The luggage guys, shouting and whisking bags away with practiced speed. The ropes funneling people into tidy rows. The numbered signs.
Everything moving along like a well-oiled machine.
But today?
Even that satisfying symmetry can’t quiet the panic pounding in my stomach.
Beckett was supposed to meet us at the airportyesterday.
He never showed.
He didn’t return my texts. Didn’t answer my calls.
I’d be worried—if I weren’t also absolutely,blisteringly furious.
And yet, I’m smiling. I have to keep smiling.
“Mom!” Max tugs my sleeve, nearly toppling my purse and the matching carry-on I’m balancing between us. “Look, it’s Grandma!”
Sure enough, when I turn, my mother is approaching—face shaded by a sensible sunhat, tote bag secure on her shoulder, looking exactly like someone who has read the itinerary and packed accordingly.
“Darlings!” Mom exclaims. “There’s my handsome grandsons!”
The boys launch themselves at her like missiles, wrapping their arms around her legs.
Babs trails behind, colorful sunglasses glittering like a disco ball in the California sun and a sparkly bedazzled tumbler in hand—likely filled with some sort of mushroom coffee. She gives me that look I’ve still not gotten used to, the one that says she knows exactly what’s going on behind my designer sunglasses.
I really don’t need that today.
“How do you always manage to look like you just stepped out of a fashion magazine?” Babs asks me, tilting her head with mock suspicion. “And where’s that handsome husband of yours?”
I roll my eyes and answer the first question while ignoring the second. “It’s hereditary. You have met my mom, haven’t you? Though a good moisturizer doesn’t hurt.” My laugh sounds lighter than I feel.
Before she can reply, Luna and Noah appear through the crowd, hand-in-hand, glowing with the radiance of two people who’ve found their soulmates. Luna’s practically levitating, herdark brown curls bouncing, her sundress swaying, her entire body humming with joy.
She squeals and throws her arms around me.
“Can you believe we’re actually doing this?” she says, hugging me tight enough to squeeze the breath right out of my lungs. Her hair smells like coconut and sunshine. When she finally steps back, she’s smiling so wide it almost hurts to look at her.
I do my best to match her excitement, ignoring the tightness in my chest.
Because I’m proud of her, I really am. And I’m happy she’s happy. But that glowing look on her face, that effortless love and certainty—it’s like staring straight into the sun.
Her eyes flick past my shoulder, still bright with expectation. “Where’s Bex?”
I may have gotten away with ignoring this question with Babs, but I know I can’t with Luna.
“He—” I start, hating the words before they come out.
“Right here.”
His voice comes from behind me at the exact moment a hand slides around my waist. And I hate—hate—that after everything, my body lights up inside.
It’s only been a few weeks since he moved out, but the distance between us didn’t start then. It had been there much longer.
Even when he was home, he wasn’t really there.
He shut me out.
