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“I told you that we’re waiting for our friend. Her plane was delayed and I’m not leaving here until she arrives. Go bother someone else, you vile ass—”
Kin stepped between her stepsister and the TSA officer, cutting off whatever the smaller chick was going to say. “Okay, then.” I stopped and watched as Kin gave the guy a bright smile, trying to defuse the situation. “Sorry about her. Our friend should be here any second now, sir. The plane landed fifteen minutes ago.”
“I’ll give you five more minutes but then you both best be moving on, ma’am. I can’t have people loitering around in here.” He shot Angie a cool glare. “It’s for the safety of everyone.”
Angie opened her mouth to slam him with more insults but Kin put her arm around her with a tight smile for the TSA officer and then quickly covered the older girl’s mouth. “We completely understand, sir. Five minutes and then we’ll be out of your hair. I promise.”
I glanced up at Marcus to see what his take on the situation was, but he was eyeing my friends with his ever neutral expression. The only sign I saw that he was even slightly amused was the small crinkles at his eyes as they tilted up the tiniest bit. For Marcus that meant he was highly amused and I found myself actually trying to smile.
Turning back to the two chicks still standing there while the TSA officer turned and went back to work, I hurried toward them. “Sorry we’re late. Bad weather made the pilot set down in Phoenix.”
Hearing my voice, Kin’s head snapped up and she released her hold on Angie as she rushed toward me, her long legs eating up the distance between us. In the next second I was being wrapped into a pair of arms that tightened around me to the point my air paths were blocked.
The familiar scent of Kin’s shampoo mixed with the warmth that was radiating out of her and into me was so welcomed that I felt tears burn my eyes. I clenched them shut and willed them away, not wanting our time together to start off with me crying. Sucking in a much needed breath, I tried to pull back, but Kin’s arms tightened even more.
“I’ve missed you so fucking much,” she muttered near my ear and my arms went around her, holding onto her just as tightly as she was me.
“I missed you too,” I whispered, no longer able to fight the tears as one spilled over my lashes.
“Maybe ease up a little, sugar bug,” I heard Angie say with a laugh to her stepsister. “The girl is turning purple.”
Kin instantly released me. “Sorry. I’ve just been so excited to see you.”
I found the will to laugh and gave her a tight smile, the best I could offer her right then. “It’s okay. I’ve been excited to see you too.” I hugged her again, then turned to hug Angie. “It’s good to see you. Sorry you guys had to wait so long.”
“We understand. It was that stupid TSA prick who couldn’t get it through his thick skull that we weren’t leaving without you.” Angie tugged me close and started leading us out of the airport.
“It started out with him flirting with Ang,” Kin informed us with a smirk as the sliding doors opened for us and we headed toward the parking lot where they had left Kin’s Range Rover. “He is so not her type, so she sent him running with his tail tucked between his legs. After that he turned into an asshole and would come around every twenty minutes to tell us we had to move along.”
“Guys are idiots,” Angie muttered, then grimaced and glanced up at Marcus. “Most of them at least. Not you, though.”
His eyes crinkled again, but otherwise remained impassive. Kin snorted out a laugh. “Nice save.”
“Shut it, Kin.”
Sticking her tongue out at her stepsister, Kin unlocked her vehicle and handed over the keys to Marcus. “I want in the back with Lucy and I’d rather get there in one piece, so I’m going to ask you to drive and not Angie. “
“I’m not a bad driver,” Angie said with a pout.
“In Virginia you aren’t a bad driver,” Kin corrected her as she climbed into the back seat. “L.A. is another story. Let the dude drive, Ang. I want to walk across the stage at graduation. Not do it in a body cast.”
“I’m never going to live down that fender-bender am I?”
“Probably not,” Kin said with a wink and pulled her seatbelt on just as I got settled.
Angie got into the front passenger seat and put on her seatbelt while sulking. Marcus finished putting our luggage in the trunk and climbed behind the wheel. Angie reached forward, hit the ‘Go Home” option on the GPS already up on the screen and then sat back to continue sulking.
Kin wasn’t even fazed by her stepsister’s pouting and turned to me with her blue eyes bright with excitement. “How was your flight?”
I shrugged. “Uneventful. I mostly read.”
“Good. Did exams go okay?” Her phone buzzed with a text, but she ignored it. “When will you know your scores?”
“They went well, I think, but I won’t know for another week or so.” Her phone buzzed twice more with new messages and I lifted my brow when she pulled the phone out and started to turn it off. “You should get that.”
“It’s just Jace. Caleb is spending the weekend at his apartment and they won’t leave me alone.” She shook her head with a grin. “They’ve been pranking me and Ang all day.”
“When does Jace’s sister graduate? Aren’t you two going out to Virginia for that?” I didn’t know much about Jace’s younger sister except that she was the same age as Kin and me and that she lived back in Bristol with their adoptive mother.
