Page 73 of That First Flight

Please, don’t cry.

“I’m a little jealous of you, Ollie.”

I swallow, trying to process what she would be jealous about at such a young age.

“Your family. Your brothers and your sister and the other ladies. Everyone is really just so cool and so funny. I wish… I wish I had that. I wish I had more people in my family to love the way you all do.”

My heart cracks.

For the first time in my life, I’m left speechless, unable to find just the right words to comfort Mackenzie and make her feel accepted. I want to tell her that she will always be a part of our family, that she can have a spot with everyone. She can call them Aunts and Uncles, for all I care but it’s not something I should be saying unless Macey says it’s alright.

“Do you like my mom?” Mackenzie asks, cutting through my thoughts before I have a chance to respond to her first confession.

I nod. “She’s a really good person.”

“Not like that. Do youlike herlike her? Like, do you have a crush on her?”

Talk about being completely caught off guard.

It’s like this girl can actually read my mind, like she was in my head earlier tonight when I was staring off into space at a blank TV screen thinking about my roommate being more.

Being in the first relationship of my life.

“Can you keep something between us?”

“Yeah?” Her eyes narrow in suspicion.

“Ilike herlike her. But… it’s kind of a new feeling for me,” I admit.

“How come?”

“I’ve never actually dated anyone,” I say then pause, realizing I'm talking to an eight year old about my nonexistent relationship history. But I continue anyway because she’s clearly wise beyond her years. “I haven’t done the relationship thing before and I’m not sure I’m that type of guy.”

“I don’t know.” She shrugs. “I think you’re a pretty cool guy.”

The corner of my lip tips up in a half grin. “You think so?”

“Iknowso.”

My heart thunders in my chest that this girl is growing on me. I’m not just falling for Macey, but I’m caring at rapid speed for Mackenzie too.

“Why do you ask all of this?”

Mackenzie takes another bite of her cookie, staring at it deep in thought. “I just really want to see my mom happy.”

Something she and I have in common. I find myself in a constant state of trying my damndest to make Macey as happy as I can, especially after learning so much about her past and how she lived back in Montana.

“Has she ever told you about Grandma and Grandpa?” Mackenzie says, despite me still being unable to say anything.

All I can do is nod, not wanting to divulge too much info to her for fear that I’m going to say something she doesn’t know.

“They were never really nice to her.” Her smile falls even more. “She’s always tried to hide it from me because she didn’t want me to know she was hurting or having a fight with them, you know? But as I was growing up, I saw a lot more than I should have. I’m a pretty smart kid.”

“I’m sorry you had to see anything like that at all.”

“I know I’m still young, but I’m not dumb. I saw it all. I heard it all. I can put two and two together that all of my mom’s problems were that she had me so young.”

I’m left stunned.

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