Chapter Two
Miguel was already second-guessing himself. “I heard them call your name.” Is that really the first thing I said to her?
“What are you doing here?” Hers was not a tone of pleasant surprise.
Awkward.
“My latest Layover Vacation.” He tried to play it cool, but knew he was failing miserably. “Now I can say I’ve been to New York.”
“LaGuardia doesn’t count as New York. JFK, maybe. But definitely not LaGuardia.”
Making small talk about airports was almost as bad as chatting about the weather. They’d once been able to talk about anything. “How long were you in New York this time?”
“Four days,” she said.
Miguel nodded. The nod didn’t mean anything; he just couldn’t think of anything else to do. He stood there looking at her while she fidgeted in her seat. “Did you see a show?”
“Hadestown.”
He nodded some more. All the times he’d thought about running into her again, he’d never pictured himself acting so stupid. But this was Jane, the woman he still loved. The woman he would probably always love. Acting stupid seemed unavoidable.
“How are your parents?” he asked.
“They hate each other and demand that their children do the same. So, same as always.” She shrugged as if her family being completely dysfunctional didn’t bother her, but he knew better.
Her parents had divorced when she was a teenager and had been going for each other’s jugulars ever since. “What about your family?”
“Still loud and nosy. And still bribing the police with tamales to look the other way when their backyard parties get a little out of hand.” He could still remember the horror on Jane’s face the first time she’d attended one of their extended-family parties.
The music was loud. The people were louder.
The neighbors often complained— those who hadn’t accepted the invitation to join in.
But she’d adjusted quickly and had soon fit right in.
“Mamá asks about you. They all do. They— we miss you.”
“Don’t, Miguel.” She stood and pushed past him. “Just don’t.”
Well, that didn’t work. He watched her take long, determined strides to the other side of the gate area and drop into a different booth. It was impossible to misinterpret that.
The Santoses had always been superstitious.
His grandfather had gone to bed with socks on because his father had died barefooted.
Miguel’s mother always ate nuts in even numbers so she’d never accidentally eat thirteen.
For some reason, she felt that nuts were the unluckiest food.
His brother couldn’t see a black cat without spitting.
If fate, chance, divine intervention, or whatever it was, had brought Jane back into Miguel’s life by stranding them both at the same airport, he wasn’t going to turn his back on the chance to try to win her over again.
Big words, considering she isn’t even talking to you.
“Attention, passengers. We have updated information regarding flight 884 to Denver. We are looking at a delay of at least two hours. We ask for your continued patience. The weather has delayed flights throughout the country.”
The response was immediate. Some were angry, others clearly worried. Jane’s gaze darted to Miguel. For a moment, she looked wary, vulnerable. But just as quickly, the look was replaced with defiance. In an instant, she had her phone out and her attention diverted.
A man could come up with a lot of plans in two hours. He’d try every single one of them if he needed to. Jane had once said she loved him. Even as she’d turned down his proposal, she’d said she loved him. That she didn’t want to marry him, but she loved him.
They’d dated for a year. He’d known she was the one in the first month.
That she didn’t run away screaming the first time she’d been introduced to his crazy extended family only made him more certain.
But she had run screaming from the prospect of wearing his ring.
She wouldn’t even give him a reason beyond “This isn’t what I want. ”
The three months since she’d ended things had been miserable. Living without her had convinced him that if marriage wasn’t what she wanted, he needed to find out what she did want. If there was any place where her wants and his met, he’d meet her there. In a heartbeat.
But how are you going to find that out if she’s putting the length of a terminal gate between you?
He sat in the booth she’d been in. He knew her better than anyone else.
If he gave it some thought, he could come up with something that would pierce her armor just enough to get her to talk to him. But what did he have to work with?
New York was her favorite city. But apparently LaGuardia didn’t count.
She liked musicals. But he didn’t have a Broadway cast on hand to stage a musical number right there in the airport. He also couldn’t sing. Or dance. Or act.
She was a big Ryan Gosling fan. But, honestly, if he’d had Ryan Gosling on speed dial, Miguel would have had him handle the proposal in the first place, and he wouldn’t be in this mess.
Jane loved Mamá’s tamales—who didn’t? But Miguel didn’t have any handy.
What do you have handy? He set his carry-on bag on the table and dug through it.
A protein bar. A novel he hadn’t read yet.
His wallet, though offering Jane the seventeen dollars in there wouldn’t do any good.
A half-empty bag of trail mix. The bottle of water he bought after his was confiscated at security.
Last, and definitely least, his ratty old sweatshirt.
A pathetic collection of potential offerings.
Dude, you’re such a loser.
His bag of tricks had failed him. Time for more desperate measures: buying overpriced goods at an airport newsstand and offering them up as a bribe. He had seventeen dollars, after all. And a credit card.
He passed the magazines— giving her reading material would defeat his purpose— and went straight for the snack section.
He knew Jane’s junk food habits well. Funyuns.
Double Stuf Oreos. Washed down with Dr. Pepper.
And for dessert, gummy peach rings. He grabbed them all, plus a few things for himself.
If he was going to stage a dead-relationship intervention, he needed the strength that came from a full-size bag of Cool Ranch Doritos and Sunkist.
He walked back to the gate with his arms full of loot. With the impressive empty calorie count he was lugging around, Jane wouldn’t be able to resist talking to him. At least she wouldn’t have been able to resist it if she had still been sitting where he’d last seen her.
Where’d she go? He didn’t see her anywhere.
Maybe she’d sensed the approach of irresistible cuisine and took off.
He dropped his armful onto the booth table where she had been sitting and sat on the bench.
The gate had calmed. Plenty of passengers still glared and fumed, but they were doing it sitting down rather than gathered around the counter.
Jane had disappeared. Maybe she’d decided to wait out the delay somewhere else in the terminal, banking on hearing the announcement over the loudspeakers.
That took a level of desperation even Double Stuf Oreos wasn’t likely to overcome.
But the newsstand and the vending machines didn’t carry cheesecake, her go-to in a crisis.
He was more of a dulce de leche man, himself.
He eyed the Funyuns. Traitor. He pushed the bag aside. He needed a new strategy. If only he’d run into her in the TSA security line. They’d have had endless hours in each other’s company, and she would have had no escape.
That’s a really nice thing to wish on the woman you’d hoped to marry.
“You stole my seat.”
“Jane.” How long had she been standing there? “I came over, but you were gone.”
She motioned to the table. “Have you taken up snack hoarding?”
He picked up the Funyuns bag. “You know how much I love these.”
“You hate them.” Her gaze scanned the rest of the loot. “Double Stuf Oreos. Dr. Pepper. Wait a minute.” She skewered him with a suspicious glare. “Is this a bribe?”
“That depends. Is it working?”
“Maybe,” she said hesitantly. “What is it you’re hoping I’ll do for all of this?”
“Just talk.” He could see her defenses going up immediately. “Nothing too personal. Just a chat between friends.”
Come on, Jane. Don’t leave me hanging here.
“I do like Funyuns.” But she still looked uncertain.
“I might even share my Doritos with you.”
Her nose wrinkled up. “But they’re Cool Ranch.”
He shook his head and sighed dramatically. “You never were a connoisseur.”
She laughed, her lips pulling upward in the dazzling smile he’d missed so much over the past three months. They’d been happy together. They honestly had been. There had to be a way of getting that back again.