“If it’s okay with the coaches,” I add. “But even if I can’t go, I don’t see why Heather and Maddie can’t be there.”
“Oh, you have to go!” Haddy walks over to me. “Gavin will be so disappointed if you’re not there.”
I’m not sure that’s true, but I comply. “I’ll do what I can.”
“Yay!” Haddy bounces, giving me a little hug before returning to the group.
They’re back to planning, but I hesitate a moment, watching Gigi as she swipes her finger across the screen of her iPad. She turns her back to me, so no smiles or bashful glances.
Something has changed, and maybe I should be glad she’s letting me off the hook after last night.
Guess what? I’m not.
11
GINA
Maverick and Gavin booked a small plane to take the wedding party to Newhope, and the entire flight I sat in the back with my iPad on my knees, pretending to work on wedding plans while avoiding the group at the front of the plane.
Or one person in particular at the front of the plane.
Owen sat near the cage containing both our dogs with his daughter standing between his legs, hugging a stuffed zebra as she happily chatted with Heather and Haddy like one of the girls.
She’s the cutest thing with her big brown eyes and lively personality. She’s smart and quick, and she reminds me of my oldest cousin Kimmie Joy at that age. Growing up, Kim was always with the adults, unlike us “littles.”
He glanced back at me a few times, and my chest squeezed every time I felt his eyes on me. I only slid lower in the seat, adjusting my headphones.
I don’t know why I’m letting him get to me this way. It’snot like I expected him to make a big deal out of us spending the night together. We said just once, right?
But we didn’t justspend the night together. I’m pretty sure we set records. We did things that are illegal in some states.
We didn’t talk much the following morning. We got dressed, collected our things, and left the Delve Inn, and in the light of day, I felt intensely that we werenotJohn and Kendall Grant. What we did that night was very real, even if we said it was only a fantasy. Could he do that? Could I?
His warm hand on my thigh driving back made me think it might be more, but the way he bounded out of the truck, slamming the door without even looking back…
It was like Baxter the love-bomber, the major-league ghoster, all over again. I’d let my guard down, he got what he wanted, then he left without even looking back.
“You’re here!” Mom runs to me as soon as we step out of the rented black SUV, pulling me into her arms and squeezing me so tight. “Oh, I’ve missed you. Let me look at you.”
Straightening her arms, she holds me out, and my nose wrinkles. “We just saw each other in June.”
“That was four months ago, Gina Grace!”
“I need to let the dogs out.”
As if on cue, Mav emerges from the driver’s side of the vehicle, singing, “Who let the dogs out?”
He dances over to lift my mom off her feet and twirl her around.
It only makes her slap his arms playfully. “Maverick Murphy, you’d better get to your mamma’s house before she skins us both.”
“I’m going, Aunt Liv!” Mav kisses her cheek before heading back to the waiting car.
Haddy is in the backseat making out with Gavin before she collects all of Lucy’s things.
I open the back of the car so we can let Spanky and Ladybird out of their shared crate. It was the only way we could get Ladybird on the plane, and Owen insisted we couldn’t leave her, even with the assurance I had friends who would come over and walk them and take care of them.
Both dogs leap out of the vehicle and start to run and jump with each other. Owen, Heather, and Maddie are in their own SUV headed to Miss Gina’s guesthouse a little farther north of downtown.
