Coming to a stop six feet away from the TSA agent, Shelby sucked in a deep breath, ready to get it all out as quickly as possible when she looked over the agent’s shoulder and spotted Ian on the other side of the do-not-cross line.

All the adrenaline pumping through her system vanished in an instant. He was here. Ian Petrov was at the airport. He’d come after her. “I have to go tell that man right there that I love him.”

The agent looked over at Ian and then back at Shelby and what she could only assume was the 100 percent over-the-top goofy grin on her face. Shaking her head, the agent walked back over to her chair.

“I have been waiting years for this to happen.” She sat down. “Go ahead, honey, I’ll be rooting for you.”

Shelby wanted to, but all of a sudden, her feet stopped working. All she could do was stand there with her shoes in one hand and the handle of her suitcase in the other, looking at the man she loved and trying to figure out what to say.

Ian looked like hell. His hair was going every which way, as if he hadn’t been able to stop ramming his hands through it; he had at least two days’ worth of beard growth; and he was pacing back and forth while talking animatedly to someone on the phone.

“What do you mean, there aren’t any open seats tonight for a flight to New Orleans?” He let his head fall back as he grimaced. “It’s a major tourist destination—there has to be at least one spot.”

“Why are you going to New Orleans?” Shelby asked from her side of the do-not-cross line.

Ian spun around, his eyes wide, and hung up his phone without saying goodbye to whomever was on the other line.

“I have to tell you something,” he said, looking at her with such love in his eyes that she nearly melted right there on the spot. “But I still don’t know what to say.”

…

Okay, he’d royally fucked that up. Could he make this any worse? Well, considering she was staying on her side of the do-not-cross line, probably not.

She was looking at him like he’d lost his mind and maybe he had—the idea of never being with her again did that to him.

“Do you want to go somewhere more private?” she asked without moving from her spot.