Worst Week Ever (A Long Road to Love) Read Free

turbulence, crying babies, and the crush of the middle seat in the back of
the plane. Evidently, the man behind her didn’t appreciate her slow escape from
the plane from hell. The moment she stepped from the plane onto the ramp, he
shoved past her, sending her straight into a handsome flight attendant’s chest.
    Righting herself, her face flushed
with a mix of outrage and embarrassment.
    “You all right, miss?” the attendant
asked. A lock of blonde hair fell out of place and hung above his concerned
baby blues.
    “I’m fine. My feet just went to sleep
on the flight.”
    The guy knelt down, lifted her pants
leg, and studied her ankles. “They look a little swollen. If that doesn’t clear
up before you leave the airport, you should see a doctor. You could have DVT.”
    Taking her arm, he escorted her down
the chute to the main building. “That’s when blood clots form in the veins due
to the lack of exercise. Were you in coach?”
    She grimaced. “Unfortunately, yes.
This was the only flight available.”
    He nodded in sympathy. “Everyone
wanted out of Taiwan before the typhoon hit.”
    As they entered the lobby, someone
gripped her arm and pulled her away from the attendant. She looked up at Trent
Lancaster, her out-of-sorts, but excessively good-looking, boss.
    “Thank God! I feared you’d missed your
flight and were now stuck in a hurricane.”
    “Typhoon,” the attendant corrected
him.
    Trent glared at the young man then at Carrie,
evidently holding her responsible for the fellow’s audacity to correct him.
“Who’s this?”
    She was tempted to declare the guy a
souvenir from Taiwan, but changed her mind. Trent’s angry eyes indicated he had
no sense of humor right now.
    “I’m Carl Lite,” the attendant said to
Carrie, holding out his hand.
    She shook it then looked up at her six-foot
boss looming over her like an angry bear, albeit one with perfectly cut hair
and manicured nails. “This is Carl Lite. He’s the flight attendant who saved me
from falling on my face when leaving the plane.” She refocused on Carl and gave
him a playful curtsey. “Thank you for your rescue, kind sir.”
    The young man grinned. “My pleasure.
Don’t forget what I said about your ankles.”
    “I…”
    Trent had evidently grown tired of
their chitchat and pulled her away.
    “…won’t. Bye,” she called out as her
ill-tempered boss dragged her down the busy corridor.
    She focused on keeping up with the
grump. “Has something happened?” He hadn’t been this out-of-sorts in quite
awhile. In fact, for the six months before she’d headed to Taiwan, he’d been so
pleasant she’d begun to like him. However, his lack of replies to her email
updates during her month in Taiwan had worried her and his present bad behavior
bordered on annoying.
    He glared at her. “Ankles?”
    “Pardon?”
    “He was discussing your ankles!”
    “And?” Exhaustion no doubt impaired
her thinking, but honestly, he normally made more sense than this.
    Trent stopped abruptly, his firm grip pulling
her to a halt. A heavy body crashed into her back. A man cursed and rushed
ahead.
    She moved in front of her boss so his
tall, broad-shouldered body could block the angry stream of traffic. “Has
something happened at work? Did I do something wrong, or not do something? You
seem pissed off at me, and I haven’t a clue as to why.” Being forthright always
worked best with Trent. He respected that.
    Pinching the bridge of his perfect
nose, he closed his eyes. “Other than your absence from work, nothing’s wrong.”
    My absence from work?
    Anger began a slow burn in her chest. “You
do realize I was in Taiwan improving their margins. That was work. Hard work…Miserable
work, if I’m being honest. No one likes having their expenses cut, so I’ve just
spent a month in a foreign country where I know no one, don’t speak the
language, and had to deal with angry, uncooperative people. And now I come home
to a snarly boss declaring my