Page 125 of Shadowing You

No, that wasn’t true. One thing made far too much sense.

Mei Lin set the phone face-down on her knee. She shouldn’t have read those messages, but now that she had, she couldn’t un-know what she’d learned.

It wasn’t that he’d been dating. Of course that bothered her, but he’d thought she was dead.

It was that she’d asked him. She’d asked him! They’d been standing in that hotel room, her cheek still warm from his hand, and she’d asked him if there was another woman.

“You’re the only woman I’ve ever loved.”

What a careful answer he’d come up with, and so quickly. She was almost impressed.

The question was, why? Why not tell her the truth? Why keep Holly a secret? And why not tell Holly what was going on?

Maybe he would have a good excuse for lying to her, but he had lied. Could she trust him to tell her the truth now? All of it?

Maybe he hadn’t told Mei Lin or Holly exactly what was going on because he wasn’t sure which one of them he wanted. He was keeping his options open.

Mei Lin closed the app and locked the screen. The dark glass caught her reflection—a too thin Chinese woman with short, flat hair and eyes she didn’t recognize.

She set the phone back in the center console exactly where she’d found it and faced the window and tried to figure out what she was going to do now.

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Ethan had been awake for an hour by the time Derrick pushed through the cockpit door and stepped into the aisle. “We’re about to start our descent. Get everything stowed.”

Ethan smiled at this cousin he barely knew. “Thanks.”

The pilot disappeared back the way he’d come.

Ethan couldn’t complain about the comfortable flight, even if his eyes felt sandblasted from too little sleep.

On the opposite side of the aisle, Gavin worked on his laptop, the screen casting blue light onto a face that hadn’t seen a razor in two days.

“Any news on Lu Feng?” Ethan asked.

“Not yet. I forwarded the information to my contact at State. I’m still waiting for a callback.” He closed the laptop. “There’s nothing more I can do from the air.”

Ethan shifted to look at the seat behind. Mei Lin had moved back to that row while he was sleeping. Maybe she hadn’t wanted to wake him.

Her body was curled toward the window. He slid in beside her and brushed two fingers across her forehead.

Her eyes opened, and she shifted away from his touch. She must have been awake already, maybe trying to sleep.

He pressed his palm against her forehead to check her temperature, and though she didn’t move this time, she stiffened.

It was curious. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine.” She adjusted her seat and carefully folded the blanket.

“You sure?”

“Yes.”

“Derrick said⁠—”

“I heard him.”

She seemed irritated, but at what, Ethan had no idea. He stood to grab a water bottle from the row ahead, then a pill bottle.