Page 11 of Wish Me Home

Of course. I’d forgotten.

I could have easily gone to the counter and asked to have my seat reassigned, or even asked to be put on another flight. A larger part of me knew I was making a mistake trying to push him away. Instead, I collapsed into a chair, throwing my bag into the empty seat next to me.

“What is your problem, Summers? You’ve never wanted to be attached to anyone before and you meet this crazy attractive guy in an airport and suddenly you can’t imagine life alone?”

Sure, I probably looked insane mumbling to myself, but at this rate I was feeling a little crazy. Off-kilter was a good way to describe the way Emmett had made me feel. And even more crazy was that all of it had happened within a few hours.

“Excuse me, sir?”

My breath caught at the sound of his voice and my head shot up to look at him. Emmett stood there, coffee cup clutched in one hand and a pastry bag in the other. His head was tilted to the side as he studied me.

“Is that seat taken?” He motioned to the seat next to me where I’d thrown my bag. My lips stretched into a smile when I realized what he was doing. Moving my bag, I patted the seat next to me letting him know he was welcome to sit.

He sat, fishing something out of the pastry bag and handing it to me. The sweet smell of blueberries and sugar filled my nose and my mouth watered. I grabbed it from his hand and turned to face him.

“What’s this for?” I questioned because it seemed odd that he’d buy me food after I had tried to push him away.

“Don’t do it again.”

I nodded in understanding. It felt good to know that he was every bit as attached as I was at this point.

“What are we going to do?” I asked, sitting back in my seat and unwrapping the paper from the bottom of the muffin. I took a bite and hummed my approval.

Emmett let out his own sigh of frustration, taking a bite of his own muffin. He chewed for a moment and then swallowed before answering. “I don’t know. This is the first time I’ve done this. I know I don’t want this to be the last time I see you.”

I finished eating my muffin in silence, contemplating what he’d said. I didn’t want it to be the last time we saw each other either. There wasn’t anything to tie us together. I was based out of San Diego and he lived in Chicago. I didn’t fly through here all that often and I didn’t know how often he planned to visit his aunt. Not that there was any guarantee that I’d be home when he did visit.

“Give me your phone,” I finally said, holding out my hand. He quickly scrambled to pull his phone from his pocket and placed it in my palm.

I entered my number into his contacts and shot myself a text from his phone. I pulled out my phone and frowned when I noticed I hadn’t had enough thought to plug it in last night like he had. The battery was almost dead. I quickly saved his contact and powered down my phone, but not before noticing the missed message from my mom.

Mom:I take it we won’t see you again this year?

I stuffed my phone in my pocket and handed Emmett back his. He checked it before pocketing it, snickering at the contact title.

“Hot flight attendant?”

I shrugged. “You gave me free rein of your phone.”

He was so handsome when he smiled. Something told me it wasn’t something that he did all that often and a part of me wanted to make it my mission to put one on his face as often as possible.

“Flight 903 with service to San Diego, we will begin boarding shortly. Please make your way to the boarding area. We will begin with our first-class passengers…”

The overhead announcement began, and I tuned out the rest. I stood and grabbed my bag from the floor from where it rested against Emmett’s. He didn’t seem like he was in that much of a hurry to get on the plane by the way he continued to just sit there.

“Are you nervous?” I asked when I noticed him chewing on his lip.

He rubbed his hands against his pant legs before he stood and looked around. He shook his head and grabbed the handle of his bag and followed me to join the line of passengers waiting to board the flight.

“I’ve just never been a huge fan of flying. It’s not so bad once I’m up in the air, but the taking-off part always gets to me.”

I chuckled, and he turned an offended look my way. “I’m sorry, it’s not funny. But I understand because I’m the same way.”

“Really? But isn’t it literally your job?”

I nodded. “It is, and it’s gotten better. But I still get nervous at the beginning of every flight. I think it’s normal to think of everything that might go wrong.”

The line inched forward and we finally had our boarding passes scanned. We walked the jetway and boarded the plane. It felt like it took forever for the people in front of us to find their seats and stash their bags in the overhead bins. Mine could fit under the seat in front of me, but Emmett needed to put his up.

---