My One and Only(71)

It was something, to stand in a building that Nick—my Nick—had dreamed up and made real.

“Is this one of your favorite buildings?” I asked as we headed back into the sunshine and scudding clouds.

“Well, in some ways, yes,” he said. “Mostly because it’s a library. What happens here is generally positive, you’d hope, anyway. Better than a parking garage.”

“I’m glad you showed me, Nick,” I said as we stopped near the fountain. “It’s beautiful. I’m…I’m proud of you.” My cheeks prickled with heat. Great. I was blushing.

Nick looked at me somberly for a minute. “Thank you.” Then he flashed his smile, and I smiled back, relieved that he didn’t tell me what a dork I was.

But we couldn’t stay here forever. I glanced at my watch, and Nick lurched back into gear. “Guess you want to get to the airport,” he said.

“I probably should.”

“Right.”

It was a very quick ride to the Bismarck Airport. Nick pulled up in front of the terminal, popped the trunk and towed my suitcase inside. We waited at the counter, a little awkward now, smiling at each other, then looking away.

“So you’re looking to get to Boston?” the ticket agent asked. Her name tag read Suzie, and she gave Nick an assessing glance. He was wearing the blue-tinted sunglasses, a close-fitting black T-shirt and faded jeans—the king of cool, in other words, and Suzie smiled brightly. “Just you, ma’am?”

“That’s right. As soon as possible, okay? I got tangled up in that mess in Montana.”

She dragged her eyes off of Nick. “What mess was that?”

“The software glitch? Grounded the fleet for a few days at all the little airports in Montana on Sunday?”

She frowned. “Oh, that. That only lasted a couple hours, hon. You’d have done better to stay put. They were flying later that same day.”

I blinked. “Oh.” Glanced at Nick, who shrugged.

“All righty, then,” Suzie said. “Well, it’s a little tricky, since you’ll have to change planes a few times. You’ll go from here to Denver, and from Denver you can go directly to Boston, but you’re gonna have to wait five hours. Or you can go on to Dallas, and from Dallas to Atlanta. Quick layover in Hot-lanta, and then on to Beantown. That’ll get you to Boston at, let’s see, 10 a.m. tomorrow morning.”

Twenty hours of hell, in other words. I glanced at Coco, who stared back.

“Are you staying in Bismarck?” Suzie asked Nick. “We have some super-duper restaurants, if you need a recommendation or two. I get off at—”

“And how much will that be?” I asked, just a bit tightly.

“Okeydokey, let me just check there…” She typed for the next minute or so. Clickety clackety clack. Click. Clack! Clickety click. I sighed, she paused, gave me a look of thinly veiled tolerance, flashed a supersunny smile at Nick, who returned it, I noted with irritation. “Suzie? Any time would be great,” I said sweetly.

“Well, now, I’m working on it, don’tcha know. I’m sorry if it’s not going fast enough for you, ma’am,” she said with an equal dose of saccharine. She gave Nick a sympathetic smile. Gosh golly, isn’t it just so awful that we both have to deal with her? Clickety clickety clack. For God’s sake! Was this her novel? Emails to her BFF? Hey there, Lorna, you should see this bitchy redhead I have to take care of, she’s not even letting me flirt with my future husband, which is so unfair, don’t you know, when I’ve gone to all this trouble and named our kids and everything!

Finally, she gave me a perky and very phony smile. “Well, with the fee for your little doggy and yourself, that comes to $2,835.49.”

“Holy testicle Tuesday!” I exclaimed.

“Oh, my,” Suzie chided. “Well, it takes all types, I guess. Shall I book that for you, then? We accept all major credit cards, of course.”

I gave her my best lawyer stare, then opened my wallet.

“Harper,” Nick said. He took my arm and pulled me a few paces away. “Listen. I’m heading…I can take you to Minneapolis. It’s a straight shot, maybe seven hours.” He paused. “I bet you could get a better flight from there.”

The possibilities flashed in red through my mind. Seven more hours with Nick. Seven more hours revisiting the past. Bickering. Fighting attraction. Bone-marrow harvesting.

Laughing. Talking. Maybe we could find another church festival.

Seven more hours of falling back in love with Nick.

It had taken me years to get over him. Years. The case could be made that I wasn’t over him yet.

His dark eyes were waiting for an answer.

“I better just get going, Nick,” I said.

His gaze dropped to the floor. “Okay. Sure. That’s probably a good idea.” He folded his arms across his chest and nodded.

“I just need a driver’s license, ma’am,” Suzie said. She was really starting to wear.

“You don’t need to hang around, Nick,” I said.

He looked up. “Okay. Well. Safe home, Harpy. See you around.”

“You too, Nick.” My throat hurt. “Thank you for driving me.”

He gave me a very brief hug, and my cheek brushed his neck, and I breathed in his clean, lovely smell, but before I was even able to get my arms around him to hug him back, he’d stepped away, then bent to pet my dog. “Bye, Coco,” he said as she licked his hand with her fast little tongue. He straightened up, looked at me and stopped time. “Take care,” he said, his voice soft.