One Wild Night (Hollywood Chronicles #1)(37)

I jump from the car and Kenneth is hot on my heels. He hands me my phone and tells me a boarding pass is waiting for me in my email. I jog through the airport, and I begin to see flashing lights and shrills of excitement as I approach a security checkpoint. I tap my phone, pulling up my email, and I see Kenneth pleading with an official looking man.

It's rare that I fly commercial flights and I'm usually ushered from one private lounge to the next as I board private planes owned by production studios and other Hollywood elite. This trip was one of the rare cases.

I feign a happy smile as people try to take my picture and shout my name from their spots in the security line. When security staff assess the commotion I'm causing, they make an exception and take me through a side entrance for a quick and private screening. I owe Kenneth a raise. A big one, if I can make it to Kaylee in time. He nods at me from the other side of security and motions for me to call him with an update.

My hearts races, as the flight door should be closing in approximately two minutes, and I have to make it across the terminal to her gate.

I jump on a motorized cart and offer the driver more money than he probably makes in a month to get me across the airport to her gate. We weave through crowds of travelers, the cart swaying with each sharp turn. My heart beats rapidly as the shrill horn beeps in warning of our approach.

The cart comes to a sudden halt at the furthest gate, and the driver points excitedly at the door that's already been closed. I leap from the cart and nearly knock over casual travelers standing in the gate area.

I slap my hand on the desk and the gate agent quickly looks up from her computer. “How may I help you, sir?” she asks with her thick British accent.

“I need to get on that flight, I have a seat.” I shove my phone in her face with the boarding pass loaded. She shakes her head without even looking at my phone. “The plane has already pulled from the gate.” She points over her shoulder with her thumb. There I see the large white plane backing away from the gate with the lights flashing on the wings.

“Goddammit!” I scream and slap my hand on the counter in frustration.

“Sir!” she scolds me.

“I'm sorry,” I whisper. “I really needed to get on that flight—” My voice breaks. “I really needed to get to someone on that flight.” I rake my hands over my face and up through my hair as I concede to the flight gods that it’s not going to happen.

She smiles sympathetically at me. “Customer service can rebook your flight for you. We have another flight leaving early tomorrow morning.” She shuts down her computer and grabs her belongings from under the desk before sauntering away.

I walk, my head hanging in defeat, to the large windows that overlook the gate and runways. The American Airlines flight carrying Kaylee taxis farther away until it turns down a runway, and I lose sight of it completely.

My heart breaks into a million pieces as that metal tube carries everything I never knew I wanted. Without a doubt in my mind, I have fallen head over heels in love with Kaylee.

“I love you Kaylee, and I will make this right,” I whisper to myself, only I'm not sure if it's too late for us or not.





Chapter 19





Kaylee





“What do you mean, it didn’t go through?” I screeched, way too high and loud as my fingers curled into the counter. But I couldn’t help it. Not with the way a fresh round of panic that surged through my body.

It was like pouring kerosene on the fiery heartbreak that burned inside of me.

Dread and alarm and the threat of hysteria.

Right there in the middle of Heathrow Airport.

Just awesome.

I’d already missed the flight Paxton had been so kind to book me, not that I would have taken it, anyway.

Not while I had a scrap of pride left in me.

Not a chance.

At least the paparazzi didn’t give a crap about me anymore now that Pax had tossed me aside like a used-up piece of garbage.

A rumble of annoyance rippled through the long line of people waiting to check in behind me.

They were just going to have to wait. Because I wasn’t moving from this spot until I figured out a way to get out of here.

I needed to go home.

Where it was safe, and I could leave all of this insanity behind me. Where I could pick up the pieces and lick my wounds, try to heal from a blow that I should have seen coming from a million miles away.

Only I hadn’t.

And it hurt all the worse.

The ticket agent cocked her head in her own annoyance, looking at me as if I were daft. “It means, your credit card was not approved for the transaction. In other words, declined.”

“Are you sure? Try it again.”

A huff from her nose. “I’ve already run it five times. I’m sure the sixth will not change the balance on your account.”

“Please,” I pleaded.

With a shake of her head, she ran it again, the saccharine smile she plastered on her face telling me nothing but I told you so as she slipped my card back to me. “I’m sorry, but unless you have another means of payment, there’s nothing I can do to help you.”

I rubbed my temples, fighting another round of tears.

How could this be happening?

A rush of anger spiraled through my senses.