I Waxed My Legs for This? Read Online Free PDF Page B

moment.
    “Sure, remind me that I’ve driven you to your death. Yeah, that’s going to make me feel better.”
    Jack was such a man, no compassion hidden beneath that hard exterior.
    He’d never realize the effort she’d made to get him to relax before he worked himself into an ulcer or worse.
    He’d never know how much she ached every time she saw that look in his eyes—the look that said he was thinking about Sandy.
    He’d never know because she’d never tell him.
    And, she’d never tell him because they were obviously flying to their doom—she wouldn’t have time.
    He raised his dark brows in what might have been his attempt at sympathy and patted her shoulders again. “We’re going to be just fine.”
    “Uh-huh,” she managed to say.
     

~~~
     
    Jack sighed. When Carrie got like this there was no reasoning with her. She once refused to leave the house on a Friday the thirteenth because a black cat had crossed her path the day before. She was convinced it was an omen and had tried to talk Jack into staying home for the day, too.
    He wouldn’t, and laughed at her for being so superstitious.
    She ended up having the last laugh because Jack had wrecked his Ferrari, totaling it.
    Only Carrie didn’t laugh. She said she was relieved that just the car was wrecked and not him.
    Jack reached over and pried one of her hands off the armrest and held her trembling hand in his own. “It will be just fine.”
    Carrie nodded her head stiffly and Jack watched for the flight attendant. “Could we have a drink when you have a moment?”
    “Sure. What would you like?” the flight attendant asked with a smile.
    “Fruit juice,” Carrie said.
    “With a bunch of vodka,” Jack added.
    “I don’t drink,” Carrie told him.
    “Today you do. Remember you thought piña coladas were perfect for the beach? Well, vodka is the perfect drink for a turbulent plane.”
    When the drinks came, Jack handed Carrie hers and said, “Drink it.”
    “I don’t want—”
    “You’ll never even taste the vodka and it will relax you. Drink it.”
    With a slight grimace, Carrie took the drink and took a sip. “It’s not bad.”
    “Finish it off.”
    Ten minutes later they had a second round.
    After that, a third.
    Within half an hour Carrie was no longer white-knuckling her seat. Instead she was giggling.
    “What’s so funny?” Jack asked. He was used to seeing Carrie in the middle of mishaps, and she was always sunny, but he’d never seen her silly.
    He grinned as she giggled again.
    He kind of liked it.
    “Come on, what’s so funny?” he asked again.
    “You,” she said.
    “Me?”
    “You.” She laughed as if it was the best joke she’d ever heard.
    “Why am I so funny?” He smiled indulgently. A tipsy Carrie was preferable to a nervous, airsick one.
    “Oh, you’re a man and that makes you funny. You didn’t even realize you’d been tricked into coming on this trip with me.”
    “I realized it.” He’d realized she didn’t want someone else on this trip, that she’d wanted him on this vacation right from the start
    Carrie enjoyed thinking she was manipulating him, and he was just friend enough to allow her to believe it. Most of the time he just put up resistance for the show.
    This time...well, a vacation wasn’t what he’d had in mind, but he’d decided that maybe Carrie was right. Maybe he needed to get away from Erie, and his memories.
    Sandy was gone. It was time he rebuilt his life. In fact it was well past time.
    “No, you didn’t I fooled you.” She let out a delicate little hiccup and continued. “You know Ted didn’t buy those tickets, don’t you.”
    “He didn’t?” While he might have known she’d manipulated him, he didn’t know she’d out-and-out lied.
    She grinned a Cheshire-catlike grin and nodded. “I did. Eloise gave me a bonus. I’ve been bringing in a lot of special orders. This WNBA dress is the biggest, most vis...visible one. She’s making Carrington Rose Originals a