Chapter 31
The first time Nate read one of Rainer Maria Rilke’s poems he was tucked away in the back corner of the Lipscomb University campus library, a lonely freshman, killing time on a Saturday afternoon.
Most of the friends he’d made were local to Nashville and liked scampering home on weekends to do laundry and eat home-cooked meals. Since Nate didn’t have a car and Bugle was a good hour-and-a-half drive away, he always stayed on campus—one of the big reasons for his loneliness.
The other big reason probably had something to do with the fact that his preferred means for killing time on a Saturday afternoon was thumbing through poetry books. Old poems, new poems, he liked them all.
That particular Saturday, Nate had been flipping through the pages of a poetry book written by the musician Jewel back in the late nineties when another book slid onto the table next to his arm. “Have you tried this one yet?” a soft-spoken voice said.
The voice belonged to a man in his late fifties, Nate guessed, wearing round glasses and a graying beard. At first Nate assumed he was a librarian, then noticed the khaki jumpsuit and cleaning cart off to the side.
“Uh, no,” Nate said, sliding the book closer. “I don’t think I have.”
“You should check it out.”
Nate did. Then the following Saturday he checked out another recommendation. And thus began his standing date every Saturday afternoon discussing poetry with the man who quickly become a friend, then soon a beloved mentor.
Instead of loneliness, Nate found kinship.
Instead of shallow talk, Nate found a deep well of meaningful conversation.
It was his mentor he turned to whenever he needed a safe place to vent about his dad. His career choice. His relationships. Anything, really. Because his mentor always had a way of offering Nate the exact words he needed—even if they weren’t the exact words Nate wanted to hear.
Well, old friend? Got any words of advice for me on this one?
Now, Nate gripped the steering wheel, willing the memory of that soft-spoken voice to fill his mind. Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Rilke. Of course. Nate had seen that one coming. What he hadn’t seen coming—at all—was the redhead currently seated next to him. Talk about beauty and terror. She was here. The woman who’d gotten under his skin. The woman he’d been trying to forget.
She was here here here.
He needed her to go go go. The sooner the better.
He was having a hard enough time as it was making headway on the B&B’s to-do list. Last thing he needed was a chaotic gorgeous distraction landing on his doorstep.
He should have sent her back to the airport. Alone. With a one-way ticket.
“I’m telling you,” Nate said, adjusting the air conditioning, “this trip is a waste of time.”
“The only time we’re wasting right now is out here on the road.
” McKenna chewed on her nails, her knees bouncing as they zipped down the highway.
“Do you even have your foot on the accelerator right now? Every single car is passing us. See that car stalled on the side of the road? Passing us. See that buggy with the dead horse? Passing us. The faster you drive, the faster we get back the ring, the faster I leave. Don’t you want me to leave? ”
“I’m not sure I’ve ever wanted anything more,” Nate mumbled, his eyes focused straight ahead of him and off the bouncing knees attached to a pair of legs longer than any pair of legs had a right to be.
“Then drive faster.”
“There’s laws and limits, you know.” Nate turned the air conditioning up higher. How was she here? How was this beautiful gorgeous bonkers woman here right now? “Besides, the airport said they’d call me as soon as they have any information about my luggage. They haven’t called, which means—”
“Which means somebody wrote down your phone number on a sticky note that’s stuck to the bottom of somebody’s shoe. They’re not going to make this a top priority unless we make them make it a top priority, if you know what I’m saying.”
“I wouldn’t recommend using that tone when you approach the airline workers here. You don’t know them like I do.”
She pounded her fist in the palm of her other hand. “I’m gonna make ’em talk, I’m gonna make ’em squawk, I’m gonna make ’em sing.”
“Please don’t do that. Any of that.”
“How do they lose a carry-on? What are they, magicians? Well, guess what, little airline Houdinis. I’m going to abracadabra you if you can’t tell me where that ring is.”
“I’m not bailing you out of jail, just so we’re clear.”
“Oh, I’ll be the one doing the bailing if you know what I’m saying.”
“Do you even know what you’re saying?”
They pulled into the airport’s tiny parking lot.
“What’s this? Why’d you stop? I thought we were going to the airport,” McKenna said, unbuckling her seat belt.
“We are. We’re here.”
“How are we here? This isn’t an airport. It’s a sandlot for toddlers.”
“It’s a little small. They’re still under construction.”
“Small? This whole place could fit inside the engagement ring.”
“Maybe you should wait here.”
“Oh no. I’m going in. I’m making them look me in the eye when they answer for what they’ve done.”
