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“I really wanted to be there with her when she died. She doesn’t really trust anyone else. I thought she’d make it at least a few more weeks. She’s twenty, and she’s been fighting cancer for a long time,” I explained, my voice cracking with emotion.
“Come here,” Leo said and opened his arms.
Generally, I’d be the last woman to throw myself into the arms of a male stranger, but I felt so lost, and Leo looked so…comforting.
He immediately wrapped his powerful arms around me, and I snapped.
I started to cry, a great big ugly cry that I couldn’t stop.
“We’ll stop and pick up your suitcases from Damian’s place, and I can get my jet ready to fly,” he said in a soothing baritone once my sobs slowed down. “I was planning on leaving for the States tomorrow, but there’s nothing stopping me from going now. We can try to get there before she’s gone.”
I pulled back to look at him. “You’d do that? Seriously?”
Every moment counted, and leaving earlier than tomorrow could make a difference.
“It’s not exactly an inconvenience,” he assured me.
God, I really wanted to take him up on his offer, but I didn’t even know Leo Lancaster. He was just another wedding guest—the new brother-in-law of my best friend.
Yeah, we’d chatted about the work he’d done as a wildlife biologist, but flying alone with him could be…uncomfortable, and I was the queen of awkwardness when it came to men.
I was a lot less ill at ease with animals.
But Leo had been so…nice.
It’s a twelve-hour flight. You’ll be sleeping for most of it. What’s the worst thing that could happen when you’ll hardly see each other?
And it was highly possible that I could be home with Karma when she passed, which was something I desperately needed.
I hadn’t been ready to say goodbye when I’d left for London.
I hadn’t thought I needed to do it.
I blinked as I continued to look up at him and saw the sincerity in his gaze.
God, he was tall.
He smiled as he said, “I’ve been out in remote locations for a long time, so I’m not sure how much civilized conversation I can make. I’ve been a bit of a loner.”
I stepped back from him. “That’s okay. We’ll be in bed.” My cheeks flushed. “I mean, we’ll be…sleeping.”
Oh, Good Lord, Macy, stop talking.
If I had to talk to Leo Lancaster, I was far better off sticking to wildlife biology.
I had no doubt he was joking about not being a good conversationalist. He was cultured, polished, and had seemed perfectly comfortable chatting with a variety of people at the reception.
I, on the other hand, was the epitome of social anxiety at its worst.
Put me in a clinical setting with my animal patients, and I could talk to any other professional just fine.
Toss me into a crowd of people I didn’t know, and I had no idea what to say most of the time.
I didn’t have Nicole’s sophistication as a corporate attorney or Kylie’s gift of communicating as a PR expert.
It’s just twelve hours. Think about Karma.
I plastered a smile on my face and said to Leo, “I’m ready to go whenever you are.”
He nodded and led the way out of the library.
