Page 25 of The Law of Attraction
He looked down at their clasped hands and another asymmetrical smile curved his mouth. “I can probably let go of you now.”
“Okay.”
He loosened his fingers and shifted his hand into his own lap. The spot on her thigh where his hand had been resting felt warmer than the rest of her leg. Her fingers felt warm too, and they were tingling where they had touched his. A phantom sensation of pressure lingered. If she closed her eyes, it would almost feel like he was still holding her hand.
There was a crackle of static as the pilot came back on the intercom. “Hey, folks. You’ve probably noticed we’ve moved out of the turbulence. That’s because we’re no longer headed toward Houston Bush Intercontinental, which has been put on a ground stop due to bad weather. We’ve been directed to land at DFW instead. We should have you on the ground in Dallas in about forty minutes, and once you’re there, the gate agents will help you make arrangements to complete the rest of your journey. We apologize for the inconvenience, but sometimes Mother Nature has her own ideas.”
There were a few groans and grumbles around the cabin, but most people were too grateful to have made it out of the turbulence alive to complain too much.
“Dallas,” Adam said hollowly. “We’re going to Dallas.”
That was two hundred miles north of where they needed to be, which meant two extra hours of driving they couldn’t afford.
There were no cars available for rent. Their rental car reservation was for Houston, and all the cars at the Dallas airport were either rented out already or reserved.
“Are you kidding me?” Adam said to the rental car agent. “What are we supposed to do? Just live here?”
The agent’s smile turned hard and glassy. “You could try one of the other rental car desks, sir, but I can promise you they don’t have any cars available either.”
Olivia put her hand on Adam’s arm and pushed him aside. “I’m sorry,” she said to the agent in her sweetest voice, letting her Texas accent out again. “You’ll have to forgive us. We just got off the scariest flight of our lives, and we’re both a little shaken up still.”
The agent’s expression softened. “Weather’s pretty bad down south, I heard.”
Olivia nodded, squinting to read the agent’s name off his tag. “I swear, Glen, for a minute I thought we were all about to meet our maker. But we made it.” She offered him a watery smile. “Now we just have to get ourselves to Fayette County. It’s about seventy miles outside Austin? I don’t suppose there’s anything you can do? We’re desperate.”
“I wish I could, but there’s hundreds of people stranded here in pretty much the same boat. We rented out our last car three hours ago.” He sounded genuinely sorry.
“You’ve got other locations around the city though, right? Is there any chance one of them has a car available?”
“Possibly.” He gave her a smile and a nod. “Let me see what I can do.”
“Thank you so much!” When Olivia turned back to Adam, he was watching her with an odd look on his face. “What?”
“You’re good at that.”
“What?”
“Getting people to like you.”
“It’s called being nice. You should try it sometime.”
He shook his head slightly. “I’m not as good at it as you are.”
“You just need practice, that’s all. It’s not like it’s an innate talent.”
“Maybe for some people. Others seem able to do it unconsciously, like they rolled a natural twenty for their charisma score.”
She blinked at him. “Did you just say ‘natural twenty’?”
“It’s a D&D term.”
“I know what it is. Do you play D&D?”
“I used to.” His eyes narrowed. “Do you?”
“I also used to play.” Mostly in college. She hadn’t been part of an active group in years. “And for the record, I wasn’t blessed with a high charisma score. I actually have to work at it, which is what most people do.”
He shrugged. “I guess I prefer to stick to things I’m good at.”
