Page 13 of Until He Confesses

“What do you mean?” he asked calmly.

I glanced around and could see that his employees had both turned their attention to us.

I cleared my throat.

“I suspect that the beef was prepared with some sort of peanut base spice. I wanted to make sure you were okay?”

He paused and then his secretary by my side exclaimed.

“What?”

My heart sank.

He continued to stare at me, and I couldn’t tell if it was in accusation or something else.

“Please have this just in case,” I said and started to set the tray down.

“Are you allergic to peanuts, sir?” she asked.

He responded, but I didn’t catch his words until I was already heading down the aisle. My limbs were trembling I realized, however, whether it was simply in worry or because I had been in his vicinity I couldn’t tell.

“I used to be,” he said.

I returned to the crew area, needing a few minutes to catch my breath. I had been worried for nothing and the bastard had allowed it.

“What happened?” Julianne hurried over to me.

I quickly straightened and returned to the galley to set out the snacks to be made available to them later.

“Apparently he’s grown out of it,” I replied, and she sighed in relief.

“Oh, that’s great news. Phew. But for you to remember such detail about him,” she tried to tease me once again. “Did you just know him or did youknowhim?”

I was ready to walk away to the bathroom, but I stopped and before I could think better of it, I replied.

“Yeah, we were a bit close,” I replied. “In fact, we dated.”

“Oh,” she said, shocked. And then her real reaction came. “You let him go though?”

“I’m glad I let him go,” I replied, and she smiled.

“Even now?”

“Especially now.”

I took my leave but a gnawing and aggravating part of me couldn’t help but wonder if I was telling the whole truth.

4

LUCAS

So far, I had managed to not think about her but after she took her leave and as the rest of the flight went on, I couldn’t get her out of my mind.

It rendered every intent to work afterward completely useless until I had to give up and shut my eyes to try to go to sleep. Midway through the flight, and when the other two were reclined comfortably and asleep I got up to go to the bathroom. I could hear movement behind and the closer I approached the more I could make out her figure busy in the galley.

I wondered if I should speak to her at all, but then she lowered to pick up something that had fallen to the floor, and I found myself unable to move. I couldn’t pull my eyes away from the curves of her body which were now much more defined than they’d been when she was in high school. Back then, I had been so crazy about her, and in the years that followed it was certain that during that period I had somewhat lost my mind. But as I looked at her now, it didn't seem that crazy at all.

For one I couldn't help but feel proud of her. Although she hadn’t been certain as to exactly what she wanted to pursue as a career when she got older, she did mention to me that she loved to travel and that she would want to see as many places as possible. I, on the other hand, was less sure and could only hope that I would be able to work hard enough to ensure she could go wherever she wanted.