CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ben glanced over at Amelia as the plane leveled off and reached its cruising altitude. He’d planned to tell her she could go to the bedroom in the back to sleep, but it was too late. In the short time he’d been answering an email after the plane had taken off, she’d fallen asleep in her seat.
He reached for the button that controlled the position of her chair and pressed it. Slowly the back of the chair lowered and the footrest rose. Amelia shifted, but she didn’t wake up, an obvious indication of just how exhausted she was.
When the attendant appeared, Ben asked if she could bring a blanket for Amelia. After a nod, she left and quickly returned with a soft blanket, which Ben carefully draped over Amelia.
“Can I get you anything to drink?” she asked. “I’ll have your meals out in a few minutes.”
“I’ll have a seltzer water with lemon,” he said.
Julian asked for a coffee, then turned his attention back to his laptop.
“Do you ever stop working?” Ben asked.
Julian looked at him over the top of the laptop. “Yep. When I’m with Kiara and the kids. I make the most of the time when I’m away from them so that I can focus on them when I’m home.”
Ben considered his brother’s words and decided that they held a wealth of wisdom. And should he ever have a wife and children, he would definitely follow it.
He glanced at Amelia, taking in the way her lashes fanned out over the soft swell of her cheeks. She’d changed over the years, but those changes weren’t a negative, though he thought that she might say they were. To him, she was as beautiful as she’d ever been.
Her exhaustion was apparent on her face, and Ben knew that the past twenty-four hours had taken their toll on her. He just hoped that the energy she had expended would be worth it in the end.
When the attendant brought them plates of roast beef and potatoes with a salad, Ben wondered if he should wake Amelia but decided not to. He’d make sure she got something to eat once they got to Coeur d’Alene, even if it meant having someone deliver food to the airport for her.
As he ate, Ben mulled over the situation with Amelia. Even though he’d spent most of the day sitting in the waiting room, reading and playing games on his phone, he was aware of the strain the testing was putting on Amelia.
Would she ever get to the point where she could do what she wanted or needed to do without such activity wiping her out?
He knew it was unlikely that she’d ever skate competitively again. And maybe not even professionally. But could she get back on the ice in a coaching capacity? Or maybe even as a choreographer?
As a teen, she’d loved helping to choreograph her own skating programs, and he wouldn’t be surprised if she had continued to do that throughout her skating career.
It just hurt his heart to consider that she might live the rest of her life unable to participate in the sport she’d loved so much. But it was heartbreaking for her to be so close and yet not have reached her ultimate goal.
After he finished eating and his dishes had been cleared away, Ben reclined his seat a bit and pulled out his phone. He checked his email, but there wasn’t anything urgent that demanded his attention.
He tried to read, but his mind kept wandering to Amelia and what the results of the tests that day might mean for her moving forward.
Something told him that while having definitive results might bring a sense of relief, they might not actually be good news.
Ben hoped that regardless of what they told Amelia, she’d let him be there for her. There was a possibility that she’d withdraw, wanting to handle everything on her own.
She’d already kind of done that when it came to letting her parents know that she was going for testing. It was almost as if she considered what she was dealing with as a failure, something of her making, when nothing could be further from the truth.
Amelia had always been her own harshest critic. She demanded a high level of perfection, especially in her skating. Anything but perfect was a failure in her eyes. It was what had pushed her to train harder. To put in more hours on the ice.
He wished that he could have been there when things had started to fall apart physically for her. If he had been there, maybe it wouldn’t have taken her this long to get the answers she needed in order to move forward.
There was nothing he could do about that now, though.
He stared out the window beyond Amelia, the sky darkening as the sun sank below the horizon.
Amelia slept soundly beside him until the attendant came to let them know they’d be landing shortly.
“Amelia,” Ben said as he shook her shoulder gently. “We’re getting ready to land.”
She blinked at him, then pushed the hair back from her eyes. “Did I fall asleep out here?”
“Yep. Just conked right out,” Ben said as he pressed the button to bring the back of the seat into position. “You missed dinner, I’m afraid. I decided to just let you sleep.”
“That’s fine,” she said as she adjusted herself in the seat. “I think I needed the sleep more than the food.”
“We can grab you something when we get back to Serenity.”
