I wrinkled my nose. “It’s okay. I haven’t slept much the last two nights thanks to someone I know. I’m sure I do looklikehell.”
That had him groaning as he seemed to push his chair closer to the table from the scrape of wood on tile. “I didn’t say you look like hell. You just looktired.”
I’m not going to smile. I’m not going to smile.“There’s adifference?”
He cocked his head to the side and made his eyes go wide as he nodded. Apparently it was his turn to bring out thesass. “Yeah.”
Aaron stared at me and I stared backathim.
“Hmm.”
“Hmm,” herepeated.
I smirked and he smirkedrightback.
This really was just like our conversations online. It relaxed me. Made me feel better about… everything. “If you say so.” I held back a grin, snickering before letting out a yawn I tried my best to muffle but failed at. Wanting things to be as normal as they could be, I fidgeted with my hands, trying to think of what to ask him. Of all the things I could have brought up, I went with, “How was yourdrive?”
Those muscular shoulders I hadn’t gotten to ogle much yet both went up casually. “Fine.” The hand, the one he wasn’t using to cup the side of his face, reached blindly toward his beer. Those brown, brown eyes still hadn’t left my direction. “Your flightwasokay?”
“Besides having an old man use my shoulder as a pillow, and having my mom yell at me before I walked out of the house, everythingwasgood.”
He groaned and it made me think of all the times he’d typed out something that conveyed the same emotion, making this all seem so much more real by the second. More safe. “She was pissed?” heasked.
I wouldn’t say she was pissed, but…. “You can callitthat.”
The corners of his eyes wrinkled, and I wondered if the lines were from all the time he spent outside or if it was from him smiling. “She doesn’t know me. I’d be surprised if she wasn’t worried I’d kidnap you and sell you on the black market.” Those irises raked over me for what seemed like the hundredth time since he picked me up, making me feel just a hair self-conscious and grateful I’d hit the airport bathroom before I’d gone outside to wait for him. “She loves you. You’relucky.”
How the hell he managed to say the same exact thing I thought was beyond me, but I letitgo.
“Did you tell them youmadeit?”
I reached for my phone inside of my front pocket as I told him the truth. “Not yet. I forgot until now. Hold on.” It took two swipes, but I unlocked the screen once I had my cell out. The icon that said I had nineteen unread messages now, instantly made me cringe. They were thousands of miles away. It wasn’t like they were going to pop out of the display and holler at me when I read their messages. They were just being loving and worried, like a good family would. Like I would have done if it were any of them in my position, more than likely. This was what I got for never going through the rebel, hormonal teenager, jerk stage. I’d been the quiet one. The one who didn’t like getting into trouble, never got home late, never talked back, and spent most weekends LARPing or sneaking into the movie theater my friends had jobs at, when I wasn’t doing work formyaunt.
I’d always been the one who listened and tried to make everyonehappy.
Untilnow.
I opened the first message andgroaned.
“What does it say?” Aaronasked.
“Why are you doing this to me?” I told him. “These are all from my momrightnow.”
I went on to thenextone.
“If you get kidnapped, I’m not paying yourransom.”
That one had Aaron snickering. I snuck a glance at him with a smile, before picking back up on the rest of the messages on myphone.
The next one had me snorting. “They’re going to harvest your organs and throw you in the ocean. Tell Shamu I said hi. We’llrememberyou.”
He snickered even louder than I did before taking a sip of his beer. “That’s prettymessedup.”
“I told you she’s crazy. Okay. Wait, listen to this one.I’ll name our next goldfish after you.” I had to lower my face to my hand to laugh, and heard Aaron doing the same thing. My mom. Myfreakingmom.
“What do the rest ofthemsay?”
I was still cracking up as I read the remaining texts to him. “You’re going to give me a heart attack.Why are you trying to kill me? You were supposed to be my good girl, not like these other dipshits. Do you not care about my health? I’m too young to die from a heart attack. Do you even love me?”It was one thing to know I was related to drama queens, but it was another thing to be faced with it via text messaging. “These are from my sister.You’re a dumbass. I should’ve gone with you. I’m not joining any search parties going to look for you. I’m never going to wear the dress you made me if you don’t come back.There’s a few repeats…Squirt, you shit, tell me youmadeit.”
