Page 40 of All the way home

Honestly, he’s impressed with himself for saying it.

“If I find your suitcase for you, will you drop the Rena snoop charges?”

“I’ll consider it.” His smile fades. “I don’t think I’m getting that back, though.”

“Was there anything super important in it?” Kieran asks, as Zach’s phone buzzes rapidly.

“Christmas presents,” Zach says glumly. As subtly as he can, he checks his messages, all from Mara.

He’s One of us

that book is GAY gay (affectionate)

zach i need info

wait no. don’t respond to these

just keep doing whatever ur doing

but know that i’m freaking out on ur behalf

“Okay.” Kieran effectively wrests Zach’s attention from his phone. “You don’t have to answer, but why are you nervous about flying?”

“Are you not?”

“Maybe I used to be.” Kieran tilts his head. “I guess I’m desensitized to it now.”

“So, you’ve flown a lot?”

Kieran shrugs. It’s that distinct, one-arm shrug that tells Zach everything. It’s a Yeah, I guess so that really means Yeah, so much that it’s not even a big deal.

And it’s not a surprise. Not really. It’s not hard to tell that Kieran comes from money. What’s hard to tell is whether Zach cares. But, he reminds himself sternly, he doesn’t have to decide that just yet.

So he asks, “What’s the coolest place you’ve been, then?”

Pausing to think, Kieran rests his thumb against his bottom lip. “Hanoi. In Vietnam.”

With a low whistle, Zach says, “That must have been a long flight.”

“Yeah. Forty-five hours.”

Zach nearly drops his phone again. “What?”

“Not all at once,” Kieran clarifies, visibly amused. “Three separate flights. Toronto to San Francisco, then to Incheon, then Noi Bai. Five hours, twelve hours, then another four and a half, I think. Forty-five hours start to finish, once you factor in all the waiting.”

Okay. Definitely from money, if he’s saying all this so casually, like it’s nothing.

“You sort of forget to be nervous. That trip I wasn’t afraid of flying, I was afraid of Rena. She kept threatening to—and I quote—end my life without remorse in the most violent manner conceivable.” Nodding gravely, Kieran adds, “She would have, too, don’t doubt it. It was lucky my parents were there to spare me.”

It doesn’t escape Zach that there’s a possibility Kieran may have fairly earned such threats, but he thinks it would be wiser not to say so. “Why were you going to Hanoi?”

“I think my parents were keen on us keeping in touch with our heritage, or something.”

“You’re Vietnamese?”

“Half.” Kieran tilts forward to run his fingers across the cover of a Mandela autobiography. “We’re adopted. My bio mom lived in Canada, but she was born in Vietnam.”

“So your parents just . . . took you to Hanoi?” Zach asks, thinking that if he says it out loud, maybe it will sound more plausible.