Tempting the New Boss(42)

“I told Marcia I wanted to rent a car.”

“There aren’t any car rental places nearby.”

Mason glanced around them, as if noticing the limitations of the small station and annoyed somebody hadn’t taken care of those problems before now to make his life easier. He looked very much like the man who had gotten into the limousine with her yesterday—pre-occupied, aloof, whiz-kid billionaire—and not the one who had gotten off the plane with her hours later.

“Marcia says you’d have to take the van to a car rental place anyway,” the pilot continued, “and at that point it makes more sense to go directly to the hotel. Do you want me to call her back?”

“No. Fine. That’s fine. Give us a minute please.”

Suddenly, whatever Camilla wanted to say to Mason, and whatever he wanted to say to her, she didn’t want either of them to say it here where there was no privacy. They needed to talk this thing out between them when they were alone, without an audience.

“No, that’s okay,” she interjected. “I’ll call Marcia myself when we’re on our way and ask her about my parents. Let’s just go to the hotel.” Until she turned in her resignation, she was still supposed to be on the job.

Walking over to where the other pilot waited, she didn’t look back to see if Mason followed, but he did, and they all got in a big, black van.

His phone rang almost as soon as they were off. He answered it with, “You didn’t rent a car.” But after a second he said, “I was about to tell her, but she was going to call you anyway.” He held the phone out.

She took it.

“Hi, kid. Some first day, huh?”

She rubbed the back of her neck. “An understatement.”

“You okay? Mason sounds fine. Better than fine. See, I knew you’d be good for him.”

She glanced at Mason, who was watching her. She hoped he hadn’t dared to tell his assistant just how good his new lawyer was to him. She would be mortified by the personal disclosure.

“All things considered, I guess I’m okay. Listen, did you talk to my parents? Do they know about the crash?”

“Don’t you worry about calling them, hon. I felt duty bound to notify your parents.”

“Oh, no! I was worried about that. I hope you called them back and told them I was fine. I’ll call them as soon as I get to the hotel. They’re probably sick with thinking that I might have crashed.”

“Relax! They know you’re okay. But there was a whole stretch where we were still trying to make sure. We knew the plane was missing by morning, and though we didn’t let it leak to the news, we were trying to narrow down where it went off course. That beacon thingy, when they did whatever they had to do to track it down.”

“They must have totally freaked.” She didn’t know who she was sorrier for. Her parents or Marcia for having to deal with them in that state.

“Yeah, I couldn’t quite calm them down at the time, so I did the next best thing.”

A Best Western Dartmouth sign beckoned, and the van turned into the drive.

“I arranged for a jet to bring them on site, but the minute I heard you two were safe I let them know you’re okay and everything’s fine.”

“What? On site where?”

They pulled into the unloading space in front of the hotel and climbed out.

“They’re right there at the hotel. They arrived at Halifax maybe an hour or so ago, and I had them sent right there. And when I called them just a few minutes ago to say you’d been found and were on your way, well I tell you I almost cried. And your mama was bawling like a baby. That mother of yours is a doll.”

“My parents are here?”

“Yep.”

No need for the confirmation, since her mom and dad were rushing through the lobby door, enveloping her in a hug so fierce she had to laugh. She could see Joey inside the hotel talking with one of her sisters, not sure at this distance which one, since they all resembled each other.

“I’m okay,” she assured her parents. “I’m okay, you guys.”

Through the phone she heard Marcia call out, “Let me talk to Mason.”

He stood beside her, watching the affectionate familial display in sort of the same way he’d looked at the black bear, eyes wide, frozen, and she handed him the phone as her mother took her cheeks in hand, staring into her eyes. “Are you really fine? You’re not hurt? My God! When Miss White called, we were petrified.”

Her father put his arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head, teasing, “Don’t you ever put us through that again, young lady.”

“I’ll do my best.”