Her life is up in the air—literally… From the author of Long Past Summer and perfect for fans of Bolu Babalola, Preslaysa Williams, and Jill Santopolo, Noué Kirwan’s next novel is a jetsetting treat for every armchair traveler.
Intrigued? Well read on to discover the synopsis and an excerpt from Noué Kirwan’s Frequent Fliers, which releases on August 13th 2024.
Lanie Turner has some loose ends:
- A nearly complete PhD.
- A job she basically enjoys.
- And a lifelong crush…that she’s almost gotten over.
On a trip to reunite with her family in England—and said crush, Jonah—Lanie intends to take care of one of those items. Her favorite cousin, Gemma, is engaged…to Jonah. And they want Lanie to be both their maid of honor and best “mate” at the wedding. It’s the perfect opportunity to prove the pitying gazes wrong: she’s over Jonah. Really.
As Lanie travels between New York City and London to help with wedding prep, she befriends her handsome seatmate. Dr. Ridley Aronsen—a widower and single father—who is prickly at first, but feisty Lanie reminds him of a more carefree time in his life. And after a steamy layover in Iceland, the pair take a direct flight from seatmates to lovers. Ridley even agrees to be her plus-one for the wedding. For once, everything seems to be falling into place.
But Lanie’s used to getting hurt, and Ridley finds opening up difficult. How will a long-distance relationship even work once Lanie’s back in NYC permanently? It’s easy enough to let one more loose thread unravel…after all, life’s problems seem tiny from thirty-five thousand feet in the air.
Heading to the departure gate, Lanie could feel the stress of overseeing all the little details of Gemma’s wedding was taking its toll. In recent weeks, she barely thought about anything else—the perfectionist in her, a side she struggled to keep at bay, had reared its uncompromising head. If she wasn’t careful, she would barely even take the time to feed herself. In fact, she’d forgotten to eat today, she realized as her stomach growled loudly. It would never be clearer than it was at that moment that she needed to go home. With a convenience store sandwich in hand, she arrived at her departure gate, as usual relieved to be the first one there. She was alone.
Well, not totally alone, it appeared. There was someone else there sitting right by the gate. Almost directly in front of the customer service desk.
Lanie stopped midstride, dumbstruck.
She didn’t know how long she stood on the concourse as people walked past, in absolute shock. Now that she was closer, the person was wholly visible, sitting all alone with his roller bag, casually reading a paper and sipping from a paper cup. It was Ridley.
Lanie moved toward him slowly, glancing around, astonished. He was supposed to be in New York. “Ridley?”
He rested his newspaper in his lap and looked up. Pushing his tortoiseshell frames up the thick bridge of his nose, his eyes traveled up to her face like she was the one who wasn’t supposed to be there. “Hey,” he replied. “You okay?” There was a coffee caddy on the seat next to him with one cup, which he removed then handed to her as she nodded.
She took it, puzzled, and popped off the top to examine the contents. The heavenly scent of coffee beans, hazelnut, caramel and toffee sauce filled her nose. She took a sip. “Ooooh, and it’s still kinda warm! Sorcery! Thank you.” She exhaled with relief, nearly collapsing into the seat beside him. “What are you doing here?”
“I told you I was coming in this morning.”
“Yes, but that was this morning.” She checked her phone. “It’s twelve p.m.”
“Yes, well, I realized that you can get a lot of work done in the quiet of those airline club lounges.”
“You got into the Trans-Continental lounge?” It said a lot about the airline culture she’d already begun to fall into that she was a smidgen impressed by that.
“Apparently, since I flew business class today, I was eligible.” He shrugged.
“Ridley, what are you doing here?”
“It felt like too much of a coincidence and a missed opportunity to arrive the exact same day you depart and not see you.”
Okay, that is sweet. She’d dated men who’d done less. “But three hours, Ridley?”
“What’s three hours between friends?” His face was still incongruously serious.
She hemmed while he continued.
“You said it was unfortunate we’d miss each other. You also said you hated being at the airport all alone with nothing to do, right?”
He hadn’t told a lie yet. She nodded. In all their back-and-forth texting, she may have possibly said a lot of those things.
“Seriously, Ridley, aren’t you tired? Don’t you need to get home to your daughter?”
He frowned and pulled back slightly. Lanie hadn’t realized until then that they’d slowly begun leaning toward one another, their shoulders nearly touching. She immediately regretted saying anything, wishing she could coax him and his delicious bergamot-and-vetiver scent closer again.
He shook his head. “She has athletics all afternoon.”
Lanie wasn’t sure she understood what that meant.
His eyes roamed her face. “Track and field?”
Lanie made a small O shape with her mouth.
“So, she won’t be home until six-ish,” he continued, watching her face as if it could tell him things her mouth wouldn’t. And reminding her of the last time he’d looked at her like that. Right before he kissed her.
“A-and your work?”
“Lanie.” One eyebrow rose behind his glasses. “Do you want me to go? Because just saying so would probably be faster than running down each supposed item on my daily schedule.”
Lanie was momentarily speechless. Ever so slightly magnified by the strength of his lenses, in the light cast from the giant window right next to them, she could see all the whorls and swirls of his dark brown irises. The rich cognac brown of his eyes pulled her in like a sci-fi tractor beam.
“Lanie?”
“N-no,” Lanie backtracked when she could finally speak again. “No. I’m sorry. I just assumed you’d have better things to do than sit in the airport on the off chance you’d run into me.”
“Run into you?” His eyes narrowed, examining her face again as if he was trying to decipher something. “I didn’t run into you. I waited for you.”
At those words, Lanie’s heart took off like one of those out-of-control hansom cabs that circled Central Park, galloping wildly like a spooked horse.
He didn’t mean it like that, he didn’t mean it like that. He did not mean it like that, Melanie!
“You gave me your flight info, remember?” His delivery was deadpan as usual. But then he sat up straighter. “Wait, I just heard myself say that. Was that creepy? It sounded creepy. Oh my God.” Ridley put a hand to his face, like this was really just dawning on him.
She barked out an awkward laugh, and sniffled, nodding. “I mean…”
“I just thought it would be nice. You know? I know how much I hate waiting in the airport too. I miss the days when you could sit at the gate with people to see them off. Are you too young to remember back then? Anyway, I thought since I was coming and you were going—”
“Ridley.” Lanie chuckled, putting a hand on his arm. “It’s okay. I appreciate it. This was a really cool thing to do.”
FROM FREQUENT FLIERS by Noué Kirwan. Copyright 2024 Noué Kirwan. Published by Canary Street Press
