Chapter Four
“Marcy says there aren’t any flights tonight,” Jenna said, reading her text to Zach from the shotgun position in the car. “She says the earliest is tomorrow morning.”
Well, crap. Now that Jenna had made the decision, she really, really just wanted to get out of town. Zach was right. Elliot would put on the schmooze face and try to talk her into going through with the wedding. Either that or berate her for ruining his special day and make her feel bad for wasting everyone’s time and money. Which was pretty much true…and Jenna wasn’t feeling all that great about it.
Jenna would have to talk to him eventually. She’d have to explain and apologize for the way she’d left things. He deserved that, at the very least. But it would be a lot easier to think through what to say and how to say it once she was several hours away from the schmooze face. Tomorrow. She’d think about Elliot tomorrow.
“Since there aren’t any flights tonight, I guess I can stay at a hotel tonight and use my original tickets tomorrow.”
“I’ve got a better idea,” Zach said, taking his phone back.
Zach exited the interstate and headed in a different direction.
“Where are we going? Are you kidnapping me again?”
“You’re the one who carjacked me,” he reminded her. “And we’re still going to the airport. Just a different airport.”
“Uh, there’s only one airport in this city.”
“Only one public airport.” He pushed a button on his phone. “Call Billy,” he said, keeping his eyes on the road.
“Dialing,” the phone replied.
The phone only rang a couple of times before someone picked up.
“Billy. It’s Zach. Can you be ready to fly in thirty minutes?”
“I can be ready in twenty. Destination?”
“Florida. I’ll fill you in on the details when we get there.”
There was a pause on the line. “We?”
“See you at the hangar.” Zach disconnected the call without explanation.
“We’ll take my plane to the resort,” Zach said. “I should have thought of that to begin with.”
Jenna wasn’t sure whether to address the “my plane” comment or the “we” first.
“Uh, we?”
“Well, it is my plane.”
“Yeah, but…I’m sure you have better things to do. And lending out your plane is a pretty big gesture for someone you hardly know.”
“I know Elliot.”
“About that,” Jenna said, turning toward him. “If you’re such friends, why wouldn’t you be calling him, telling him where I am, instead of helping me get out of town? Isn’t he going to be ticked at you?”
“Probably.”
All she could see of Zach’s expression in the darkened car was shadowed profile and a slight upturn of his lips.
“Let’s just say that Elliot gets what he wants way too much of the time,” Zach said finally. “I’m more concerned about what you want.”
There was something in his voice Jenna hadn’t heard up to now. A harsher note. He’d said he and Elliot had drifted apart since college, so maybe that was it. She wasn’t in the mood to play Lady Sherlock at the moment. She just wanted to get to the resort, check in, and then have a glass or three of wine and check out for the night. Whatever the deal between Zach and Elliot, it had nothing to do with her. She certainly didn’t need to borrow any trouble.
“Well, I appreciate everything you’ve done for me,” she said.
“No problem. I’ll just jet down there with you, make sure you’re settled, then head back tonight. No big deal.”
He probably did this all the time—fly to exotic locales on a whim with a woman he’d just met. Paris for fresh morning-after croissants. Venice for a romantic lunch on the canal and a nooner. Dinner in Stockholm followed by a long hump-session under the northern lights. Florida was nothing.
Jenna pulled out her phone and made the mistake of peeking at all the missed calls and text messages. Most of them were from Elliot, of course, and she just couldn’t deal with that miasma at the moment. Still, she didn’t want him to worry, so she texted Niki instead.
It was weird that she even asked—it wasn’t like they were close. Cousins, sure, but she lived across the country, and Jenna only saw her once or twice a year growing up plus a summer when she’d stayed with Jenna when Niki’s parents were going through a nasty divorce. Jenna had only asked her to be in the wedding because Niki was the only blood family she had that could fill the role and because she knew Elliot, too, from the summer she’d visited. Jenna had wanted Aggie, but Elliot had quickly pointed out, rightly, that she might not be up for all the responsibilities required of a maid of honor.
