Meet Me Midway

By Natalie Peck

Snowed in. A traveler's worst nightmare.
Stuck in Chicago without food or cash, Anna's immediate prospects look darker than the storm outside. When Jim sits down next to her with an offer to trade fries for electricity, things begin to improve.
By the time they get home, neither one realizes they've exchanged more than resources...they've traded hearts.
Can the New York Ad Executive and the small town farmer's daughter find a middle ground where love can flourish?

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Electric Scroll
• Release date: Mar 7, 2015
• ISBN: 9781940311203

Natalie Peck

Natalie Peck lives in Gilbert, Arizona with her family and a thousand romance novels. She enjoys dining from her good china by candle-light, especially when the special guests are her husband and children. She loves to hear from her readers, and promises to answer every email.

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Meet Me Midway

Natalie Peck

Copyright 2014, The Electric Scroll

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America by The Electric Scroll. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without written permission from the publisher. For information contact The Electric Scroll, 745 N. Gilbert Rd. Ste. 124 PMB 197, Gilbert, Arizona, 85234.

The characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and entirely in the imagination of the reader.

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Books by Natalie Peck

About the Author

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One

The wind whipped a swirl of dancing snowflakes around Anna Livingstone as she stepped out of the car. She shivered and pulled her thin jacket more closely around her body in the vain hope it would suddenly become warmer. It just wasn't built for this weather.

Anna's brother-in-law scooped her bags from the trunk and brought them over to her, setting them on the curb at her feet. She could see why her older sister had fallen in love with the handsome Air Force officer, even when it meant moving away from Safford, Arizona and living where his assignments took him–currently Washington, D.C.

Thanks so much for coming, Anna. It meant a lot to Livvy, but I want you know how much I've appreciated your visit, too. With you here, I didn't worry about Livvy going into labor while I was at work. Thanks for staying the extra weeks since the twins were born, too. I don't know how we'd have managed. Are you certain you can't stay for Thanksgiving next week?

Anna laughed. "With all this snow? No way! Now you finally got your leave, I'm going back to my warm desert. If I want snow, it's up on Mt. Graham and I don't have to shovel it.

Besides, Gran and Gramps really need me home. Gramps let it slip they hadn't been anywhere since I left, which means they haven't been shopping for fresh food for two months. They've been living on canned goods they already had in the house. I've got to get back or they'll starve. I can pay their bills online, but I can't grocery shop for them.

Jason hugged her. I know; you're a brick to live there and take care of them.

Anna stepped back out of Jason's hug. She slid one arm through her backpack strap and slung it over one shoulder, leaned down and pulled the handle free from her larger suitcase, and then picked up the smaller case.

Do you need me to see you inside? Jason asked.

Anna shook her head. I can manage. Besides, you're parked in an 'abandoned cars will be towed' zone and you can't go clear to the gate with me anyway.

Too true. You'll be flying through a pretty big storm. I'll be worried until I hear you're in Phoenix, so call me. Sure you can't wait just a few more days?

Nope; my tickets are non-refundable, non-transferable, and unchangeable; in short, chiseled in stone. I'll be fine. I'll call you when I get in, so don't worry. It's only a little snow. I'm not going to freeze into a popsicle, you know.

She smiled, then turned and walked away from the car, the suitcase wheels bumping over the textured cement as she entered the terminal building. It took only a few minutes to check in at the desk.

The line through security took more than half an hour, but she didn't mind. It gave her ample opportunity for a favorite pastime: people watching.

She had sympathy for the pregnant woman with a diaper bag draped diagonally across her chest and toddlers hanging from both hands. The small backpack each child was wearing made Anna think of turtles dangling from the woman's hands.

She looked tired. The children were tugging at her arms, trying to win their freedom. Anna idly wondered why her husband wasn't traveling with her when he suddenly appeared beside them, bearing a bag of breakfast food from the restaurant across the concourse.

He carried a sleeping child in a baby pack slung on his chest. He distributed the food with a warning to the children they must finish eating before they got to the front of the line, or it would get thrown away. The rattling bag and smell of food didn't seem to affect the sleeping child, but remained snuggled against daddy's chest while the family ate.

