Lyric and Lingerie (The Fort Worth Wranglers Book 1) by Tracy Wolff, Katie Graykowski Read Free Book Online Page B

area, and they were going to be coming down straight through it, which meant the turbulence could get rough.
    At his announcement, the last of Lyric’s sleep-induced lethargy dissipated, and the sick feeling that had taken up residence when she’d first gotten her mother’s phone call grew to monstrous proportions. Though she still had another short flight from DFW to San Angelo, setting down on the mainland made everything seem so much more real. As long as she wasn’t here, as long as she was just thinking about making it here, she could get away with not thinking about what was waiting for her. But now that she was a few bumpy minutes away from landing, there was nowhere to hide.
    The reality of her father’s situation, along with the knowledge that she really might be too late, came crashing down on her.
    Which, she supposed, was better than the plane crashing down, she told herself as they hit their first air pocket and dropped quickly. The dip must have brought them into the storm, because seconds later they started to shake like Bibb lettuce in a salad spinner.
    In front of her, the Wranglers fan’s hand shot up and grabbed the seat in front of him so tightly that she would have sworn his knuckles had gone right past white and were now turning blue. His girlfriend started to whine a little, and all around her people gasped and muttered uneasily. A part of Lyric wanted to reassure them with a definition of turbulence and the statistics that proved there was a very low chance of anything happening to the plane. But years of always saying the wrong thing had taught her that sometimes she should be seen and not heard. She glanced down—then again, not seen would work pretty well for her right about now too.
    Heath began to stir as the plane hit another patchy spot. And when they dropped, huge, he jerked into consciousness with a wide, wild-eyed look.
    Not questioning the instincts that drove her to do it, Lyric rested a hand lightly on his knee. “It’s okay,” she murmured soothingly. “Just a little storm.” She started to say more, but Tre chose that moment to turn on the plane’s loudspeaker.
    “Okay, people, here’s the deal. The storm’s getting worse by the second, and its center is hanging right over the airport. DFW is rolling up the red carpet for the next few hours, and we’re being diverted. I’m not sure to where, but you’ll know when I know. So, no questions. Just relax. This drink’s on me, as long as you like tequila, because we’re out of everything else.”
    A collective groan echoed through the plane, but Lyric was too horrified to make a sound. They were being diverted? It could be to anywhere, hours and hours away from her father. And the only airport in the country that flew into San Angelo was DFW.
    Goddamn SETI and Goddamn Hawaii. What the hell good was living on an island in the middle of the Pacific if you were thousands of miles away from everyone you cared about when something bad went down?
    She had to get to San Angelo. She had to see her father before—
    Her breathing was coming faster now, and the plane around her started to spin. She clutched at her chest, clawed at it. It felt like she was having a heart attack.
    “Come on, Lyric. Take a deep breath.”
    Heath’s voice came from far away. She could barely hear it over the pounding of her own heart, let alone focus on it. But suddenly his face was there, inches from her own. “You’re hyperventilating,” he told her. “You need to slow your breathing down.”
    When she didn’t answer—or in any way acknowledge what he was saying—he took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “Come on, Lyric. Breathe with me. Like this.” He took another breath, let it out in a measured, unhurried stream.
    Deep inside, she knew he was right, but it was hard to do what he said when it felt like the whole world was crashing down around her. With her life falling apart in all directions, she was helpless. It wasn’t a feeling she