The Arrival of You
Page 27
Lucas: No worries. Love you.
I smiled, raising my shoulders in a little shrug of happiness. Since the first time he’d told me loved me, he hadn’t stopped. I couldn’t think of a day in the five years we’d been together where he hadn’t told me. Maybe a day had passed without that declaration, but if it had, I couldn’t remember it.
I’d never been surer of anything than Lucas’ love.
“Can I get anything for you?” the woman at the stall door asked, interrupting my moment. I wasn’t mad though—she was kind and concerned—so I turned and shook my head. “Thank you though. It’s just a touch of morning sickness.”
“It’s never only in the morning, is it?”
Given that it was nearly half-past eight at night, there was only one response. “Never,” I agreed.
“If you’re sure I can’t get you anything, or help in any way, I’m going to head back out to the gate then.” She paused, obviously waiting for confirmation.
I smiled and nodded. “Flying to LA?”
“Yeah, you too?”
I nodded. “Christmas with the family. We have a connecting flight once we land. Perhaps you’ll see me running down the aisle of the plane for the bathroom,” I joked.
“For your sake, I hope not. Good luck!”
I thanked her with my eyes as she turned and walked away, taking a long deep breath as the nerves and nausea started to make themselves known again. I was only nine weeks along, and since this trip was planned long before I found out about the baby, there was no way to avoid the potential discomfort I was facing.
At least I knew that my seatmates would be understanding of my predicament.
I waited in the bathroom for another twenty minutes or so, until I could hear the QANTAS staff announce boarding for the higher-numbered rows. Grabbing my carry-on and patting my back pocket to make sure my passport was still safe, I rinsed my mouth out and washed my hands, before heading to the gate.
The line to board was long but moving steadily. I joined the back and watched as more and more people lined up behind me, the row numbers for boarding being called in earnest now. Closer to the front of the line, I could see the woman who’d stopped to offer help getting ready to have her boarding pass scanned and an old memory cropped up.
“Crowded flight.”
A woman was speaking to me, and her accent was easy to place and a delight to my American ears.
“Sure is. That time of year, I guess.” I nodded to her Australian passport, and asked, “Are you heading home for the holidays, or from vacation?”
“For the holidays. I’ve lived over here for a while now, but it’s always good to get home and see my family.” She shrugged. “I just wish it wasn’t so bloody expensive.”
It couldn’t possibly be the same woman . . . could it? I tried to picture her face, but five years was a long time and, even if I had seen or spoken to her for longer than a couple of minutes, there was no way I’d be able to know for sure.
I decided to believe it was, for good luck. Since, you know, I met Lucas not long after that.
God, I loved him. I smiled at the thought of him boarding with the other families with children and wondered whether they’d settled okay. I would know soon enough. Though I felt somewhat guilty for leaving him to handle it on his own, I knew he was more than capable and that he would be more worried about how I was feeling than trying to board without my help. He was an exceptional, hands-on father. There was no “babysitting” for him, an expression that always got his back up when people used it around him.
“I’m not babysitting my own bloody kid.” I giggled inwardly at the reminder of the first time he’d been asked about looking after our son, and how annoyed he was. “No one ever asks women if they’re babysitting. Stupid, fucking, ugh.” He muttered about it all afternoon, until my only choice was to soothe his ruffled feathers with affection.
Affection that turned dirty quickly, with Lucas making and keeping promises to bite me all over.
My trip down memory lane had taken me all the way to the front of the boarding line and I held my phone up to be scanned with a smile for the flight attendant manning the gate. “Have a good flight,” she said before turning her attention to the person behind me.
I hoped it would be. It wasn’t the first time we’d flown home to America since our little man had been born, but this trip was going to be different. For one thing, it was nearly Christmas and busier than our standard mid-year trip. For another, we were taking our daughter to meet her grandparents for the first time.
And, of course, we had Rose and Liam and their son traveling with us too, although a look at our boarding passes said that they were seated in a different part of the plane.
I waved at my sister and brother-in-law as I passed them on my way to my row, making a funny face at my two-year-old nephew who was sitting peacefully on his mommy’s lap. It felt like forever before I was nearly at my row but soon enough, there I was . . . and there were two smiling faces looking up at me, and one sweetly snoring little girl being cradled in her daddy’s arms.
If I thought Lucas was the sexiest man I’d ever seen the first time I met him, well, I was wrong.
Lucas holding our thirteen-month-old daughter while he and our four-year-old son smiled identical smiles at me took the cake. Mmm, Lucas and cake was a good combination.
“Hey there, pretty girl. Feeling better?”
“Mommy! Dey have moobies, but Daddy said I not awowwed to watch dem until after da plane goes up.”
“Daddy’s right, Ry. I’m sorry.” I made a frowny face to match his suddenly disgruntled one.
“It’s okay, mate. You and me and Mummy’ll have some fun until you can watch the moobies—I mean, movies.” Lucas shook his head and looked up at me as I shoved my bag into the small remaining space in the overhead compartment. Because we were at a bulkhead, one with the bassinet attachment so Everly could sleep during the flight, I had to make sure it fit. “Do you need some help?”