An elderly man with a cane in one hand and a red-tipped, white rod in the other stood in the next line over. His white-haired wife stood near, murmuring to him. Anna wondered if they were exchanging sweet nothings, or if she was describing their surroundings to him.

Anna's line moved spasmodically forward. When she got to the front, she dumped her backpack in a large grey plastic bin, unzipped it and slid her laptop into a second bin, while her shoes went into a third. She may be from a small town, but she'd traveled enough to navigate security checkpoints without trouble.

She was shortly sliding her shoes on and tucking her laptop into its pocket in her backpack. She took a quick glance at her ticket to confirm which gate she was heading for. After a look at the signage hanging from the ceiling for directions, she was off to her gate.

Two

As it turned out, her gate was in another building, but the airline had provided transportation to it. A uniformed man checked her ticket and Anna went through a very short airlock-like passageway and into the conveyance. It looked like a large box on wheels and stilts and held about thirty people.

The box smoothly descended to the level of the pavement. Once at ground level, their shuttle trundled off, dodging all sorts of tractors, carts, fuel trucks and other shuttles.

The snow swirled more thickly now and she wondered if Jason was right to worry. As a pilot he'd know more about the weather and its effect on flying.

Anna mentally shrugged. If it stormed, it stormed. There wasn't anything she or the airline could do except wait for it to stop. She had her computer, plenty of work to occupy her and some munchies in her backpack. She'd manage, no matter what Mother Nature threw at her.

Within five minutes the box crawled up to another building, turned around, backed up slightly and stopped. The shuttle lifted into the air; the uniformed man snugged the airlock against the doorway and opened the doors. Anna stepped through into another, smaller terminal area. She was delighted; her gate was close to where the shuttle had let them off. She found a place to sit nearby.

The blind man and his wife got off the shuttle and settled at a nearby gate. She hadn't noticed them in the shuttle amid the crowd. She looked for the family with the young children, but couldn't see them.

With forty-five minutes left before her flight, Anna pulled a notepad and pen from her backpack and jotted down her observations of the people around her. She recorded what they looked like, their clothing, and how they handled the necessary delays involved in air travel.

She rarely had opportunities to observe people at airports and spent the next half hour gleefully taking notes of the press of humanity fate had placed near her. She didn't want to forget important details or muddle facts. A mystery writer never knew when she'd need to include an airport scene in a book.

A squealing howl, a loud bang, and a very prominent whistling noise grabbed everyone's attention. The wind suddenly poured itself into one of the jetways, flinging the terminal door open, bringing snow with it. A loud bell wailed and a bright red light above the door started flashing.

A woman's shriek and several children's terrified screams added to the din. The gate agent only took moments to punch a code into the keypad next to the door and silence the alarm. He picked up a phone receiver and shouted into it over the roaring wind.

His yell was loud enough everyone could hear him reassuring security the alarm had been caused by the wind, not a person trying to get into restricted areas of the airport.

Hanging up the phone, he struggled against the wind to push the door closed. Once the door was secured, he got on the PA system to calm everyone down. It was several long minutes before the children quieted. Anna stowed her notebook and pen.

Anna pulled her coat closer around her as the storm got steadily worse. She wanted nothing more than to get back home to her desert. She smiled at the thought. Safford wasn't precisely warm in November, but was warmer than the temperature here in the midst of this winter snow storm.

Anna's eyes were drawn to the window. There was no plane in sight, yet they were supposed to boarding soon. She got up, slung her backpack over her shoulder and walked over to the window. She could barely make out the end of the jetway through the snow, much less anything beyond it.

The electronic display board listed her flight as being on time. She turned back to the window, hoping the computer had been updated and the board was correct. She anxiously nibbled on her lip.

The overhead speaker crackled to life; the gate agents called for the passengers in her flight to line up. She checked her ticket, and got into the A line, her reward for checking in as early as possible before the flight. She moved quickly but was fourth in line.

When everyone was lined up, the agent spoke. "Good morning! Your plane is landing now and will be here soon.