Dots blinked for close to a minute before a new message appeared.
Jenna paused before answering, not sure if she should out Zach just yet. But she didn’t want Niki to worry that she’d truly lost her mind and had skipped town with some strange dude she’d met at the bus stop.
She texted the exasperated emoji face.
The tongue out, yum, emoji appeared on Jenna’s phone screen, making Jenna smile.
Jenna sighed. Somehow, she didn’t think Niki would hop a commercial flight for her, but rather hoping to cozy up to Zach. She was totally not going to introduce Zach to Niki. She was…not the girl for him. Although, to be fair, she really didn’t know Zach, so maybe Niki was exactly the girl for him.
“You’re not changing your mind, are you?” Zach’s mouth was tight. He obviously thought the text exchange was with Elliot.
“I was just letting my cousin Niki know I’m okay.”
Zach relaxed a fraction.
“I’ll have to talk to him, though. Explain. He didn’t deserve to be left at the altar.”
“I don’t know. Karma has a way of making things right.”
There was a hard tone to Zach’s voice that hadn’t been there before. “Did you guys have a falling out?”
“Sort of.”
“Then why did Elliot invite you to the wedding?”
“You’d have to ask him.” Zach pulled up to the gate, keyed in a code, and waited as the gate slid open. “There’s Billy,” he said as he headed toward one of about six hangars.
He was just rolling the big doors open, revealing several small planes.
Jenna’s stomach lurched. The only thing she hated more than big planes were little planes. “I’ve never flown on a private plane before. Well, I did once but was too young to remember.”
“You’ll love it.”
“I doubt that.” She inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to calm her anxiety.
“Not a good flyer?”
“Terrible.” Why hadn’t she taken that Valium Niki had offered back at the church?
“Billy’s a great pilot and the weather is clear.”
“Sure.”
Zach and Jenna got out of the car as the plane pulled slowly out of the hangar then stopped. The side door opened, and stairs appeared. Zach grabbed her bag from the trunk.
“Let’s go,” Zach said, starting toward the plane.
“You fly a lot?” she asked, trying to distract herself from actually climbing aboard. Maybe if he told her about all the jet-setting, she’d be able to focus on that and not the imminent flight.
Zach turned back to look at her. “Not a lot. When I have to for business.”
“Never vacations?”
“No.”
Well, there went her visions of Zach flitting around the globe to impress women.
Jenna forced herself to put one foot after the other until she reached the stairway. Billy took the bags from Zach. “Should be wheels up in a few. Finishing the last bit of pre-check.” He disappeared inside the plane.
“After you,” Zach said.
“Sure,” Jenna said. “I’m right behind you. I’m just…visualizing.”
“Visualizing?”
“Fine. Stalling.”
“Airplane travel is statistically the safest way to travel,” Zach said.
“Commercial planes, sure, but small planes—you hear about them crashing all the time.”
“It’s less than one death per 100,000 flight hours.”
“And you just know that off the top of your head?”
He shrugged. “I like data.” He held out his hand toward her. “Come on. It’ll be fine. I promise.”
And something in his words or the way he looked at her with such intense confidence made Jenna take his hand and start up the stairs.
Once they were both inside, Billy closed the hatch, and they made their way to some seats mid-plane, where an attendant was waiting for them.
“Good evening, Mr. Ruiz,” she said. “What can I get for you?”
“Want something to drink?” Zach asked, indicating a place for Jenna to sit.
She sat down, fastened her seat belt, and gripped the armrests as the plane started to move. “We’re going to crash.”
“Nothing right now, thanks,” Zach said to the attendant. He removed his tux jacket, undid the tie, and settled into the leather seat facing Jenna.
