Chapter One

“ W hat do you mean, it’s seventy-five dollars a bag?” Reese drained her peppermint mocha noisily, sucking on the green plastic straw like it was a Xanax lollipop. “I paid fifty each for those two!”

“Yes, ma’am, but it’s fifty per bag for the first two, and seventy-five each for anything after that, with a maximum of five checked bags. If you intend to take anything other than your carry-on and your two checked bags, Flightlife recommends you send your luggage ahead and ship it to your destination.” The woman at the customer service desk was a model of patience and politeness, her red lips smiling on her dark brown face and her holly earrings matching a pin on her shoulder.

It’s Christmas Eve eve. Everyone is trying to get home for Christmas. I’m trying to get home for good—with next to no planning and an almost maxed-out credit card . I’m allowed to whine—a little. Right?

“I didn’t know I was going to need to bring all of my stuff. My boyfriend—ex-boyfriend—had all of my stuff packed and the locks changed. I didn’t even get to take my spider plants!” Reese swallowed the edge of a wail in her voice. “Next time, I promise I’ll ship my stuff ahead, but I didn’t have a chance. Can I please get some kind of exception? Fifty dollars for three or something?”

The clerk’s face was sympathetic. “I’m not supposed to do this—but here’s a voucher for twenty-five dollars for any food kiosk in the airport. Dinner is on us—but the baggage cost is still on you.”

With a heavy sigh, Reese pulled out her credit card. “Thank you.”

DERRICK SHOVED HIS earbuds in and turned up his Chopin playlist. Chopin was passionate but orderly. Piano was the music of all well-ordered people with a big to-do list and a tight timeline.

And if he heard Mariah Carey screech out All I Want for Christmas is You one more time, he was going to puke.

“You can only listen to a song seventy-nine times before you go insane,” he muttered, plugging in his laptop and scooting the hard gray chair close to the outlet. “It’s that eightieth time that causes murderous rampages.”

“Whoa, there, buddy. Probably shouldn’t use those words in an airport.”

Derrick looked up, startled. A woman with long caramel brown hair, a candy cane sweater, and arms overflowing with fast food wrappers was sliding into the seat beside him.

Why me?

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

“I saw the way you slammed your earbuds in. Are you Christmas caroled out?”

Even though he hated to be interrupted when he was in the midst of his carefully planned out to-do list, Derrick took a minute to smile and chuckle with the human tornado next to him. “Not all Christmas songs. Just that one. I prefer my Christmas music more traditional.”

“Mm, not me. I like a mix of everything. But still, anything played that many times in an hour is criminal. Torture.”

“Ah, might not want to mention those words in an airport,” Derrick parried and took a second look at the woman as she divested herself of several bags, an armful of cups, bottles, and wrappers, and a neon pink laptop case.

“Touché. I think they’re playing the same four songs on repeat. The only one I like at this point is Jingle Bell Rock .” The woman sank back in the seat, and her phone promptly burst into a cascading series of electric tones.

“I’ll let you take that,” Derrick said in some relief, pushing up the volume and hoping to get lost in his last few tasks before he let himself go on break for the holiday.

Finish emails to clients

Read over Greg’s proposal and give the okay to send to Accounting

Check for replies by 7 pm take-off

With a swipe of his finger, he moved from his work to-do list to his personal to-do list.

Text Mom and Dad to let them know when I’m on the plane.

Check to make sure packages are still on track for Christmas Eve delivery

Text Kevin and Marina to make sure they took in any mail and packages

“I don’t know, Mom! It came out of nowhere. No, there wasn’t a hint. Not a single hint. Mom, why would I lie? I got thrown out on my ass—what? Mom, I’m thirty-two. I say ass. Okay, okay, stop. No, don’t get Dad! I got thrown out on my butt. Huh? No, I’m not going to lose my job. I can work in Pine Ridge. I’m fully remote.”

Derrick didn’t mean to listen in. It was just that he never heard his hometown of Pine Ridge mentioned in “the wild.” It was pretty small, and he felt like he knew most people who lived there—or at least knew of them. Most people who were flying to the Buffalo airport were staying in Buffalo—or near it. Pine Ridge was hours away and on the other side of the state. He was only flying there because his carefully planned and coordinated schedule had him spending until December 23rd in San Francisco and all the flights from San Francisco to Binghamton were booked.

