assess him. He was tall at around six-four, and appeared very fit, as though he worked out regularly. She thought his pecan complexion suited him, and his square-jawed face with a prominent nose and wide mouth only added to his physical appeal.
He stepped farther away, turning his back, as though to block anyone from hearing the conversation. Not that she wanted to hear him saying sweet things to his wife or girlfriend. A tiny piece of Holly felt envious, since she had no one at home waiting for her. But she had put loneliness on the back burner in favor of the rich life she had otherwise.
When it was announced that first-class passengers could board, Holly stood. It had been nice to have the brief chat with Anderson, but she doubted either of them had any room in their lives for one another in Houston.
She stood up and looked his way. He was so absorbed in his conversation that he didn’t even notice. She grabbed her bag, leaving the paper behind, and took her place in line.
* * *
When Anderson got off the phone, he noticed that the plane was boarding. He also saw that Holly was gone. Damn—he hadn’t gotten a chance to say goodbye.
Anderson grabbed his briefcase and headed for the plane. He definitely envisioned Holly as girlfriend material. She was gorgeous, sexy in an understated way, educated and obviously successful as a television personality.
But he seriously doubted that with her qualities she was just sitting around waiting for a man to pop into her life. He couldn’t get that lucky. Could he?
In any event, he realized it probably didn’t make much difference now since that window of opportunity had passed. For all he knew, she was sitting beside some dude on the plane who was busy trying to win her over.
Anderson boarded the plane. The moment he entered the cabin, he spotted Holly sitting all by her lonesome in a window seat in first class. It wasn’t till he checked his boarding pass that he realized, against all odds, that she was his seatmate.
And she was occupying his seat.
He grinned when she looked up at him. “Well, hello again,” he said.
“Hi.” Holly colored a little from the intensity of his stare. She peeked past him as if trying to point out that other people were in line behind him, waiting for him to proceed down the aisle.
“Looks like we’ll have time after all to finish the conversation we started,” he said with a glint of amusement in his eyes.
“Excuse me?” Her lashes fluttered at the notion.
“We’re sitting side by side,” Anderson said. “Actually, if you check your boarding pass, you’ll find that I have the window seat.”
“Really?” Holly pulled the slip of paper out of her purse, clearly surprised that she was in the wrong seat. “My mistake. I’ll be happy to move.”
Anderson dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “Don’t worry about it. I’m cool with the aisle seat.”
“Are you sure?”
“Positive. It’s easier for my long legs to get up and flex.” He also liked the idea of her being effectively stuck on the inside so there was no escaping him. After tossing his bag in the overhead bin, he slid into the seat next to her. Suddenly the normally dull flight to Houston had gotten a lot more intriguing.
Chapter 2
The flight was a bit bumpy, which made Holly a little nervous. Not to say that she was a fearful flier, but they were 30,000 feet in the air and she didn’t take anything for granted.
Somehow she felt comforted by Anderson’s masculine presence, as though it was his job to make sure nothing bad happened to her. It was a silly thought, especially considering that his close proximity also made her a little nervous. She usually felt that way whenever she was attracted to a man. Since it had been a while since she could say that, she hadn’t decided yet if that was a good or bad thing.
“Weekend morning anchor, huh?” Anderson commented, nursing a scotch on the rocks as he watched Holly sip some red wine.
“That’s me.” She wondered if he viewed that as a lesser position than anchoring the weekday noon news, which her good friend, Blythe Cramer, co-anchored with veteran newscaster Allan Kennedy.
“I have to be honest in saying that you’re even more beautiful in person—and that’s not a line.”
“Thank you,” Holly said, though still not sure if he was getting carried away with her looks. “But I’m not on television as an actress. I’m a serious journalist.”
“And you do your job very well,” he said, although he didn’t get to see her often enough on his big-screen television. That would have to change. “There is one thing I’ve always been curious about when watching newscasters—”
“Hmm...do I really want to know?” she asked, half joking.
“When you’re reporting all that bad news with murders, car accidents, robberies and the like, do you take that home with you or leave it at the job?”
Holly stared at him for a beat before offering a response. “Both,” she said diplomatically. “Of course, you wouldn’t be human if you could talk about such things and simply shut it off once you leave the desk. But, on the other hand, if you let it all get to you too much it would probably drive you crazy. Meaning you shouldn’t be in broadcast journalism.”
“Well-thought-out answer,” Anderson said, impressed.
“Just telling you how I feel.” She looked at him. “Do you take your work home, figuratively speaking?”
“I used to much more than I do now,” he responded thoughtfully. “These days I try to keep my business and personal life as separate as possible, which isn’t always easy.”
“So what happened to make you change?” Holly realized the question was delving further into his life than he may have cared to go. In which case, he would simply tell her it was off-limits. And that would be that. But since he had opened the line of questioning, she had every right to counter.
“It’s a long story,” Anderson said.
Holly refused to let him off the hook that easily. “Well, I’m not going anywhere, and since we still have more than two hours of flight time left...”
Anderson chuckled. He understood that if he was curious about her that it only stood to reason that she felt the same about him. After tasting his drink, he turned to her and said, “Fair enough. Back in the day, which was not so long ago, I was a hard-driving, overly ambitious attorney thinking only about my bank account and myself. It played havoc on my personal life and damn near everything else. I finally got smart and decided to try to turn things around. So I changed careers, mellowed out and am the better for it today.”
“Good for you,” Holly said.
“You’ll get no argument from me there.”
Holly smiled, but she was still curious about the man. She suspected that his past life also involved a woman, probably a wife.
Sensing
