Atticus’s mouth curves against my hair in a grin. “Second best, actually.”
He jerks his chin toward the front of the cabin.
I twist in my seat.
Two figures duck through the plane door, filling the narrow aisle with broad shoulders and the unmistakable scent of salt air and leather.
Dom comes first, a duffel bag slung over one shoulder, silver-streaked hair wind-tossed, dark eyes scanning the cabin until they find me. Behind him, Judah fills the doorway—flannel sleeves rolled to his elbows, gaze moving between me and Mason as he reappears from the cockpit corridor.
I’m out of my seatbelt and on my feet before conscious thought catches up.
“What—how?—”
Dom drops the duffel onto the nearest empty seat. “Quit the bar this morning. Derek can find someone else to pour shitty beer for shittier tips.”
Judah ducks under the overhead compartment, a rare full smile cracking his weathered face. “First vacation I’ve taken in years. Mabie will hold down the fort with our crew for a bit.”
My gaze snaps to Mason.
He stands in the aisle between the cockpit and the cabin, hands shoved in his pockets, expression schooled into careful innocence. But the corners of his mouth are twitching. Badly.
“You knew.” I point at him. “You knew they were coming.”
“Dom called me last night.” Mason adjusts his glasses, not quite meeting my eyes. “They were trying to make arrangements, but no one wanted to get your hopes up if they couldn’t sort things out in time.”
I launch myself at Dom first because he’s closest. He catches me like he did at the salvage yard, arms closing around me as my feet leave the ground. His laugh rumbles through his chest and into mine.
“Miss me already?”
“Shut up and kiss me.”
He does.
When I pull back, Judah is right there. I throw my arms around his neck and feel him huff a surprised breath before one massive arm bands across my back. Over his shoulder, I watch Mason reach out and grip Judah’s free hand, a quick, fierce squeeze that speaks louder than anything either of them could say.
“EXCUSE ME!”
The voice comes from the back of the plane like a foghorn cutting through a quiet harbor.
Stephanie stands in the rear galley doorway, phone pressed between her ear and shoulder, one hand raised in the universal gesture ofI am going to lose my mind. Her head bandage has been replaced with a carefully positioned silk scarf, and her expression could curdle fresh milk.
“This delay is costing the studio four thousand dollars an hour. If there are no more surprise additions to the passenger manifest, we need wheels up in the next five minutes or I am going to start billing people personally!”
I look at Dom. At Judah. At Mason, who has already pulled out his phone and started reorganizing what I assume is an entirely new itinerary. At Atticus, still sprawled in his seat with Gerald Jr. now propped beside him, wearing an expression of pure, unrepentant satisfaction.
“You heard the woman.” I drop back into my seat and buckle in. “Let’s go.”
EPILOGUE
JUDAH
“I can’t believeyou sold the boat.”
Mabie’s voice reaches me before she does, which is standard. My sister has never announced her presence with anything as mundane as a knock.
I tape shut the first cardboard box in a stack I’ve been wrestling with for the past ten minutes. It’s easy to forget how heavy books are until you have to carry a few dozen of them at a time.
Then I straighten up just as she appears in the doorway of my bedroom.