What are the odds two people from a tiny berg like Pine Ridge would end up on a flight from San Fran to Buffalo?

“Can I stay in my old room until I get an apartment? I’m thinking I might just save up for a townhouse at this point. I’m going to be single and have a dozen cats. What? No, I’m not going to ‘get back on the horse,’ Mother. God, I thought I didn’t have any tears left. What? No, I know Jeff never proposed, but when you live with someone for a year , Mom, you—”

A silvery wrapper suddenly landed on his laptop. The woman beside him had pulled out a bag of chocolate and peppermint drops and was starting to cry as she dug into them.

I’m going to move.

“Sorry!” the woman mouthed, reaching over to get her wrapper.

“No, no, I got it—oh!”

He moved. She grabbed.

Her fingers hit the trackpad, and a half-finished email went soaring through cyberspace to one of his biggest clients.

“Sorry!” she yelped. “Hold on, Mom!”

“No, no, I got it. I have to be fast, but I can unsend,” Derrick hissed as he stood and snatched the computer back, breathing a sigh of relief when he was able to stop the errant email.

The woman stood beside him as well, releasing a shower of silvery candies to the ground.

“Whoa!” Someone wheeling a loaded baggage cart skidded to avoid stepping on them, and the rack of luggage tumbled down.

“I’ll get that,” the woman cried.

“Candy!”

“No, Brayden, no candy! No candy!”

Derrick gathered his things hastily. His quiet work area was now filled with two uniformed members of terminal staff, several people trying to pick up luggage and candy, several kids trying to get the candy, and frantic parents trying to corral them to prevent it.

“Mom? Are you still there? I’ll call you back.”

Dumpster. Fire. I wonder who she is? I think I’d remember anyone that chaotic in a town as small as Pine Ridge.

REESE BLEW HER NOSE on a cheap paper napkin and scrubbed at her eyes.

The napkin came away red. “Oh, my God!” She put a hand to her temple and then over her eyelid. Am I bleeding? How? Where? Did I cut myself? Scratch myself on the ‘promise’ ring Jeff gave me? Surprised he didn’t ask for it back. What sort of thirty-year-old man gives a woman a promise ring for their six-month anniversary? After six months, grown-ass people know.

Reese yanked her cell phone up to her face and stared into the camera.

“Oh, good.” No blood. Ketchup. She’d wiped her teary eyes with a ketchup-smeared napkin from the overpriced airport burger joint. Even the twenty-five dollar voucher from the nice clerk hadn’t paid for her dinner, with a fifteen-dollar burger, five-dollar soda, and eight-dollar fries.

“At least I can afford to live on my own in Pine Ridge,” she muttered, standing and pacing. Every seat in the terminal was full now. Kids were crying and fighting over iPads while their parents were talking eagerly about in-flight alcohol. Husbands and wives were bickering and rooting through bags for gum and Immodium.

But they’re together. Everyone is flying with family, probably to go see more family. This was going to be my first Christmas without Mom and Dad—spending it with my boyfriend’s parents. A right of passage, right? Finally happening at thirty-two, lucky me.

Not.

Reese’s eyes strayed over to the man she’d sat next to earlier, the one still working away on his laptop. He had dark hair with bangs that kept falling over his glasses. Every few seconds he raised one hand in between steadily typing, brushed it back, and then returned his hand to the keys in perfect rhythm.

Probably keeping the beat with whatever Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole noise he’s got playing in his earbuds.

I think Mr. Workaholic and I are the only ones traveling alone. I wonder who he’s going to meet in Buffalo? Wife? Fianceé? Parents?

Another fall of bangs, another swoosh of hand—no ring.

No ring, huh? Well, some men won’t wear them.

Stop staring.

He’s cute, sure, but I’m not the rebound type.

Am I?

Stop thinking like that. You’ll never see him again after you get off the plane—maybe even after you get out of this terminal. He looks like a first-class type, and you’re strictly economy.

“OH, HELLO, AGAIN.” Derrick squeezed into his window seat as a blinding flash of neon pink came level with his cheek.

