Always His | (Book 3) 18+

one

AMELIA
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I've been staring out of the airplane window for little over six hours now. Seattle wasn't close to Miami, I knew that much, but when Hayden finally messaged me back saying that he had a guest room in his house that he could let me use, I forgot that living across the goddamn Country from him would require sitting next to an snoring old lady and yammering middle-aged woman.

Seven cats. The woman has seven cats and two of them are having their third litter. Every one is named after a food or a former king from England.

Twenty minutes. Twenty more goddamn minutes on this flight.

"See? Look at this photo," she gushed as she shoved another photo in my face. "This one is Pinecone."

Okay, maybe she switched it up a bit now.

"She's very... cute," I said with a tight-lipped smile. "I, uh... I'm going to use the washroom."

The woman—Breta, I think her name was—immediately frowned. "But I still have so many photos."

Why, Lord... why?

"I'll only be a minute"—or twenty— "I'll be able to see all of your cats when I'm back, don't worry."

I stood up and squeezed through her legs and the seat in front of us, silently thanking God when I managed to make it into the aisle. Just as I closed the washroom door, my phone buzzed in my back pocket. I look at the caller ID and smiled.

"Hey," I greeted, sitting on the toilet seat and running a hand through my hair.

"How's your flight going?" My sister-in-law teased. "I hear you have quite the company."

I chuckled, shaking my head. "Don't start with me, Casey. I've spent the last six hours of my day in between an old lady and a cat freak. I'm pretty sure the old lady might actually be dead, to be honest. She hasn't woken up since the plane lifted."

Casey laughed and I felt my smile widen. "Have you poked her?"

"And have my finger bitten off with her nasty dentures?" I snorted. "I'm not taking the chances."

She hummed. "Well, if she starts to smell then just let me—Hayden, fuck off. I'm on the phone with her this time—"

"Hey, baby sis," Hayden suddenly greeted, causing my smile to grow even more. "I'm so excited for you to come over."

"Me, too," I said with a chuckle, playing with my dark hair. "I'm just nervous. Seattle's an entirely different city in a whole other state."

Hayden laughed. "You're nervous? Mel, you're confident with every challenge you encounter and every time you push through. This isn't any different."

I bit my lip and sighed. "I know. It's just..."

Hayden waited until he knew I wasn't going to finish to speak. "This is about the new job, isn't it?"

I sighed again, chewing on my bottom lip. "Yeah."

Hayden hummed quietly. "Mel, I explained this to you before."