Skye
I made it through the rest of that flight because nothing came before the job.
I served the main cabin and kept myself busy anywhere that wasn’t his suite.
I greeted every passenger who came through with the same warmth, telling myself I wasn’t thinking about dinner, or Ducane Simmons, or the way his arms felt in that corridor when the turbulence hit.
I was a professional. I had a job to do. I‘d done it and was almost free when his cologne reached me, stopping me cold. I didn’t have to turn around. I already knew.
I closed my eyes for half a second and forced my shoulders to relax.
“Your villa is handled.”
I turned around anyway. He was standing at the galley entrance, calm as a Sunday morning, wearing a long-sleeve linen shirt to match his pants, a smug look sitting comfortably on his face. I cataloged him, greedy for every detail I’d missed in seven years, even the ones I already knew by heart.
Deep brown skin that he always kept moisturized. Full, close-cropped, clean beard. Amber eyes, lighter than I remembered, catching gold whenever the light hit them right. Ducane Simmons was a masterpiece, and he had always known it, which was the most annoying thing about him.
He caught me looking as I went somewhere else in my head fast.
The first time I ever saw him, I had just gotten myself kicked out of a classroom and walked outside fully prepared to be annoyed for the rest of the morning.
Then I heard it. A deep laugh, full and unhurried, stopped me where I stood, although the last thing I felt like doing was stopping or even being bothered.
By the time I turned around, he was already keeping pace with my stride on the steps.
“That mouth gon get you in trouble, Storm.”
That voice. I had not planned on smiling or on a lot of things that followed.
“Skye. Earth to Skye.”
I blinked. “What? Hmm?”
“My assistant upgraded your booking this morning. Premier partnership with the resort, you’re in the east wing villas.
” He was so straightforward about it, which irritated me because I knew the real Ducane.
But maybe this had always been him, too.
Either way, he was completely aware of what he was doing.
“I had lunch sent ahead because I know how you get when you haven’t eaten. ”
I stared at him. “I had a room, Ducane.”
“You have a villa now.” He stepped forward and checked his watch like we were done here. “Don’t forget to eat. Dinner is at 7. A car will pick you up.”
He walked off the plane before I could respond, leaving me gripping the beverage cart handle with my mouth open.
I made it halfway down the aisle before Lydia caught up with me.
“Girl.”
“Girl, nothing. You ought to get your pay docked for making me deal with him.”
She laughed, not knowing the history. Had she known, she’d understand.
“Seemed pretty cozy to me.”
“Please,” I scoffed.
She held her hands up and went back to work.
I stood there for another second, then went back to the cart because I had a job to finish. My feelings were not on the checklist. Not right now. Right now, I needed to get myself together and figure out why I had agreed to this dinner in the first place.
I already knew why. I just wasn’t ready to say it out loud, not even to myself, not even in an empty galley where nobody could hear me admit it.
By the time I got into the cab headed to the resort, I was still unsure.
The whole ride, I sat with the window cracked, letting the warm air hit my face, replaying the moment I’d looked Ducane Simmons in the eye and said, “One dinner.” One dinner felt like nothing.
One dinner also felt like the first crack in a wall I’d spent seven years building.
Out of sight, out of mind. Except he was never really out of mind. It was just managed. Filed away somewhere I didn’t visit on purpose. One scent in a hallway and the whole filing system fell apart.
I didn’t miss him. That was too simple for what this actually was.
It was something else pulling at me, something I had never fully packed away no matter how hard I tried, and it pissed me off because I had spent years building a life around a version of events that only worked if I didn’t look at it too closely.
Ducane was supposed to be history. I had let him believe that was the end of it.
Now he was back around, giving me lines about owing me something.
Ducane and I shared something bigger than us. I could admit that in the back of a cab on an island where nobody knew me. We had been in a whirlwind romance. That love snuck up on us because it started as a friendship, and by the time I understood what was happening, I was already in it all the way.
Deep.
We did everything together, spent every free hour in each other’s orbit. One thing led to another, and a fire that had been smoldering finally caught.
The first day, he chased me out of a classroom and didn’t stop. That was Ducane. He came. He always came. He told me once he’d burn it all down if I needed him to, and I believed him, because he never once gave me a reason not to.