“Oh, hey! I’m so sorry about your email! Did you manage to save it?” the woman asked, collapsing into the seat next to him with a startled cry. “Sorry!” she called to the person behind her—or maybe she was apologizing to him. Or to the man she’d just bumped into and him. Without even knowing her name, Derrick felt like he could bet a twenty on the fact that this woman went through life jumping from one series of minor mishaps to the next.

And she’s sitting next to me. On an airplane.

If this was a movie, the scary music would start just now.

The man on the aisle seat clicked his seatbelt into place, pulled an eye shade over his eyes, and started snoring almost at once. Across the aisle, the woman who was presumably his wife pulled out an identical eye shade and did the same thing.

“Wish I could do that. On the other hand, I didn’t take two Sleepisoms thirty minutes ago,” Cute-but-Chaotic whispered.

“Oh, are you traveling with them?” Derrick asked, breaking his rule not to engage strangers on long flights in conversation.

“No, no. I—I’m traveling home for Christmas. For good. Alone.”

She’s going to start crying again, Derrick thought with panic as he shoved himself over as far as he could, watching the lady blink and take deep breaths while wrestling with her bag, purse, laptop case, and a wad of paper napkins. “Um—family in Buffalo?” he asked, purely for distraction purposes, dodging a paperback that flew from the bag as she finally seemed to settle.

“Hm? Oh, no. Pine Ridge, New York. It’s like an hour away from the PA state border, up in the mountains.”

Well, I started—and now I can’t stop. Derrick, you idiot, this is why you don’t engage in conversations. “That’s crazy! I’m from Pine Ridge, too. I would normally have flown into—”

“Binghamton, but all the flights were booked?” Her tearful eyes widened as she beamed at him like a long-lost friend.

Shit, I like that feeling. His whole chest seemed to fill with bubbles of light when she grinned at him, excitement and hope in her eyes.

“Exactly! I have to travel for work a few times a year, and this trip was scheduled just a week ago. All flights were already booked.”

“Tell me about it. I had to pull this together in tw-twenty-four hours.” The edge of a tremor came back into her voice. “My boyfriend—ex-boyfriend, I guess, threw me out. Changed the locks and everything. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to my spider plants.”

“That sucks. Right at Christmas, too.”

“Uh-huh. He was leaving today to drive to Tahoe to be with his family for Christmas. I was going to go with him and meet them for the first time. We were packing together yesterday morning for the trip. Then I went out to pick up a gift I’d special ordered, and when I got home last night—not only were my bags packed for the week—but he’d packed everything .”

“Oh, my God. That’s crazy. What a jerk.” Derrick uttered the polite phrases one was expected to say upon hearing about scummy break-ups, but he actually felt a tide of anger rising in him, bursting all the excited bubbles she’d created with her smile.

“Yeah. Sorry. Chronic oversharer when I’m dealing with drama. Or trauma. It keeps me off the hard stuff,” she forced a laugh and finally noticed he was holding her paperback. She gently retrieved it from his outstretched hand. “Candy?”

“No, thanks.”

“Are you sure? I’ve got chocolate and peanut butter, and chocolate and peppermint?” she started rummaging in one of the bags.

The need to stop her from pulling out one more thing and adding to the little puddle of chaos next to him was overwhelming. “No! I’m good, really. So—Pine Ridge? It’s not really a tiny town, but I feel like I know almost everyone—or I know someone who knows them. I’m Derrick. Derrick Walters.”

“Oh, my gosh. Are you Chrissy Walters' brother?”

“Her cousin!”

“I went to high school with her! We graduated together!”

“Ohhh, that’s probably why we didn’t bump into each other. If you were in the same class as Chrissy, I had already left for college.”

“I’m thirty-two.”

“Thirty-six.”

“Just missed each other! I didn’t move to Pine Ridge until middle school.”

“Yeah, so we would have missed each other there, too.” Derrick smiled and waited for the woman to realize that she hadn’t introduced herself.

“Oh! I’m Reese Brittijn.”

Nope. Never heard that last name in town growing up. “That’s a new name for me.”

“It’s Dutch. Or did you mean the first one? It’s like the candy,” she winked.

He had to laugh. “I meant the last one. Brittijn?”

“Very good! Pronounced it right on the first try!” Reese beamed at him, and those silly bubbles came back. “So, you have family in Pine Ridge?”

“Mhm. Lived there my whole life—except for college.”

