Aleks smirks. “He thinks he did something that pissed her off.”
“I didn’t.”
“Love you, man,” Hank chuckles. “But if Hildy’s pissed, you did it.” He looks at some of the team. “She’s awesome.”
“I didn’t do anything,” I … pout?
Aleks chuckles as he stands, “Then stop acting guilty.”
It’s late, but I send her a message anyway.
Me:
Miss my girls. Bus. Plane. Then home. I love you, Schatz.
I watch the dots flit across the screen, stop, and start again.
And right before we get on the bus, I get a message.
Hildy:
I know.
I know?I’m not sure how to take that. In one hand it’s good that she knows, I want her to always know. In the other, a big pile of steaming… insecurity.
“Keep looking like a broken-hearted little bitch, and I’m tossing that phone in a snowbank. She said she knows. End of.”
“You read my message?” I gasp.
“In case you didn’t know, M Fer, you’ve been on watch this whole time.” Dash chuckles.
“On what?”
“Never you mind, it’s for your own good,” Koa grumbles.
“What the hell is?—”
“It’s,” Deacon pauses. “Preventative measures. For the love-sick.”
Stone grins from across the room. “Dash Watch.”
Dash hip-checks him into a seat. “Fuck no.”
“First road trip,” Koa shrugs. “Man gets a girl, starts staring at his phone like it owes him money.”
“Last time someone got like that,” Stone adds, “he snuck out of a hotel and hopped a plane.”
Dash points a finger. “Once.”
“Twice,” Deacon corrects.
“That’s fair,” Dash concedes.
I stare at them. “You’re all idiots.”
“Maybe,” Koa says, nodding toward my phone. “But you’re the one under Dash Watch.”
Our flight is delayed. Weather over the Northeast. One hour, they said, which means two.
