Page 36 of All the way home

“What if I could auction it off?” Lucas smiles up at her. “Profit.”

Lightly, she flicks his ear with a begrudging smile, then turns away. In her peripherals, Lucas lifts his backpack into her freshly vacated seat.

There’s still a small crowd at the desk. Since Rena would rather not be another source of distress to the young, freckly flight attendant—who seems to be on the verge of tears as a man with an enormous mustache shouts in her face—she walks a few gates over, grateful for an excuse to stretch her legs.

Unfortunately, the flight attendant behind the first desk Rena finds seems like she’s over the conversation before it’s even started.

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” she says, and Rena hasn’t even gotten two words out. Maybe it’s the lighting, but her expression is severe, thin lips carving frown lines into her cheeks, forehead creased with wrinkles. “The storm is hitting us harder than expected, and all we can do right now is wait it out.”

“Okay, but is there a chance we might get grounded?” Rena folds her arms. “I don’t really want to wait here for hours and hours if we’re just going to get sent home.”

“There’s always a chance,” the attendant responds, irritatingly placid.

“Is it . . . likely?”

“I really don’t have more information for you.” Smoothing back her already perfectly smooth hair—her updo is so tight it looks painful—she offers Rena a stiff smile.

Rena deflates. Even if this woman isn’t telling the truth, she doesn’t have the energy to drag anything more out of this interaction. “Okay. Thank you.”

“If we’re delayed again, I can definitely get you a meal voucher.”

Oh, wonderful.

Rena presses her lips together. “Thanks.”

Tapping the desk with the tips of her fingers, Rena turns and walks back the way she came. Before she’s made it ten steps, a display of books in the doorway of a gift shop catches her eye. Zeroing in on the paperback copy of Little Fires Everywhere, Rena changes course.

A laugh snags her attention.

Kieran’s here.

She spots him over by the books that line the wall, shoulder leaning against the shelf next to Not-Josiah.

And he seems happy, completely enraptured by whatever they’re talking about.

When Kieran catches her watching—because he always does, like he has a built in Rena-alert system—she waggles her eyebrows. His smile turns into completely fabricated indignation, mouth dropping open. Then he pushes off the wall and turns, tucking an arm behind his back to flip her off discreetly, but not without tossing her a tiny grin over his shoulder.

Not-Josiah twists around, eyes flickering from her and then back to Kieran, mouth twisting at the edges at whatever’s just been said.

Rena doesn’t move close enough to overhear their conversation, because she thinks Kieran might actually punt her through the window and into a snowdrift, but she lingers.

Not spying. She just likes keeping an eye on him. Plus, she still wants to buy Little Fires Everywhere.

Behind her, a couple pores over the selection of gift-store jewelry—“Honestly, Gil, I don’t know how you forgot to get her a gift, she’s your mother”—and Rena wanders aimlessly, doing her best to ignore their bickering.

There are rows and rows of candy at the checkout. Lucas likes Aero bars, so she picks up one of those too. It won’t make everything okay, but even a slight gesture of goodwill might go a long way in thawing the chill between them.

Then the couple’s conversation turns heated. It had been easy to block them out, but as the timbre of their discussion shifts, it’s impossible not to tune in.

“Jesus, Katherine, do you want to lay off me for a second?” The man—Gil, she supposes—tilts his head back, glowering up at the ceiling of the shop. “It’s the holidays. Quit being pissy.”

Rena’s eyebrows arch.

“I think I have every right to be pissy!”

“Give it a rest.”

“Well, considering I had to find out from her, and not from you, when you could have told me yourself, I don’t think I will!”