You’re kidding.
Alix
Is that okay?
Grace
You’d better let me pick you up from the airport.
Alix
I suppose I could allow it.
After she hit send, the room felt different. Lighter.
She closed the laptop and sat there a moment, the hum of the mini-fridge filling the silence. Her pulse had that uneven rhythm of doing something bold after too many days of hesitation. She ran a thumb over the faint shimmer still clinging to her wrist — ghost glitter, refusing to die — and let herself grin.
For once, Alix didn’t overthink it. She just sat there, imagining the heat of Miami, the salt, the sound of Grace’s laugh close enough to touch.
Chapter Seven
GRACE
Parkedin the cell phone lot of Miami International Airport, Grace gripped her steering wheel like she was flying down the Autobahn. Staring at a NO UNATTENDED CARS sign like it might sprout lips and tell her to calm the hell down, she took a deep breath.
She checked the status of Alix’s flight for the millionth time. After an hour of waiting, her plane’s status finally updated. Grace’s phone dinged seconds later.
Alix
Landed!
Heart hammering, Grace pulled out of her spot to start the journey into the hellscape that was MIA’s arrivals.
Your body doesn’t know the difference between anticipation and being chased by Jack the Ripper.It wasn’t quite how her former therapist had explained her brain’s inability to distinguish between anxiety and excitement, but it helped Grace sort herself out. Her shaking hands and pounding pulse andtwisting guts were totally normal. She was just excited to meet a new friend in person.
Totally fine. No big deal.
When she merged with a legion of other cars, most of which took the lines marking lanes of travel as suggestions rather than rules, she stretched her neck. She and Alix had been talking every day, several times a day, for weeks. It wouldn’t be weird in person.
Would it be weird in person? No. If nothing else, Alix would be too tired for things to be weird. After a transcontinental flight, Alix was going to be desperate to get to her hotel.
Grace checked the time. It was almost two. Alix would probably be able to check in. To take a shower, get some rest, and emotionally prepare to be assaulted by her loud-ass family tomorrow.
God, her family. Despite telling her mother repeatedly that Alix was just a friend, she hadn’t stopped giving her cheeky little grins. Even over the phone, she couldhearher mother’s unspoken “if you say so.”
And then there was the whole vegan thing. Despite multiple explanations, she wasn’t sure her mother grasped Alix’s dietary restrictions. That pork wasnot“practically tofu.”That it was still meat even if it wasn’t red.
Sandwiched between an airport shuttle and a Maserati, Grace was giving herself a pep talk when she saw her. In loose jeans, a faded black T-shirt, and combat boots, Alix was scanning the sea of honking cars. When she spotted Grace, her smile sprang to life.
Fighting for a place to pull over and pick Alix up, Grace gripped the steering wheel with clammy hands and bullied her way into a spot. She focused on the series of tasks she had to perform: Put the car in park. Open the trunk. Stop trembling.
“Hey!” Alix’s voice sounded different without an electronic filter, but Grace didn’t let herself linger on the way it soothed her nerves.
“Hi!” Grace hurried around to the back of the car where Alix was slinging her stuffed backpack and duffel into the trunk.
“Are you a hugger?” Alix’s tattooed arms were already open as she asked. Even if Grace wasn’t, she wouldn’t have been able to stop herself from lunging forward.
“You kidding?” She stepped in, the aroma of car exhaust a lovely complement to the deafening honking that echoed in the covered space. “Wait ’till you meet my family. They practically French-kiss strangers.”
