Excerpt of Flight Delay by Nicole Helm

And then Lawson and Katie were alone.

“Well, that was fun. Never a dull moment around here.”
Lawson tried to smile, but it came out more of a grimace.

“I still can’t quite get over Callie being engaged. She was
always...rough around the edges.”

“People change.”

Silence practically echoed in the wake of that comment.
Lawson Baker, Conversation Killer. Might as well make up
business cards.

“I meant—”

She put her hand on his arm, effectively cutting off not
just what he was going to say but the ability to say it.
There was a weird electricity in her touch, something that
shrank his lungs and made his skin where she touched warmer
than the sun blazing against his cheek.

“You don’t have to walk on eggshells. That wasn’t what
talking it through was supposed to do. We can say things
that remind us of what happened. I won’t break, and neither
will you.”

She slipped her hand back into her lap, her gaze drifting
there. “Do you think time will make this easier? Or is this
it? You feel too weird around me to have a normal
conversation?”

“I...don’t know.”

She nodded, her expression softening into sadness and it
made his heart ache. He didn’t want to make her sad. They’d
both had their fill of sad.

“It’ll get better,” he offered, not sure he believed it. But
he’d try. Really. Maybe after the screwed up world they’d
lived in, they both deserved something more than he’d been
willing to try for. Friendship again. Normalcy again.

That could happen. Right?

She looked back over at him. Her smile wasn’t totally
convincing, but her gaze held his.
She reached out, touched the ends of his hair. He might have
flinched away at the surprise touch, but it felt too good to
move away from. Something jittery and exciting and new.

“You need a haircut,” she said in a low voice.

He had to clear his throat to speak past the blockage there.
“Yeah, I guess I do.”

She pulled her hand back, then trailed her fingertips across
the palm of her other
hand. The hand that hadn’t touched him. If he studied her
expression, he might see something akin to what he was
feeling.

He looked away and stood. “Well, I should get back to it.
See you later.” Even though the word coward echoed through
his head, he had to step away. Get some clarity and some
brainpower pumping through him again.

Because he knew what all the weird feelings and sensations
were. He’d recognize that stirring warmth anywhere, even if
it had been a long, long time since he’d felt it.

And it wasn’t anything he had any business feeling toward
Katie. Not now. Not ever.