The Memory Keeper: A Heartwarming, Feel-Good Romance(6)
“My gran’s not well right now,” Hannah told Liam, as she grabbed her handbag and started rooting around inside it. “I don’t have any tissues,” she said, her voice quivering. She sniffed and wiped her eyes with her fingers.
“Poor thing,” a woman’s empathetic voice floated over to her, and Hannah realized they had an audience of one: the woman from before—Georgia—who was openly shaking her head at Hannah’s emotional state.
“Hello again,” Hannah said, trying to get herself together.
Georgia nodded toward the destination sign Hannah had made. “You ran off before I could say anything, but we’re headed to Franklin, too,” she told her. Then Georgia waggled her finger at Liam. “It looks like you two already know each other.”
“Yeah,” Hannah said, allowing a slight grin to observe the coincidence of running into him, while still blinking away tears. “We knew each other as kids.”
“Wow, that’s crazy,” Georgia said with a wide smile. “Small world.”
Liam smiled at Hannah meaningfully. “Yes, it certainly is.” Then he stood up. “Anyone need to go to the ladies’ room?”
Hannah gathered her sign and cell phone, sliding them into her handbag, curious as to his question.
Georgia offered her hand and pulled Hannah to a standing position. Then the woman elbowed Liam, who was clearly surprised that Georgia had made physical contact.
“I convinced Liam to stay with me, and then I saw your sad face back at the baggage claim, and I just knew that you needed someone with you, so we’ve spent the last few minutes trying to find you.” Georgia turned to Liam. “Tell her,” she said, bouncing excitedly, so much that the animal in the carrier finally barked, which confirmed that it was a small dog.
Liam swiped an app on his phone and turned it around. It was some sort of confirmation number. His eyebrows rose, and finally she saw a glimmer of anticipation. “I have a car…”
“You do?” Hannah asked, her mouth hanging open.
She couldn’t believe it: This man from her past was the answer to her prayers. Not only did she have a way home, but she was also able to ride with someone she completely trusted instead of a stranger. Relief flooding her in the form of happy tears; she threw her arms around Liam’s neck and hugged him, clearly surprising him.
He pulled back quickly and looked down at her with an unreadable expression on his face. Their shared past from two long-lost lives settled between them, taking Hannah back for an instant to the T-shirt-and-cut-offs-wearing, wild spirit of a girl she’d been so long ago.
“We should go,” he said, turning toward Georgia. “Ready?”
“Absolutely,” Georgia said, as her inquisitive gaze bounced back and forth between Liam and Hannah.
Three
When she’d awakened this morning, Hannah would have never thought for one second that she’d find herself sitting in an unmarked Chevy Malibu with Liam, Georgia, and a baby-blue-sweater-clad Chihuahua named Jerry as they pulled out of the airport rental car garage and into the gridlock on Grand Central Parkway, headed for Tennessee.
They’d all agreed to split the cost of the rental, even though Liam had offered to pay the whole thing—Hannah had handed over her credit card before he could object. She was just so thankful and ready to be on her way home.
Liam put the blinker on, and inched the car over slightly to change lanes so that he could take the exit highlighted on the navigation map. Hannah kept trying to figure out what had changed to make him so stoic, but she couldn’t get a read on him. From the look of his well-tailored trousers, his fashionable haircut, and high-end shoes, he was definitely doing well for himself. The clerk had also apologized that they didn’t have the luxury car he had initially reserved. However, there was still something very down-home about him too. Perhaps it was the casual way he leaned back in the driver’s seat, or the way he had rested his wrist on the steering wheel when the car was idle, just like Ethan had in his old farm truck when he’d driven her home from high school every afternoon.
“So how did you manage to get a car rental?” Hannah asked, making conversation.
“It was a fluke, really. The sale of a building my company’s acquiring in Chicago depends on me getting to Franklin to secure the funding, and the Chicago meeting was rescheduled for last night so I had to change my flight last minute,” he said. “It was a rush to find anything, so I got a flight to New York and then another to Nashville. Already arriving later than I thought I would, I saw the storm was worsening. To be on the safe side, I booked a car online at the hotel before I left this morning, in case the second leg of my flight was significantly delayed or cancelled.” He attempted to reach his hand behind him into his carry-on bag in the backseat.
Liam’s suitcase—she’d found out—had been lost in transit, and it was supposedly being shipped to Nashville airport which, while awful for him, allowed enough space to fit the rest of the luggage in the trunk. Hannah and Georgia had stuffed their suitcases into the space, but with the smaller bags up front with them, there was still a squeeze on their legroom for the fourteen-plus-hour drive.
“And I shouldn’t have been on that flight to New York either, but I missed my original flight and they had to redirect me via New York,” Georgia said. “You might be an angel,’ she told Liam. ‘And the most organized person I’ve ever met.” She picked up his bag from the backseat for him and pushed it onto the console between them.