“That’s so funny, because I actually went to college in town, at NYU Pine Ridge, obviously, and then I left and only come back around the holidays—unless my family travels. My dad still has family in Holland and Belgium, so sometimes we just fly there.”

“Cool, cool. Yeah, that’s funny. I’m a homebody. I have to travel for work, but I plan everything out so nothing interferes with my schedule at home. My family time.”

Was it his imagination, or did her eyes dim a little when he said family time?

Well, duh. She just lost her boyfriend and his family, whatever they meant to her.

“Well, I bet your kids will be glad that you’re home in time for Christmas,” Reese said, voice slightly thick even as she tried to hang onto her smile.

“Well, my nieces and nephews, sure. I’m not the ‘fun uncle,’ but I’m the uncle who gives money and gift cards to the toy store.”

“Hey, that sounds like fun to me. Everyone needs that uncle. I’m the wacky fun aunt. You know, the one who still gets involved in the pillow fights and takes my nieces to see the gingerbread building competition at the high school, even though it’s way past their bedtime.”

Derrick smiled. “Now I know you’re from Pine Ridge. My mom used to force my sisters and me to compete in the junior division until we got smart and started eating all the supplies as soon as she gave them to us. To this day, I can’t see a red or green gumdrop without thinking of being grounded.” Derrick shook his head and smiled ruefully. Reese was very easy to talk to. He might not mind the six-hour flight...which really needed to get moving.

Other people on the jam-packed flight had noticed, too. A veteran of work-related travel, Derrick sensed the shift from “getting settled muttering” to “impatient muttering” and observed the uptick of anxious neck-craning. Next to him, Reese’s smooth brown brows were sliding into a vee of confusion. “Is it actually almost eight?”

“Eight?” Their departure time was seven.

A member of the flight crew stood in front of the seats. The muttering calmed as people expected her to begin giving out the safety instructions. Instead, she began, “Ladies and gentlemen... There’s a problem with the plane ahead of us. The captain is requesting everyone deplane until further notice, but stay in the terminal. We may be able to take off by midnight.”

“Midnight?” Reese gasped.

“Midnight!” Derrick winced at the onslaught of noise around them.

“This is crazy. Tow the other plane off the runway!” someone yelled behind them.

“I have a connection in Buffalo to London!” another tearful, over-stressed voice rang out.

“This is bad,” Reese murmured, her hand suddenly in his, her eyes wide. “What do we do?”

“Do?” We? Since when is there a we?

But he didn’t let go of her hand.

“All of my stuff is on this plane, and I—”

“If you have a connecting flight, someone at the Flightlife desk inside the airport will be able to—”

The flight attendant stopped speaking abruptly as a loud “ding” came from overhead. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for flying with Flightlife today. This is your captain speaking. Unfortunately, we’ve just heard from the tower that a sudden severe weather pattern has blown up over the Rockies that is grounding all flights to the northeast. This is unrelated to the previous delay. Due to the severe storms, this flight is canceled. Your luggage will be returned to the baggage claim within the next few hours, and the friendly staff at the Flightlife counter will help—”

Derrick never heard what the friendly staff would do because, at that point, a travel-size bottle of shampoo whizzed over his head and hit the flight attendant in the shoulder, bouncing off her red and gray uniform in a parabola that would have been comical—if it wasn’t a federal offense to mess with any member of the flight crew.

“Fly around the Rockies! Just skip over Colorado!” a drunken voice slurred.

“Fly over the storm!” a younger, whinier voice demanded.

“Someone didn’t take geography in school,” Reese whispered.

The flight attendant approached the slurring and whining passengers in the middle section of the plane.“Sir, ma’am, I’m going to have to—”

“There goes the conditioner,” Derrick muttered as another tiny bottle flew squarely into the attendant’s chest. “ That person won’t ever fly again.”

“All right! U.S. Marshall service! Sir, ma’am, you’re coming with me!”

“This is insane,” Derrick watched wide-eyed as a tall, Chuck Norris type rose from the front row of the plane, badge over his head and zip ties emerging from his pocket.

Reese gave a tearful gulp beside him.

It was purely instinct to squeeze her hand and tuck it under his arm. “Don’t worry. You’ll get another flight.”

I kinda hope we get on the same one!