Page 145 of Drive
Jacques dug out his phone to text Rainey. As soon as he turned off airplane-mode, a text from her camethrough.
Rainey:I’m here! Can’t wait to seeyou!
He grinned.In the days since Jacques had called and found Rainey behind the wheel of her sister’s car, she’d driven daily, going farther each time. The three-mile trip to the airport was nothing to her now, but Jacques still marveled at her progress. He textedback.
Jacques:Just landed. Can’t wait to holdyou.
He felta thrill as he typed the words. Not at their admission, but at their promise. Before boarding, he’d asked Gloria and Cliff to hang back with Ray for a minute or two so he could reach Rainey first. He wanted to be with her when she saw them, he’d explained, but more than that, he wanted a minute to have her to himself. To hold her and kiss her and reconnect with her before he gave her thissurprise.
It had been a long twoweeks.
The line of passengers stretching to the front of the plane, each jostling to grab carry-ons and laptop bags, seemed interminable. Jacques finally stood, retrieving his own bag and let his eyes meetRay’s.
“Two minutes, dude,remember?”
Ray held up his wristwatch. “One hundred twenty seconds starting… now!” He pressed a button, and his watchedbeeped.
Shit.
The kid didn’t mess around. Ever. Jacques hurried out of the plane and up and onto the skybridge. People in front of him, dragging roller cases and pushing strollers, moved at a snail’s pace. He bit back the urge to push past them or growl inimpatience.
But then he was in the terminal, and Rainey beamed at him from not thirty feet away. Of course, a glass partition and a security checkpoint separated them, but she was there, and Jacques’s own smile could not becontained.
He wove through the slow-moving crowd and out of the arrivals’ terminal, never so glad that Lafayette’s airport — orairporchas the locals called it — was sosmall.
Rainey crashed into him. He dropped his bag at his feet and crushed her against him, burying his nose in her lavender-wild-orange-scented hair, feeling her softness pressed against his chest, abs, thighs, and reveling in the tightness of her arms aroundhim.
He dipped down and pressed his lips to her ear. “Hey, baby,” hewhispered.
She tilted her chin up. “Hey—”
But he didn’t let her get further than that before his lips covered hers. She tasted sweeter than even he remembered. Impossible sweet. And her welcoming mouth was the most heavenly of homecomings. He wanted to kiss her for hours. Kiss her everywhere. Kiss her and love her until they both collapsed fromexhaustion.
But that would have towait.
He pulled back, but unable to make a clean break, he plied her mouth with three or four small kisses before he took a steadying breath and stood tallagain.
Rainey’s eyes scanned the crowd behind him. “Where are thegirls?”
Jacques peered through the security glass. No sign of any Heroines — or any Lopez-Craines. He gave a small sigh ofrelief.
“They were sitting toward the back of the plane.” This was true, but it wasn’t the whole truth. Not wanting to be delayed in reaching Rainey, Jacques had asked Kate to grab his Gibson along with Des’s bass, so they were likely waiting for the gate-check items to be off-loaded. “Let’s wait here for them.” He wrapped arms around Rainey and squeezed her to him. She tucked one arm behind his back and pressed the other one to his chest. Rainey looked up at him, her hazel eyes soft withhappiness.
“It’s so good to see you,” shemurmured.
He leaned down and tasted her kiss again, his heart clenching at the sound of love in hervoice.
“I love you,” he whispered against her mouth. And if she doubted how much, she was about to get undeniable proof. Still, Jacques felt like the gesture — though a gift he desperately wanted to give her — still could not capture what he felt forher.
“I love you, too,” she said, her smilegrowing.
Jacques straightened up and looked through the glass in time to see Cliff Craine step into the terminal. Their eyes locked, and Jacques gave him the slightest nod before turning Rainey in his arms so that her back was to theglass.
“So, I told you that I have a surprise for you,right?”
Her smile went full-strength, making her eyes squint with the force of it. “Yes,” she said,coyly.
He fought his own grin, but he wasn’t very successful. Behind her, Gloria and Ray emerged hand in hand, Ray beaming and Gloria wearing a tight, nervous smile, but a smilenonetheless.
