"Australia seems so far away."
The airport entry was crowded. Ross put down his suitcase and his carry-on bag and turned to put an arm around Charity's shoulders. "Not so far. It's a small world. Hadn't you heard?" Leaning close he began to sing the small world song softly in her ear.
She laughed as she pulled away, but there wasn't much joy in her heart. Ross was going away for three long, lonely weeks. He was excited about this trip. She could feel the anticipation flowing through him.
He was halfway gone already, his mind disengaged from the time they'd had together and already mulling over what he was going to do once he got to his destination. He was off to new adven tures, and back to a life she'd never shared with him. Fear clutched her heart. Would he forget her?
She shook herself to get rid of that kind of thinking. If she didn't watch out, she'd start to cry, and that was the last thing she wanted to do.
"They'll be calling my flight." He checked his watch. "I'm going to have to go in." He pulled her to him for a last goodbye kiss.
She clung to him. She'd sworn she wouldn't make a scene, but when it came down to it, she couldn't help her self. "Ross," she whispered, hiding her face against his chest.
"Hey." He put a finger under her chin and tilted it up so that he could see the moisture sparkling in her eyes. "What's this? I'll only be gone for three weeks."
"Sorry." She tried hard to blink away the tears and pretend nonchalance, but it didn't work. "I'm going to miss you," she choked out.
Dropping his bags again, he took her fully into his arms. "I'm going to miss you, too, Char," he murmured, holding her close, his face in her hair. "You don't know how much."
And then he was gone, walking swiftly into the terminal. Her tears fell like rain, making her feel like a complete fool.
Back home, she wandered through her apartment, looking at the furniture she'd decided to keep after all, re membering things they'd done together, finding the shirt he'd worn the night before and holding it to her face, rev eling in the joy of loving him.
Then the fantasies began. She drifted in a happy daze, thinking about weddings and babies. The problems began to surface when she tried to visualize what the wedding itself would be like. She could see the lovely graceful Carrington s on one side of the church, the unique and undisciplined Ames family on the other. It wasn't a pretty picture.