Ramón turned and headed into the terminal, thinking about the weekend, glad he’d made the trip to see Xavier take an honored place in Mexico’s judicial system.
“Good for him,” Ramón murmured to himself, a deep sense of satisfaction coming over him. He admired his older brother very much, and the age gap between the two had seemed to narrow over the years. It was as if the older they got, the closer they became, and now, even though they lived more than a thousand miles apart, they talked, texted or e-mailed each other almost every day.
Just as he entered the terminal, Ramón’s cell phone rang, breaking into his mental musing. Checking the phone’s screen, he saw that Keith Harris, his business partner in Houston, was calling. Punching the trackball, he greeted Keith, and was upset to hear that the installation of a security system for a major furniture retailer in Dallas was a week behind schedule. As the co-owner of the high-tech security company, Vida-Shield, Ramón was constantly putting out fires.
“Who’s at fault—the site foreman or the supplier?” Ramón asked Keith, pissed off that one of his most complicated jobs was only half finished and already over budget.
“Both,” Keith replied.
“Need me to fly straight into Dallas, instead of coming home?” Ramón asked, knowing he could not let this situation deteriorate any further.
“No,” Keith said. “I’m on my way up there now. I’ll check in after I get a handle on what’s happening.”
“Good. I’m about to board my plane. I’ll call as soon as I land,” Ramón replied, thankful that he had such a competent and trustworthy business partner.
Inside the terminal building, Ramón scanned the flight board for the gate number for Globus-Americas Airlines flight 565, eager to get home to Houston and back to work. Maybe then, he’d be able to get last night’s dance-floor kiss out of his mind.
Chapter Four
Moving up from the rear of the plane with an armload of pillows, Lori left her fellow crewmembers, Sam and Allen, hanging out in the back to monitor the dwindling space in the overhead bins. She squeezed past passengers stuffing bags of all shapes and sizes into the narrow bins, knowing that space was going quickly. Soon, leftover bags would need to be checked back at the plane’s main cabin door, tensions would begin to mount and wrestling oversized duffel bags from surly passengers would begin. However, the one-hour, fifty-five minute flight from Acapulco to Houston, with a short stop in Mexico City, would give everyone plenty of time to calm down.
Boarding always produced the most problems, snafus and complaints during a flight, stressing out the flight attendants, whose main goal was to get carry-ons stowed and everyone seated as quickly as possible so the captain could depart on time.
As soon as Lori reached the first-class cabin, she handed the pillows to a family of four seated in the last two rows and then took their drink requests. Two sodas for the kids and two champagne mimosas for the parents. Lori nodded her understanding at the harried-looking mother who seemed to have struggled to get her sullen preteens settled into their seats.
While Phyllis prepared the drinks, Lori approached passengers seated in the emergency exit rows to determine if they were willing and able to assist in case of an emergency. Even though one of the passengers was quite elderly, the wiry little man assured Lori that he was up to the task.
When Lori returned to the first-class cabin, she met the agent working the flight. The agent handed her a copy of the manifest, which listed first-class passengers, passengers with special needs or meals, and any gate connections. She glanced at it, turned to face the passengers seated in the forward cabin and started her walk-through to get a head count.
However, she had not taken two full steps when she froze in the center aisle, her eyes riveted on the man sitting by the window in row 2, seat A. Was it possible? Was that her mysterious dance partner from the night before, calmly leafing through a magazine? Quickly, she checked the passenger list. Ramón Vidal—destination: Houston, Texas. Squinting at him, she did a double take. Yes, he was the man who’d burned her lips with his fiery kiss and branded her heart with an ache that wouldn’t go away.
Drawing in a calming breath, she moved right up to the edge of his seat to make sure he saw her. “Well, hello,” Lori said, trying to sound as casual as if she’d just run into a classmate from her college days, aware that everyone in first class would hear every word she said.
Ramón lifted his head, slid his sexy brown eyes up to hers and then hit her with the most adorable half smile Lori had ever seen, making her body tense and her nerve endings flare.
“Well…hi. You work here?” Ramón asked, looking bewildered as he glanced around, half turning in his seat.
“That’s right. I’m Lori, your flight attendant and I’ll be taking care of you during our flight to Houston.” Even though the plane hadn’t left the tarmac yet, her insides were tumbling around as if they’d entered a rough patch of turbulence. She held on to the nearest seat back to maintain her balance and looked down at the manifest again, determined to hold her emotions together. “Uh, so, you’re Mr. Vidal, right?” she inquired, shifting her attention back to Ramón, thankful that no one was sitting beside him.
“Yes, that’s me…but you can call me Ramón,” he offered, giving Lori a wink that revved her pulse like a jet engine preparing to take off.
“Would you like something to drink?” she asked, slipping into her perkiest passenger-request mode, knowing she couldn’t ask him what was really zipping through her brain: Why did you kiss me and disappear? Why did you have to wind up on my flight? Why are you making me so damn nervous? Would you like to go dancing again?
“Oh…sure. Coffee. Black.” Ramón paused, reconsidered and then added, “And a Bloody Mary, too. Extra spicy.” He lifted his index finger, as if to stop her from moving on, his half grin exploding into a full-blown smile. “I hope you enjoyed yourself at the club last night. I sure did.” He rested his head against the back of his seat. A glittering ray of sunlight streamed through the cabin window and lit the teardrop earring in his left ear.
“Yes, I did have a good time,” Lori murmured, not about to expand on the topic as she pivoted away from Ramón and turned to the passengers across the aisle.
“Would you like something to drink?” she asked the Middle Eastern couple sitting across from Ramón. As soon as they’d given Lori their order, Ramón leaned across the empty seat next to him and forced Lori to glance back.
“So, you’re gonna give me first-class service all the way, right?” he teasingly called over to her.
Lori sent a scowl of warning at Ramón, whose sensuous expression was begging her to forget about helping the other passengers and sit down beside him so they could chat. But that would never happen. She had too much to do to let him become a distraction.
“Yes, sir, first-class service all the way,” Lori replied with a mental jerk, her words clipped and tight. “If you need anything at all during the flight, Mr. Vidal, don’t hesitate to ask,” she finished, ignoring his request for her to call him by his first name. “Globus-Americas wants you to be as comfortable as possible.”
“Thanks, I’m sure you’ll do everything to my satisfaction,” he assured her, pinning Lori with that same dark look he’d zapped her with in Club Azule.
Once they were airborne, Lori got busy serving passengers, but couldn’t escape Ramón’s insistent attempts to monopolize her attention. If she paused by his seat, he made some remark about his love of Acapulco and how much he looked forward to visiting the city again. When she bent down to hand him a drink, he would add a tidbit about some place she should try to see the next time she was there. As she walked