One Month Later

Samuel stood next to Noah Worthington at the window overlooking the tarmac at Dallas Love Field Airport. They both wore black pants, white oxford shirts, and black hats with silver braiding, the uniforms of Skye Travels.

“I should probably call Savannah or Danielle to let them know we’re running late.” Noah said, but made no move to do so.

“Yeah,” Samuel kept his gaze on the storm gathering in the west. He swallowed the lump in his throat at hearing Danielle’s name.

“It’s okay,” Noah held his iPad toward Samuel. “We can still make it.”

Samuel looked at the radar showing the storm. He closed his eyes and squeezed the bridge of his nose.

He tried to ignore the pain in his heart. There was nothing he could do about it at the moment.

“See that break in the storm – here,” Noah held a finger over a clear area on the radar. “We can take off and get above the clouds.”

Samuel opened his eyes and blinked. Focus. He pointed to the image near Birmingham. “You know they won’t approve it. And even if they did, look at this area. We’ll never be able to land.”

Noah checked his watch. “I can’t call Savannah.”

“Why not?” Samuel asked, but his thoughts were already back on Danielle. Danielle was with Savannah right now. They were getting ready for Savannah’s graduation from Auburn University with a Ph.D. in psychology.

“I don’t want her to know I screwed up,” Noah wore a miserable expression. “I can’t let her down.”

Well, hell. Samuel was still confused about why Noah had brought him on this flight. Noah had to remember that he and Danielle were no longer together. Samuel hadn’t tried to contact Danielle after he found Pappa in her deserted apartment. The message was too loud and clear.

Even though it went against his better judgment, the least he could do was to go along with Noah. He understood Noah’s need to be there for his wife.

He followed Noah out onto the tarmac and boarded Noah’s Cessna with the name Skye Travels emblazoned in red across the fuselage.

He sat in the copilot’s seat and watched patiently as Noah checked the radar again and called in to the Airport Traffic Advisory System and listened to the recording.

This was Samuel’s first time to fly with Noah. By reputation, Noah was one of the best pilots. As far as Samuel could tell, Noah was about to make a decision based on emotion instead of good judgment. He bit his tongue as Noah radioed in to the control tower requesting permission to take off.

Samuel put on his own headset so he could listen in. “We’re not going,” he said after the negative confirmation came through.

Noah turned in his seat and looked pointedly at Samuel. “We will go.”

Samuel shrugged and sat back in his seat to prepare for a long wait.

After about ten minutes of silence from Noah, the rain began to slow, and it looked like the storms were moving away.

Noah sent in an emergency request to take off.

Samuel closed his eyes and tried not to think about Danielle. He tried not to wonder what she was doing right now. Three months pregnant. She would be starting to show a bit now. A baby bump. Danielle was adorable. He imagined that now that the nausea had subsided, she was already getting that glow that only expectant mothers got. They would say it was too early for her to be glowing, but Samuel had seen it. He saw it in the glint of her eyes when she smiled at him.

When she hadn’t thought he was watching her work on a design.

“Go ahead, Skye Flight 23. Ready for take-off Runway 31 right,” the controller said in his headset, knocking Samuel out of his reverie. “No way.” He straightened in his seat.

Noah grinned as he flipped switches bringing the aircraft to life. “You have to have faith,” he said.

“Determination is more like it.”

“Semantics.” Noah guided the plane down toward the runway. “Let’s go see our girls.”

Samuel kept his focus on the controls and ignored Noah’s words. He would think about that later. For now, it was going to be interesting to see the famous Noah Worthington at work. All he had to do was keep his mind off anything Danielle-related.

Once they were in flight, however, there wasn’t a lot of distraction to keep his thoughts in check.

Noah wanted him to go to Savannah’s graduation reception with him, even knowing Danielle would be there. He had a sick feeling in his stomach when he thought about seeing Danielle. It had been about four weeks. Would she be with someone else? Probably not. Since Noah had brought him along, she must not be seeing anyone else, at least not seriously.

She would probably be showing now. How was she coping with being pregnant? He thought that by now, he’d be rubbing her feet, at least on the weekends. He knew now that anything beyond weekends would have been a challenge. He was usually up at six, flying all day, then just time for a quick happy hour before falling into bed. Only to get up and do it all over again the next day.

He’d spent the weekends at home, mostly with his family. With the holidays coming up, his mother had kept him distracted with decorating the house. But despite her efforts, it made Samuel even sadder that he didn’t have Danielle to do things with.

He kept a picture they had taken together the Friday before he left. They’d had a nice dinner until her ex had shown up. Samuel hoped the guy hadn’t followed her to L.A.

He wasn’t opposed to tracking him down if he thought Joey was harassing her.

He had lots of other pictures of them, too, from the photo shoot. Though they hadn’t started seeing each other at that point, those pictures conveyed intimacy. An intimacy that had begun growing even before they knew it was there. Looking back, Samuel was enchanted from the moment he met Danielle.

She had never returned any of his phone calls or texts. If Noah knew that she’d moved, he hadn’t said anything to Samuel. In fact, they rarely talked about Danielle at all.

Samuel was trying to let her go. But being around her father, working with him, even now flying with him, left the wound open. Sometimes, he’d say something or make a facial expression that reminded him of Danielle. He thought about her all the time.

He glanced over at Noah, who was checking the radar again. Noah knew. He knew Danielle had gone back to L.A., Samuel would put money on it. There was no way his daughter moved across the country without her father knowing about it. Noah was just being respectful of Samuel’s feelings by not bringing it up.

It was a little odd, though, that he sometimes acted like they were still together. Like today. Let’s go see our girls.

One day. One day he would have the chance to talk to her again. To straighten things out between them. Probably not today, though, since today was about Savannah and family.

It was time though. Time to put this misunderstanding behind them.