Chapter 24

CHAPTER

TWENTY-FOUR

H arry could sit in the airport and talk to Belle for hours, but surely her plane would be taking off soon, and Harry knew he was late for his. He hated flying privately, and Adam arranged everything he could commercially.

Harry only carried a small backpack that he could easily slide under the seat in front of him, and Adam had his half-sized carry-on that did the same. They always flew first class, always in the second row. Adam alerted the flight attendants, pilots, airline, and anyone else he needed to that Harry would be boarding at the very last moment, that he needed to be the last passenger on the plane, and would be ducking into the second row against the window.

The end. Harry and Adam then expected not to be bothered for the duration of the flight, except for meals and drinks. Adam sat on the aisle to protect him from anything, answer any questions, and allow Harry to work or sleep the way he wanted.

Harry could admit that he’d been hesitant at first to hire a personal assistant, but now he could not imagine his life without Adam Harmon in it. He and Adam had had several powwows as Harry had prepared to leave Nashville and return to Coral Canyon, as Adam wondered if he would be needed there. Harry didn’t want to let him go because he didn’t know what life would be like in Coral Canyon. Yes, most people left his father and uncles alone, but Harry had been called “a horse of a different color” enough times to know that he couldn’t always expect the same things that Country Quad had.

“Sir,” Adam said, as he always did when they were in public. “The flight attendants are threatening to close the gate and rebook you on the next flight if you don’t come right now.” He glanced over to Belle. “I’m so sorry, Miss Graves.”

“It’s fine,” Belle said in her sweet, yet somewhat rough, voice. “Go, Harry. You don’t want to miss your flight.”

“You’ll text me?” he asked.

“I have a new phone,” she said. “But I kept your number. So yeah, I’ll text you.”

Harry got to his feet, reassured that he would get a text from her, and he couldn’t do much more than that. He’d had Adam clear the airport around her so that he could talk to her, and that seemed stalker-y enough. He quickly walked with Adam down several gates to where his plane waited and smiled at the flight attendant there.

“I’m so sorry, ma’am,” he said. “Thank you for holding the plane.”

She smiled in return but swallowed instead of speaking. Harry moved in front of Adam to go down the jetway to the plane. He said thank you to the flight attendants waiting right there at the front, noting that the pilot’s door to the cockpit was already closed too.

He ducked down two rows, keeping his cowboy hat low so no one could see his face as he settled into the window seat and put his backpack under the seat in front of him.

With the recording done, Harry didn’t have anything to work on during the flight back to Nashville. Even if he had, after seeing Belle, he was way too keyed up to do it. Adam settled beside him, sliding his carry-on smartly under the seat. They buckled, and Harry’s belt had barely clicked before the plane pushed away from the gate. They really had been waiting for him, and Harry experienced a thread of guilt as it pulled against his heart and ribs.

“Something to drink, sir?” a flight attendant asked.

“Two Diet Doctor Peppers with ice,” Adam said. She nodded and moved away to get their drinks.

As they hadn’t taken off yet, Harry had not put his phone in airplane mode. So he heard it plainly when a notification sounded. It wasn’t his father, and it wasn’t Adam, as he’d assigned both of them a special notification sound so that he would know it was them when they texted.

Everyone else had the same sound, and Harry knew he didn’t have to look at his phone for them if he didn’t want to. But now, he brightened the screen and saw an unknown number sitting there with a Wyoming area code and the first few words that said, This is Belle.

His heart had never pumped so hard, not even when he ran miles in preparation for a concert tour. And this year, he didn’t have to do that, as he’d be playing small venues around Coral Canyon and live-streaming his concerts for the next three months.

Rebel had paid for his band to come to Coral Canyon with him, and he had his drummer, a guitar player, a keyboard player, and his backup singers staying in a big rental house up the canyon where Uncle Blaze and Uncle Jem lived.

He actually had been praying and hoping that they wouldn’t kill each other in that big house. But thankfully, when Rebel had asked him to stay there too, Harry had been able to decline. It was nowhere in his contract, and he wanted his own place in Coral Canyon.

He’d just been home for the past couple of days to sign the papers and pay for the house, and his father currently had the keys and garage code. Harry had walked around Hilde’s furniture store and picked out the things he wanted, and he knew without a doubt that everything would be ready for him when he returned in a couple of weeks.

Daddy, Uncle Otis, Bryce, and Uncle Tex were making the flight to Nashville to help him pack, and then they’d all drive back together with Harry and Adam. He expected to be settled in Coral Canyon before the end of April. That plan might change , he told himself as he tapped to open Belle’s full text.

As promised, here are the details of my vacation , she said. I need to be in Tallahassee before a judge tomorrow, where hopefully I’ll get permission to go through some homeless shelter records there for a missing persons case that I need to wrap up.

Another text came in while he read.

Then I plan to be in Destin for five nights from Thursday to Tuesday, when I then fly back to Jackson Hole. I’ll send you the link for where I’m staying.

And finally: It is a two-bedroom condo. And if that’s not too weird for you, I’m happy to have you stay in the second bedroom.

A link to the place where she’d be staying followed that and concluded her flurry of text messages. Harry wanted nothing more but to fly there right now, cover every square foot of that condo in rose petals and candles and all of her favorite foods—from cashew chicken to meatloaf to pepperoni pizza with Alfredo sauce—and be waiting for her in the kitchen when she arrived on Thursday. His thumbs flew as the plane continued to taxi down the jetway.

Thanks so much, Belle. It really was so great to see you. I’ve got a few things to do and tie up with Adam, and I’ll let you know when I can make it to Florida. He’d no sooner hit send on that text before Adam asked, “What are you smiling about, cowboy?”