“Technically I don’t think it was their fault. Pretty sure it was a flight attendant who somehow sent it on the wrong flight.”
“Stop showing weakness. This is a priceless ring we’re talking about. The last thing we need to do is enable their ineptitude.” Her phone buzzed.
“You ever going to answer that?” It’d been buzzing the entire drive to the airport.
“Not until I have the ring in my hand.”
Glass doors slid open as they shuffled inside. McKenna pointed. “That one. That guy over there. He looks like a man with answers.”
“Because he’s wearing a suit?”
“Because he has his luggage. He obviously knows how to work the system better than we do.”
“Listen.” Nate wrapped his hand around her elbow and swung her around to face him. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” he said, moving his hands to her shoulders, “but you’re loony bins right now.”
“I’m not—”
“You are. From the moment I’ve met you, you’ve been a little kooky. But right now, you’re completely unhinged. Please let me handle the talking.”
Her shoulders rotated beneath his light touch. “Fine. But not because I’m unhinged. I assure you my hinges are all present and accounted for. I’m only acting how anyone would act under these circumstances.”
Nate found that debatable. But instead of arguing, he led her to the customer service counter. Great. Same Ms. Doing My Best employee from the other day.
“Hi, Vivi. We’re here to inquire about the status of my lost luggage,” Nate said when they approached the counter.
“Some very important lost luggage,” McKenna said, elbowing in front of him.
“I’ve got this,” Nate murmured, sliding his foot in front of her.
“If you’ve got this, then you wouldn’t have lost this in the first place,” she murmured, wedging her hip against his.
“Need I remind you this wasn’t my fault,” he said, a little less murmur this time.
“Well, it certainly wasn’t my fault,” McKenna said without a hint of murmur.
“You hid a ring in my pants after I specifically told you not to, so . . .”
“Excuse me, but this is the customer service desk, not the lovers’ spat desk,” Vivi said. “If you have a customer-related issue, step forward. If not, go away.”
McKenna stepped forward. “We need to know the status of his missing luggage. Have you found it or not?”
“And for the record,” Nate added, “that was a casual acquaintance spat. We are nothing remotely close to being lovers.”
“Ew, gross, never,” said McKenna.
“Not sure we needed the ‘Ew, gross,’ to make a point there,” said Nate.
“Just don’t want you getting ideas,” said McKenna.
“Says the woman constantly trying to kiss me,” said Nate, giving Vivi a Can you believe this girl? look.
“Can we just focus on the luggage? Where is it? What’s the update?” McKenna waved a hand at Vivi.
“Ma’am,” said Vivi in the tone of voice that suggested she was two seconds away from calling something stronger than a Code Hot Potato, “as I’ve already stated to your casual acquaintance here on multiple occasions, if we’d located his missing luggage, we wouldn’t keep it a secret. He’d be the first to know.”
“See?” Nate grabbed McKenna’s hand. “They’re still working on it. Let’s go.” Nate started to turn, but McKenna tugged her hand free.
“How exactly are you working on it? I’ve heard the first twenty-four hours are critical when it comes to missing luggage, and now it’s been—” She glanced at her watch. “Close to seventy-two. What sort of protocol are you following?”
“Same protocol we always follow in this situation,” said Vivi. “First, we put together a group of volunteers to do a grid search. Then we have them spread out about twenty feet apart from each other with lanterns and tell them to start walking until they discover something.”
“Really?” McKenna said.
“No! It’s luggage, not a missing child. Go home. We’ll call you if we ever track it down.”
“If? I’m sorry, if?”
Nate wrapped an arm around McKenna’s waist, tugging her toward the exit. “There’s nothing else we can do. That’s just how it is, okay?”
“Easy for you to say.” McKenna twisted and jabbed him in the chest with her pointer finger. “Not your family’s legacy that went missing, is it?”
“Ma’am, we do not allow jabbing inside the walls of our airport.”
“Hey, I had something valuable inside that luggage too,” said Nate as he poked McKenna in the shoulder. “Something I’d be crushed to lose.”
“No poking either, sir.”
“Why couldn’t you have just moved away from the bench?” McKenna jabbed his chest.
“Why couldn’t you have just let your sister get engaged without meddling?” Nate poked her shoulder.
“I’m warning you two . . .” said Vivi.
“I wasn’t meddling. I was helping her have the most romantic proposal of her life.”
“Well, here’s what I think of your helping.” Nate fisted his right hand into a dramatic thumbs-down.
“Yeah? Here’s what I think about you and your pondering.” McKenna reached up and flicked him on the forehead.
“That’s it. Security!”