The safety briefing ended, and the flight attendants did a final walkthrough of the plane as they pulled away from their gate.
From her weird viewpoint, Lottie saw a pair of female feet pause beside their row.
"Is there anything you need?" the flight attendant asked, and Lottie knew the question hadn't been directed to her.
"I'm fine," Mr. Granger said, again with that voice. There should be some law of Heaven that said if a man was destined to be so good looking, he should have a voice like a chipmunk.
"Well, please let me know. I'll just be right back there," the flight attendant responded.
Typically, Lottie would have teased the woman for practically begging a man to notice her. But in this case, Lottie couldn't blame her. She probably would have done the same, if she wasn't about to die of embarrassment.
"Are you a nervous flyer?" Mr. Granger asked, and Lottie knew her time to wallow in shame was up.
"Nope I'm not. Not at all," she said. Why had she repeated the same thing twice?
But instead of looking at her like she was a freak of nature, Mr. Granger's red delicious lips turned up into a smile. Lottie felt her breathing stop. This was getting to be ridiculous. As cheesy as it sounded, his smile warmed her all the way to her soul, like she'd now seen a light she'd never known existed. Oh, to go back to the young and naive woman before Mr. Granger's smile. She would now have to classify events in her life as BMGS (before Mr. Granger's smile) or AMGS (after Mr. Granger's smile).
Her breath caught in her throat, causing her to choke and turning an already embarrassing moment into humiliating. Could she turn this around, please?
"Are you alright?" he asked, and she nodded as she continued to cough while her face reddened from shame and lack of oxygen. "Do you need me to call the flight attendant?"
Oh great. Now he thought she was dying. She shook her head no. This moment, right here, was why men like him should not have been put on this earth.
Lottie finally stopped choking long enough to croak, "My spit went down the wrong pipe." She cringed. Well, that was exactly what she should have said. It made her seem as ridiculously attractive as he was. Right.
Mr. Granger's shoulders shook once but stopped, and she could tell he was working hard to hold back his laugh.
Oh no! Was he kind on top of everything else? It couldn't be. Life wasn't so cruel, was it?
She needed to make this situation better.
"I'm not a nervous flyer. I actually love to fly. Not that I do it very often. I usually only fly when I travel to and from my family's home in Idaho. In Blue Falls. Do you know where Blue Falls is? It's beautiful. You should go."
Lottie's gaze connected with his dark brown eyes as his lips curved up again into that devastating smile.
Stop talking now, Lottie's brain commanded, but her mouth wouldn't listen.
"I am a nervous talker, though. Man, I need to quit speaking but it's like my mouth just keeps going with nothing really great to say. But I'm not nervous because of the flight. I'm nervous because of you."
What?! Why had she said that? Now he was going to think he'd done something wrong when all he'd been was kind and charming.
"Not because of you, you. Well, kind of because of you. Basically, you are really good looking and...."
Her mouth finally listened, about ten sentences too late.
Lottie shifted uncomfortably in her seat as she recalled what she'd said, her entire body red in mortification. One more embarrassing move and she'd spontaneously combust.
What was she supposed to do now? Thanks to her mouth-not-always-connecting-to-her-brain disease, she'd been in similar, although quite a bit less embarrassing, situations a few times before. Other times, though, she had always been able to run. But she was stuck in a tin can in the sky. Running was not an option.
"You're really good looking, too," Mr. Granger said.
Right. What else was he supposed to say to her declaration? He was also stuck in the same tin can. He must think she was some kind of crazy person. She wasn't. She was a normal second grade teacher with a slightly overbearing family. She usually flew so far under the radar that no one ever saw her.
But Mr. Granger was seeing her. Oh boy was he seeing her now.
Take a deep breath and try again. It wasn't the best advice she'd ever given herself, but it would have to do.
"I'm a second-grade teacher," she said, looking up at his face to gauge his reaction. The smile was still there and he seemed more than a little amused. Hopefully he was laughing with her.
Who was she kidding? He was totally laughing at her. "I'm trying to explain that I'm not crazy. They don't let crazy people teach kids. At least they try not to. So even though I sound crazy, I'm not."
"I don't think you sound crazy," Mr. Granger said.
What else could he say to the crazy woman?
"I must look crazy too. I woke up late. My phone alarm has never failed me and then this. I basically had to run from my bed to my car and then through the airport. I did brush my teeth." As soon as Lottie said the words, she realized how stupid they sounded.
"I just wanted to let you know I have fresh breath."
Shoot! She'd meant for him to know that so he wouldn't be worried about the smells she'd emit; it was always her fear that she'd sit next to the stinkiest person on the plane. But did it sound like she was saying it because she wanted to kiss him? That was totally how it sounded.
"I didn't say that because I want to kiss you. I don't want to kiss you." Lottie backed up in her seat and waved her hands in front of her chest as if warding him off.
Oh man, that was too much.
"Not that I don't want to kiss you. Just not yet. Or now. I mean, I'm sure plenty of women want to kiss you. But not me. Not right now."
Oh my gosh. Would something just come and swallow her up right now? Where were the scandals on planes that caused viral videos when a girl needed one?
She needed to shut up. She was making nothing better with her words. They needed to cease.
Lottie clamped her mouth shut.
"A plane probably isn't the best place to have a first kiss," he said, his smile now covering his face. Even as his smile teased her, Lottie was entranced by it.
Her only saving grace was that she would never see the man again. They were flying into Salt Lake City, a good four-hour drive from her hometown of Blue Falls. She didn't know where Mr. Granger was headed, but it wasn't to Blue Falls.
"I'm Leo," he said as he held out his hand, and Lottie shook it. "We should get names out of the way before we kiss, shouldn't we?"
Lottie closed her eyes briefly. She should be dead. There was only so much embarrassment one human body could handle, and she had to have passed that quota.
But she was still alive and still shaking Leo's hand. She dropped the hand she'd held onto for too long and responded, "I'm Lottie Brown."
"A second-grade teacher from Blue Falls?" Leo said.
Lottie nodded. Like a bumbling idiot, she'd given him her whole life story.
The sound of the drink cart coming down the aisle sounded like a chorus of heavenly angels to Lottie's ears. The cart came to a stop in front of row nine, and Lottie breathed a sigh of relief when the eager flight attendant asked Leo for his drink order.