Blue Skies by Robyn Carr Read Free Book Online Page B

emergency room. We hear he has a slight concussion. Nothing bad, but he spent the night in the hospital for observation and can’t fly until his flight surgeon clears him.”
    â€œHis wife? ”
    â€œYeah, poor thing. She got on in Denver and was gonna surprise him for his birthday with a special nightin New York City. I just can’t imagine their disappointment.”
    Dixie could feel the eyes of her fellow crew members on her. They might not know what had really happened, but from their looks and whispers, they knew there was more to the story. So, screw ’em. Dixie was beyond caring. Karen had called it the evening before at the curb—Dixie had been a stupid fool. About a hundred times.
    â€œDixie…”
    â€œHmm?”
    â€œAre you sure someone didn’t… push him down the stairs?”
    â€œFor heaven’s sake, what a thought,” she replied with the blandness of a yawn.
    â€œWhen do you get back to Phoenix?” Nikki asked.
    â€œOur flight was canceled because of the first officer’s injury, which screwed up the rest of the segment. They had to deadhead a cockpit crew out here, so we’re going to work the next flight back to Phoenix and then quit. I don’t work again until Sunday. How about you?”
    â€œI’ll be back tomorrow night. Maybe I should swing by and see you on my way home?”
    â€œYou know you’re always welcome,” she said. “All I have planned is to clean out the closets. High time I got rid of all those old clothes just clutterin’ up the place.”
    â€œAre you all right?” Nikki asked.
    â€œâ€™Course,” she replied coolly.
    â€œAnd he doesn’t remember what happened?”
    â€œIsn’t that fortunate?” Dixie cleared her throat. “I’m sure his wife’s very grateful.”
    She clicked off, slipped the phone back into her purseand asked, in her very sweetest and most innocent drawl, “Can I get anyone a latte?”
    â€œGreat idea,” Bea said. “I’ll go with you.”
    â€œDon’t get up, darlin’,” Dixie said. “My treat. Anyone else?”
    There were no other takers. Dixie walked to the coffee kiosk, allowing the rest of the crew the privacy to talk about her behind her back. Lost his memory, huh? Forgot he was married for a while? How does she let herself get into these situations? All she’d have to do is make one phone call to check him out. What does she use for brains? Ah, she’s just thinking below the waist, as usual. Lots of miles on that chick. They would be quite entertained. They would also be quite accurate.
    Â 
    Dixie, whose given name was Helen, came from real brainy stock. Her father was a CPA with an MBA, and her mother had her doctorate and taught anatomy and physiology in a nursing college. Her older brother was a pediatric oncologist and her younger sister was in computers—the vice president of Information Systems for a large corporation. And Dixie had been the Homecoming Queen and the Fiesta Queen and the Oktoberfest Queen and Miss Temple, Texas.
    At twenty-one she had dropped out of college to become a flight attendant, and there was no question this disappointed her parents, if not her entire family.
    There was a very familiar pattern to what she’d just been through with Branch, Dixie realized. The only wonder was that she never saw it coming. Her denial must have been powerful. Over and over again she kept falling in love and getting lied to, cheated on and dumped.
    She wished she’d been as brilliant as the rest of herfamily, but what bothered her even more was that she’d apparently missed out on the meaningful-relationship gene, as well. The rest of them, Mom and Dad, her brother and sister, were all very happily married and had wonderful family lives. From high school through her short college career and every year since, all Dixie had wanted was to have a partner she