McCall - Touchstone by Sharon Sala

Author:Sharon Sala
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 1999-12-15T07:00:00+00:00

Eleven

“Passengers, please prepare for landing. Return your seat backs to their upright positions and fasten your tray tables. We will be touching down in just a few minutes. Enjoy your stay in the New York area, and on behalf of the captain and all of the crew, thank you for flying Continental.”

Houston glanced up at the passing flight attendant and then took a deep breath. Enjoy? That might be damn near impossible. But he pulled the seat belt a little tighter across his lap and then turned to the window to his left.

It was night now. Almost midnight. There’d been hell to pay getting a flight out of Midland-Odessa airport, but he’d done it. Then the connecting flight in Dallas had been late. He kept thinking of Rachel, hurt and alone in a hospital room, and he wanted to cry. He was scared—as scared as he’d ever been in his life. But not for himself. For Rachel.

He stared down at the city below, trying to picture the Rachel he knew being happy in a place like this. She’d always liked space and privacy, and being able to run barefoot whenever she chose. He couldn’t yet distinguish individual buildings, but there was a blanket of lights as far as the eye could see. That meant people. Millions of people. He shuddered. But Rachel had chosen to come here. And she’d stayed. Maybe he didn’t know her as well as he’d thought. Maybe that was part of the reason she’d left him. Maybe he hadn’t allowed her to be herself because he was too busy loving the woman he wanted her to be. He closed his eyes and let his head drop back against the seat. As long as she was alive, he would ask no more.

The plane began to descend. A short while later Houston was in a taxi on his way to Bellevue Hospital.

Mikeowitz had gone home hours ago. After being assured that Rachel was resting comfortably and could not receive visitors before tomorrow, Maris had also gone home a little after nine P.M.

But neither Esther nor Jules had been willing to budge. Each sat within sight of the door to Rachel’s room, and each also had a better-than-average view of the elevator. And each had an agenda for staying.

Jules was exhausted and hungry and about as soul-weary as he’d ever been in his life, but he couldn’t bring himself to leave. Not yet. Not until he saw for himself the man who held Rachel’s heart.

And Jules knew he was coming. He’d listened without comment as Mikeowitz had related every word of his conversation with Houston Bookout. There was a deep streak of jealousy within him that resented the connection between Houston and Rachel. He kept thinking back to the moment of the explosion—of how he’d been on his way out of his office to meet some people for dinner and how distracted he’d been when Maris had called. He’d had no inkling of what had happened to Rachel, and he was in the same damned city.

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