Blue Skies by Robyn Carr Read Free Book Online

going down and it was dark outside, even though her watch still said 3:00 p.m.
    It was an hour prior to landing before the back-end crew could take a break, eat some leftover salads, exchange a little company gossip and sit down. Bea ventured back to the aft galley and poked her head through the blue curtain that separated them from the passengers. “Dixie? Do you have a second to help me with something?”
    â€œDon’t worry,” Karen said, “I’ll go.”
    â€œI really need Dixie,” Bea said nervously.
    At the distressed sound of her voice, Dixie abandoned the salad she’d been picking at. She was senior on the flight, after all. “Sure,” she said, and followed Bea to first class.
    In the first-class galley, Bea whispered, “The lady in 4A, she’s on my manifest as Mrs. Darnell.”
    Dixie frowned. She poked her head out of the blue curtain and looked at the seat Bea indicated. The woman there was attractive, with soft brown hair that fell gracefully to her shoulders. She was reading, head down, so Dixie couldn’t see her face. She withdrew back into the galley. “So?” she asked Bea.
    â€œShe said the copilot is her husband.”
    â€œI reckon that could be Branch’s wife. They have twoteenagers. They haven’t lived together for a long time, like a couple of years, and I think they’re just waitin’ on another Christmas before they—”
    Bea was shaking her head. “She says it’s her husband’s birthday and she’s flying to New York to surprise him. She told me she has reservations at the Four Seasons for nine o’clock and wanted to know if we’d get there in plenty of time.”
    Dixie was very well trained at staying cool and in control, no matter what. She had won beauty pageants, after all. And unfortunately, this was not the first time something like this had happened to her. But inside she was dying. No! This isn’t happening! Not again!
    But very calmly she said to Bea, “Oh, the poor thing.”
    â€œShe says she has a negligee in her suitcase and left his mother in charge of the kids. If it weren’t for all the charity boards she sits on, she’d like to stay in New York a couple of—”
    â€œOh, God, Branch warned me something like this might happen. She doesn’t want the divorce even though she was the one who originally asked him to leave a couple of years ago. This is just so sad.” If she didn’t hurt so much inside, Dixie might marvel at how quickly she could make up a cover story. Who said she was a dumb blonde?
    â€œWhat are you going to do?” Bea asked.
    â€œI’d hate if there was a scene. The best thing would be if Branch took her off somewhere quiet and let her down easily.”
    â€œShe still loves him, then?”
    Dixie shrugged. “Or maybe it just didn’t work out with the other man, but whatever, Branch has moved on. I should warn him so he doesn’t humiliate her…or himself…or me, for that matter. Can you, um, trade places with me? Tell the girls in the back that I’m lookin’ over your paperwork as a favor or something? And when we’re taxiing in, I’ll give Branch fair warnin’. The less anyone knows about this, the better for everyone.”
    â€œI guess so,” she said. “You going to be all right?”
    â€œMe?” she asked with a laugh. “This doesn’t really have anything to do with me. Just another one of those difficult divorces. When have you ever seen an easy one?”
    But she didn’t warn him. She served the first-class cabin coffee and thought about striking up a conversation with Mrs. Darnell, but in the end stuck to the professional courtesies. It wasn’t necessary to gather any more information—the truth was obvious. Mrs. Darnell was very confident about her birthday surprise.
    They weren’t separated. Branch was just getting a