settings, and since this trip had the goal of attending a major football bowl game, she boarded the plane knowing she would enjoy the conversation with people whom she had at least that one thing in common.

When she first boarded, she met Bart and Melanie Jacobs. He was an attorney on the floor above Barry’s. He had shocking red hair and pale blue eyes, and she had blonde frosted hair and green eyes. She immediately grabbed Maxine’s arm and pulled her down onto the sofa next to her where she launched into a conversation about a little boutique on Newbury Street that Maxine knew well.

Right on their heels, Terrence and Kisha Lee boarded. He was a large man with skin the color of warm cocoa. From what Maxine knew from her conversation with Barry on their way to the airport, he had played with Barry for part of a season before an injury brought a promising career to a sudden halt. His wife spoke with a strong accent that Maxine identified as Haitian. Maxine soon found out that she owned a French restaurant in the art district and found herself as passionately engaged in conversation about cooking as she had been about shopping.

About two minutes before they would have to shut the door and leave them behind, Justin and Caitlyn Meyers rushed on board. Maxine knew that a decade earlier he had been a client of Barry’s. He was tall and thin, his bald head shaved. She had curly strawberry-blonde hair and freckles. Caitlyn sat quietly until Maxine asked her what she did. When she found out that she was a homemaker with three kids, Maxine talked about Robin’s impending birth and Sarah’s occupation and discovered that Sarah had helped deliver Caitlyn’s third baby.

Maxine didn’t realize the level of apprehension she had over how they would treat her in Jacqueline’s absence until it appeared that the apprehension had no place. All of Barry’s friends treated her with warmth and courtesy and she immediately relaxed in their presence. The camaraderie of the men made the flight go quickly. They talked and laughed about old bowl games they’d seen, and in between her conversations with the wives, Maxine smiled and learned and enjoyed watching Barry interact with his friends.

She watched him talk, watched him gesture with his hands as he replayed some old college football play and felt her heart skip a beat. She wasn’t there as his wife, but still felt strangely proud to be with him.

The plane ride ended quicker than she anticipated, and the cab ride from the airport to the hotel was incredible. Maxine had never been to Las Vegas before, and she couldn’t look fast enough to see everything on The Vegas Strip that she’d like to see. Too quickly, they pulled up in front of the hotel.

The beautiful hotel had a spacious lobby that led to the entrance of the casino on one end and a line of restaurants and shops on the other. A massive Christmas tree dominated the center of the lobby and Maxine caught the wonderful smell of the pine sap as they went by it. The jingling sound of the slot machines interfered slightly with the Christmas music playing over the speaker system, but it made Maxine smile.

As they approached the desk, the concierge waved a hand and four bell hops appeared almost immediately, taking bags and suitcases up to the respective rooms. He greeted them all by name as he welcomed them to the hotel and handed the men gold keycards to the suites of rooms. All four couples shared an elevator to the top floor where they had five of the six suites on the floor. They agreed to freshen up and meet in one of the restaurants in an hour to get lunch.

Barry handed Maxine her own key card and pointed to her room. “I’m here,” he said, tapping the door.

“I really appreciate you getting an extra room. I imagine between Christmas and the game, they’ve probably been booked since the game schedule was announced.”

“It wasn’t a problem. They had a last minute cancellation, so it worked out.” Barry looked at his watch. “How long do you need to freshen up?”

“I just need to unpack. Is fifteen minutes okay with you?”

Barry shrugged. “No problem. I’ll see you then.”

Maxine went to her own room. She stepped into a small foyer with a low table against the wall that held a vase of fresh flowers in bright reds and soft creams. As she moved through the foyer into the living room, she smiled at the Christmas tree in the corner, decorated in a theme that matched the casino’s. It even had some miniaturized house chips as ornaments. A bar separated a small kitchen from the room, and on either side of the room stood a door. The far wall had a glass door that opened up to a patio that overlooked the Vegas strip.

Maxine crossed the room and opened one of the doors. She saw a large four-poster bed and an adjoining bath. A quick rap on the door signaled the arrival of the luggage. While the twenty-something man in the cheap tuxedo carried her bags to the bedroom, she grabbed the purse she’d thrown on the couch and looked through it for a tip.

Once she was alone in the suite, she locked the door and slipped her shoes off. Maxine wandered around, examining the other bedroom – which was identical to the one she’d picked out – and the bathroom with the garden tub. She had a patio off her room, too, and stepped out into the cold, dry air to look down at the traffic below.

When she returned to her room she quickly unpacked just in time for the rap of knuckles on her door. She opened it to find Barry standing in the doorway. With a smile, she invited him in. “What shall we do first, big guy?”

He slipped his hands into his slacks and rocked back on his heels. “Want to go play some slots?”

Maxine shrugged. “Eh. I don’t think I want to gamble.”

Barry visibly relaxed. “I’m glad. I don’t really want to gamble either. But that’s what the rest of the gang is doing this afternoon. What else is there to do here?”

“Tons. I want to see a show, though you don’t have to go with me if you don’t want to. And I want to see the Hoover Dam.” She laughed and looked at him to watch his reaction to her next list item. “And I really want to go see a wedding officiated by an Elvis impersonator.”

