Twice Kissed - Lisa Jackson [29]
Becca had never heard much talk about Marquise’s first husband, only that Maggie had never approved of the marriage and had always changed the subject whenever it had been brought up. She seemed to hate this guy.
Not that it mattered one way or the other. The only thing that Becca cared about was that she was about to be free, and she never intended to return to Backwoods USA again. In a few hours, she’d be outta there. For good.
It was about time.
Chewing on a toothpick he’d picked up at the airport restaurant, Thane watched the jet scream down the runway. Snow was building on either side of the tarmac, and the silver bird’s wings had been de-iced before takeoff, yet he felt Maggie’s case of nerves as if they were his own. Beside him, her face pressed to the glass, she seemed to hold her breath as the jet lifted its nose to the air, then took flight.
“This is the first time I’ve let her fly on her own,” she admitted, as her daughter’s plane disappeared into the clouds.
“She’ll be fine.”
The look she shot him told him she didn’t believe it for a minute, but then she’d been prickly from the moment he’d set eyes on her last night. Her body language as well as her words convinced him that she didn’t trust him. But then, she’d always been the smarter of the two sisters.
“She’s going to be with relatives, right?”
“Not mine.”
“Your husband’s.”
She nodded, her eyes darkening a bit. “Dean’s brother and sister-in-law. They have a girl, Jennifer, a few years older. Becca idolizes her.”
“And you don’t?”
“I think she’s on a faster track than she should be.”
“All kids are these days,” he observed.
“You don’t understand.” Maggie seemed as if she were going to say something more, then thought better of it and held her tongue.
“Enlighten me.”
The look she leveled at him would cut through stone. “I don’t have enough years in my life left.”
His mouth twitched despite his bad mood, but she wasn’t kidding. “Look, I’ll call Connie and Jim tonight. Make sure that Becca got there.” Her eyes were as clouded as the Boise sky, her skin pale. She glanced his way. “Okay, so let’s get this show on the road.” As if she’d given herself a swift mental kick, she turned away from the viewing window and headed down the concourse. Thane tried not to notice the jut of her chin or the lines of agitation that creased her usually smooth brow. Nor did he let his eyes wander to the sway of her hips as she strode so purposefully along the hallway. Sometimes she looked so much like Mary Theresa that his emotions got the better of him—rage and distrust charged into his soul.
And now good ole Mary Theresa, no, make that Marquise, was exacting her final revenge. On him. It was fitting somehow, a fine case of irony if there ever was one.
Outside the terminal, snow was blowing across the parking lot, scattering in the bitter wind that tore mercilessly down from northern Canada. He glanced at the sky, muttered an oath under his breath, and prayed they would find some way to outrun the storm that was predicted to chase them all the way to Colorado.
He unlocked the passenger side of the truck and waited until Maggie was tucked inside, then he slammed the door shut and knew in his gut that he was about to make the biggest mistake of his life—well, second biggest. The first had been marrying Mary Theresa Riley.
He had no choice. He had a job to do. Nothing more. He couldn’t forget his objective for a second. He slid a surreptitious look at the woman seated so close to him. Beautiful. Smart. Treacherous. Just like her sister. Or the rest of womankind for that matter. In Thane’s opinion, they were all alike. Every damned one of them.
“Okay, so you be good for Aunt Connie and Uncle Jim, okay?” Maggie said into the mouthpiece of the pay telephone.
“I will, Mom.” Becca sounded distracted, ready to bolt; she was in California and didn