Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83986 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 420(@200wpm)___ 336(@250wpm)___ 280(@300wpm)
“I will hug you if that’s okay, but I need permission.”
She whispered a please, and I wrapped her up tight. There were lots of awwws and comments from people walking by. I heard What a sweet family and How clever is that, how the toddler is on the suitcase.
Ainsley finally pulled back, sniffled, took a breath, and pointed at Gemma. “That is clever.”
“You can thank my sister Camryn. She doesn’t wait for short legs going through the airport. Her youngest always rides.”
She smiled. “How many sisters do you have?”
“Four.”
“And brothers?”
I grinned at her.
“Oh I see, your mother would have stopped with you if she had you first.”
“That’s what she always says, but you know, she exaggerates a bit, and I’m her favorite child without question. I might have been a terror when I was Gemma’s age, but once we all hit puberty, I was easy. The girls were hard.”
“My parents only had girls, and they were always thankful.”
“Well, again, I’m the one she loves the most. Everyone knows that.”
“That part where you told me she exaggerates, have you ever said that to her face?”
I squinted at her. “I would be murdered. Horribly. Do you understand how fast she could kill me?”
She was laughing now. “I knew it.”
“Okay, so let’s do this. You get yourself rebalanced there under your mountain-climbing gear,” I quipped, walking around her and picking up Taylor, “and I’ll take the baby.”
“But you have your garment bag too and—”
“Notice the strap on said bag hanging quite nicely off my shoulder.”
“But your backpack is—”
“Much like yours, able to go over both shoulders.”
She huffed out a breath. “Okay.”
Once we were moving toward baggage claim, she asked if I was all right.
“Why?”
“Taylor’s heavy.”
“He’s really not,” I assured her. “I suspect he gets heavy with this sherpa bag on your back, rolling the biggest suitcase I’ve ever seen in my life—really, I had no idea they made them that big—and having to stop for a toddler.”
Deep sigh then, like finally, she was decompressing a bit.
“So seriously, what’s with this backpack? Are you scaling Everest later?”
“There’s toys in it, plus extras of everything, and of course the baby bag I normally carry.”
“Oh thank God, I was afraid you went to Target like this.”
She found that hysterical and was laughing as we walked. More people turned to smile at us as we passed.
“So four sisters?” she asked as we went down the escalator to the ground floor.
“Yep. Cora’s the oldest, then Chloe, Celeste, and Camryn.”
“I meant to ask earlier about that name.”
“Camryn with no e, and a y replaces the o. Fancy spelling. My mother liked the name, and it shortens to Cam, which my sister likes. She’s a scary tax attorney and enjoys it when people expect a man, are surprised she’s a woman, and then even more surprised that she’s a hard-ass and puts them in their place. I think it stems from lack of power growing up. We all lived under Cora’s thumb. Still do, really.”
“Cora sounds great.”
I shook my head.
“You adore her.”
“Adore is a strong word.”
“You’d give her a kidney if she needed it.”
“Well, of course. Do you know how much mileage I would get for that? She’d never be able to yell at me again.”
Her smile was brilliant. “You all have C names. I wish I’d stuck to one letter.”
“My mother says that one letter is easier to remember.”
“You know, a man who loves his mother is always good.”
“You ever see Psycho?”
“And he’s funny too. How wonderful.”
I scoffed, and she led me to the opposite end of the baggage claim, where the two-seater stroller was sitting in the unclaimed area behind several rows. I had Ainsley wait as I went to get it. Once I had it out, I snapped it open easily and rolled it over to her.
“That was impressive,” she told me. “My brothers, my father, my friends, they don’t know how to get it open in one movement.”
“Celeste has this one because she had twins first time out,” I explained, putting the baby in the first seat, facing the handle so his mother could see his face, and then was going to remove Gemma from my suitcase.
The little girl lifted her hand and said, so sweetly and politely, “No, thank you.”
I smiled at Ainsley. “Gemma would prefer to ride where she is.”
“Yes, but we need to let you go and—”
“Or we could eat.”
As she looked at me, her stomach, which had been growling softly, nearly roared.
“What do you say?”
A very long sigh was her answer.
We found a place that did breakfast and lunch and already had a full bar.
“I never understood that,” Ainsley commented as we sat, with Gemma in a high chair and the stroller parked so we could see Taylor. “Why would the airlines want people to get drunk before they get on a plane?”