What was it about a man in formal wear who did that? That “I know how to wear a tux, I’m but all about getting undressed as soon as possible” thing. Cologne ads knew it and used it all the time. It was crack for a certain kind of woman. Okay, Jenna was that certain kind of woman. It was she. Give him a glass of world-class bourbon in a cut crystal highball glass paired with the intense way he could look at a woman, and she’d buy whatever he was selling.
“You’re not going to freak out mid-flight, are you?” he asked, unbuttoning his cuffs and rolling them up.
“Umm, no,” she said tentatively. “Probably not.”
Zach raised an eyebrow.
“No,” she said a little more forcefully. “I’m going to be fine. We’re going to be fine. I’ll freak out tomorrow.” Jenna focused on deep, slow breaths, but visions of every plane crash documentary she’d ever seen were on a loop inside her head, trampling what was left of her nerves to bits.
“They make medication for in-flight anxiety,” Zach said. “Several different varieties.”
“It just makes me sleepy. And sleepy is the last thing I wanted to be on my honeymoon. Especially after the money I spent on lingerie for this trip.” She gave a weird barky laugh just this side of hysteria.
Had she really just mentioned her slutty underwear to a strange man? Yes. Yes, she had.
Zach stared at her with that intense gaze of his. If Elliot’s superpower was The Schmooze, Zach’s was The Smolder. Jenna imagined it had caused more than one woman’s panties to end up in a tangle around one ankle before she could say “sexy Latin lover.”
Zach’s voice was low, each word clearly enunciated when he finally responded. “If sex with Elliot puts you to sleep, he’s doing it wrong.”
“I, um, well. No, it’s fine.” Jenna swallowed hard. “Great, actually. Top shelf on the sexy scale.” She was rambling, making it worse.
Zach raised a disbelieving eyebrow then turned his attention to reading something on his phone.
Jenna closed her eyes. Maybe plummeting from the sky and landing in a twisted heap of molten metal wouldn’t be the worst thing that had happened to her that day.
But at least she wouldn’t have to deal it for very much longer. They would land, say their farewells, and Zach would head back to the city and employ The Smolder on other women, while Jenna grabbed an Uber to the resort and started to sort through the wreckage she’d made of her life.
Since she was pretty sure Elliot and Zach weren’t going to be on speaking terms if he realized his friend had helped Jenna, it was entirely possible she’d never encounter Zach or The Smolder again.
The plane started to move, and Jenna made a sound of distress.
“Hey,” Zach said, closer now. He gently pried one of her hands off the armrest and held it in his. “We’re going to be fine.”
She opened one eyelid. The plane was moving a little faster now, bumping along the runway.
“You just need a distraction.”
His deep voice so close to her ear and the way he was stroking her hand was making all manner of inappropriate distractions flood Jenna’s imagination. And although her mind was in the gutter, Zach was probably thinking of something perfectly logical.
“Like what?” Jenna managed to whisper.
Zach’s stroking paused. “A drink?”
Jenna shook her head. “I’m nauseated already.”
“How about a movie? Or maybe a book?”
“Looking at screens will make me sick, too.”
“I’m out of ideas,” he admitted.
“Tell me about yourself.” She opened her eyes and looked at him. Damn, he was handsome, even with that worried crease between his brows. “Do you have a girlfriend?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
He let out a small sigh. “You sound like my mother.”
Jenna was just about to ask him to tell her about his family when the plane’s engine revved in preparation for taking flight.
“This is the worst part,” she said, squeezing her eyes shut again.
“Look at me,” Zach said, and something about his tone broke through Jenna’s burgeoning panic.
“Now give me your other hand.”
She did.
His hands were large and warm, practically enveloping hers. That made her feel safer somehow, and she relaxed the merest fraction.
“The reason I don’t have a girlfriend and I don’t date is because I’m terrible with women. People in general, really.”
Jenna blinked at him, wondering for a second what he was talking about. Ah, they were back to distraction. Jenna went with it.
