Page 38 of Twenty Years Later

I exhaled a breath I didn't know I was even holding. "Good. Good."

"Just you or..."

"I thought I'd bring Gabby too. If you don't mind."

"Of course, I don't mind," she said quickly. "So Gabby meeting Audrey?"

"Yes. Exactly."

"Wow, that should be interesting."

I wasn't sure what to make of that. "Interesting good? Or interesting bad?"

"Ha! I guess it could go either way." She laughed. "No. But really, Audrey loves other little girls. Or I should say she loves bossing them around."

Now it was my turn to laugh. "Look out."

"Yeah, look out," she warned, humor in her tone. "Has Gabby ever been on a plane before?"

"Uh, no. I'm a little scared to be honest."

She giggled in that adorable way I craved. "Oh, I don't blame you. Then I won't tell you my horror story till you get here."

"Okay. Now you have to tell me." I put my feet up on the couch and settled back.

"Yikes. I don't know if that's a good idea."

"Jayda, please. I can take it."

She sighed. "Okay. Well, my story didn't happen till the return trip when Audrey was all exhausted and completely wrung out."

"Yeah? So what happened?" I asked, beyond curious at this point.

"Well, she got totally freaked out about landing for some reason and screamed the whole way down about how we were going to crash and she wantedoff this plane!"

I couldn't help smiling at the way Jayda described it, complete with imitating Audrey's panicked voice. "No way. She did not."

"Yep. It wasbad. I ended up crying too, just holding her little body. She was clinging to me, grabbing on to me like I was her life raft. Wouldn't go in her seat to put her seatbelt on. She was absolutely and utterly terrified. It was awful."

"That sounds terrible." It truly did and gave me pause about my own upcoming flight.

"I know, right? But here's the thing. We survived it. And people were actually nice about it."

That shocked me. "They were?"

"Yes, surprisingly. Everyone applauded when we landed." We laughed together for a moment. "Sorry. I shouldn't have told you that."

"No. It's fine."

"But really, just remember my story if you have any issues. I survived that, and you can manage anything she throws your way. And now, I can even look back and laugh."

"True," I agreed. "And you also have a good story to tell."

"Exactly." She paused a second, then said, "So, Alex, serious question here, do you even own a winter coat?"

I cracked up laughing. "No. No, I don't."

"I didn't think so. Guess you need to do some shopping. So when are you thinking of visiting?"

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