Page 53 of All the way home

“Who’s Dillan?”

“My big brother.”

“Where does Dillan live?”

“Queens.” Bouncing a little on her toes, she tells them, “That’s a school in a kingdom.”

Queens University, Zach knows, is in Kingston. But that’s adorable.

Barely holding in a laugh, Zach asks, “Is that where your flight was going?”

“Nope. Toronto.”

Zach and Kieran exchange a glance.

“She wasn’t at our gate,” Zach says, voice low. He’s certain he’d have remembered.

“We should have a look at the flight board.” Kieran nods to the girl. “Will you tell us your name? It might help us find your mom.”

She thinks about this. Then she nods. “Angie.”

“Good to meet you, Angie.” Slowly, Zach straightens. “Will you come with us? Let’s find your mom.”

Angie considers him for a moment, then nods, pushing off the wall and grabbing his hand.

Shoving down the twinge of terror that she just agreed like that—he could have been anybody, he could be a murderer—he follows Kieran toward the nearest flight information display board, where D security spills out into the terminal.

Zach glances over. “You have lots of siblings, huh, Angie?”

She wrinkles her nose. “Two isn’t lots.”

“I bet it can feel like lots sometimes. I only have one more than you, and it feels like lots.”

“You have three siblings?” Kieran shoots Zach an inquisitive look, smiling when he nods.

“Are you the baby?” the girl asks. “I’m not the baby, but I was.”

“Hey, I used to be the baby too. But my brother Erik’s the baby now.”

“Is Erik a real baby? Maeve is a real baby ’cept soon she’s going to learn walking and then she’s going to be a toddler.”

“Erik’s thirteen,” Zach tells her. “But sometimes it’s hard to tell if he’s a real baby or not.”

She hides a squeal of laughter behind her free hand and gives a delighted little skip. “Is he tiny?”

Standing in front of the flight board, Kieran smiles.

“You know what, no.” Zach gives her hand a squeeze. “He’s taller than me.”

“That’s a big baby,” she says.

“It is.”

“I sort of have three siblings too,” she says with a self-satisfied nod.

“Sort of?”

“Dillan’s girlfriend is family, Mommy says. Because family doesn’t have to come from your body.”