Page 91 of Authentically, Izzy
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Izzy hadn’t been certain what it would feel like to see Brodie again. After all, it had only been a little over a month since he left Mt. Airy, but they’d continued their video chats and emails, except with a renewed sprinkle of something rather fairy tale-ish, if she thought about it. I suppose if you add some amazing kisses to any online conversation, the interactions shift into a new area, and boy oh boy, throwing a rockin’ smooch—or dozens—into a budding relationship tipped the temperature into the cozy-sweater range of perfect.
She tugged her backpack onto her shoulder and followed the other passengers through the small airport, grin growing as she read passing signs, most bilingual. Of course she had no idea what the wordKarremeant, but it looked lovely in written form—though Brodie speaking it was even lovelier. She’d attempted to google it, but even those answers gave vague definitions like “term of endearment” and “tender affection.” Both of which were nice but ambiguous.
Overhearing his conversations with his mother on the phone when he visited nearly had her swooning from kneecaps to nose. He’d switch back and forth between Caedric and English without a glitch.
She straightened her spine and scanned the waiting area ahead.
Surviving the flight had definitely proven a great start to her very first international adventure. And after making it through customs without any major disasters (she didn’t count the fact of having to ask the airline attendant to repeat herself for every sentence), she’d had time to tame her hair, change her coffee-stained T-shirt, and apply concealer to the moon craters beneath her eyes. All good. Even if jitters the size of drop-scare rides kept swooping inside her stomach, she’d arrived in Skymar... on the other side of the world. And Brodie would be here.
Hopefully.
She closed her mind to any more unrealistic imaginings that overreading tended to conjure up during high-stress, life-changing moments.
The crowd dispersed up ahead as various travelers found their waiting people and Izzy slowed her pace, attempting to keep her expression as placid as possible. “Terrified” probably wasn’t the best first impression to make on someone’s mind after not seeing him for a month. Though the fact that one of their last moments ended in her nursing a bleeding ankle while hopping along Main Street shoeless and wearing a shark hat had to help desensitize him to possible future scenes with her.
And then, among the strangers, a familiar pair of eyes met hers. Brodie’s grin slipped from one corner to tip the other, and suddenly the flight, crime families, snoring dragons, and coffee stains didn’t matter. She’d found him. Her whole body relaxed as tension slipped away with a sigh.
It was strange how connected to him she felt. All those emails and video calls, all those conversations blended together to create this inexplicable bond of friendship. Her gaze dropped to his lips again and heat rose into her cheeks. Well, a little more than friends.
Was this sweet, tender, and unexpected calm a hint to the truth she belonged with him?
The sweater-vests were absent in June, but she wasn’t complaining. He walked toward her wearing a green polo, jeans, and a heart-stopping smile. Yep, that was worth any and every midflight terror or embarrassment from Mt. Airy to here.
They approached each other, pulled forward like magnets to metal, and without pausing, he slipped one palm to her waist, the other to her cheek, and touched his lips to hers. Since he only stood about an inch or two taller than her, it didn’t take much shifting on her part, but the entire greeting took her by surprise. No “hello.” No “I’m so glad to see you.” Just a sweet, warm, delightful welcome of the nonverbal variety, which said all those things without using words. She admired his efficiency and slipped her hand to his shirt lapel to help him be efficient a little longer. Though she’d purchased about a dozen cedar-scented candles since Brodie left, none of them replicatedthe real thing. She breathed him in, his scent and his lips a perfectly delightful combination.
Her foot took a tilt up. Yep, just as good as the last time.Fairy tales, here we come!
“You look surprisingly rested for such a long trip.” He searched her face, carefully slipping her backpack from her shoulder, as if he hadn’t just kissed her into orbit in the middle of an airport.
Perhaps men of Skymar handled intoxicating kisses better than American women because it took a few seconds for her brain to absorb and then comprehend his statement. “Distance and makeup work miracles in a woman’s appearance, I think.”
His grin split wide and she stood in one of those dazed expressions like love-struck characters in animated movies when the hearts start ballooning from their heads. Yep, the flight and all the mafia paranoia were totally worth it.
“I’m so glad you’re here.”
“Me too,” she whispered, falling in step beside him as they navigated the crowds toward the baggage area. “Oh, I brought you something!”
He paused and she reached into the front pocket of her bag, her teeth skimming over her bottom lip as she tried to tame her smile.Calm down, Izzy.She tugged the wrapped gift from its place and handed it to Brodie, nearly shaking from excitement.
His brows rose as he looked from her to the odd-shaped gift. She’d attempted to wrap the T-shirt around the book to disguise the contents, because, well, a book for a booklover was incredibly predictable. Though she never grew tired of them.
The book slipped from the T-shirt first and the glow in his eyes rewarded her careful perusal of every online Tolkien fan shop on the planet. “An illustrated hardback ofThe Hobbit?” He chuckled and leaned over to kiss her cheek.
“You were Brodie the Hobbit when we first met.”
“Indeed.” He examined the book and then looked back over at her. “I have the perfect spot for it on my shelf.”
What self-respecting reader wouldn’t?
He shook out the green T-shirt to view the front and his laugh reverberated against the sterile airport walls with such surprise, it ignited her own. The shirt had a silhouette of Yoda and in the center of the silhouette were the words “Yoda Best.”
“I know it’s corny, but it somehow seemed to fit.”
“‘Corny’?”
“Oh!” Language barrier. “It means quirky or silly.”
