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Samantha woke as the captain announced that flight attendants would be coming around shortly with breakfast. She’d apparently slept through dinner and all the other services. Who knew she could get such great sleep on an airplane? Or she had just been tired beyond all reason... which pretty much summed up her last year.
She stretched and raised her seat. It was a little disappointing she’d wasted her chance for all the free snacks and drinks, but the sleep had been way more valuable.
This was her first time flying overseas, so she had no idea what to expect from the food. When the flight attendant came by, she chose an omelet with roasted red potatoes and a croissant.
She opened her window, but the only thing she could see was clouds, clouds, and more clouds. It was beautiful. Then, suddenly, they were landing, and she was swept up with the crowd and off the plane.
The first sign that Samantha was in a new country was the announcement over the airport PA system—which was not in English. A thrill ran through her as she realized she had understood a couple words of it.
A few months of practicing Italian with an app wasn’t much, but hopefully it would be enough to help her get around. Samantha stepped out of the flow of traffic so she could stop and pull out her maps and directions. She was staying at a bed and breakfast outside the city, and there was a bus system she had to try to figure out to get her there. She had printed off all the bus numbers, as well as a map of where the bus terminal was in the airport, but now that she was actually here, she was feeling much less confident about navigating a foreign country alone.
Looking up, Samantha saw the man who had saved her on the plane. He’d stepped off to the side ahead of her and was talking on his cell in Italian. A little stubble crept along his jaw toward those handsome sideburns. Too bad he hadn’t actually been a knight in shining armor; otherwise she could have asked him for help finding the right bus. With the way he’d dismissed her when she’d tried to introduce herself, she definitely wasn’t going to approach him now.
She looked at her printed directions again. Okay, she could do this. She was twenty-three years old; she could figure out a bus system.
A tiny flare of panic licked at her throat as she looked at all the signs she couldn’t understand. “Uscita,” she read aloud. What was that? She pulled her phone out to look it up, then remembered she wouldn’t have service.
She followed the crowds toward the baggage claim until she saw kiosks for cell phones and money changing. Nervously eyeing the exchange rates, she got a couple hundred euros, hoping it would be enough. It had better be; she hadn’t had much before getting stranded in airports for two days. Now she was really going to have to be careful.
Samantha examined a freestanding airport map, looking for the bus stop. As she looked, a man tapped her shoulder.
“I help you?” he said, gesturing at the map. He wore a black winter coat and slacks and a friendly smile.
Gratefully, Samantha turned to him. “I’m looking for where to catch this bus,” she pointed at her paper.
“Let me see,” the man said, stepping closer. He reached out to steady the edge of her page.
The next minute, he was jostled rudely and fell into Samantha. She nearly fell over sideways, but caught herself and pushed the man back onto his feet.
“So sorry,” the man said, patting her shoulder. “You okay?”
A vaguely familiar masculine voice cut in. “She’d be much better if you gave her money back.”
The man moved to bolt, but the handsome man from the airplane—the knight-who-wasn’t—already had hold of his arm. The man tried to slide out of his jacket, at which point the man from the plane grabbed a handful of the other man’s hair.
“Her money,” Airplane Man repeated.
The man dropped a wad of cash on the floor and wriggled as if he wanted to slip away while the other man picked up the money. Instead of bending down, though, Airplane Man hung on to the pickpocket’s hair and nodded at Samantha. “You’ll want to count that.”
Samantha hurried to grab the wad of bills, feeling tears sting her eyes. Not even an hour on the ground and she’d already been suckered. She hastily counted the bills and nodded that it was all there.
Airplane Man let go of the pickpocket with a disgusted look, and the man took off.
“Shouldn’t we turn him in?” Samantha asked.
“Not much point. There are pickpockets all over Florence. Any place with this many tourists is going to have them. You need to put your money somewhere safer.”
Samantha knew her face was red again. “I will. I just got it, and was just trying to find the bus stop...” She looked up into his gorgeous green eyes, felt her face go even redder, and turned away. It was frustrating enough having to be rescued, but twice in the same day by the same man? “I will,” she repeated.
The man sighed. “Where are you going? I’ll help you find your bus.”
“That’s what the last guy said.”
“Fair enough.” Airplane Man turned to leave.
“Wait!” Samantha grabbed his sleeve. He spun around, jerking free. She stopped and clutched her papers with both hands. “Sorry. I’m sorry? I didn’t mean to offend you.”
He stood frozen for a moment, then sighed. “You didn’t offend me. I just assumed you wouldn’t want me to stay if you didn’t trust me.”
“Will you really help me find my bus?”
He nodded.
“Okay.” She passed him the papers.
He looked at the instructions she had printed, and his eyebrows drew together as he skimmed down the text. “Where are you... ah.” He paused when he got to the second page and started reading the check-in instructions from the Bed and Breakfast owners. Too late, Samantha realized she should have kept that page back so he didn’t know exactly where she was going. Now his face was completely unreadable.
“Can you help me?”
“No need to worry about a bus.” He rubbed a knuckle along the ridge of his brow, then pointed to the smiling, middle-aged couple on the second page. “They’re coming to pick me up in thirty minutes.”