“You’re doing pretty great right now,” she said. His eyes were dark, almost mesmerizing, as she focused on Zach instead of the tons of metal and machinery trying to kill her.
“I have my moments,” he said, his mouth relaxing into a half grin.
His thumbs moved in small circles on the backs of her hands, massaging the tension from them. She watched the movement. “I can’t believe women aren’t falling all over themselves to be your girlfriend.”
“I have the tendency to be kind of blunt sometimes.”
“I can see that.” She exhaled slowly, closing her eyes.
“In high school, I once told a girl I’d been dating that we couldn’t see each other anymore because the squeaky tone of her voice gave me a headache.” His voice was low and deep. Soothing.
“Ouch. How did she respond?”
“She took off her corsage, threw it at me, and got a ride home with a girlfriend.”
Her eyes popped open. “Wait, you broke up with her at a formal?”
“Prom.” He gave her a woeful smile as his hands moved to her wrists, still massaging. She felt more of the tension drain away.
Jenna let out another slow breath. “Yeah, that was bad.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt her feelings. I was just being honest.”
“You couldn’t have been honest after the prom?”
“Like I said. Terrible with women.” He went back to her hands, taking one of hers between both of his and massaging her palm and fingers. It felt amazing. Where in the world had he learned to do that?
“Yeah, but that was high school. All guys are kind of awkward and clueless in high school.” She settled back in her seat and closed her eyes again. “What about adult relationships?”
“I tend to avoid those. College was just casual dates or a hookup every once in a while, and as an adult, I’ve been too busy with work to date.”
She hummed as he focused on a particularly wonderful place on her palm. “You don’t want a family?”
“Sure. I mean, my parents are happy. My sister is, too, even though her husband is deployed.” He paused. “I guess having a family isn’t the issue. Getting there is.”
“Well, you can’t get there if you never date.”
“Therein lies the problem.”
“Maybe you should go on Millionaire Matchmaker or something.”
“That’s my nightmare. Millions of people watching me be awkward on a first date with a woman who mainly is interested in my bank balance? No, thank you.”
Jenna didn’t miss the irony of the fact that she was advising him on his love life when she’d just left her fiancé at the altar. She looked at him. “I’m probably not the best person to be giving relationship advice right now, but I think you need to get out there. Hiding in your ivory tower is never going to bring you what you want. Take some risks. Break out of your rut. Put yourself out there. When you meet the right woman, you’ll know the right things to say. And your bluntness will be an attraction, not a detriment. Some of us aren’t into games and just want to play it straight.”
She smiled at him, hoping she hadn’t said too much or overstepped in some way. She’d just met the guy, after all, and was babbling every self-help mantra she’d ever read. But he didn’t feel like a stranger.
His face softened, and he said nothing for a heartbeat as he studied her face, his gaze roaming from her hair to her lips and finally back to her eyes. He continued to stroke her hand with his thumbs, and the cabin of his private plane suddenly felt a lot smaller.
She swallowed, the moment intense. “There are a lot of women out there, Zach. You’ve got potential. Don’t give up.”
“Potential.” He seemed amused by that. But then his face suddenly got dark again. “I should be the one telling you that there are plenty of fish in the sea,” he said.
She shrugged. “Well, maybe it’s good advice for both of us.”
She tugged her hand free of his and removed her engagement ring. She looked at it for a moment, thinking of all the times she’d gazed at the too-big stone, planning the life and the family she desperately wanted. It seemed farther away than ever now, but she knew that she had made the right decision. She tucked the ring into her purse.
When she looked back at Zach, she saw he was following every movement, though his face was unreadable.
“Can I get you anything?” the flight attendant asked, startling Jenna.
She realized that the plane’s take-off was long since over and they were cruising through the skies all in one piece. Her stomach had settled, and the raw panic that had clawed at her nerves had retreated. Because of Zach. Jenna let out a deep breath. Maybe it really would be all right.
“Got any mai tais?”