“SFO,” Jon said, again telling Luc, “Our parents just bought a place in Napa.”
Casey tugged on his phone arm so that she could see the screen for herself, making sure that flight was going to San Francisco and not, oh say, San Diego. Where Dave was. All alone. While his shiny new boyfriend was here in Palm Springs.
Jon gave her an injured look, like Wow, you really don’t trust me, do you?
She just narrowed her eyes at him because no. No, she did not.
“Maybe we could all just stay in Desert Hot Springs,” she suggested.
“It’s pretty far,” Luc reminded her. “If I were running a con like this, I’d want Dana Zannino from Wild Sky to stay on site.”
He was probably right. And since Casey was and would always be Dana Zannino…
Still...
“Let’s talk to someone,” she said. “Thandie. My liaison’s name is Thandie.” She pulled her own phone out of her bag and scrolled through her contacts.
“I’m buying this ticket,” Jon said.
Casey gave him her full attention, her heart in her throat. “Jon...”
“Look,” he said, showing her his purchased seat on that flight to SFO. “I’ll text you when I get to the airport, I’ll text you when I’m at the gate, I’ll text you when I’m on the plane. And I’ll have Mom text you when I land and I’m safely in her custody. We’ll both check in with you, every day, too, okay?”
She nodded as he kissed her on the top of her head—he was one of only a handful of people tall enough to actually do that.
“Take a deep breath,” Jon continued. “Everything’s easier now. Have a good time.” He looked at Luc. “Keep her safe.”
“Absolutely.” Luc didn’t hesitate.
With that Jon was gone.
And he was right—everything was easier now. Or it would be once she got that text from her mother that Jon was safely north.
“Is it too weird for me to ask you to share my suite?” Casey asked her best friend Dave’s new boyfriend.
“It’s pretty weird,” Luc admitted, but it was with a smile. “If Dave was here, it’d be...” He paused and laughed. “Well, a very different kind of weird, but nah. We can totally make it work.”
“I really don’t mind sleeping in my car,” Rio said again.
But just like all the other times he’d said it, Casey looked at him as if he were speaking in tongues.
“No,” she said, getting the luggage rack out of the little closet and setting her rolling carry-on-size suitcase upon it. “Just... no! You’re not sleeping in your car.”
The suite was not a suite. Despite the resort’s earlier reassurances, the suite that Casey had been perked as part of her reimbursement for appearing at this conference was currently ankle-deep in water. The con organizers had pulled this room out of their collective asses because, yes, they absolutely wanted their headliner—the fan-favorite actress who played Dana Zannino in Wild Sky—to remain on-site.
It was a nice enough room with a balcony that overlooked the lush grounds and the distant mountains, but it was just that—a medium-sized hotel room. With a king bed, a desk, and a single easy chair near the sliders that opened to outside. The balcony was just barely big enough for two upright deck chairs and a tiny table between them.
“We can make this work,” Casey said for the nine millionth time, digging through her handbag for her phone and typing a quick text. Swoosh. “I’ve asked Thandie to send up a cot. You can have the bed—”
“Yeah, I’m not taking the bed,” Rio scoffed.
“Well, I’m not inviting you here and then not giving you a real bed to sleep in,” Casey retorted. Her phone swooshed and... “Shit! The store room with the cots flooded. Okay, all right. We’ll find a Target and get an air mattress—”
“I don’t need an air mattress,” Rio told her. “I can sleep on the floor—”
“No,” she said tartly, “you can’t. Because I’ve given you the bed. And I’d like an air matt—”
“Lookit,” Rio said. “The bed’s big enough. We can just share. Put, you know, your suitcase and my bag in the middle, between us...?”
