The ticketing agent gets my boarding pass sorted. I glance at it before I head toward security. That’s odd—why am I in first class? Brad’s assistant Scott booked the travel arrangements before Ronan bought VI. I can’t imagine Brad would have asked him to book me a first class ticket. I must have been upgraded.
There’s a long holdup in security. The line literally stops moving. I glance at the time. I’m getting dangerously close to being late for my flight. I thought I left the house with plenty of time this morning, but Seattle traffic is absurd.
Since I’m just standing in one place, I give my brother a quick call.
“Morning,” he says when he answers. It sounds like I woke him.
“Hi, Brax,” I say. “Sorry to call so early. Listen, I just wanted to let you know I have to go out of town for a few days. I have a conference and I completely forgot about it until last night. I’m at the airport now.”
“You should have told me,” he says. “I’d have driven you.”
“It’s okay, I used Uber,” I say. “Tell Kylie I’ll talk to her when I get back.”
“Sure,” he says. “We should get together for drinks.”
“Definitely,” I say. “I’ll be home Saturday, but I think my flight is pretty late.”
“Cool,” he says. “Text me when you land, and let me know if you need a ride home.”
I smile. Braxton isn’t nearly as big of a jerk as he thinks he is. “I will.”
Security finally starts moving, and by the time I get to the gate the plane is already boarding. I breathe a sigh of relief. At least I made it.
I board the plane and look at my seat assignment again. It’s definitely first class—row two, seat A. I stop in my tracks, staring at the man seated in seat B. It’s Ronan.
He stands and takes my suitcase.
“I can get that,” I say.
“I know,” he says, but he puts it in the overhead bin anyway.
His seat is on the aisle, so he moves aside so I can get by him, then takes his seat next to me.
“Morning,” he says with a grin, his dimple puckering.
I put my purse under the seat in front of me. “Morning. I didn’t realize you were going on this trip.”
“And I only realized the other day that we both were,” he says.
I look at him. “Did you upgrade my seat?”
He just smiles.
I shake my head. “That’s not fair to everyone else who’s coming.”
“No one else is coming,” he says. “It’s just the two of us.”
“What?” I ask. “That’s not right, I know there were others.” He didn’t cancel their trips so he could be alone with me, did he? He wouldn’t go that far. Would he?
“Mary in Sales called me yesterday,” Ronan says. “Both her kids have the flu, so she had to cancel. And there was one other person scheduled to come, but he quit when Brad left. I already had plans to attend, even before the VI sale went through. So yes, it’s just you and me.”
Three days in Denver with Ronan. Alone. Well, not really alone. We’ll be at a conference with thousands of people.
I sit back in my seat. “Well, this should be interesting.”
“It will, won’t it?” He reaches over and plucks a piece of lint off my sweater, right at the neckline. “So tell me, do your rules apply if we’re out of town, and there are no coworkers present?”
“Yes,” I say, my voice firm. “They apply even more.”
Ronan grins at me again and settles back into his seat. He’s surprisingly subdued for the rest of the flight. We chat about work, but he stops making any advances on me. I wonder if he’s trying to lull me into a false sense of security, or if he’s actually backing off.
We go our separate ways at the convention center, checking into our rooms at the adjacent hotel. Conference sessions begin that afternoon, and after perusing the program, I decide on a few that look interesting. I glance at my phone as I walk to my first session, wondering if I should text Ronan and see where he is. In the end, I don’t. If we run into each other, that’s one thing, but I shouldn’t encourage him.
The convention is sizable, with an attendance in the thousands. I’ve gone the past several years, and I always find it a good use of my time. My first session is one of the large meeting rooms and I find a seat off to one side. I glance back at the door a few times. What am I looking for? Do I really think Ronan is going to coincidentally choose the same session as me?
I don’t see Ronan for the rest of the afternoon. There’s a buffet dinner for conference attendees, and I grab a bite, although I’m not very hungry. I listen to the final speaker of the day in the huge ballroom. Ronan is probably here somewhere, but I don’t see him in the crowd.
Afterward, everyone files out. I’m about to go back to my room when I feel a hand on my elbow. Ronan smiles at me and leads me out of the press of people.
“How was your afternoon?” he asks.
“Good,” I say. “Not a bad start. My second session was an absolute snore-fest, but the others were interesting.”
“Yeah, I walked out of my first session. The rest weren’t bad.” He looks down at his hand, as if he just realized he’s still touching my arm. “How about we get a drink over at the hotel?”