AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She stayed completely still other than her eyes, which grew wide. She snuck the briefest glance at me above her computer monitor but then went back to typing. “Oh, yes, Mr. Hardcastle, we would have already put you on this flight, but I’m afraid our first class is full.”
“Business class is fine.” I wasn’t my mother, after all.
Marsha grimaced. “Full, too, I’m afraid. There’s only one seat left, in the main cabin.”
That made me pause. I couldn’t walk into work tomorrow as an assistant director after flying coach today.
Well, as long as I actually made it to Philly today, no one would have to know how. It was already after noon; with the time difference, that would make it eight or nine before I arrived. Much later and it would essentially be a redeye, and I had no intention of starting the next phase of my career feeling half-dead and looking worse. I added extra brightness to my tone. “That’s fine, Marsha.”
She giggled again. With my luck, she’d probably dreamed of Everett Hardcastle every night, and I, the lesser Hardcastle, was here adding fuel to her flame.
“All right, you have the last seat in coach.” Marsha’s smile seemed extra charming. I braced myself for her to do something insane like write her phone number on the boarding pass. “Your boarding pass should be loaded on your app—but you’d better hurry; they’re boarding at Gate F6.”
Luckily we were already in Concourse F. I thanked Marsha and made a mental note to praise her on social media as well as to NationAir. Then I collected my things and hurried down to Gate F6.
I reached the gate as they were starting to call the coach rows. At least my family’s money could come in handy now. I stepped in front of the next person and held out the boarding pass on my phone.
“Excuse me?” a woman’s voice said behind me.
I braced myself. Clearly the Tynies were not over my brother’s very public flameout with Harper as much as I thought.
“Yes, you!” the woman insisted, rounding into my peripheral vision, her gaze locked on me.
I turned to find a brunette with a pale complexion. She was pretty, even if she could have benefitted from a little more time in the sun and a little less murderous rage in her eyes—but she wasn’t quite angry enough to be a Tynie. I’d go out on a limb and say she wasn’t one of Everett’s exes, since I’d never seen her on the big screen—and obviously she was flying coach.
Then again, so was I.
“Yes?” I finally responded.
“There’s a line.” She pointed at the people waiting to her left. She was objecting when she wasn’t eveninthe line. She was in the line to... get in the line. How did anyone fly coach?
The pass scanner chimed, clearing my boarding. I held up my phone to show her the screen. Rather than the standard blue background I could see on the phones of the people who were, yes, waiting in line, mine showed glitzy silver digital glitter. Tacky as anything, but effective for communicating. “Platinum member,” I offered by way of explanation.
She looked me up and down with disapproval, then turned to the gate agent, clearly dismissing me. “Are you going to let him get away with this?”
The gate agent glanced between us uncertainly. “Um, he scanned his boarding pass, so...” He shrugged, at an utter loss.
I was tempted to stay and charm my way back into her good graces until a tall man stepped up behind her, aloof in his expression but possessive in his posture. Clearly they were together. “Sorry, I better board.” I tried to bite back a grin, though I couldn’t say how successful I was. “Can’t hold up the line.”
She turned away entirely.
The line was at a standstill on the jetway anyway. Still, I was on my way at last. If I had had to delay... I could almost hear my mother’s voice in my head:I told you, you should have gone to law school. Because apparently a career in public health wasn’t respectable enough for a Hardcastle. And somehow my brother’s acting was totally fine—and really, I think both of my parents would have preferred for me not to work at all rather than... I don’t know, deigning to work among the plebes.
Mom had always been a whole trip. Hopefully an entire continent would be enough space between us for her to recognize that, at thirty, I could make my own life choices—but I wasn’t holding my breath.
On the other hand, the jury was still out whether her micromanagement was better than ignoring me for the first twenty years of my life.
I followed the shuffling line onto the plane and found my row, taking the seat by the window. The plane was a tight fit—how did anyone fly coach??—but at least the seat was wide enough for me to set my computer case down next to me. I only had a novel and the David Beaufort University Hospital policy manual to occupy myself on the five-hour flight. Hopefully I could pass the time chatting with someone. One advantage of coach.
Finally, I was on my way to Philadelphia. To a new life. As the assistant director of the Beaufort Division of Urban Health, I’d have the opportunity to help people in the metro area and beyond—a state task force on healthcare-associated infections was my first responsibility.
I’d had a good job in Napa, but it was still too close to my mother’s web of influence. This new job wasn’t just a major step up in my career. In Philly, I would be respected for what I did, not who my parents were. Or who my brother was.
Well, that one might still be a problem, with his face splashed across half the screens and every tabloid in this country since he’d dated and cheated on Harper Tyne last year. He’d already been famous, but his new notoriety had ruined my last relationship. Not to mention what the Tynies had subjected me to.
I definitely needed the fresh start, the step up this new job offered. New people, new environment, far less negativity and judgement. On the plane to Philly, my life was definitely on an upswing. All I had to do was do my job well and help people, and then everything would fall into place. Everything would be perfect starting tomorrow.
No, starting now. I pulled out my book and hoped someone interesting would sit in my row soon.
