“Are you okay?”
He looked back at me. “Am I okay? Yeah, I’m okay. In fact, I don’t think I’ve been more okay than I am right now.” He turned away again and faced forward.
I didn’t have any response to that because the warmth that suddenly flooded over me was surprising and completely unexpected. I didn’t know what had shifted in our relationship or why he was talking like this, but all of a sudden I was even more excited than I’d been before. I could feel an electricity between us, a buzzing, a chemistry.
I stared at his profile and then he turned to look at me. There was something in his eyes that told me that there was a lot more to him than he’d led me to believe. Dylan McAllister was more than a billionaire asshole boss or a sexy alpha male. There was a depth to him that I’d never noticed before.
And all of a sudden, I wanted to get to know him much better.
Chapter 29
Dylan
* * *
The look on Abby’s face was pure magic as she sat back in her chair, a glass of champagne in her hand, and stared out the window. Seeing the experience through her eyes made me appreciate just how far I’d come in life. Never in a million years had I ever expected to fly back and forth across the world in first class. When I was a child, I hadn’t even thought about flying anywhere internationally. It’d been beyond my wildest dreams, and now that I’d made it, I didn’t even appreciate it. Being here with Abby made me appreciate it. She truly enjoyed every moment of the experience.
“Wow. Did you see what we’re going to get to eat for dinner?” she turned to me, excitement in her eyes. “Oh my God, this is so thrilling! Thank you so much, Dylan.” She reached out and touched my arm.
There was a sincerity in her voice that I’d never heard before, and I could tell that everything she was saying was heartfelt. We weren’t enemies or boss and secretary on this plane. Right now, we were just two friends, two people who were going on a trip together, both of us appreciating the experience in different ways.
“I know you said I should fly coach and you bumped me up to first class, and honestly,” she smiled at me, “I would’ve been happy with coach. You didn’t have to fly me first class.”
“I know,” I said, “but what sort of person would I be, what sort of boss would I be if I had you sitting at the back while I was up front?”
“It was a lot of money.” She chewed on her lower lip. “It was like eight grand.”
“That doesn’t matter.”
“I know to you it’s not a lot of money, but to me,” she made a face, “it’s a lot. And thank you. I know you didn’t have to.”
“It’s okay.” I was actually kind of choked up. The women I dated were never satisfied. However much I spent, I never got a thank you. I never got a please. I never got sincerity. It was just expected. Granted, I wasn’t dating Abby, but the way she smiled at me made me think how much fun it would be to take her on a date, to show her things and take her places and experience them through her and with her.
“So I brought some cards with me,” she continued, “and UNO. I mean, you don’t have to play with me if you don’t want to. I thought you might be busy with work and stuff, but if you want to play—”
“You want to play cards?”
“Yeah, I love cards.”
“You didn’t strike me as someone that was into games.”
“Oh, I absolutely adore games,” she smiled happily. “I guess you can’t tell by looking at me.”
“Not really. But then again, you are an enigma, aren’t you, Abby Waldron?”
“I guess.” She shrugged. “Not really. Once you get to know me a little bit better, you’ll see that I’m an open book, quite literally. I wear my emotions on my face and … Well, I think you already know that.”
“I have been able to tell when you’ve been upset with me. And now happy. I’m happy to make you happy. But don’t get too used to it,” I warned playfully.
“Oh, I won’t, Dylan.” She laughed. “I know this is probably going to last for 24 hours if I’m lucky, and then you’ll go back to being your typical self.”
“And what is my typical self?”
“You know.” She sat back. “But let’s not get into an argument.”
“I’m not getting into an argument with you.” I reached over and lightly touched her hair. She looked at me in surprise and I removed my hand. “Sorry. I should have asked.”
“No, it’s okay. I just wasn’t expecting you to touch my hair.”
“It’s beautiful,” I told her.
“Thank you,” she said, touching her hair with a self-conscious smile. “So do you fly often?”
“Not really.” I shook my head. “For business. Never really for pleasure.”
“Do you not really like to fly?”
“It’s not that I don’t like to fly, it’s just that I don’t have much time for pleasure.”
“That’s sad,” she said. “You don’t travel anywhere just for fun, just to see a new place?”
“No.” I shook my head. “It’s never really crossed my mind to do that.”
“Oh, there are so many places I want to see when I can afford to! I want to go to Australia and New Zealand. I want to go to Kenya and South Africa. I want to go to South America to Peru, to Chile, to Argentina. Oh my gosh, just so many places.”
“Sounds like you’ve got a long list.”
“Oh, and Europe. Italy and France and Spain and Portugal and Estonia and Denmark and Finland and Germany and Holland and—” She giggled. “I guess I want to go everywhere that I can.”
“Why don’t you travel more?”
“I’ve never really made enough money to travel anywhere.” She shook her head. “And I guess I was just hoping I would go with my best friends, you know? But I don’t know that that’s going to happen.”
She sounded sad, and I felt sad for her. “Why don’t you think that’ll happen?”
“Well, one of my best friends, she’s about to get married. Which is amazing because the guy’s great and he spoils her and he truly loves her. But you know, when someone gets married …”
“Yep. They disappear from your life.”
“Oh no, I wasn’t going to say that.” She shook her head vehemently. “I mean, I really hope Isabella doesn’t disappear from my life. I love her. She’s the sister I never had.”
“And you have two other roommates, right? The two girls I met at lunch.”
“Yeah, Emma and Chloe. They’re wonderful as well. We’re really close. We’ve always been close.” She smiled sweetly. “They’re great. I’m really blessed and lucky to have three great, amazing friends like them.”
“You really are,” I said. “My best friend is my brother, Kent. You met him. Twice now, I guess.”
“Yeah, I saw him the night we went to the club, and then I saw him at the bachelor party. Well,” she made a face, “I didn’t exactly see him see him, but you know what I mean.”