Page 16 of Wish Me Home

“This is so embarrassing,” he muttered.

My heart sank a little, but I also understood. He could have told me no but he didn’t. He’d wanted it just as bad; so much so he basically asked me to strip in that tiny bathroom.

“I’m…” I said before he cut me off.

“Don’t even try to apologize. Embarrassing yes, but also hot as hell.”

I stared at him in confusion for a moment before leaning back in my seat. It wasn’t always easy to understand him, and that was something that would take time as we got to know one another. But time wasn’t on our side. We barely had two hours left on this flight before we parted ways for the holidays.

His hand wrapped around mine again, and a tingle raced up my arm. My heart pounded as something crazy occurred to me. My breath caught, and I turned wide eyes on Cody. He seemed oblivious with his eyes closed and his head tilted back.

I couldn’t imagine what it was going to be like to go our own ways when we landed. In a few hours, this man had wormed his way in. What the hell was that? I’d never had that kind of connection with anyone. It was always about the hook-up, a fast way to get off. There was never a promise of a lasting relationship yet I wanted one with him. He had a way of dragging smiles out of me; something I didn’t do often enough.

“I can hear you thinking,” he mumbled.

He popped open an eye and gave me a lazy smile, tilting his head in my direction. I tightened my hold on his hand but didn’t respond.

“Pleaseremainseateduntilthe plane has come to a complete stop.” Without fail, no one listened to the announcement. The second the cabin lights kicked back on people stood from their seats and started grabbing their things and tried to hurry to disembark.

My heart sank as I melted into the seat. I grabbed onto Cody’s hand more tightly knowing that this adventure of ours was drawing to a close. The passenger in the window seat was standing, head tilted awkwardly to the side and staring at us in irritation because they wanted to get out. This was all ending too quickly.

I stood and grabbed my hoodie from under the seat. Someone else had already opened the overhead bin, so I grabbed my bag after letting go of Cody. He stayed close as we got off the plane. We were instantly smacked with the humid San Diego air as we entered the jetway. I was glad I had lost a few layers during the trip.

When we entered the terminal, I grabbed ahold of Cody’s free hand, not ready to let him go just yet. We walked in silence and I felt my heart sink more and more the further we got from the plane.

Leaving security, my feet felt like lead. Was it stupid that I felt the sting of tears? I could see my Aunt standing next to the baggage claim carousel and I froze. Cody stopped next to me, tugging on my hand. I tipped my head to look at him and I lost it.

Throwing my arms around him I pulled him into me. He dropped his bag and wrapped his arms around my middle as my arms looped his neck.

“This isn’t goodbye, Emmett.” His words were meant to soothe me, but they did the opposite. I had so many questions I struggled to answer after only a few hours together.

He pulled back enough to place a gentle kiss against my lips and like an idiot I let the tears slip out. His thumbs rubbed them away, and I laughed against his lips. I knew we made quite the sight and Aunt Sadie was probably wondering what the hell I was doing.

“I should go,” I choked out. The words fought their way out, but I could see Aunt Sadie curiously watching us from my periphery. I was going to have to explain every bit of this.

Reluctantly, we let go of one another. Cody’s hand caught mine as I turned to walk away. I gave it a squeeze and felt my chest do the same as I forced myself to let go.

“I’ll send you a message when I get home?” he asked as he pulled his phone from his pocket and waved it at me. He hadn’t turned it on yet. I had turned mine on the second we had landed to let my aunt know I had made it.

I nodded, swallowing thickly, turning and walking to the baggage claim. It had never been this hard to walk away from anyone before.

Aunt Sadie had a grin on her face when I got to her and she pulled me into a hug. “Now who was that?” she asked. I chewed my lip as I debated how to answer her.

“Flight attendant,” I finally answered.

“He wasn’t dressed like one, and I’ve certainly never kissed one of my flight attendants like that.”

I stared her up and down for a moment. “You’re saying you’ve kissed your flight attendants before?”

Aunt Sadie giggled before she pulled me into another hug. “Lord, no. You sweet boy. You’ll have to tell me that story, though.”

The carousel started and bags started falling onto it. I looked around trying to see if by some miracle Cody had hung around. A strange sense of unease set in to realize that he hadn’t. We weren’t really anything to each other. There were no promises made outside of a text message when he got home. We briefly discussed meeting up while we were both here, but I didn’t know what Aunt Sadie’s plans were.

I watched for the telltale rainbow bandana I’d tied to my bag. It was then I realized that I should have checked back in Chicago that they had transferred my bag to my new flight. Chances were they were used to dealing with mayhem like that and things had transferred fine, but a brief moment of panic crossed my mind. The moment settled when my suitcase slid onto the conveyor.

We made it all the way to Aunt Sadie’s apartment, and I had just started unpacking my bag when the first text message came through.

Hot Flight Attendant:Is it weird to miss your face already?

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