It was time for her to grow up and become an independent woman, she told herself. She was going to have to get over her fear of the unknown, the same fear that had kept her from ever leaving decaying Coleville. Jett had protected her from the real world for years, since she was a teenager, and she knew she’d have to branch out sooner or later.
The rest of the week ticked by as slow as molasses as she waited for Friday morning to arrive. She had packed her bag the night before and tossed and turned until her alarm went off at five a.m. She threw on a pair of skinny jeans fresh out of the dryer. They were the only thing that fit her anymore considering her loss of appetite lately. She slipped on some sneakers and a cream tank top. She pulled her long, dark hair into a low chignon and massaged in some moisturizer on her face. She decided to wait until the plane was about to land before putting on any makeup. She wanted to look presentable for him, even though it felt wrong. It felt wrong on so many levels to want her dead husband’s brother to find her attractive. She couldn’t understand it, but she didn’t try to fight it. She just went with it.
Several hours later, she was LA-bound and her plane was beginning to descend to LAX. The captain turned on the seatbelt sign as the plane slowed down. Her ears popped and her stomach churned. Her heart raced, and she knew she’d be seeing Ryder very soon. She dug around in her purse for her makeup and began applying powder, blush, mascara, and lip gloss as best she could during the bumpy, turbulent landing.
It seemed like it took forever for the plane to come to a stop, and then it took forever for the passengers to file off the plane in an orderly fashion. Everyone was bumping into one another, grunting and groaning, stretching, and taking up valuable aisle space, so Stormy just waited patiently until the last person passed her. When the aisles were finally clear, she grabbed her carry on and exited the aircraft.
As she walked through the terminals and out past the security check point, her eyes scanned the crowds of people for Ryder’s familiar face. She hoped he hadn’t forgotten about her. She would be mortified if he did. She should have asked him what he was wearing that day, but she knew it wouldn’t be hard to pick him out of a crowd.
“Stormy!” she heard a voice call out behind her. She had walked right past him.
“Hey!” she said, her face all lit up like a Christmas tree.
“I was getting worried. Your plane landed a half hour ago,” he said. He put his arm around her like some kind of kid sister which instantly put the kibosh on that big bear hug she wanted.
“It was a pretty full flight. People were nuts. I just waited for everyone to get off first,” she said.
“That’s cute,” he laughed. “This is the big city, kid. Get used to it.”
He kept his arm around her protectively as they walked towards the baggage claim area.
“Let me take that,” he said as he grabbed her carry-on bag. His biceps flexed as he hoisted it over his left shoulder. His hair was slightly longer than last time, parted on the side and slicked down with brill cream, just like Jett used to do. He looked more like Jett than ever before.
Stormy spotted her bag coming around on the carousel. “There it is. The one with the red ribbon on the handle.”
Ryder, like a true gentleman, ran after it and pulled it off before it got any further away. He pulled the handle up and wheeled it over as the loose wheels click-clacked against the tile floor.
“I’m parked out there,” he nodded outside to the short-term parking area. Stormy followed him, letting him lead the way.
She had never seen so many people in one place before. The sheer number of taxis, shuttle busses, and luxury imports in the pick-up lane was enough to blow her away. She tried to take in her surroundings, but she was afraid to take her eyes off Ryder for one second in fear of getting lost.
They navigated their way through the sea of tourists and Californians as they made it to his parking spot. He clicked a button on the remote and the trunk of a red Audi convertible popped open. He loaded her things and then hopped in the car.
“Is this your car?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “I mostly ride my bike, but I’ve got this thing for special occasions.”
She climbed in and her jeans slid against the buttery leather. As he cracked the windows and pulled out of the parking garage, she stared out the window in awe of palm tree after palm tree that passed them by.
He merged onto the freeway and traffic was bumper-to-bumper as far as her eyes could see.
“Wow,” she said. “How do you get used to this kind of traffic? This is insane.”
“You just get used to it,” he laughed. “We should be back to my place in about thirty minutes.”