Page 10 of Lyrical

“Okay, let’s get back on topic. At least we made progress today. We know you want it casual, but any ideas where?” I didn’t even want to throttle her for all those hours I put in; I was just relieved she’d figured it out.

“Oooh… you know what sounds fun? Getting married on the beach in our bikinis. You’d have to wear a pink one, of course, and we could have a wapatui party afterwards.”

“I am not standing up in a bikini.”

“I bet Chase would like it.” She waggled her eyebrows.

“Yeah, he’d love me walking around nearly naked wearing the bubblegum dental floss you picked out for me.”

“Humph. You’re still my maid of honor, and you have to do what I say.”

I shook my head, finishing off my coffee before it cooled down anymore.

“Okay, you win,” she said. “But you still have to wear pink. All weekend.”

“Fine.”

One of the details she’d decided early on was her colors. She frickin’ adored pink. She picked out a dress for me that she “oohed” and “aahed” over inside the store. I thought it made me look like Pepto Bismol exploded out of my stomach.

“There is something we can do right now that’s wedding related.”

“What’s that?”

“Well, Wildheart Bakery’s just down the street. We can even walk there.”

I crossed my arms over my stomach. “Ugh, Perry.”

“It’ll soak up some alcohol.”

“I think that’s one task we beat to death. I’m sure we can find something else to do. There’s a flower shop down the street too.”

“But all the cake tasting we did before was for a fancy wedding. Now we need to do it for a casual one.” She interlaced her fingers and rested them under her chin, her entire face resembling the Cheshire cat.

“Fine.” She won.

The arrival/departure board changed. Again. The plastic-backed chair dug into my spine, so I leaned forward, tapping my fingers on my chin. He should have just flown into O’Hare. I would’ve happily driven the hour to Chicago to pick him up, but he hopped on the little puddle jumper to make the short flight to Milwaukee. And there was a twenty-minute delay.

Relax, Jillian.It’stwenty frickin’ minutes.It’s not like the flight was canceled.

I got up and paced around. The place was practically empty, which was expected for a Sunday night. I walked over to Starbucks to pass some time, considered what I wanted to order, then turned back around. I didn’t need anything sloshing around in my stomach.

I was jittery as hell. I was also over-the-moon excited, and that’s all I should’ve been feeling, but yeah… knowing that Daniel and Chase were going to meet in about an hour freaked me the fuck out.

I did laps around the airport, waiting for the clock to tick down. It was planned that I’d come alone to pick up Daniel, then bring him back to Mom’s where Chase would be one of the people waiting. I second-guessed myself a dozen times and still didn’t know if I was making the correct decision. Was it too soon to introduce them? Should I wait for a time when we could do it without others around? I discussed it with Chase and my mom, and in the end I decided to just go with it. I wanted Chase with the rest of the family when Daniel and I walked through that door, and hopefully, it’d work out well.

Peachy-keen jelly bean.I checked flight 3031 on the board, and it appeared the latest time was sticking. I made my way to Gate D and went as far as I could get before security stopped me. I saw some life down at the end of the aisle and pulled at the fabric strangling my throat. Why had I worn a turtleneck? It was choking me.

Two flight attendants wheeled their bags up, chatting amongst themselves.Okay, that’s a good sign.This was the only flight coming in at that time from that gate. Pretty soon the passengers would be walking up as well. Pretty soon I’d be able to give my son a big ole hug.

I watched as more and more people straggled closer to me, but still no Daniel. I tugged at my bottom lip. Probably half the plane had exited, and I was getting antsy. Antsier. No, neurotic. When a group filed by, I started to think I’d messed up the itinerary. Maybe it wasn’t flight 3031, but 1303. I’d never been dyslexic before, but was there a later-age onset version? I’d gone through all the info with him and quadruple-checked it on the site, but we’d only talked in text to cut down on costs and maybe—

“Mom?”

Holy shit. “Daniel!” It was just like those times when he was a little boy, and he’d sneak up behind me and think it was so funny when I jumped, until the day I was holding his birthday cake and I threw it into the air. He didn’t think it was so funny then, and…holy shit!

I ran over and gave him that hug I’d been dying to give him for the past year and a half. He was like that little boy all over again, yet he wasn’t. Not even close. I gave him a kiss on both cheeks, then pulled back to take a good look.

His smile was gorgeous. “Hi, Mom.”

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