Stuck On You (27 page)

His shrug jostled her again, and she fought off the urge to lean closer. “Well, I’m pressed pretty tightly to a portion of it right this minute,” he said, “so I do feel qualified to make a judgment. And you know I’m always right. Now, which flight attendant do you want me to measure?” His voice was mild, like maybe he was humoring the crazy person. And smacking her forehead became a viable option again. Biting her tongue would have been better but it was too late for that.

“Sorry. It’s been a long day and I’m not at my best, but none of this is your fault. I shouldn’t take it out on you.” The bitch defense was the nuclear option. He didn’t deserve it. And now she felt awful. Worse, she felt frumpy, frustrated, and mean. If only he’d snapped back at her. She had a lot more experience with handling her father being angry and unreasonable than Luke being even-tempered and amused. Since he’d never once shown her another side, she’d come to the uncomfortable conclusion that Luke was just a good guy. Sometimes that was as irritating as it was attractive.

He waved off her apology. “No worries. It’s nice to have a little heat. Most of the time you’re so . . .” He paused and then winced. “‘Frosty’ is the right word.”

He was right. Again.

Julie looked out the window before sliding the panel down. Every snowflake that fell whispered that she would not be sleeping in her own bed that night. “Did you go on a tour of airports too?”

He frowned. “Nah, missed the first flight this morning and decided to take my time. I was talking with the gate attendant when you shot past me. I figured you were already in Dallas and fully provisioned for at least two weeks.”

“So you’ve just been taking it easy all day?”

“Pretty much.” He stretched a long leg out in the aisle. “I didn’t see much of a reason to wear myself out with all the cancellations, but Fran convinced me to give this flight a try. So here I am.”

Julie shook her head and crossed her arms over her chest while they listened to the safety instructions and then taxied down the runway. How he could be so laid back about the whole thing amazed her. She’d fought her way through airport after airport trying to make things work while Luke had gone with the flow, and they ended up smashed together on the same flight. There was probably a lesson there. Maybe she’d get lucky and some of his coolness would be passed to her through osmosis. If that was ever going to work, it was now. They were pressed together from shoulder to knee at this point.

After takeoff Luke leaned down to say, “Are you a good flier?”

As her elbow bumped his on the armrest between the seats, she said, “I don’t have much trouble on short flights like this one. Long flights make me antsy, mostly because of the tight space. And I can be a bit of a dictator inside the airport because I have a thing about missing my connection. But the worst I have to deal with on the plane is a little bit of nausea.” She grabbed his hand. “But there’s nothing you have to worry about. No airsick baggy needed.”

He glanced down at her hand on his. “It was a dumb question. You do everything well, right? I would
not
want to get between you and the gate, though.”

His compliment sent her already uneasy stomach into a full-on tumble. He both recognized her abilities and had a healthy respect for her quirks. Both were attractive qualities in a man.

Julie squeezed his hand then yanked her hand away as soon as she realized what she’d done. He’d obviously understood, as she had, that while a blizzard might be threatening half the United States, many places would feel like sub-Saharan Africa with blazing heat, and Luke had dressed accordingly in layers. His short-sleeve polo left lots of muscular, tanned, beautiful forearm exposed.

“Why is it that men think they can claim the armrest, every armrest?” She pointed down at his legs, which were spread and encroaching on her space. “And extra leg room too?”

She tried to make herself as small as possible while he seemed to grow. He winked down at her. “I’m okay to share, darlin’. Come closer.”

More than anything, she wanted to rest her head on his shoulder. He was the kind of man who inspired confidence. If she had any idea how to loosen up at this point, she would. She’d probably be doing the world a favor. She thanked the beverage gods as the flight attendant rattled to a stop next to him.

“Something to drink?” The attendant was looking straight at Luke. Of course. And she had an avid, ready-to-please look on her face. Out of principle, Julie wanted to tell her to go open a window, but more than that she wanted something to drink. Flying really did bring out her worst side.

