Page 126 of Fly Boy
“How much did he have to drink?” Mason stage-whispers to Bowie, who shrugs.
“Ana’s going to have two babies to look after tomorrow,” he replies, draping an arm over his shoulder and tugging him closer.
“I’m not drunk. I’m just happy,” Teddy says, feeding us the line all drunk people say. He points toward me before lifting his glass and tapping his ring figure against it to make a clinking sound. “C’mon, birthday boy, speech.”
Rolling my eyes, I take a deep breath. “Fine. Thank you, assholes, for coming to celebrate me getting older.”
“Language,” Sadie chastises as Pippa snuggles deeper into my side, smothering a laugh in my shirt.
“Oh, I forgot,” she says suddenly.
Popping up from her chair, she runs out of the room. Everyone around the table gives each other confused looks, and I shrug my shoulder, having no clue what she’s doing.
“I got these,” she says, coming back with two gift bags, handing one to Teddy and the other to me.
“You got me a present?” Teddy asks, drunkenly holding his hand over his heart.
She pulls a face. “Not exactly. I got it for Porter.”
He throws out the tissue paper, smiling proudly as he pulls out a baby pilot’s hat. “Are you kidding me? This is the cutest thing ever. I’m going to wake Porter up and have him try it on.”
“Don’t you dare,” Ana hisses. She grabs his arm and tugs him back down as he tries to get to his feet. “It took me over an hour to get him to sleep.”
Bowie and Mason chuckle as the latter nods toward my gift bag. “Is there a matching one for you in there?”
Before I can look inside, Pippa puts her hand over mine and whispers, “This isn’t your actual gift, but I saw it and thought of you.”
I narrow my eyes suspiciously as I dig inside and pull out a mug. Smiling, I hold it out for everyone to see.
“It’s to replace the one you broke,” she says as I run a finger over theWorld’s Greatest Pilotdecal.
“I love it,” I say, kissing her before moving to her ear to whisper. “What’s my actual gift, then?”
Her hand slides up my thigh under the table, and I glance around, finding no one paying us any attention. Lowering her voice so only I can hear her, she says, “Something silky for you to undress.”
“Fuck, I love you,” I murmur against her lips, feeling her smile against them.
“I love you too, Mr. Sexy Pilot Man.”
Epilogue
January The Following Year
“Do you think the restaurant delivers?” Sadie asks, pressing the button that activates the reclining setting for her chair. “In fact, Miles, if you could just buy me one of these? I’d be happy.”
“It’s the best, isn’t it?” Nancy agrees, the pair of them clinking champagne flutes together. “Our old plane wasn’t as nice as this. It didn’t have the private cabin in the back.”
“Could you make us sound any more like stuck-up rich people, Nancy?” Pippa groans, burying her head against my arm.
“We just flew our families to Martha’s Vineyard on your private jet,” I deadpan. Wrapping it around her, I tuck her into my side. “I think it’s safe to say we all know you’re rich.”
“Miles,” Sadie singsongs, sounding a little tipsy. “I live here now.”
“Baby, there’s no way I’d let you live on a plane,” Dad says. Grabbing her hand, he tugs her to her feet. “We’d never see each other.”
“Who’d have known your father was scared of flying,” Pippa whispers as we watch our parents gather up their things, taking longer than usual considering the two empty bottles of champagne they consumed on the flight here sitting on the table.
I smother a snort when my dad walks toward me, his face a little green as he holds onto his stomach. “Amazing flight, son.”
