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“Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. We’ve landed in Houston, Texas, where the current temperature is a toasty ninety degrees. If this is your final destination, we hope you enjoy your stay, and thank you for flying with us.”
The whole walk to the baggage claim, my nerves are jittering. I haven’t seen Aunt Rebecca and Uncle Tim since I was a sophomore, and even if Kelsey and I text a bit, it’s different being around someone in person.
“There she is!” Kelsey’s voice cuts through the air in a joyful squeal, and I hear her before I see her. When I do, it’s like looking at the portrait of the perfect family.
Kelsey is a year older than me and has evidently hit a bit of a growth spurt. She was a tiny little thing before, but now, she’s my height if not taller. She charges toward me, her spindly slender frame flailing and her pin-straight blond hair bobbing as she gallops my way.
“Oh, my God, you made it.” She sighs as she flings her arms around me and almost bowls us both over. “I’m so glad our parents worked this out.”
“Me too,” I say, pulling away a bit and rubbing my upper arm.
“Oh, no, did I hurt you?”
“No.” I laugh it off. “Everything is fine.”
“Hello, Abby,” Aunt Rebecca coos as we draw near, and she folds me into a far softer hug than the one her daughter gave me. “We’re so happy to have you staying with us.”
“Thank you, Aunt Rebecca.” She rubs my back before letting me go, looking me over with tender, affectionate eyes.
“Is this all you brought?” my uncle asks, holding up the bag he’s already managed to scoop off the carousel. It’s a single soft-pack bag, and even that’s not full. Somehow, the sight of it embarrasses me since the three of them look so sharp, and I wind up ducking my chin.
“It’s just to get me started. Dad said he’d drive down later this summer with the rest of my stuff.”
“Of course,” Rebecca says, dismissing any awkwardness on my part with a wave of her hand. “Nothing to worry about there. Let’s get you home and settled.”
It catches me up a bit how easily she calls my new situationhome, but I try not to linger over things too much. This is a massive change, and I find that I’m actually grateful I’ve got the summer to get used to things. The idea of doing this dance with my relatives and then plunging straight into my first year of college is impossibly daunting.
The blazing summer heat slaps me in the face with its muggy palm, and I realize there are whole other elements of living in Texas that are going to take some getting used to. Kelsey sees the astonished look on my face and just grins.
“Something else, huh?”
“Yeah,” I mumble, reeling from the sensation of being closed in a hot fist.
“Welcome to Houston,” she crows and falls all over herself laughing. Girls like her usually set my teeth on edge, but there’s a gawky charm about her that’s actually kind of irresistible. She just might take some of the sting out of missing Brooke as dearly as I do.
“Here we go.” Uncle Tim fishes the keys out of his pocket and hits the unlock button, and when a black Cadillac Escalade beeps in response, it’s all I can do to keep from shoutingholy shit. Working beside my dad, I’ve been under the hood of some pretty expensive cars, but this is the nicest one I’ve ever actually been able to sit in. With that in mind, I’m suddenly all kinds of self-conscious that some of the engine grease on my pants is going to rub off on the seats.
Clearly oblivious to my trepidations, Kelsey opens the door and launches herself into the back seat, beckoning me to follow. In short order, we’re grinding along the Houston motorway, and it’s like I didn’t know this many cars existed, let alone that they could all pile into the same place at the same time.
“Pretty far cry from Brightwood, eh, Abby?” Uncle Tim wags his eyebrows at me in the rear-view mirror, and I reply with a breathy laugh.
“You can say that again.”
“So, Mom says you’re going for your journalism degree?” Kelsey asks, rattling on ahead before I can answer. “That’s so cool. I had an idea for a while that I wanted to be a photographer and travel the world forNational Geographicor something, but in the end, it just didn’t seem like a fit…”
She chatters the whole way back to their house, and instead of being annoyed, I find I’m utterly disarmed. It’s nice to be with someone so interested in getting to know me, while also being more than happy to carry the conversation for the both of us. If I’m not careful, I’m going to wind up with a real friend out of this bargain.
Pulling into the circular driveway, my mouth falls open.
It’s one of those gated subdivisions, and I tried not to gape at it as we drove in, but now that I’m face-to-face with the house, there’s no denying that their life is a far cry from what I’m used to back home.
To be clear, it’s not like they live in a mansion. But they’ve been able to put a bedroom aside for me without having to put anybody else out.
“Wow,” I mumble, then clap a hand over my mouth and flush red at letting my envy show.
“Let’s get you inside,” Aunt Rebecca says as she hops out.
I open the door for the muggy blast to meet me again.
