Chapter 3 Magically Appear
MAGICALLY APPEAR
Saylor was exhausted and had been on her feet for two hours.
Even if she could have found out what was going on with her flight, all flights out of Denver had just been canceled.
The loud groans and screaming, the frantic passengers running throughout the airport trying to find lodging, taxis, Ubers, cars to rent. You name it, it was happening.
She was standing there wondering how comfortable the floor was going to be and what she could get to eat.
But she had her medical supplies and the rest didn’t matter. Not even that she was hot, sweaty, and wanted to change into something more comfortable.
She went back to her gate. She had no clue why. It’s not as if she thought a flight was going to magically appear.
But she saw Rowan standing to the side on the phone, a frown on his face, an eye roll, and a shrug of his shoulders.
He disconnected his call and pushed away from the wall he was leaning against.
He was tall, with light brown hair streaked with blonde, tousled just enough to look effortless. A bit longer, but clearly styled with care.
He looked like he belonged on a beach and not in Denver. But since he knew the guy that had helped her and had made a comment about returning to his cabin, he must be a resident close by.
She moved over to a seat and flopped her ass down. She was sure it’d be planted here overnight.
She’d already texted her grandmother and told her the chance of her making it home today was slim to none, but she wouldn’t worry anyone that she was in this seat overnight.
Her grandmother would let her parents know. It’s not like she was heartbroken about not seeing the rest of her family tomorrow.
She was only going home for her grandmother anyway. Spending the day with her parents and sister and niece and nephews was the last thing on her mind.
Not true. She didn’t mind seeing her parents, but to see them meant time with Sandy. Nope.
At least she’d had all the gifts shipped to her grandmother’s house weeks ago. One less thing she’d hear a complaint about from her sister, that she’d been cheap and didn’t buy them anything.
“Saylor.”
She turned her head from where she was staring at her phone. Rowan was standing there, faded jeans on, sneakers on his feet, his jacket hanging off his bag on his shoulder.
“That’s me. Guess you get to go home now.”
“Yep. Figures my flight would be the last one canceled. I had to break the news to my mother. She wasn’t happy, but short of her sending a plane after me, it wasn’t happening.”
She didn’t know why he laughed over that statement. She guessed it was funny, but nothing about today was making her laugh.
“At least you get to go home.” She stretched her legs out in front of her. “This is where I’m going to be for the foreseeable future.”
“No room at the hotel?” he said.
“I’m sure it filled up hours ago. I didn’t bother when I overheard others complaining. I looked for hotels in the area online and everything is full.”
“With the holiday making it worse,” he added.
“Yep. No rental cars available, but I’m not sure why I’d try to get one if I had nowhere to go. Might as well stay put and see if I can get on the first flight.”
“Any idea of when that will happen?” he asked. “Because my weather is showing an ice storm for the next twenty-four hours. Not something we see often here for that long. It’s being chased by snow.”
Her shoulders dropped. “If I could have gotten a car, I would have tried to drive to Arizona then. I’d be going away from the weather. Looks like I could be here for more than a day.”
“I know you don’t know me, but I’m an upstanding citizen. You can come to my place. I’ll bring you back when you can get a flight. Your choice.”
She processed what he was saying. It’d be stupid to do it, but she’d be surrounded by strangers in the airport who could try to steal her belongings while she slept.
She would have to walk everywhere with two bags on her nonstop and her body was already rebelling from the hours walking around trying to figure out her next step.
“I’m weighing my options. Which aren’t many, but you’re right, I don’t know you.”
“I get it. I’ve got two sisters. One younger and one older. I’d kick their asses if they considered doing it.”
“Gee, thanks for that,” she said, smiling. Might be the first smile she’d had since she heard they were going to have an emergency landing.
She looked at her watch.
Almost four hours ago.
It felt like four days now that her ass was down.
When she was walking around the airport and managing her sugar and trying to get information, she had wished time would have stood still as she went from one gate to another hoping to get on any other flight.
No dice though.
She should have just stayed right where she was and saved herself those three bags of Scooby Doo treats she’d needed to stop her lows.
“Sorry,” he said. “I’m sure you’re thinking of your food options, how many snacks you can buy to have close to you if you need them. Everyone is doing the same thing.”
“You’re not helping matters any.” And it made her wonder why he was pushing so much.
He shrugged. “As I said, I had a friend in college. Lived in the same dorm as me. I know the things that went through his head. He was neurotic about it. I get it. It’s scary.
I’ve seen him when his sugar was thirty-eight once and, let me tell you, I’d never been so scared in my life.
He didn’t even know what he was saying while me and two other friends shoved gummy bears down his throat for ten minutes straight. ”
If it wasn’t for the fact that Rowan could understand exactly what she’d gone through in her life, she wouldn’t even consider this.
“Been there and done that,” she said. “But I spent more of my life on the other end of it until I could turn it around.”
“Ahhh,” he said. “Damon was a bear when his sugar was high. He could snap your head off faster than me stepping on a cold twig.”
“I’m not that bad,” she said. “Just emotional. But I don’t let myself get that high anymore.”
Nor sick if she could help it.
Most medications made her insulin resistant. That lovely Catch 22 she had to play anytime she got an infection.
“I hate to put the pressure on,” he said. “Or make you feel as if you have to say yes, but I’d like to get out of here. The ice is going to make it here within the hour.”
She stood. Her choices were limited and he’d done nothing but help her so far. “I’ll go with you if it’s not an inconvenience.”
“It’s not,” he said. “It’s going to be a long walk to my car. Do you need some sugar?”
Again. He got it.
She pulled her phone out, saw her number was 150. “I’m good. I’m used to being on my feet all day and moving. This wouldn’t be much different if the emotions weren’t added to it.”
