Page 12 of Love in Training
I haveto drive the airport loop three times before I find the exit for the American Airlines cargo terminal. Which means by the time I get there and find it’s basically an industrial loading dock, I’m fifteen minutes late with a headache coming on. The sun has already set, and the building looks mostly deserted, so whenScooby Doostarts playing in my pocket, it just adds to the overall aesthetic.
“I hope you didn’t really expect me to take an Uber,” Theo says.
“Bro, relax. I’m here in the parking lot. Can you find me, or do you need me to come in there and retrieve you?”
He pauses. “Can you come in, actually?”
That weird tone is back in his voice. The uncertain one that has no business coming out of my military-trained twin brother. I want to question him on it but decide it’ll be easier face-to-face. “You’re so buying me dinner.”
A jet roars overhead, vibrating down my spine as I exit Lydia’s SUV. I check over my shoulders, waiting for normal sound to return. A few other people are going to and from cars, but I don’t know how busy this place gets. Once I climb the steps and open the door of the cargo pickup, however,everything is chaos. Vaguely, I register a few people in line and a person behind a counter with a great pile of cardboard packages. Beyond that, toward the back, I spot the familiar, muscular shape of my brother. He’s arguing with an employee in front of two large dog crates, and the animals inside sound like they’re losing their minds, barking, whining, and scratching to get out. The noise intensifies as I draw closer, and now I wish I had something to take for my headache.
“Look, my supervisor called asking me to hold this shipment. I’m just following orders.”
My brother looms large. “Sir, I know all about following orders. However, I am the guy who shipped it, so I’m not sure why you’re giving me trouble about this.”
“Well, for one, your name isn’t on the shipping order—I have the recipient down as a Caprice Phipps.”
“That’s me,” I yell over the fray, shooting my brother a withering glare. My head is fully pounding now, and with all the noise, I’m struggling to figure out what he’s trying to do.
“Okay, yes. That’s my sister—who is right there—butIam the guy who shipped him. Anyway, it doesn’t matter. She’s here now. Can we please claim him?”
Wait. Claimhim?
All at once, my senses sharpen. I watch my brother gesture at one of the two crates beside him. The ones with the green LIVE ANIMALS stickers on the side, where all the whining, barking, and crying is coming from. Suddenly, all the pieces of this scenario fuse in my stupid, lagging brain. The last-minute trip. Theo’s caginess. His request that I borrow a car for the “important” item of Kyle's.
“Theo, what is this about?”
My brother’s deep brown eyes fix on mine. I watch his Adam’s apple bob, the way it does every time he explains thatit’s easier to ask forgiveness than permission. But before he can speak, his gaze strays to a commotion behind me.
My ponytail rustles like someone’s come in the door on a breeze. But my head hurts and the barking hasn’t stopped, and I am so acutely tuned in to Theo’s face, I don’t turn right away. Not until a booming voice breaks through the cacophony.
“Excuse me, I am here to claim that dog.”
My heart skips at least a couple of beats. I know it couldn’t be who it sounds like at first. The person I’m always desperate for it to be.
But that voice.
I turn, and at once my brain struggles to sift through an onslaught of shock and disappointment. At first, I’m sure the man standing there is a ghost. Tall and broad, with a face I’ve often longed to glimpse just one more time. A long, straight nose. Tan, determined jaw. And green eyes that used to look at me with such tender affection... except right now they’re glaring.
I blink.
Reality catches up to me. Because this is most definitelynotthe person I wish it was. There’s something different about his posture. His hair is darker, longer, with a little curl. This man wears glasses. And while the eyes behind them still seem haunted, they aren’t troubled the same way Kyle's always were.
“Drew Forbes,” my brother says flatly. “Imagine meeting you here.”
The ghost walks toward us, and as he does, the last of the spell breaks. He doesn’t grace my brother with a reply. He doesn’t evenlookat me. Just approaches the man in the American Airlines shirt like they’re the only two people here.
“Are you the guy who called earlier?” the employee asks.
“Yes,” Drew says. “I got here as soon as I could. This dog belonged to my late brother.”
From inside the crate on the right, there’s a low whimper. But no more barking.
“Okay...” The airline guy looks at my brother and me. “Well, they say it’s theirs.”
“Uh, no—I don’t,” I say quickly, waving my hand. “I want nothing to do with this.”
“Caprice,” Theo hisses.
