Chapter 37
Adelaide
I have never missed a flight in my entire life. Missing flights is not something I do—I’m always at the airport with far too much time to spare, so I can grab an iced matcha, do some window shopping, and camp out at the gate long before boarding even begins.
This weekend has changed so many things about me.
I am now running—yes, sprinting—through the airport terminal. My bag rolls behind me, bumping into my heels. Over the intercom, the gate agents are already making the final call for the flight to Miami.
My breaths are ragged and my heart pumps at full capacity. I squeeze around other travelers, spluttering apologies as I barge my way off the tram onto the concourse. I can see it ahead of me now, gate D7. Final stragglers are boarding, and I race to join them, and—
“Adelaide.”
I halt, my suitcase slamming into my leg. In an instant, my heartbeat slows. Skips too many beats. I turn to him.
“Connor,” I breathe.
Connor stands in front of me. He’s wearing a gray hoodie that’s pulled up over his head, and he pushes back the hood, running a hand through his tousled hair.
He slides his bag off his shoulder and drops it to the floor by his feet.
It’s the first time I have seen him since yesterday, after he decided not to join us as we waited for the others to be released from Clark County Detention Center.
I didn’t want him there. Not after everything he’d done.
I knew he’d be at the airport this morning—he has a flight back to his base in California—but I didn’t expect to have to face him.
“No Liam,” he says, swallowing hard. His big brown eyes are full of anguish. “Please tell me you left him, Addy.”
“I . . . I can’t do this, Cons,” I rasp, shaking my head as my anxious gaze shifts to the gate behind him. The last of the stragglers disappear onto the jet bridge. “My flight’s closing. I need to—”
“Just tell me first,” he says desperately, closing the small gap between us. “Did you leave him, Adelaide?”
“Yes, I left him!” I cry out with exasperation.
It has been one hell of a morning. I am exhausted, physically and mentally, and I feel like I am going to break apart at any moment, shattering to the ground in pieces.
“I left him, Connor, okay? I wanted to do it on my terms, but you blew it all up in my face. I begged you not to say anything, to let me handle it, and yet you backed me into a corner there was no coming back from. It was not your secret to tell.” My despair is palpable in the shaky tone of my voice and the erratic movements of my hands. “Why? Why did you do that to me?”
“I already told you, Addy. I’d rather you hate me for the rest of my life,” Connor murmurs, swallowing, “than watch you make the biggest mistake of yours.”
My heart pangs with a pained tenderness. Connor has only ever wanted to protect me, to keep me safe, even if it means destroying that magnetic connection that still exists between us after all this time.
“Last and final call for any remaining passengers wishing to fly to Miami this morning,” the agent announces over the intercom, and I feel my mind pull me in the direction of the gate while my heart keeps me standing exactly where I am, staring into Connor’s tormented gaze.
“I have to go, Connor,” I whisper, sniffing back tears.
He nods with crushed acceptance. “If you need anything . . . Anything . . . Please call me,” he says, reaching out to softly clasp my wrist. His fingers brush over my skin, his gaze lowering to my hand. He touches the empty spot on my ring finger.
“No,” I say, and his eyes immediately dart back up to mine in surprise, feeling the sting of the rejection.
“No, I won’t call you, Connor,” I continue, with that same unwavering resolution in my voice from earlier, “because I’m going to take care of myself from now on.
I’m going to focus on Adelaide, and that means that right now there just isn’t room for you in my life, Cons. ”
Connor’s eyes soften. His lips twitch with a smile. With a breathy whisper, he says, “You’re choosing yourself.”
“I’m choosing myself,” I confirm. I take my hand from his and reach up for the exposed dog tags hanging from his neck. I roll them between my fingers, feeling the cold metal on my skin, and then tuck them inside his shirt. “Stay safe, Cons.”
I smile at him through vulnerable blue eyes, full of so much hurt but so much promise for the future. A hope that I can rebuild Adelaide Sinclair into the woman I know she’s meant to be, that one day I can be happy, that maybe, eventually, there will be room in the picture for Connor Lexington.
Grabbing my suitcase, I turn and run to gate D7.
“I’m here!” I call out, waving my boarding pass at the agent.
With a chirpy smile, the agent scans my pass and ushers me onto the jet bridge. “Just in the nick of time!” she says, then swings the door shut behind me.
I stand still in the silence of the empty jet bridge for a moment.
Wishing I’d taken one last look at him.