The Perfect Match: First Comes Marriage / Yours and Mine. Debbie Macomber
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lamented silently. They’d crossed the line. Tempted fate. Spit in the eye of common sense.
They’d kissed.
Several minutes later, still shaking, Janine got up and undressed. She slid under the blankets and tried to find a relaxing position. But she didn’t feel like sleeping. Tomorrow she’d have to make polite conversation with Zach and she didn’t know if she could bear it. She was sure he’d feel just as uncomfortable with her. She’d seen how he could barely look at her when they entered the inn.
Tossing aside the blankets, Janine decided she had only one option. She’d leave Scotland, the sooner the better. Grabbing the phone, she called the airport, booked a seat on the earliest flight home and immediately set about packing her bags.
Not bothering to even try to sleep, she crept down the stairs a little before midnight and checked out.
“You’re leaving sooner than you expected, aren’t you, Miss Hartman?” the night manager asked after calling for a cab.
“Yes,” she said.
“I hope everything was satisfactory?”
“It was wonderful.” She pulled a folded piece of paper from her purse and placed it on the counter. “Would you see to it that Mr. Thomas receives this in the morning?”
“Of course.” The young man tucked it in a small cubbyhole behind him.
Satisfied that Zach would know she was leaving and wouldn’t be concerned by her hurried return to Seattle, she sat in a chair in the small lobby to wait for her cab.
About fifteen minutes later, Janine watched silently as the cabdriver stowed her luggage in the trunk. She paused before climbing in the backseat of the car and glanced one last time at the muted moonlit landscape, disappointed that she wouldn’t have an opportunity to visit the cliffs.
The ride to the airport seemed to take an eternity. She felt a burning sense of regret at leaving Scotland. She’d fallen in love with the country during her short visit and hoped someday to return. Although the memory of her evening stroll through the garden would always bring with it a certain chagrin, she couldn’t completely regret that time with Zach. In fact, she’d always remember the fleeting sense of contentment she’d felt in his arms.
Janine arrived at the airport long before her flight was scheduled to leave. She spent an hour drinking coffee and leafing through fashion magazines, several of which she took with her to give to Pam later.
A cup of coffee in one hand, she approached the airline counter with her passport in the other. The bag she had draped over her shoulder accidentally collided with the man standing next to her. An automatic apology formed on her lips, but before she could voice it, that same man turned to face her.
“Zach,” she cried, nearly dropping her coffee in shock. “What are you doing here?”
“You think this is intentional, don’t you?” Zach demanded. “It’s obvious you’re the one running after me. You found the note I slipped under your door and—”
“I checked out just before midnight so I couldn’t possibly have read your note,” she said angrily. “And furthermore I left a message for you.”
“I didn’t get it.”
“Then there’s been a misunderstanding.”
“To say the least,” Zach muttered. “A misunderstanding…” His tone was doubtful, as if he suspected she’d purposely arranged to fly home with him. She launched into an indignant protest.
“Excuse me, please.”
The interruption was from a uniformed airline employee who was leaning over the counter and waving in an effort to gain their attention.
“May I have your ticket and passport?” she asked Janine. “You’re holding up the line.”
“Of course. I’m sorry.” The best thing to do, she decided, was to ignore Zach completely. Just because they were booked on the same flight didn’t mean they had to have anything to do with each other. Evidently they’d both panicked after their encounter in the garden. He was as eager to escape as she was.
Okay, so she’d ignore him and he’d ignore her. She’d return to her life, and he’d return to his. From this point forward, they need never have contact with each other again. Then they’d both be satisfied.
The airline clerk punched something into her computer. “I can give you your seat assignment now,” she remarked, concentrating on the screen.
Standing on tiptoe, Janine leaned toward the woman and lowered her voice to a whisper. “Could you make sure I’m as far from Mr. Thomas’s seat as possible?”
“This flight is booked solid,” the attendant said impaiently. “The only reason you and your…friend were able to get seats was because of a last-minute cancellation. I’ll do the best I can, but I can’t rearrange everyone’s seat assignments just before the flight.”
“I understand,” Janine said, feeling foolish and petty. But the way her luck had been going, Zach would end up in the seat beside hers, believing she’d purposely arranged that, too.
They boarded the flight separately; in fact, Zach was one of the last passengers to step onto the plane.
By that time, Janine was settled in the second row of the first-class section, flipping through the in-flight magazine. Zach strolled past her, intent on the boarding pass clutched in his hand.
Pretending she hadn’t seen him seemed the best tactic, and she turned to gaze out the window.
“It seems I’m sitting here,” Zach announced brusquely, loading his carry-on luggage in the compartment above the seats.
Janine had to bite her tongue to keep from insisting she’d had nothing to do with that. She’d even tried to prevent it, but she doubted Zach would believe her.
“Before you claim otherwise, I want you to know I didn’t arrange this,” he said, sitting down beside her.
“I know that.”
“You do?”
“Of course,” Janine told him. “The fates are against us. I don’t know how my grandfather arranged our meeting at the airport or the adjoining seats, any more than I know why I stumbled on you my first day at the Bonnie Inn. We might never have crossed paths. But somehow, some way, Gramps is responsible.” That didn’t sound entirely reasonable, but she thought it best not to mention their stroll in the moonlight.
“So you’re not ready to unleash the full force of your anger on me?”
“I don’t see how I can be upset with you—or the reverse. Neither of us asked for this.”
“Exactly.”
Janine yawned loudly and covered her mouth. “Excuse me. I didn’t sleep last night and now it’s catching up with me.”
Her yawn was contagous and soon Zach’s hand was warding off his own admission of drowsiness. The flight attendant came by with coffee, which both Zach and Janine declined.
“Frankly, I’d be more interested in a pillow,” Janine said, yawning again. The attendant handed her one, as well as a blanket, then offered the same to Zach. He refused both, intending to work on some papers he’d withdrawn from his briefcase. The minute the plane was safely in the air, Janine laid her head back and closed her eyes. Almost immediately she felt herself drifting into a peaceful slumber.
She stirred twice in the long hours that followed, but both times a gentle voice soothed her back to sleep. Sighing, she snuggled into the warmth, feeling more comfortable than she had in weeks.
She began to dream and could see herself walking across the