Page 60 of Attached At Heart
“Mr. and Mrs. London?”
I looked up with surprise at the flight attendant who had approached us and couldn’t help but notice how quickly Delaney had reacted, too. I mean, sure, maybe it had more to do with someone appearing next to her aisle seat, someone who was clearly talking to us, but I chose to believe it was the name, my name,ourname, that drew her attention.
“We’re so happy to host you on your flight today,” the attendant went on, flashing a pearly white smile at us that confused me. But her following words cleared everything up. “Asthe New England Knights’ official airline carrier, we’re so happy to have our favorite quarterback’s family on board with us.”
I smiled back politely. “Thank you. We’re happy to be here.”
She nodded enthusiastically at my minimally enthusiastic response. It was rare that random people in public connected me to my brother, but it did happen on occasion. People’s questions and interest in Noah lately usually revolved around Gemma or Delilah, and like hell was I going to give anyone insight about them beyond the fact that they were his entire world.
“We meant to catch you earlier,” the flight attendant started, her tone regretful in a professional, robotic sort of way. “So I apologize that you’re already settled in, but we’d love to upgrade you to first class for your trip to Amsterdam today.”
“Oh, that’s not?—”
“I insist. Your brother wanted to ensure you had an excellent start to your honeymoon.” She blinked at me, trying to convey unspoken words with those eyelashes. It was like a new form of Morse code, but I understood it completely. I’d only make her life more difficult if I refused. And while I certainly didn’t think it was necessary to fight being upgraded, there was something weird about getting special treatment because of your brother’s job.
But this seemed less like preferential treatment and more like Noah called in a favor.
And I’d be more grateful—especially considering Delaney would probably get to recline and put her feet up now, which was better for her circulation—if I didn’t feel so damn guilty about it, considering it was not myactualhoneymoon.
“That sounds wonderful, thank you,” I said, flashing another congenial grin.
“Thank you so much,” Delaney echoed, pocketing her safety pamphlet fan and grabbing her bag from beneath the seat.
“Excellent.” The flight attendant clapped her hands together. “Do you have any carry-on luggage in the overhead compartments?”
“I have a suitcase,” Delaney answered.
The attendant nodded. “Perfect. I’ll lead you to your seats, and Marcus here can grab Mrs. London’s belongings if you point them out.”
“I can grab my wife’s luggage,” I assured her with a tight smile, starting to feel a bit useless and like I was losing control of the situation. Which was ridiculous, I knew. But still.
Delaney wore a tilted grin and avoided my eye contact as she stood, following both flight attendants to the front of the plane. I retrieved her carry-on suitcase from the overhead bin before I joined them. Delaney was settling into a cushy first-class seat by the time I reached her, and Marcus directed me to a spot beside her, separated by what appeared to be a retractable wall.
I couldn’t believe I was saying this, but I was grateful for the slight separation from Delaney that these seats would give me. Maybe by the time we deplaned in Amsterdam, I’d have my shit together where she was concerned.
It was probably too much to hope for, but I tried. I spent most of the next seven hours in the air trying to catch all of the inaccuracies in episodes ofGrey’s Anatomyandnotpeek over at Delaney’s sleeping form every ten minutes. Surprisingly, time passed quicker than I expected, and we were landing before I knew it.
As soon as the wheels were down, I checked my phone, wanting to confirm the train details leaving from the airport. But I found a message from the host of the vacation home I booked instead.
A message that said there was an issue with flooding in the downstairs of the house.
A message that said that, because of that, they would be upgrading us to a nicer property.
It looked beautiful—the kind of place where honeymoons were supposed to happen.
But it made my stomach flip for two reasons.
One, it looked over the rolling North Sea.
And two, it only had one bed.
six years ago
BLAKE
“This is truly the last thing I expected when you said you wanted to watch your favorite movie as a reward for getting through finals.”
Delaney scoffed. “I have no idea why this would come as a surprise.The Lizzie McGuire Movieis iconic.”