Harry looked over to him as if he needed an explanation. He’d had Adam clear the entire area where Belle had been sitting simply so Harry could go talk to her, for crying out loud.

“Belle texted,” he said, and he handed Adam his phone.

Adam read the short messages quickly and said, “You’re going to Destin, Florida?” with plenty of incredulity in his voice.

Harry leaned back and closed his eyes. “Yes,” he said. “I want to go to Destin, Florida, with Belle on her vacation.” She had been undercover for months, and he hadn’t heard from her. He’d thought about her every single day, though. He’d written her several times and mailed those letters to the Sheriff’s office. He’d never once gotten a reply. He wondered if Belle had really gotten the messages the way she’d said her boss would pass them along.

He had not dated anyone else in the past ten months. He didn’t need anyone while he recorded his album, because no one was Belle. He wasn’t interested in anyone other than her, and he didn’t need the experience of asking out women and going on first dates.

Adam sighed heavily, telling Harry that he was being maybe a little irrational, plenty insufferable, and probably demanding. But Harry had talked about Belle plenty of times, so many that Adam surely knew how he felt about her still.

As the plane picked up speed, Harry relived his kiss with Belle during Bryce’s wedding for probably the hundredth time .

“Can you do it?” Harry asked. “What’s my schedule like?”

“Of course we can do it,” Adam said quietly, handing Harry his phone. He opened his eyes to take it and swiped and tapped to put it in airplane mode before he tucked it into the pocket in the seat in front of him. “Destin from Nashville is probably an hour,” Adam said. “And it’s a really popular vacation spot in Florida. We should have no trouble getting a flight.”

“In first class, in the second row?” Harry asked.

“Heck, you could probably drive it,” Adam said. “Then you’d have a car. You could leave whenever you want.”

The flight attendant didn’t return with their drinks, which made sense as the plane was literally taking off right now. Harry wished he had something to distract himself from this conversation.

“Are you planning to go the whole time?” Adam asked. “Maybe just Friday and Saturday? What are you thinking?”

Harry was thinking he wanted to see Belle as much as possible, hear all of her stories—or at least any that she could tell him—and share all of his with her from the past ten months.

Sometimes he couldn’t believe that ten months had passed without her, and other days had been agonizingly slow, or he’d been in a bad mood—angry, irritable, and near tears—that he hadn’t been able to see her or talk to her. He wondered if she felt the same, and he needed to find out.

“I’d like to go on Thursday,” he said. “It’s only Monday. That gives me Tuesday and Wednesday to do whatever I need to do.”

“What you need to do, Harry,” Adam said. “Is continue coordinating with Morris about your upcoming live-stream concerts and go through your apartment. I imagine you can take a few days off from both of those to go to Destin.”

“I’d imagine so,” Harry agreed.

Adam said nothing more, though Harry knew he’d just caused a mountain of work for the man. Arranging travel for Harry was no small feat, and Adam usually handled it weeks or months in advance, so that he’d be able to speak to the proper authorities and make sure that Harry had the security clearance and privacy that he required.

“What do you think I should do?” Harry asked.

“Do, sir?” Adam asked.

“Stay with her?” Harry wondered out loud. “Or get my own place nearby?”

“Well,” Adam said. “It’s the first week of April and probably a very popular time in Destin. We should see if there are any places available at all before you make that decision.”

“Hmm, true,” Harry said. “Will you look into that for me?”

“Yes,” Adam said. “You don’t think you want to stay with her?”

“I think she might not want me to stay with her,” Harry said. “It might not be about what I want. And I need to look at the floor plan of that place to see if it’s even big enough for two of us. ”

Secretly, Harry wanted to be right at Belle’s side. He knew he’d acted a little overeager by holding her hand within the first ten seconds of sitting down—and then inviting himself on her vacation with her?

An overeager beaver, he was.

This trip to Destin was probably the first vacation she’d taken in years. Coming to his uncle’s wedding surely hadn’t been a vacation, though they had gone out. Harry suddenly realized he had so much more to learn about Belle. She’d obviously gone back to the missing persons unit with the Teton County Sheriff’s Department, and he wondered if that’s where she wanted to be.

She’d had to give up her cats, and he wanted to know if she’d gotten them back.

She’d sold her house, and Harry knew that because he’d seriously considered buying it for her and holding on to it until she returned from her undercover assignment. In the end, he decided that would be irrational and coming on way too strong for where they were in their relationship. And he’d watched the house go to someone else.

Harry didn’t doze, but after he drank his Diet Dr. Pepper and the flight attendant had cleared away the cup, he closed his eyes again, reclined the seat, and let his fantasies about Belle run wild. Now that he’d seen her again, talked to her, even if it was only for ten minutes, his appetite for her had been whetted, and he needed to have her in his life.

Jackson Hole sat an hour away from Coral Canyon, and Harry couldn’t help wondering if Belle could make the move to the small Wyoming town that he loved so much, where all of his family lived and where they could start to build a life together.

You’re not going to ask her on this vacation , he told himself sternly. You’re going to use it to get to know her again, get caught up, and then hopefully pick up where you left off at Bryce’s wedding.

They’d had a couple of phone dates after that, and then he’d buried himself in making his third album, and Belle had simply gone off the grid. She hadn’t told him when or where, as that was the whole nature of going undercover. But as he flew back to Nashville from Coral Canyon for hopefully the last time, Harry’s heart expanded and grew and ballooned with hope upon hope upon hope that the timing for him and Belle was finally right.