So when I cut him off and waited, I wasn’t waiting for a stranger. I was waiting on the man who chased me down because he decided he wanted me. I gave him every reason to go, and I still thought he’d stay.
He didn’t.
That burn was real. And that burn was exactly why I was calling my sister before the cab even pulled up to the resort gates. She picked up on the second ring, sounding entirely too cheerful, and that infuriated me.
“Sis! How was the flight?”
“Airalynn Keys.” I watched the palm trees pass outside the window. “You want to explain to me why Ducane Simmons was on my flight? The flight you insisted I take.”
Silence. Then, “Carter’s client list is pretty confidential; I don’t really have access to—”
“Airalynn, cut the shit and tell me what you were thinking.”
My sister always had a meddling spirit, which was what being the oldest daughter was like; however, this was even a step too far for her. She knew our history. She knew our present.
“Okay. Yes. I knew.”
“You knew.” I pressed two fingers to my forehead. “You switched my flight, didn’t tell me whose booking it was, and now I’m on my way to a villa with dinner in four hours.”
The silence on her end had a smile living inside it, and I wanted to reach through the phone and jack her ass up.
“Skye, listen. Dinner? With?” she asked, catching on to what I said.
“No, you listen. You had no right. Since when do we keep secrets?”
“No right? I’m your sister.” She didn't even let me get a word in. “I had every right. I put my own life on hold, so you’d have somebody in the room. I earned this meddling the long way.”
“Big sister, not my mother.”
“Wow.” She scoffed. “If you say so, and don’t talk to me about secrets, Skye. Not you.”
“I’m sorry, Air, that was rude. I appreciate you for everything, but I wasn’t ready. I’m not ready.”
I sighed.
“I hear you, Skye, but you’ve been fine for so long I don’t even think you know what that means anymore. I love you and your strength, but fine is not enough for my baby sister. And somewhere under all that doing-it-alone pride of yours, you already know that.”
I didn’t say anything because she wasn’t wrong.
“Carter told me the truth about Bianca being a PR relationship… I felt like you needed to know he never stopped loving you, Skye. I don’t know what you’re going to do with that, but I needed you to be in the same room with him at least one more time.”
“You could have talked to me instead of orchestrating an ambush.”
“You would have said no. And yes, I overstepped, but shit, Skye, he called me about that night, begging me to talk to you.” She paused again.
“What night?”
“That night, Skye. You don’t need me to spell it out for you. Ducane probably knows you better than anyone, and he knew if anyone could talk you out of throwing what y’all shared away, it was me.”
“And you said nothing.”
“You asked me to trust you, so I did. Even when I disagreed. Anyway, it’s just one dinner. A girl’s gotta eat, right?”
She was right. I would have said no before she finished the sentence, and we both knew it.
“I hate you a small amount right now,” I said.
“I know, sorry.” She didn’t sound the least bit sorry. “But you know I don’t cop pleas for niggas that ain’t worth it.”
“Goodbye, Airalynn.”
“Call us after dinner. The kids want to talk to you. And Skye?” She paused. “Just talk. This wasn’t on either of you.”
“Tell the kids I love them and I’ll see them when I get back.”
“Don’t forget to get them something.”
I hung up as the cab pulled through the resort gates. The property opened up ahead of me. Warm stone, tropical green, and water catching the late-afternoon light everywhere I looked. It was a beautiful reminder that you had stepped entirely out of your regular life.
This was paradise.
I entered the villa and stood in the entrance, taking it in. It was beautiful and massive. Floor-to-ceiling windows. White linen and blue everything. A soaking tub was visible from where I stood. A full lunch spread on the terrace, with a card on the table that read:
See you at seven!
Turkey Avocado Club Sandwich with Regular Lays chips and raspberry lemonade.
I stood there staring at the tray a beat too long. I tried to hold onto being mad. It didn’t work. I’d never say Ducane wasn’t a good man because that would be a lie. I smiled and sat down, thinking about how he never let the small things slide, not with me.
By the time I stood, I was full and feeling jet lag set in. I peeled my uniform off and stepped into the shower, letting the water run hot over my skin.
I’d been in the air all day. My body felt it.
Sleep wasn’t optional. Not if I was about to sit across from Ducane Simmons and keep my composure intact.