Luke’s smile was charming and nearly angelic. Julie bit her tongue and tried to figure out how he could pull that off. Luke Pearce was very good with people but he was no angel. Thanks to his people skills and powers of persuasion, he’d made partner in her father’s law firm faster than anyone before, and he was very comfortable as her father’s right-hand man. She still couldn’t figure out why she’d ever thought he needed her help. If their last names weren’t the same, her father would probably have overlooked her existence in the firm. He liked flash. He liked success. Luke had them. She’d learned a long time ago to keep her head down. She might never have the huge success Big Jack Dillon demanded, but she was pretty safe from his disappointment this way too.

Luke patted Julie’s leg. “Nothing for me, thanks, but my wife would like a ginger ale.”

The flight attendant looked her way, and Julie was no mind reader but her face was all headlines and no subtext. She was surprised, disappointed, and definitely wanted to spit in her drink.

She didn’t. The woman precisely filled the glass with ice and ginger ale, peeled off one napkin, and handed Julie both in one efficient maneuver. As she made to roll on down the aisle, Luke stopped her. “I sure could use something to snack on, darlin’. Got any peanuts in there?”

The attendant unstarched enough to smile at him before reaching down to pull out a tiny package of cookies. When she handed them over, he shook the package at Julie. “Look, honey, we can share!” He winked at the flight attendant and off she went.

“Now you’ve done it.”

Luke bit into the package to pull it open as he turned to face her.

“You certainly won’t be getting a second cookie,” Julie told him. “I hope you can live with the consequences of your actions.”

He tilted the package toward her, then tilted it up to empty it in his mouth when she shook her head. He chewed for two seconds and swallowed. “If by ‘second cookie’ you mean an actual second cookie, I think I can. I could probably have gotten something sweeter from her later, and I miss that a bit more.”

Julie laughed. “I think you might be right. Why would you introduce me as your wife anyway? You had to know I’d cramp your style.” Fidgeting in her seat to try to make room, she muttered, “And your leg.”

He shrugged a shoulder. She could feel the weight of his eyes as she crossed her arms over her chest. Every move he made detonated a flash of heat across her body. It was embarrassing. And something else that she wasn’t going to think about here. She could still feel the heat of his hand on her leg. She didn’t need anything else to overheat.

Luke said, “I thought you might squawk. Makes me wonder why you didn’t.” She very studiously poured more ginger ale in her nearly full glass.

Finally, he winked. “She’s not really my type.”

Nodding, Julie looked over at the miffed flight attendant. “Sure, what man in his right mind would be attracted to a thin, petite blonde?” She shivered. “Yuck.”

He bent his head down closer to her ear. “Some guys, smart guys, like tall curvy women. Nothing against her, but I prefer a different type.”

He pointed out the dark window. “Too bad we can’t see what’s happening down there. Think we’ll make it home tonight?”

Julie shrugged as she pulled her tablet out of the pocket in front of her and opened up Angry Birds. “After the day I’ve had trying to get there, I’m not holding my breath. I tried to cover my bases before I got on the airplane, made reservations in likely spots . . . Tulsa, St. Louis, Chicago.”

“Of course you did. Probably a good policy.” He watched her for a minute before he pulled the airline magazine out of the pocket. “So, are you one of those people who don’t like to talk on planes?”

She sent a yellow bird flying at a stack of wood blocks and then took a sip of her ginger ale. “I need the distraction. If I start to worry about where I’ll be sleeping tonight, it could get ugly in here.”

He shrugged. “One place is as good as another if it’s not Dallas.”

She put her drink and tablet down on the tray table and cursed as the next bird bounced off rock. “Aren’t you worried about finding a place to sleep tonight?”

“Nah, I’ll find a place.” He flipped the magazine open.

