CHAPTER 2

CHAPTER

2

W

hen Lindsay finally arrived at the airport, the harried-looking staff member at the check-in desk tapped the keys and scanned the monitor in front of her. “I’m sorry, miss. That flight left about half an hour ago.” Lindsay stared at the blinking red nose on the reindeer pinned to the woman’s lapel and tried not to cry.

One glance at Lindsay’s face had her tapping some more keys. “Let me see what we can do about getting you on the next flight out.”

Lindsay held her breath until the woman spoke again.

“Looks like we have one more flight to the island this evening.” She glanced at her watch. “Scheduled to board in about fifteen minutes. Do you have any bags to check?”

Lindsay shook her head and swallowed the lump in her throat.

“All right, then, honey. Here’s your boarding pass. You’re going to need to fly like Santa’s reindeer to get there before your sleigh takes off. The flight’s still showing as delayed, so if you hustle, you’ve got a shot.”

There was still a chance she could make it!

Since breaking her neck would put a real hitch in her plans, Lindsay stepped out of her red heels and clutched them in her hand. She knew she was turning heads as she raced through the airport, but she really, really needed to make that last flight.

The hallway was basically a holiday obstacle course. She dodged stressed-out-looking family groups, cut around a couple in the middle of a huge fight, and leaped over a top hat that a group of carollers had set out to collect donations.

The aroma of cinnamon and freshly roasted coffee beans had Lindsay jonesing for a hit of caffeine as she ran past the coffee kiosk.

She was out of breath by the time she closed in on her gate, and she vowed to spend more time on cardio in the new year if she could just make it home tonight.

And it really looked like she’d made it. Until she crashed to a halt in front of the gate to find herself at the back of an upset mob.

She turned to an older lady in a blinking Christmas tree sweater. “What’s going on?”

The woman nodded towards the big electronic board behind the desk, her antler headband bobbing. “They told us they just had to de-ice the plane and then we could board. Now that sign is saying

cancelled

instead of

delayed

.”

Lindsay felt the panic well up. Cancelled was bad. Cancelled was not getting home tonight. She was already going to be in the doghouse with her family, but she might have to take up permanent residence there if she missed the wedding completely.

With a sigh, she put her shoes on the floor and shoved her feet back into them, ignoring her screaming blisters.

Clearly this was her punishment for quitting school and lying to her parents about it.