I spin around.Summer Stevens sways in the center aisle, grabbing on to the back of a leather passenger seat for balance.
“Summer?What the fucking hell are you doing on my plane?”
My best friend slaps her free hand over her mouth and lurches forward.She points at Bryttni.
“Huuumm-ammt?”she asks.
Bryttni crosses her arms under her double Ds and frowns.“Who amI?Who areyou?”
CHAPTER 2
Summer
I hate flying.What’s the purpose of defying gravity when there’s perfectly good ground wrapped around the planet like a snuggly blanket?Especially since some of that ground is covered in grass, trees, mountains, lakes, and rivers.
We humans have options.We can walk, run, ride, swim—even snowboard if the urge to do something truly stupid strikes—and it’s all good.So there’s absolutely no sane reason for anyone to fly.
Yet here I am, up in the air and concluding that my plan isn’t working all that great.It sounded simple enough when I came up with it.I’d stow away in Declan’s jet.The jet would take off.I’d walk up the aisle to the cockpit where I’d announce to him that I was hijacking the plane and forcing him to turn around and land in Las Vegas so that we could prevent a disaster from happening.
Evander and Phoebe can’t be allowed to elope.
But when the jet leveled off in the air and I tried to walk up the aisle, a wave of nausea and dizziness slammed into me.I figured it would go away if I lay down for a moment, so I pulled out the sleeper sofa in the back.
No bueno.
And now we’ve been flying for well over a half hour.I think I see the ocean down there, but it makes me even sicker to look.I can’t hold it any longer.The only bathroom is near the cockpit and that’s where I’m headed, no matter if I have to crawl.
It’s all my fault.I ate a leftover Philly cheesesteak on my drive to the airport, and the thing is hankering for revenge.
I can’t believe I was forced to get in this tin can in the first place!Butsomebodyhas to take care of business.Declan is perfectly capable of handling this alone, of course, but he isn’t doing it.
He’s the kind of guy who gets easily distracted and forgets basic things, like how his brother Evander and our neighbor Phoebe—the sweetest and kindest woman any of us have ever known—simply cannot get married without us!
Somebody’s got to man up in this scenario.That woman is me.
Declan and I both know what Evander’s up to.We stood right next to him when he said that elopements have become so popular because of nosy families.And he said this at Finn and Emma’s wedding while staring at Phoebe in a red velvet, floor-length gown with a slit all the way up to her thigh.
Lordy.
Men.
So, of course they’re eloping!Of course that’s why they’re nowhere to be found on New Year’s Eve!They went to Vegas to elope!
Declan is a MacLaine, through and through.And if I’ve learned anything in all my years working with the MacLaines of Yosemite Ranch, it’s this: familyalwayscomes first.No MacLaine would ever be allowed to get married without an audience.
And so that’s why I find myself standing in the middle of the aisle watching Declan feel up some girl in a miniskirt while she yanks his pants down to his knees.
Typical Declan.Focused on getting his rocks off instead of...
Judgement will have to wait.
“I’m going to hurl!”I yell.
Declan recovers from the shock of seeing me and nearly falls on his face as he moves in my direction.He points over his shoulder and barks orders.“Lavatory!Summer, donotvomit in my beautiful jet.Do you hear me?You are not going to—oh shit.”
I’m a split second from freeing the cheesesteak.I’ll never make it past Billie Eyelash over there to reach the bathroom.I press my hand hard against my mouth, willing myself not to throw up, while Declan kicks off his pants and grabs me.He lifts me up into his arms, spins around, barks for his girlfriend to move aside, and opens the lavatory door.I hear the clank of a toilet seat.
“There,” Declan says, setting me down.“Throw up there.Nowhere else.”
