Still, she couldn’t scare me off.

I knelt down beside Rhett’s feet. He had sweat covering his forehead, his arms clutched across his stomach, and the worst, glazed-over look on his face. I couldn’t be mad at him for anything right then.

“Please, sir,” the flight attendant urged, still shoving the cup in his face. “Drink some water. It will help. I promise. I also have motion-sickness medication. That might help too. You have to trust me. I see this sort of thing all the time.”

“Do you need to throw up?” Luce asked him, cutting the lady off, while rubbing his shoulder. “If you do, you should probably go ahead and go do that. It will make you feel better.”

Rhett responded to neither of them.

Shit, now I wanted to vomit. My heart raced, and I felt about as horrible as he looked. But, my own issues aside, I remembered how he’d mentioned earlier that flying bothered him. I hadn’t fully believed him at the time. But seeing him on the ground in this state, I believed him now. Then again, maybe it was food poisoning, like Luce seemed to suspect, or maybe it was motion-sickness like the flight attendant thought. Actually, the cause didn’t matter. All that mattered was that he was hurting. And I suddenly went into ‘Rhett protective mode.’

“Random person,” I said the guy I didn’t know. “Are you a doctor?”

“No,” he responded, confused. “I just found him in the bathroom.”

“Well, thanks for your help, I’m pre-med, so you can go back to your seat now.” Was I actually pre-med? Hell no. I was a freshman Art student.

“Okay,” the guy said. “Feel better, man,” he told Rhett and left us.

One down. Two to go.

“You’re not seriously pre-med?” Luce asked.

“I am,” I said assertively, looking her directly in the eyes. “And both my parents are doctors.” My parents weren’t anything—just another lie to get my way. “So I know that all he needs right now is some space.” I took the glass of water from the flight attendant. “If you guys could give us that space—that would be helpful.”

“Sure,” the flight attendant said. She took a few steps away, moving to the opposite end of the galley. “I’ll be right here if you need me.” I guess she was as far as she was going to go.

Luce shot me the nastiest look. “I don’t like you,” she told me flat-out. Okay then? But she stood up and left us alone.

I let out a breath. Now that I had him to myself, I scooted closer to his body. The ground had to be the nastiest, dirtiest floor I’d ever had to sit on. But whatever, that didn’t matter. Rhett grunted as I leaned against him. “I think you’re having a panic attack,” I told him gently. “Has this ever happened before?”

“Once,” he muttered.

“Should I make an announcement for an actual doctor?” the flight attendant asked.

“Give us a few minutes,” I told her, gesturing that it would be okay.

Taking Rhett’s very warm hand in mine, I laced our fingers, careful not to spill the cup of water in my other hand.

“You’re going to be okay,” I assured him, squeezing his hand tight. “This is going to pass soon and you’re going to be fine.”

“You sound so sure,” he replied, his voice hoarse and strained, but there was a hint of amusement to it.

“I am sure. You should probably know that I’m not pre-med, though. I’m an art student. I think I want to get into doing tattoos like my brother. Not that I even need to go to college for that, but sometimes it takes a while to figure out exactly what you want. Before I left for school, John used to let me help him with different pieces for his customers, and I didn’t even realize how much I loved doing that for him, or even how much I actually did do that, until leaving for school this year. I know I’m rambling and you probably don’t want to hear all this random stuff about me, but I’m trying to help take your mind off things. Is it working at all?”

“Yes,” he said. “Your voice is soothing. And I love hearing anything about you, no matter how random, so please don’t stop.”

I snuggled closer to him. My own heart raced so hard it practically had reached its own panic-attack level. In this moment, so worried about him, I realized how much I liked him, and how much I wanted to be with him. It was a terrifying thought. But the alternative, the thought of losing him the way I’d once thought I’d lost Ben, was even more frightening.

“Sometimes I miss you,” I whispered to him. “I know I shouldn’t. I know it’s not fair for me to say that and that I made my choice. But I miss something that I can’t—” I cut myself off, taking a breath. I’d taken the conversation to a place I hadn’t intended to, nor was I ready for. “Sorry,” I apologized. “Now I’m getting carried away.”

He moved his free hand, touched lightly under my chin, and tilted my face so that our eyes connected. “Maybe I should collapse on the ground more often. Seems like we can cut through the bullshit surrounding us a bit better this way.” He nudged my side gently, shooting me this cocky look. “I think I’m better now. Whatever that was that just happened to me…I think it has nearly passed and I’d rather be in our seats. Help me up, Sydney?”

I nodded, standing and grabbing his hand to help pull him to his feet. He wobbled a little, but otherwise seemed fine. I thanked the flight attendant, handing her the cup of water. She had tears in her eyes. “That was sweet, you guys,” she muttered, unexpectedly.

Was it?

We returned to our seats. As I sat down and was buckling my seatbelt, Rhett muttered to me, “I’m not going to forget what you just said to me back there.”

“Good,” I returned. “I’m not going to let you.”

The look that crossed his face—a look of admiration, awe, and something unfamiliar but perfect—was something I was never going to forget, something that melted my heart and turned my chest all warm and squishy inside. He took my hand in his, no other parts of our bodies touching, and he held it for the remainder of the flight. I’d never felt so much from a single touch in my whole life.

We didn’t speak, even after the plane touched down on solid ground again, but that didn’t mean something unspoken hadn’t passed between us.

CHAPTER 12:

RHETT

Nate West. The famous actor—holy shit!—was on our flight. As we were de-boarding the plane, my mind was still flying from the moment Sydney and I had shared, and that was when I noticed him sitting—asleep—in first class, his head resting against the window. Ellie had to be freaking the hell out. He was her favorite actor. She had some weird crush on the man, which might have been completely normal coming from any other girl, but Ellie was a lesbian so it made this moment twice as unbelievable. What an awesome coincidence that he was on our flight.

I turned around in the aisle to alert my roomie, just in case she hadn’t noticed him yet. “Yo, Ellie. Look who it is.” I dropped my bag on the ground, tugging my phone from my pocket. “It’s your favorite actor,” I whispered. “We should take a selfie with him in the background. He’ll never know.”

“Just go,” she harshly whispered, glaring. “I don’t want a selfie with him.”

What?! Of course she did. “C’mon,” I begged. “You’ll regret it if you don’t do this.”

So she let me snap a quick photo of us with Nate West fast asleep in the background.

“I’m posting it to Facebook right now,” I told her, working quickly to upload it. The picture was too perfect not to be posted immediately. “Don’t worry. I’ll tag you too.”

Ellie narrowed her eyes at me like I’d just told her I was posting a naked picture of my dick on the internet. “What?” I asked, not understanding her lack of excitement.