“I’ll be fine,” she said. “I have food at home.”
The plane jerked a bit before settling back into smooth flight. Turbulence had been happening off and on throughout the flight.
Amelia sighed, pressing a hand against her stomach as the plane dropped with another gust of turbulence.
“Has it been like this the whole flight?” she asked.
“A bit,” Ben said. “But this is really nothing. We’ve flown through much worse and survived.”
“I guess I have no choice but to take your word for it.”
“Didn’t you ever run into turbulence when you flew for competitions?”
“Yeah, we did, but never anything really bad.”
“Well, our pilot is great. He’ll get us through this, no problem.”
“Is there a co-pilot too?” Amelia asked, drawing the blanket around her shoulders.
“Yes, there is. He’s good as well, so if something happens to the pilot, he can take over.”
“And if something happens to him?”
“That’s highly—highly—unlikely,” Ben said. “But if something happens to him, I suppose I could take over and get the plane on the ground.”
“Playing around with a flight simulator?”
Ben laughed. “No. Playing around with the real thing.”
Her brows rose. “You took flying lessons?”
“I sure did.”
“Why?”
Ben shrugged. “Why not?”
“Have you ever flown this?”
“Nope. I stuck with smaller planes. I wasn’t looking to fly professionally.”
“Do you fly a lot?”
“Not so much anymore. I was still in college when I took flying lessons. I flew a lot more back then.”
“Was your dad on board with that?”
“You know him well,” Ben said with a laugh. “He was definitely not on board with that when he eventually found out about it.”
The plane began a sharper descent, putting them on a final approach to Coeur d’Alene. It wasn’t long before the plane touched down on the runway with a gentle bounce, before the engines roared as the pilot deployed reverse thrust, slowing the plane.
Once the jet had stopped, they deplaned and made their way to the waiting helicopter. They boarded it, but it was a few minutes before they were ready to take off again since they needed to transfer the luggage from the plane.
There was little conversation as the helicopter lifted off and began the short flight to the estate. After landing there, Ben and Amelia got into one of the SUVs so he could drive her home.
It wasn’t difficult to see the toll the last twenty-four hours had taken on Amelia. She moved slowly, gripping the handle above the door to pull herself up into the passenger seat of the SUV.
Ben stood close by, just in case she needed his help. Once she was seated, she tilted her head back against the headrest.
When he slid behind the wheel, he noticed she hadn’t put her seatbelt on yet. Leaning closer to her, he reached for the belt and drew it across her body to click it into place near her hip.
“Thanks,” she said, her breath warm against his cheek.
He turned his head slightly and gave her a smile. “Anytime.”
For a moment, they both froze in place, and Ben was thrown back in time to when closeness like that would have resulted in a kiss.
That wasn’t who they were anymore, though, so Ben straightened and pressed the button to start the SUV. He’d once again convinced Luca it was safe for him to make the quick run into Serenity with Amelia, so it was just the two of them in the SUV.
“I really hope this wasn’t all a waste of your and Julian’s time,” Amelia said. “Not to mention the amount of money you spent on the flights and the tests.”
“Don’t you worry about that,” Ben told her. “I have a feeling that this has opened Julian’s eyes to another medical area that needs more attention. Solving your health mystery might end up helping others who are suffering like you are.”
“I hope so,” Amelia said. “That would make me feel better about it.”
“For Julian and me, even if it’s just answers for you, that is well worth it.”
“You don’t owe me anything, you know,” she said. “Especially after the way I ended the relationship between us.”
“This isn’t about anyone owing anyone else something,” Ben replied. “You’re a friend. Even family, thanks to Annie and Cole. Just accept that we wanted to do this for you.”
When Amelia didn’t respond right away, Ben glanced over at her. Even though lights intermittently filled the interior of the car, he couldn’t see her expression because her head was turned toward the window.
“Did you want me to stop and get you something to eat?” he asked as they passed through the outskirts of Serenity.
“I have food at home,” she said.
“I know, but maybe it would be easier to just grab something since you missed dinner on the plane. I think fast food might be our only option, though.”
"Are you hungry?” she asked.
He wasn’t really, but he had a feeling that she’d only eat if he said he was. “I could eat a burger.”
“If you’re sure,” she said, straightening in her seat.