Luke’s world was a nice place to be. He had no doubts about his ability to land on his feet, no matter what city they landed in. And he would. That was how it went for him. He announced his intent, and problems parted like the Red Sea before Moses. It was annoying. She had to rely on superb planning and logic. Thank God she was good at both.

As she restarted the game level, she leaned forward to escape the constant pressure and heat of his arm. He held the magazine in front of him with one hand and turned the pages with the other. She could sit here and watch him read for a while. The thing about Luke Pearce was that she knew he was smart. Everyone did. It was impossible to miss, even working on the periphery as she did. It didn’t seem fair that he should be tall, muscular, good-looking, charming,
and
so intelligent that he was able to outsmart opponents without breaking a sweat.

When he’d asked her out two months after he joined the firm, she was suspicious. Clearly, he was ambitious. He wouldn’t have been the first man to approach her with an eye on getting into her father’s good graces. And long before she knew he was the last man on earth who needed her father’s favor for any measure of his success, she’d blown up any chance she had with him. Worse, she froze it off. She’d pulled him into her office, shut the door, and coldly informed him that she knew what he was up to and that she didn’t date coworkers. Ever.

Luke had proven to be a total gentleman about the whole thing. That somehow made it the worst. When she was being an idiot, she normally preferred someone to call her on it to prevent future episodes.

Now, he closed the magazine and dropped it back in the pocket. “It’ll all work out,” he said. “Fabulous Fran is on the case. She’s watching the flight and the weather. No matter where we land, she’ll have a hotel room for me.” With an easy sigh, he leaned his head against the seat and tried to stretch out in his seat.

Fran was his assistant. Top performers like Luke got top assistants. Ever since Fran walked in the door, Julie had been trying to come up with her own nickname for her, something like Frumpy Fran or Freckled Fran or Frightening Fran. At five feet even, chipper as a former pom-pom shaker could be and all-American cute, the only way Fran was frightening was in her ruthless effectiveness. And since only Flawless Fran really worked, in her mind Julie preferred Freaking Fran, though she never said it out loud.

With a powerful jab, she sent another bird flying, and her elbow followed, clipping the ginger ale and sending it flying. In slow motion, she watched the cup crash-land in Luke’s crotch. Maybe a mental slap to the forehead had been the right response for bringing up the size of her butt in mixed company, but that embarrassment didn’t hold a candle this one. Here, now, death was the only choice.

About the Author

CHERYL HARPER is often entertained by the goings-on and saddened by the serious lack of shopping and restaurants in her small Southern town. In her spare time, she’s mesmerized by Gordon Ramsay and most televised cooking competitions, British dramas and actors, and just about any show people will be talking about the next day. When it comes to reading and writing, Cheryl prefers a few laughs and a happily-ever-after ending.

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An Excerpt from

A
T
RUST
N
O
O
NE
N
OVEL

by Dixie Lee Brown

Debut author Dixie Lee Brown launches her
Trust No One
series with this tale of a hunted woman and the one man who can save her life . . . if she’ll let him.

“T
rust me. This is the safest way.”

Everything required trust with Joe. So, did she trust him? If she ever got back on the ground, she might be able to answer that question. Cara looked over the edge of the platform.
There’s no way!

“Take your time. Go when you’re ready . . . unless you want me to give you a little push.”

“You wouldn’t dare!” She wrapped her arms around the pole.

“You really don’t trust me, do you?” He laughed.

“I was starting to, before you said the word ‘push.’ ”

“There’s hope then? If I choose my words more carefully?”

“Maybe . . . if I ever get down from here.”

“Let’s sit for a minute. Things will look different from that perspective.” He sat, dangling his long legs over the side. Cara positioned herself beside him, her hands nervously flexing on the rope that joined her to the zip line.

“Jumping doesn’t seem any more reasonable from here.” Too bad, since sitting close enough to rub shoulders with him made her nearly as uncomfortable as the stupid zip line.

“We’ll just hang out and talk for a while then. That okay?” He gripped the edge of the platform and leaned forward, turning to look at her.