Total pages in book: 8
Estimated words: 7642 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 38(@200wpm)___ 31(@250wpm)___ 25(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 7642 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 38(@200wpm)___ 31(@250wpm)___ 25(@300wpm)
“I’ve got it, thank you. I’m Mary Morris.”
“Why does that sound so familiar to me?” I wonder aloud.
“Well, Mary is a pretty common name, but you may have seen me on TV before.”
“You an actress or a news anchor?”
“An actress.”
“That’s cool.”
“I was just at the game. It was so good. Three touchdowns? You’ve got the best wide receiver currently playing,” she gushes. I grin. So far for the season, I’ve gotten twenty-one touchdowns, five more than the second-place receiver.
“Thank you, Mary. You come out just for the game?” We have some diehard fans that go to all the games, but we know that this game is damn near impossible to get tickets for.
“Oh no. I live in LA. I’m on my way to North Carolina to film a movie.”
“That sounds fun.” I lie. I can’t think of anything that sounds worse than that. Despite my love of the game, I hate giving interviews. They are too stressful.
“Now boarding Tier One Passengers of Regal Air’s Flight 436 to Charlotte,” a voice calls on the overhead speaker.
“That’s me,” I say, looking down at my boarding pass.
“Me too,” she says. I gesture for her to walk ahead of me, which she does, and I am thankful for that. She’s got an ass for days. I get a little hypnotized by the sway of it. So hypnotized that I don’t notice that she’s stopped walking and I run right into her as she’s lifting her carryon up to put it the overhead compartment. It falls to the seats, so I grab it and put it into the bin along with my own.
“Shit, sorry,” I say.
“No worries,” she says giggling. Shit. I’ve never heard a sexier sound. She sits down in window seat, and I drop down next to her. “So, we’re seatmates too?” She fastens her seatbelt and I do the same thing automatically.
“Small world,” I reply.
“And getting smaller.”
“Where are you staying in Charlotte?”
“I’m not. That’s just a layover. I am filming in Oak Island.”
“Why not fly into Wilmington?”
“Do you always ask so many questions of your seatmates?” she asks. Her words say she’s annoyed but the smile on her face says she isn’t.
“No, just the ones I want to know more about.”
“Hmm… I like driving and I rarely get to do that in LA. So, I thought I’d rent a car and drive to Oak Island.”
“That’s three and a half hours from Charlotte. By the time we get in, it will be really late.” I don’t know this girl, but I know that I don’t like the idea of her driving so far so late especially when she rarely gets a chance to drive.
“I can handle it,” she says.
“I’m sure you can, but why risk it?”
“What do you suggest I do then? Surely, it’s too late to get a room tonight.”
“You can stay with me,” I blurt out.
“That’s probably not a very good idea,” she says as the plane starts to taxi away from the terminal. I didn’t even realize the rest of the plane has boarded, and the safety speech had already been done. “We’re moving.” There’s an edge of panic in her voice now that wasn’t there a moment ago.
“Yes,” I say calmly mostly because I don’t know what else to say. “Can you tell me about the movie you are filming?”
“Um… yeah… It’s called Love Me Harder. It’s based off of a romance novel by Mallory Grier.”
“That sounds sexy.”
“Oh, it is,” she says, pulling the paperback out of her purse and waving it in my direction. As the plane starts to take off, she drops the book into her lap and grabs my hand that’s on the armrest. “I’ve been flying a lot the last few years. I don’t know why I still get so nervous.” I look down at her hand on top of mine and my heart freezes in my chest. I’ve often wondered why I’ve never met anyone special. Why despite being attracted to women in the past, it never went further than that. Now I know that I was waiting for her.
I lace my fingers with hers and grip her hand tightly.
“Don’t worry about it, Mary. I’ll keep you safe.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.” I repeat, meaning it more than I’ve ever meant anything before.
Who is this girl and what is she doing to me?
CHAPTER 2
MARY MORRIS
After being abandoned at a fire station in Eugene, Oregon when I was five years old, I grew up in foster care and group homes until I aged out of the system at eighteen. I had to fight for every scrap of food I ever ate. It was hell on Earth. I hate being touched and I am not sure I know what a real hug feels like. Needless to say, I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Three years ago, I used what I’d saved from my job at Quick Shop and bought a bus ticket to LA. I acted in every school play, sang in the chorus, played the flute in band. I was looking for anything artistic to get me out when the time came. Getting the chance to be someone else, if only for a little while, meant the most to me so I decided to go to California the day I graduated from high school.