Chapter 9

“He’s here,” sang Thumper, waltzing into the lobby two steps ahead of me.

“We should have drinks or something,” I said. “Since they’re flying together.”

He shot me a look, like Have you not heard a word I’ve said about what I want to do tonight?

I laughed. “Fine, we should have breakfast or something.”

“That we could do,” he said, grinning again. “As long as it’s not too early.”

“Understood.” I winked, as Jeremy sailed through the door.

And froze in his tracks.

It’s not like we’ve never surprised each other on layovers before. It’s fun to cross paths as we go about our business from country to country; swap spit and stories for a couple of hours or a couple of nights and then get back to work, See ya at home. I know he wasn’t expecting to see me, but especially these days, when just about every World Wind flight is either to or from Miami, the stricken look on his face seemed unnecessarily dramatic.