CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Brandon's POV

I stomped off the terminal and glanced over at the chair next to me. Natalie had clammed up. She would be there, fists tight with hands, all balled up in fists, with me. At least on her face, observably there was some bravado; it was there in those features that one could read restlessness. Reaching over, I grabbed one of the tightly bunched fists and squeezed it.

"Just a few days," I murmured and continued as if to reassure her—but most definitely myself, "I will be back before you even know it."

She just nodded at that and didn't turn her eyes away from the jet outside. "I know," she whispered in return, and I felt worry almost oozing out of her voice. "I just wish things were different."

I huffed and let myself fall back into the seat, my gaze out the window to where the super-sleek jet was about to whisk me away from her. "Yeah, I do too," I said truthfully. "But we'll make it through, Natalie. We've gone through worse, right."

She turned then, and her eyes met mine,