Page 91
“Yep,” I said.
“He’s got Lila with him?”
“Yep,” I said again.
The left wing dipped, then the right, like the plane was waving hello. Mocking me. I growled.
“That’s just mean,” Holly said. “Want me to kill him for you?”
I snorted. “No, I do not want you to kill my brother.” I enunciated every word carefully because with Holly, it was better safe than sorry. “Anyway, I thought you liked mean. Kindred spirits and all that.”
“Meanness in women is an admirable trait. In men, it’s intolerable.”
It had been fifteen days since Lila had left to lead a ten-day photography excursion in Patagonia. The trip itself had been a great success, and the tour company was already trying to lock her down for Guatemala in October. She was supposed to arrive home two days ago, but the journey home had turned into a comedy of errors, with weather delays and canceled flights.
I wasn’t laughing.
But I couldn’t be too mad at my brother for his antics because if he hadn’t offered to pick Lila up from the airport where she’d gotten stuck, I wouldn’t see her until tomorrow—and that was only if I drove all night. I owed him. That didn’t stop me from pulling out my phone and texting him.
Me
Give me my wife, jackass.
Rhett
But we’re having fun.
Me
Are you seriously texting me right now? Hands on the yoke. If I find one scratch or bruise on her, I’m holding you personally responsible.
Rhett
That bruise on her shoulder was there when I found her, I swear.
Me
Land the damn plane.
Ten seconds later, my phone buzzed with a text from my wife.
Lila
I’m not actually hurt. Someone accidentally swung their suitcase into my arm when they were unloading it from the overhead bins three flights ago. It’s fine. You can see for yourself in two minutes.
Two minutes. My gaze snapped to the sky. The Cessna turned again, this time toward the dirt road that led to the highway. Rhett would use it for a landing strip.
Eagerness had me bursting out of my skin. I jogged down the porch steps, swung into the ATV, and hit the gas.
Ninety seconds.
The plane was low on the horizon now, its steady purr growing to a low roar. I pulled off into the pasture to stay out of the way. The wheels hit the dirt in a smooth landing, and then it rolled on for another six hundred feet, gradually slowing to a stop. I jumped out of the ATV as the Cessna opened and Rhett climbed down, then turned to help Lila.
“Seb?” she shouted. Her excitement matched my own. Fifteen days was the longest we had been separated since the big mess years ago, and every second of it had felt like an eternity.
I broke into a run. With a laugh that carried on the breeze, she did, too. She raced toward me, all those red curls sailing behind her, a smile so wide and bright it made my heart thunder.
And then she leaped at me, and oh, fuck, that’s what she smells like. Goddamn, I’d missed that. I caught her, laughing, going back a step to keep my balance, and the moment I lifted her off her feet, she wrapped her legs around my waist. Her hair swirled around us, and I grabbed a fistful of it at the nape of her neck.
