Honeymoon Hunt

“Nick? Why am I on speakerphone?” Pat Browning asked.

“I’m with Mrs. Chance’s daughter, Julia. We joined forces here in Dallas.”

“Oh. Well, they’re several days ahead of you. They left Dallas three days ago and flew to L.A. They’re staying at your hotel there.”

“They’re still there?” he asked in surprise.

“The hotel thinks so. None of the staff wanted to go find out. Apparently Abe told them not to worry about waiting on them. They would manage on their own. And there’s a Do Not Disturb sign on the door.”

“All right, thanks, Pat. I’ll be on the next plane to L.A. and I’ll disturb them when I get there.”

“Okay, boss. Let me know if you need anything else.”

Nick hung up the phone and started to head back into the terminal.

“Where are you going?” Julia’s cool voice asked, reminding Nick of his companion.

“Uh, I’m going to L.A. I’ll bring your mother back to you.”

“No, thank you. I’m going to accompany you, if you don’t mind.”

“That’s really not—”

“Necessary? I think it is.”

He conceded on this one. Anything to get going. “Fine. Come on. I’ll get the reservations on the phone and then we can pick up the tickets at the counter.”

“All right,” she agreed, following him into the building. He had both their bags.

Nick announced that he’d reserved their seats. But when they arrived at the ticket desk, they ran into a slight problem.

Julia took out her credit card and said she would pay for her own ticket. But when the woman announced the price of the tickets, Julia almost passed out. “Why does it cost so much?” she demanded.

“That’s the normal price for first class, ma’am.”

“First class? I don’t want first class. Please put me in coach.”

“I’m sorry. Coach is sold out. I can give you a reservation in coach on the red-eye. It leaves at eleven o’clock tonight.”

Nick watched as Julia stood there, trying to figure out what to do. He started to offer to buy her ticket, but she made her decision before he could.

“No, I’ll take the first-class seat.” She pushed her card across the desk.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to pay for your ticket?” he leaned forward and said softly.

She shook her head and said nothing. In fact, she didn’t speak until they were seated and the plane was pulling away from the gate.

“How long will the flight take?” she finally asked.

“Three hours.”

“Shouldn’t we have called them first to be sure they were there?” Julia asked.

“No,” Nick said. “If we let them know we’ve found them, they’d be gone by the time we got there.”

“Why would they do that?”

“If they’re married, they know I’m going to have it annulled. And if they’re not married, they’ll know you’re going to be upset.”

“Why would you have it annulled? If they’re in love—”

“Dad falls in love every other week or so. And your mother probably fell in love with his money, not him.” His father was gullible when it came to beautiful women. After his second marriage had failed, he’d looked for love over and over again. Nick felt it was his duty to protect his father, but the job was becoming impossible.

“My mother is not like that!” Julia protested as the plane took off.

“So you say.”

“Why are you so cynical?” she demanded.

“Because I’m not a second-grade teacher, honey. It’s just not in me.”

A beautiful red-haired flight attendant halted what would no doubt have been a stinging retort. “Good afternoon. May I serve you a drink?”

“Yes, I’d like a Diet Coke, please,” Julia said.

“Certainly. And you, sir?”

“I’d like a bottle of water, please.”

The redhead smiled and batted her lashes several times at Nick. He returned the smile before he picked up the in-flight magazine.

Julia watched him out of the corner of her eye. He seemed quite at ease. She supposed he flew often. She didn’t know where his other hotels were, but if he had a hotel in Los Angeles, he would have to fly to the west coast frequently.

Maybe he even knew the friendly flight attendant.

The woman returned with their drinks and placed Nick’s on his tray.

Julia had assumed the tray was on the back of the seat in front of her. But it wasn’t there.

“Ma’am, if you’ll bring up your tray, I’ll set the drink on it.”

Julia didn’t want to acknowledge that she had no idea how to find her tray.

It was Nick who came to her aid. He reached over and pulled her tray up.

“Thank you.”

She sounded embarrassed. The flight attendant’s smug look didn’t help any, Nick guessed. He fought the protective instinct that suddenly arose in him. He hadn’t expected to have any feelings for Julia at all. But her determination to protect her mother and to pay her own way had touched him.