“Both of our fault then.”
“Looks like.”
Freya rose to her feet and leaned her elbows on the rail. Looking out over the water, she felt her brain settling. “Let’s pack up and see if we can catch an earlier flight. I’d rather not run into anyone right now. Especially my parents. Then, once we get home, we can call Lincoln or Grady and see if one of them can help us with an annulment.”
Rubbing a hand over his face, Zane stood and headed inside. Within a few minutes, they were out the door. Freya texted her mom from the lobby while they waited for their cab.Trying to catch an early flight. See you at home.
A few seconds later, she got a text back,Jealous. Your dad’s fishing and I’m hungover. What was in those drinks?
Or those cupcakes?
I’m going to do some detective work and I’ll let you know what happened. I haven’t been that high since before I met your father.
Zane and the driver loaded their bags into the trunk as she stuffed her phone back in her pocket. He raised an eyebrow, silently inquiring about the messages.
“My mom’s going to kick some ass about where that weed came from.”
“Good. That was pretty fucked up.”
They rode in silence on the way to the airport. Freya’s knee was rattling a mile a minute, searching the internet to see how annulments worked. Zane’s leg stretched across the midline, his knee pressed against hers as he squished into the cramped electric car. He didn’t budge, his eyes dark, but otherwise he was completely unreadable.
As they drove into Reno, he reached over and stilled her vibrating knee with his hand. He let go. Her knee started back up again. Again, he stilled her movement with his hand. This time, he stayed. The burning connection melted away the tension that the vibration had fruitlessly combated.
At the airport, he took their garment bag again, slinging his backpack over his shoulder. Mindlessly, they linked hands and headed inside. Logically, she knew that sort of thing had to stop, but she was so freaked and wanted out of this asap, she paradoxically needed that connection, to know they were in this together.
They’d timed it well, only needing to wait in line a few minutes before the attendant flagged them over. “How can I help you today?” he asked with a chipper smile.
Zane adjusted his backpack and asked, “Our flight home to SeaTac isn’t until tonight, but we were hoping you might have openings on an earlier flight.”
“Let’s see what we have,” the attendant scanned the computer. Looking up, the attendant offered an apologetic smile, “I have a flight leaving in forty-five minutes, but the last two seats together are in first class. For the last-minute upgrade, it will be a hundred fifty dollars per ticket and there won’t be time to check any luggage.”
He flashed Freya an adoring smile; rather than feel adored, she cringed at the uncharacteristic softness, “What do you think, Babe? Won’t that be a nice treat for our honeymoon?”
She swallowed the cringe, smiling just as sweetly. “Oh, I suppose we can pull from the credit card to celebrate.”
Brightening, the attendant clicked a few keys. “I think we can waive the fee today. Congratulations on your marriage.” After a few more clicks and the hum of the printer, she passed across their updated boarding passes.
Zane smiled, “Thanks so much.”
“Have a wonderful trip home.”
As they left the counter, he took her hand again, leaned over, and landed a zinger on her; one of those kisses that wasn’t demanding or lusty, but enduring and savoring. Like newlyweds should do. Heart stumbling a little further, Freya bit her lips together as they pulled away and kept walking toward security. “We won’t get an annulment if we go around kissing and telling everyone we’re married,” she mumbled, unable to make her voice perk up enough to project.
He nodded with that subtle tilt of his head, the corner of his mouth turned up. “That was for the attendant.” As they rounded the corner, he dropped her hand and jammed his in his pocket.
Shoving her own lonely hand in her pocket, she ignored the pang. “Nice finagling. I didn’t think you were one to manipulate.”
He shrugged, “Not usually. But I can when the situation calls for it. Learned something useful from my parents at least.”
The plane slammed into the ground and bounced in a rocky landing. Zane gritted his teeth, flashing back to the time the airfield had been roughened from a recent airstrike, the base mid-evacuation. His team was the military’s last-ditch effort to recover the area.
As soon as they taxied into the gate and came to a stop, he hopped up from his seat and grabbed their bags. He handed Freya her backpack, hauling his over his shoulder and wrapping the garment bag over his arm. Keeping his hands to himself, they walked spaced apart as they crossed the speckled white tile, up the escalator, and into the concrete parking garage.
At his truck, he dumped their stuff in the backseat and they hopped in. Not a word on the entire drive back. Shellshocked, regretful, who the hell knew what was driving her silence.
How could he have been so fucking stupid? Sure, he was trashed as all hell, but he wasn’t some kid that got the dumbass idea to get hitched while his brain was altered. Nor was he the type to get hammered twice in as many weeks.
Back home, he dropped her off, but stayed in the truck. Before closing the door, her eyebrows dropped as she realized he wasn’t getting out. “Where are you headed?”