Page 153 of All the way home

Zach has never been so potently aware that this is the longest they’ve ever been apart since they first met. Her brown eyes in person are a balm to a wound he hadn’t realized he’d been curled around for several months.

He squawks an objection, helpless with laughter. “That wasn’t my fault! Did you at least still watch?”

“Not properly. We sort of saw it on the drive, though,” Mara says. “It was gorgeous, I just kept hoping you were seeing it from the plane.”

“I wasn’t,” Zach admits ruefully. “We did try, but couldn’t get the right angle, and—”

“You,” Mara interrupts, attention snapping to a point over his shoulder.

Zach doesn’t know whether to be pleased or mortified at the way his worlds are colliding. Slowly, he turns, finding Kieran standing off to the side, watching with clear amusement. “Right. Yes. Mara, this is—”

“You’re appallingly good-looking,” Mara interrupts, striding briskly around Zach and sticking a hand out, all business. “Maragatham. Pleased to meet you in the flesh. Fuck with Loren and this face’ll be the last one you ever see.”

Kieran surrenders to a burst of laughter and shakes Mara’s hand. “Kieran. It’s a pleasure.”

“Damn right it is.” With a bright grin, Mara drops the intensity. “Astonishing that you’re a real person.”

Zach and Kieran exchange a fleeting knowing look.

“Mara, budge over. Zach, get in here,” Tove says, yanking him in by the hood and closing him into a headlock. Quieter, around her wide grin, she whispers, “The hell, dude? Mara told me bits and pieces, but you have some serious explaining to do.”

“I know, I know,” he says, putting up the pretense of a futile struggle. “I don’t really know how it happened either.”

“You are one of a kind,” Tove says fondly, then releases him.

Cheeks blazing, Zach steps away, smoothing down the front of his sweater and clearing his throat. Then he realizes that Kieran’s standing there alone. He turns, head on a swivel. “Where’d Rena go?”

“She and Lucas went to get the bags,” Kieran says.

Together, he notes.

“And . . . ?” Zach keeps scanning the terminal, realizing with a start that he doesn’t have a clue what Kieran’s parents look like. Then he registers that Kieran’s shaking his head. “What—they’re not here?”

“It’s the crack of ass,” Kieran points out. “And they were up late waiting. They know it’s hardly difficult to get a car out.”

Despite himself, Zach laughs. “We come from very different worlds.”

“I’m getting that impression,” Kieran says, and there’s something tight and unconvincing about his smile as his gaze lingers on Tove and Mara. He turns to Zach. “So.”

In his peripherals, Zach registers that Mara has his suitcase by the handle, waiting expectantly.

With a lurch, he realizes that this strange, magical night is about to end.

Feeling suddenly awkward, he turns toward Kieran. What is he supposed to do? Should he kiss him goodbye? Would he be able to stop if he started?

“So,” he echoes. Catching a breath, he clears his throat, rocking forward, then back. Not quite allowing himself the step forward he’d take if nobody was watching. “I guess . . . this is it. For now.”

At that, Kieran’s expression transforms. A smile bursts across his face, wide with mischief. “Well,” he says. “Not quite.”

Chapter Fifty

Rena

“Well,” Lucas says, after what feels like eons, and he sounds weary.

Bone-weary.

They’ve been silent for the entire wait for luggage to come winding down the conveyor, and with every passing moment, Rena’s panic meter has been slowly rising.