Page 4 of Independence Bae

Shit. High five to me for always finding a way for my mouth to fuck things up.

“I’m sorry. Neither of us know the official details yet. I’m just assuming that if they are based in Chicago, they’ll want us to be in Chicago.”

“But we live here. In North Pole. How would that work?”

Ted was going to fucking kill me. I was wading into an ocean that had nothing to do with me and everything to do with the two of them.

“Well, why don’t we press pause on fretting over anything until we learn the details. We’ll be in Chicago tomorrow afternoon. By tomorrow night we’ll be eating dinner at some spectacular restaurant and we can all figure things out together.”

Together. As in the four of us. That was a new development. In terms of contracts it was always me and Ted against the world. But now, we were both attached and had other people we had to consider.

Chapter Three

If I calledwhat I felt for Tillie twenty years ago love, then I didn’t know what to describe what I felt for the woman now. The last five months had been nothing short of amazing. With, of course, one tiny little detail. She lived in upstate New York, and I was in the middle of Amish country Pennsylvania.

While the original plan had always been to get the hotel up to snuff and ready to sell off, I found myself strangely attached to the property. The hotel filled me with pride. I came into that hotel when it bled money. I couldn’t beg people to stay in it. It had more code violations than hotel rooms. Now, we were to capacity at least two weekends a month, the renovation was nearly complete, and we had a fantastic restaurant with a ridiculously talented chef. Thanks to my amazing friend Gemini James, our new restaurant and chef was already getting us noticed. People were whispering about awards and stars, and we’d just been featured inTravel and LeisureMagazineas a “One to Watch.”

Her phone call pleased me to my toes. The Bear and Raven show had always been popular, and they always expected their stint in North Pole, New York to be temporary. With a possible move to Chicago seeming to be the question of the hour—perhaps the stars were aligning in the best way. Tillie Raven was my forever—without a doubt. Perhaps now that we were facing the very real possibility of flight coordination and visiting schedules, it was our chance to create something permanent.

“Does it take more time or less time to travel in a private jet?”

Raven plopped unceremoniously into the seat next to me, buckling in and peering out the window.

“A commercial flight from Syracuse to Chicago would take about ninety minutes. Given that we didn’t have to drive to Syracuse or stand in security lines and get there two hours ahead of our flight I’d say we’ve already saved tons of time.” I pass her the champagne the flight attendant placed on my table. “In regard to the actual flight we do indeed fly just a touch faster than a traditional commercial airliner because we fly at a higher altitude which allows for slightly faster speeds. We’ll land in Chicago in about an hour.”

“I know who I want on my team if we ever have a trivia night.” Marley poked me with the tip of her glittery unicorn patterned shoe. “Do I even want to know how you know this?”

“That’s what I do.” I air toast her across the row. “I drink and know things.”

“Okay Lannister.” Bear chucked a pack of Cheez-its at me, rolling his eyes in the process. “He’s one of those uppity blue bloods that probably got gifted a private jet for like high school graduation, Marley.”

“College graduation. Please. What do you think my parents are, irresponsible?”

“Marley, they’re fucking with you.” Raven shoved at my shoulder, giggling. “I swear these two have been as thick as thieves since Bear took Penn to get his dick pierced.”

“That’s not the only thing that’s thick,” I pull her into my chest and whisper in her ear.

“Can we please avoid the mile high club?” Bear cut into our flirtatious moment, “This isn’t even our plane – for all we know there’s cameras on this plane that they can use to blackmail us.”

“Good god Bear, paranoid much?” Raven pulled away but not before laying a kiss on me that promised we’d pick things back up once we got to the hotel.

“What’s the plan anyway, Ms. Cruise Director. Did Leon communicate to you what the expectations were for the day?”

Raven pulled her iPhone out of her purse, scrolling through an email from their agent.

“They are sending a car to meet us at the airport, we’re going to have lunch with the group at some place called the Aero Club with her team. There wasn’t anything mentioned past that.”

“Did you remember to pack a dress, love?” Bear gently turned Marley’s focus from Raven back to him. “Me and Penn have a romantic dinner planned up in the clouds.”

“Aww it’s so cute the two of you have bonded so thoroughly.” Raven pinched my cheek with dramatic flair.

“You’ll have to fill us in on all the details when you get back,” Marley chimed in, bursting into a fit of giggles. “I have to warn you, Penn. Bear thinks treating you to a nice dinner entitles him to at least oral.”

“If I’m laying down that kind of significant coin, you best be putting out buddy.” Bear pointed at me with mock indignation painted across his face.

It felt as if as soon as we were up in the air, the captain announced our descent.

“I’m nervous,” Marley whispered as the landing gear rolled out beneath us and the plane lined up to land.

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