Page 52 of Totally Opposed

I grab my bag from the carousel and immediately see Kelly waving me over.

“Thank god you’re back,” she says, wrapping me in a tight hug.

“Why?”

She lets me go and grabs Ryan on his way past, pulling him into an even tighter hug.

“Oh my God, I am so happy to see you,” she says, and I look around to see if anyone is watching, because if anyone sees them, I am fucked. After all, I have no explanation for why my sister is hugging Ryan in the middle of the airport.

“Umm, Kell, you can let him go now,” I say, taking my sister’s arm and almost prying it off my boyfriend. Even in my head, I love the way that sounds.

“Sorry, but you have no idea what it’s been like the last two weeks.”

“We’ve been gone for four,” I correct her.

“Yeah, but Gramps ate through all of Ryan’s meals in two, so who do you think has had to hear about it for two weeks straight?”

Ryan laughs. “I’m glad he enjoyed them. I’ll make him up some more before we fly out again.”

“Seriously, you need to teach me how to make them because I tried to make the casserole thing and the shepherd’s pie, and neither went over well.”

“Why didn’t you just buy him some frozen dinners?” I ask, and she starts waving her hands around.

“Oh, don’t even get me started on that. I tried to stock him up with frozen meals. You know what he did with them?”

“What?”

“He threw them out the window and down into the dumpster. Said he would rather starve than eat that trash anymore. Told me to call the mortuary and prepare the casket because he was on his way.”

I can’t help but laugh at that one, too.

“Ryan, look what you’ve done to my sister,” I say, and he blushes a beautiful rosy glow. “She was the cool and collected one when we left.”

She sighs and drapes one arm over Ryan’s shoulder, leaning her head against him.

“Please, can you teach me how to cook, because I don’t think the authorities will believe me when I tell them he jumped from the window?”

“What’s this all about?” Harry asks, sidling up beside us. Most of the team have already left the airport luggage section.

“Ryan is going to teach me to cook,” Kelly says, letting Ryan go again to place her hands together in front of her, begging him with her pleading gaze.

“I can give you the recipe, and we can go through it tonight. I was planning on cooking up a shepherd’s pie, anyway.”

“Seriously, oh my god, you are amazing.”

Harry slaps a hand on Ryan’s shoulder. “What I’m hearing is dinner at Kelly’s?”

“Yes,” Kelly replies before I can shut it down. “You should invite all the guys. We haven’t had them over in forever.”

“Yeah, like never,” I say, and she frowns and waves a hand in my direction.

“You used to have them over at your place all the time. I keep telling you to treat my place as your place for as long as you want. This is good. Ryan, you and I will go shopping for ingredients. Alan, you go check on Gramps. I’m not visiting him until I have a Ryan dish in my hands.”

“I’ll invite Arlo and text the guys,” Harry says.

“Where is Arlo?” I ask, and Harry smiles wide and proud.

“He’s at the library teaching a bunch of niblets to draw their pets as cartoon characters.”

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