“I got it, thanks.” I closed the compartment lid firmly and dropped into my seat next to Riley. He was the perfect mix of Lucas and me—he had Lucas’ smile and green eyes, and my brown skin, though it was slightly lighter than my own, and wild, curly dark hair.
He was beautiful. And he was ours.
We’d named him in a way that honored both of Lucas’ dads. Because, although Lucas didn’t share blood or a last name with James Riley, he was the man my husband always wanted to emulate, the man who had raised him. Riley Valentine Hawke was the perfect way to ensure that both James and Lucas’ biological father were recognized.
“You ready to go see Nan and Pop-Pop?” I asked Riley, reaching down to make sure he was buckled properly. Not that I didn’t trust Lucas. Rather, I didn’t trust that our exuberant little dude didn’t mess with the buckle while his dad was settling himself and Everly in.
“Dey gonna lovvvvvvvve Ebberly.”
My heart squeezed at the way he pronounced his little sister’s name. Riley adored her, though he’d been more than a little putout at first that she was a girl. He’d wanted a brother, and he still did, if his reaction to my newest pregnancy was anything to go by.
“Maybe dis time I gets a brudder.” He’d followed that comment with a world-weary sigh and both Lucas and I had had to hide our laughter, not wanting to hurt his feelings.
“They’re going to love you too,” I told him, leaning down to plant a kiss on his forehead. He gave me a look that said of course and turned toward Lucas and started yammering on about how Santa was going to find him at Nan and Pop-Pop’s place. Content to people watch as the last few stragglers found their seats and the flight attendants started making their rounds to make sure that seat backs were upright and tray tables stowed, I reflected on how different this flight would be to the first one I’d ever shared with Lucas.
Don’t get me wrong—if I could sneak off to the bathroom and make use of that tight space with him, I still would. In a heartbeat. But now we
had Riley and Everly to think about. And the knowledge of those two precious people, half me and half him, made me want to cry.
We’d come a long way since we’d joined the Mile High Club all those years ago. It had taken a while to finalize all the paperwork that bureaucracy required of us so that I could stay in Australia, but once all was said and done, it was worth it.
We’d gotten married in Vegas on our second trip back to America, making Rose and Liam, and Ashton and Andrew meet us there so we could party—well, as much as the parents of a not-quite-toddler could party—before Lucas, Riley, and I headed to my parents’ place to spend some time with them. I knew that me living in Australia was hard for them, and, although they’d grown used to my absences when I’d still been married to Mason and moving all over for his job, we made a point of getting back to visit whenever we could.
Which was why I found myself back on another plane just days before Christmas. Only this time I was flying in the opposite direction—and with my husband and children.
Some days I didn’t know what precipitated my arrival at the point I was at now, but every day I was thankful for it—
—whatever stirring of fate that put Lucas and me on the same flight, in the same row, and in seats side-by-side.
Not ready to say goodbye to Lucas & Bianca?
Visit bcranford.com/books for an exclusive bonus epilogue!
Acknowledgments
Charles, Annabelle and Dominic, as always, you made this way harder than it needed to be. But who would I be without your interruptions? We’ll never know. I love you. Thank you for loving me in return.
Jodi, Karen, Julia, Ella, Shelly, and Kizzy—you all took the time throughout this very lengthy process to read my work, make it better, and whip me into shape. For that, I am incredibly grateful and only mildly offended. Thank you for spending your hard-earned free time on my words.
Missy, I’m sorry I took so long to send this to you for your expert eyes and opinions. I know I made it harder for you to do your thing, but honestly, I’m not the one who decided to get another dog, now am I?! I guess we both have things to think about . . . Regardless, thank you for always fixing my mistakes.
Shannon at Shanoff Designs, I’ll probably never understand how you can take my vague musings on a cover and make it look so damn good, but I’m also not going to complain about it. This duet looks so striking, who even cares what’s inside? Thank you so much for working with me.
Linda and the Foreword PR team, and the many, many bloggers who work tirelessly to help authors like me—you are all godsends. The lot of you. Thank you for reading and sharing and generally giving a toss about me. To borrow from Taylor Swift, It’s Nice to Have a Friend.
Everyone else who I haven’t named but need to thank, this one’s for you. It takes a village to write and release a book, and I’m lucky enough to have a village full of talented, smart, patient, and funny people. Thank you.
Find out how Rose met Liam & Wilbur in
She Found Him
Available Now
She wasn’t looking but still . . .
One thing Rose Riley is proud of: standing up for what she believes in while living her best life kindly.
One thing she’s not so proud of: whacking a man on the head with her handmade sign at an animal rights march.
Especially when she takes the whimpering puppy dumped on her front porch to the nearest vet and he turns out to be the man she struck . . . Awkward.
One thing Rose didn’t expect to find before going back home to Australia:
Love.
About the Author
B. Cranford is a proud Australian living in the USA, a lover of books, breadsticks and bed, and the mother of two children who are far too similar to their father for her liking. A lifelong reader, she dove into the romance genre on the recommendation of her best friend and hasn’t looked back since. After three years as a blogger, she decided it was high time she finally finished one of the 12,002 books she’d started writing, and the end result was her debut novel, The Brightest Star.
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