“Then let’s get the hell out of here,” he said. “Try to stay close as we move through the people. If you lose me, just shout my name.”
“I won’t lose you,” she said. “Because I’m grabbing onto your bag.”
He laughed, his blue eyes finding humor in their situation. “A carry-on bag brought us together. Get it?”
“Yeah,” she said. “Do you normally have a weird sense of humor?”
“I say what comes to me. Sometimes it’s funny, other times not so much. Could be why my brothers and I beat on each other so much growing up.”
She wanted to ask him more about that, but it was hard to keep up a conversation with the noise of the airport and dodging people left and right.
When they finally stepped outside, the cold air slammed into her face, and she knew right away she would’ve been freezing once she settled inside the airport.
It’s not as if she had anything warmer than the fleece she was wearing.
Rowan took his jacket off and handed it to her.
“No,” she said. “I’ll be fine. Keep it.”
“Are you sure? We don’t have far to go.”
“I’m fine,” she said. “Moving keeps me warm.”
They didn’t have far to go because he had parked in a luxury area.
He didn’t look to be much older than her, but maybe he was when he walked over to a black Range Rover that was worth more than she made in a year.
He opened the back and she tossed her bags in there. If she told her grandmother what she was doing, she’d get a lecture that would scare her enough to jump out.
But if she didn’t tell someone where she was, they wouldn’t know where to look if she disappeared.
When she got to where they were going, she’d drop a pin in her location and send it to her grandmother and say she was with a friend of a friend.
It was a lie, which she hated to do, but it was better than worrying the person who loved her the most in her life.
Thirty minutes later, they were driving further out of Denver. The two of them were just chatting about his friend Damon and some of the funny diabetic stories.
She added a few of her own.
Most times she didn’t enjoy talking about those things, but Rowan seemed to understand the nuisances of wearing a pump, having it fall off swimming, getting stuck and caught on things and having it show up under clothing.
Not to mention loud alarms startling people if she forgot to put it on vibrate in the morning.
She’d gotten less self-conscious of it as an adult. It was like a radar as a teen. But now it was her superpower to see other Omnipods and Dexcoms on people out in public.
They climbed a mountain, but there were houses they’d passed on the way. She was still nervous and debated if this was a wise decision or not.
They pulled down a driveway, longer than she hoped for, then a garage door opened to a log cabin.
“This is your cabin?” she asked. Nothing like the small bungalow-type place she imagined he might rent.
Real estate in the Denver area was through the roof.
This place had to be worth millions, just from the views alone, even if it didn’t appear that big from this side of it. Two stories with the garage under it.
“It’s my brother’s,” he said. “I was staying here a few days skiing on vacation.”
“Oh,” she said. “Do you live in Denver?”
“Nope,” he said. They got out of the SUV. She grabbed her bags, and followed him into the house.
“Where do you live?” she asked. Her jaw dropped. They entered a finished basement. This was a single dude’s wet dream.
Pool table, darts, a TV covering one wall, glass doors looking out over the mountain and a bar next to it.
There were more doors that were shut.
They made their way up the stairs. “Long Beach.”
“What?” she asked.
“I live in Long Beach, California. You never said where you lived? Can’t be Arizona or you wouldn’t have worried so much about your supplies if you had them home.”
“My residence on paper is Arizona, at my grandmother’s house,” she said. This house just kept going. The first floor had the same view, an enormous deck she could see outside the wall of glass doors.
Massive fireplace from floor to the ceiling. Lots of wood everywhere, but still bright.
He dropped his bag on a table between the living room and kitchen. The area was open and vast.
“You’ll have to explain that part about your residence on paper,” he said.
“Oh. I’m a traveling nurse. My residence on paper, with my driver’s license has to be with one state that is part of the NLC. I think there are forty-one states, but I grew up in Arizona. My last assignment was in Iowa. That’s where I flew from.”
“Got it,” he said.
“Are we the only ones here?” she asked. There were no other cars in the garage and he’d said it was his brother’s house.
“Yes. My brother doesn’t come here often. It’s his car we were in. My family uses it. Or I use it the most since I’m the closest. The rest live on the East Coast.”
Guess his family came from money. “In North Carolina?”
“That’s where I’m from. Where my mother, one brother, and my sister live.” He was in the kitchen. “I’m starving. I’m glad I have some food here that isn’t frozen. I planned on coming back here after a few days in North Carolina before I returned to California.”
“I could eat,” she said. “I’ll cook. I feel bad. I should pay you for staying here too.”
He laughed. “I don’t need your money.”
“It doesn’t look as if your brother does, that is for sure.”
She was walking around. There were some pictures on the fireplace.
She stopped and stared at the wedding picture, then a big family picture. One with Rowan in it, in a tux.
Damn, he was smoking dressed up, but more appealing to her in jeans.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
She turned to see his grin. “What’s your last name?”
“Carlisle. What’s yours?”
“Beach.”
“Your name is Saylor Beach?” He laughed. “Guess it could be worse. You could be Sandy Beach.”
“That’s my sister.”
He spit the water out he was drinking. “Seriously?”
“Cross my heart,” she said, making the motion with her hands.
He shook his head. “I’m assuming you know my family at this point?”
“Not personally. I don’t live in a cave though. That’s West Carlisle.”
She was pointing at the wedding picture. She was working in New Jersey at the time of that wedding and it was big news, so hard to miss the headlines since it wasn’t that far from her.
“Yes, it is,” he said.
“Wow.”
“That’s all you’ve got to say?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know him to say more. Can I get some water?”
He rolled his eyes and moved to the kitchen to get the water she asked for.
Holy shit. She was staying in a billionaire’s house.
Guess she had nothing to worry about. At least she hoped.