Page 51 of All the way home

Sighing, he rubbed his palm along the side of his face. “Yeah, Rena.”

“Okay.” She turned to him. “Would it be weird if I kissed you now?”

Lucas blinked. Watching her out of the corner of his eye, he said, “It would only be weird if you don’t like me back.”

“I wouldn’t kiss you if I didn’t,” Rena told him, because she was feeling pretty confident in her conclusion.

And Lucas smiled.

Cautiously, Rena leaned forward. “Show me?”

“Okay,” he said, smile growing wider by the second, which she liked.

There have been years of kisses between now and then, but she likes remembering the first one best, because it had been just a maybe.

And maybes can be anything.

Chapter Sixteen

Zach

The further they walk into Concourse D, the quieter it gets.

“How did you just . . . know how to talk to her?” Zach asks, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Lorraine, I mean.”

“Honestly?” Kieran lifts a shoulder. “My dad’s mother was a nasty piece of work towards the end. And even before that, if I’m honest—I don’t think she ever forgave him for adopting ‘those Orientals.’ ”

At Zach’s visible astonishment, Kieran laughs.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t take it personally. She was rude to Mum, too, even though she’s a saint, because she didn’t grow up with money.”

“She sounds like a real charmer.”

“Oh, she was. It was dementia, and toward the end she would just say anything she thought. You sort of had to learn to be unflappable.”

If there ever was a word to describe Kieran.

“Did you have to deal with her a lot?”

“Oh yeah, she lived with us for a year when I was fifteen. I thought I was going to smother her in her sleep.” Hastily, wide-eyed, Kieran adds, “That’s a joke. I would never.”

“I might,” Zach says, and Kieran laughs.

It doesn’t take them long to reach the far wall.

Smoothing out the front of his coat, Kieran sighs. “All right. I suppose that’s it. We’ve seen everything.”

“It’s not a very big airport, is it?”

“Not compared to some others. You should see Atlanta.”

“I’m actually not sure how much more flying I’m going to do,” Zach confesses.

“It’s not always like this. Usually it’s quite a lot more straightforward. You don’t have to deal with . . . all this.” Gesturing around them, Kieran sighs.

All this. As they pivot, getting a straight view of the length of the concourse, Zach’s stomach turns over. There are so many people. He’d thought he’d been overwhelmed in his first week at university—already he was dealing with more people than had lived in his hometown, all concentrated to one campus—but comparatively, that had been easy.

They’ve run out of open seats at most of the gates, and people are camping out on the ground, sitting on their suitcases or right on the tile. Somebody’s even stretched out and gone to sleep against the wall, not seeming to care about the suitcase they’re leaving unguarded.