Barry laughed. “What?”

“I really do. I think it would be as good as any of the billed shows. I wonder if you can just go sit and watch.”

“What do you hope to see?”

Maxine sat and threw her arm over the back of the couch. “No idea. I just want to find out.”

Barry nodded. “Well,” he said, “we can probably go after the game tomorrow.”

Maxine sat forward and grabbed his hand in excitement. “Really?”

With a shrug, he turned his hand so that he could grip hers. Maxine realized they held hands and slowly took hers back. She put it on her lap and gripped it with her other hand. Barry didn’t seem to notice as he stood and went to the kitchen. “Sure. Why not?”

“That’s awesome. What about a show?”

He came out of the kitchen with a bottle of water. “I’d been kind of hoping that Elvis would make you forget the show.” He softened that with a smile, which she returned in the humor that he intended. “I’m sure the other wives already have the tickets secured to a show. This is all of our first trip to a bowl game in Vegas. They usually have a whole schedule mapped out to the minute. Let’s join them for lunch and see if there’s anything you’d want to do with them.” Maxine wondered if he realized that he included her in with the wives when he said, “other wives.”

She enjoyed lunch with their group. After lunch, she and Barry separated from the couples, leaving them at the entrance of the casino while the two of them worked with the concierge and discovered a helicopter tour of the Hoover Dam. He pulled some strings and got them tickets on a flight that would leave from their hotel roof. They only had about twenty minutes before the flight departed, so they went straight from the lobby to the roof where they found the helicopter and pilot waiting for them.

Within ten minutes, the other passengers had arrived and they loaded into the helicopter and followed the pilot’s instructions for fastening seat belts and putting on helmets that had built in speakers to provide a way for the pilot to give them the verbal tour.

They flew over the Grand Canyon and circled back to the Hoover Dam. Maxine sat by the window and Barry sat to her right. To get a better view, he angled his body so that he was pressed up against her back, looking out the window over her shoulder. It bothered her at first. She didn’t like to feel trapped, especially by another person. So she leaned forward until her helmet hit the glass in front of her, trying to distance herself from him.

Some bump in the air, some air pocket or crosswind shook the aircraft making the other passengers gasp or exclaim. Barry’s right arm came around Maxine’s waist and stayed there even after the pilot smoothed them out. She immediately put both of her hands over his arm with the intent of prying it from her, but didn’t. She stopped. It was time for this stupid fear of being touched by anyone – by men – to go away.

So the fingers that gripped his massive forearm gradually relaxed. For the remainder of the three-hour flight, she slowly, inch by inch, relaxed against him, relinquishing the panic of being touched or held as she looked out the window first at the magnificence of God’s creation as they flew down into the Grand Canyon, then at the brilliance of man’s creation as they flew close to America’s largest dam.

BARRY
sat in the helicopter with his arm around Maxine, breathing in the scent of her hair, feeling the press of her warm, lithe body against his, and had to close his eyes to battle for focus.

To say that he had never acknowledged Maxine’s attractiveness would quite simply be a lie. Even married, when he struggled with the pain of his wife’s betrayal and wanting to keep everything right with God so that his prayers about his wife would be answered, he could not help but acknowledge Maxine’s loveliness. Calling her beautiful would be an understatement. When she walked into a room, every man and many women would simply stop and look at her. Her physical beauty surpassed anything he could have ever imagined in a woman.

Except, beauty fades, and Barry knew it meant little. Once he learned how to redirect that initial punch of attraction every time he saw her, he almost got used to the way she looked. Then he got to know her spirit.

He had never met anyone so colorful in his life. She took life head-on, with a smile and a laugh. She took delight in little things like the wonderful taste of an appetizer at a social function, and took delight in fun things like getting tickets to a Celtics game. She was fun, and vivacious, and relished life. On top of that, her loyalty to those she loved knew no bounds. He’d watched her for three years with her sisters, with Derrick, with Tony, and stood amazed at the generous spirit she had for her family.

Getting to know her through sports, as platonic as it could possibly be, worked for him. She was just a “buddy” and he felt like he wasn’t doing anything wrong – and nearly convinced himself of that. Sitting here, now, on this helicopter with his arms around her and her body pressed close against him, as he closed his eyes and fought for some measure of control against his attraction, he knew he’d been lying to himself the entire time.

Over the years, the shared football games and basketball conversations, and lately the workout sessions, had been nothing more than a way to spend time with her, however he could, in any socially acceptable way. He knew that should he ever desire to reconcile with God again, that would definitely be something he would have to face.

He wondered what to do about it. They had two more days, here. Should he pursue it? Was a quick bowl game trip to Las Vegas the right place for this? Would his pursuit cheapen what could be? He considered the line of men in Maxine’s social life over the years and wondered.

A vibration in his pocket stopped his train of thought. He reluctantly relinquished his hold on her. When she shifted her body slightly away from his, he knew that the invite to touch had passed and that they would not return to their previous position. Then he looked out the window and saw the roof of the hotel approaching.