Page 79 of Make Your Save

The woman stares back at me, her expression unenthused. “To where and when?”

My eyes scan the list of flights behind her and I see one that’s leaving a little after Hadley’s. The timing is perfect, so long as there are tickets available. I read off the flight information from the board before looking back at her.

She gives me a strange look, popping a bubble of gum before she pulls it into her mouth with an obnoxious chew. Her attention is directed back to her computer screen and she moves the mouse around, clicking a few different times.

I adjust Lucy in the baby carrier strapped to my chest, rolling my wrist toward my body as I check the time again. Hadley’s flight leaves very soon and they’ll most likely begin boarding soon.

“One ticket, correct?”

“Yes, please,” I tell her, reaching into my backpocket to pull out my wallet. I flip it open, taking out my credit card and ID, before setting them down on the counter.

“Do you have any bags you’re checking?”

“No.”

She purses her lips, cocking her head to the side as she looks at me and Lucy. I know the policies. I don’t need a ticket for Lucy and if we were actually flying, she could sit on my lap. The woman doesn’t make any comments and turns her attention back to the computer in front of her. It feels like an eternity stretches as she enters in my information, making sure everything is correct before finally printing out the boarding pass.

She slides my cards back to me and I don’t bother putting them in my wallet. Instead, I shove them into my front pocket since I’m going to need my ID to get through security anyway. I adjust Lucy in my arms as the woman finally hands me the stub.

“Thank you and I hope you have a nice trip,” she says, raising a questioning eyebrow as I grab it from her in a haste.

“Thanks.” I mumble out the word as I’m already spinning on my heel, my eyes scanning the space as my mind draws a blank on what I’m doing or where I’m going. I know I need to find Hadley and that’s the only thing that fucking matters.

Naturally, when I make my way over to security, there’s a line, and I quickly find my place in it, rocking back and forth in an effort to keep Lucy content. I have everything I need to make her a bottle in the diaper bag I brought, but I just need to get through security first.

I can’t stop from looking at my watch every step we take that gets us closer to the end of the line. I can’t help but feel like I’m running out of time at this point. There’s twenty minutes left until they start boarding for her flight and—holy shit—what if I don’t make it?

Anxiety builds in the pit of my stomach, but I can’t let it consume me. Not now. Not when I’m so close to reaching her. If I don’t get there in time, they won’t let me on the plane to get her. I don’t want to text her to let her know I’m coming for her, but if she ends up getting on the plane, I might have to do that because the last thing I’m going to do is let her get on a plane to the other side of the country without hearing what I have to say.

Lucy and I get through the first step of security. My boarding pass and ID are scanned and we’re on our way to the final part. I kick my shoes off, shoving them into one of the plastic bins before putting the diaper bag in the one after mine. Because I have Lucy in my arms, I’m waved through one of the metal detectors instead of the one that does a full-body scan, and I keep on moving. When I get over to the belt, I find my shoes and drop them onto the floor, slipping them on as I wait for the diaper bag.

I see it coming out from the scanning machine and it’s inching closer. At the last minute, it juts into a different lane and slides down to one of the TSA agents. What. The. Fuck.

I cannot afford a hang-up like this right now.

“Sir, is this your bag?” one of the agents at the endof the line questions me as he sees me eyeing it from where I’m standing.

“Yes,” I tell him, jerking my chin as I try to give Lucy a pacifier. She pushes it away and instead shoves her fist into her mouth, sucking on her fingers vigorously. I need that damn bag so I can make her the quickest bottle of my life. “Is there something wrong?”

“It appears it was flagged for an item that doesn’t pass security.” He stares at the screen for a moment and I swear I can hear the ticking of the clock inside my brain. “Do I have your permission to search the bag and find the item?”

“Absolutely.” I dip my head again without any hesitation. He could throw out the entire fucking bag at this point and I wouldn’t care.

Okay, that’s a lie. I need to be able to make Luce a bottle as soon as humanly possible.

The man unzips the pockets, going through each one, before he pulls out a filled water bottle from inside the biggest compartment. “Here’s the culprit.” He chuckles, shaking his head as he holds it up to me. “Liquids more than three ounces are not allowed.”

Dear God, I’m an idiot.

“I must have forgotten that it was in there.”

He smiles, setting the bottle to the side. “It happens more often than you would think. I’m going to have to dispose of the bottle.”

“Yeah, sure. Do whatever you have to with it.”

I don’t want to draw more attention to myself by asking him to hurry up, but this man needs to hurry the fuck up. Rolling my wrist, I glance at my watchagain. Ten minutes. Ten minutes until they start boarding and I’m still waiting for this stupid diaper bag.

He finally finishes zipping it up, making whatever notes he has to make in his system before handing the diaper bag back to me. “Here you are, sir. I hope you have a safe flight and a nice trip.”

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