“Maybe we should get really obnoxious luxury luggage next time. Go full-on flashy.” Despite promising myself that I was not going to encourage this stupid rivalry, I giggled.
“You get me to one million followers on YouTube, and then we’ll talk.” BamBam smirked at me until something over my shoulder caught her eye. All the humor left her face, and she suddenly looked like she smelled something foul.
“Once again, now boarding our Group One passengers. That’s those passengers seated—”
“Oh hell no.” BamBam’s voice cut through the announcement, and my heart stopped.
In the movies, moments like this were in slow motion sothe audience had time to recognize the horror of an impending train wreck. I would have killed for even an extra thirty seconds to process the sight of Buzzy and Ethan walking toward us. Buzzy’s expression as sour as BamBam’s. Next to her, Ethan was furiously whispering something that looked likeIt’s not a big dealover and over.
“BamBam, get in line first.” I nudged my grandmother forward and prayed that a one-person buffer would be enough to keep the two of them civil during the boarding process.
“I’m Mini, remember,” BamBam said as she strutted to the front of the line with far more speed than one would expect a sixty-seven-year-old to have.
“Right. Well, Mini, keep it cool, okay?”
“Baby, I’m always cool. Unlike some people.” BamBam fished a pair of sunglasses out of her purse pocket and put them on, then turned to face forward in the most dramatic fashion humanly possible right as Ethan and Buzzy approached.
“Grammy, why don’t you let me go first so I can deal with all the luggage?” Ethan stepped in line directly behind me, clearly sharing my body-block strategy.
“Of course, darling. I have such a thoughtful grandson.” Buzzy beamed at him, her voice loud enough for BamBam and half the airport to hear. Sounding like she’d been asked to eat nails, she added, “Hello, Mini. Funny running into you here.”
“Hi, Buzzy. Small world, isn’t it?” BamBam turned as if startled that anyone behind her would have the impunity to speak to her. My grandmother’s voice had the tone of someone who would rather drink motor oil than exchange niceties with thisperson. To me, she said, “Jamie, make sure you have your boarding pass ready,” then marched toward the gate agent, who hadn’t asked her to step forward.
“Nice to see you again,” I said to Buzzy, my expression somewhere between a smile and a grimace. At the rate things were going, this would be the most awkward flight in the history of aviation. To her credit, Buzzy glanced at me with more pity than disdain, which, while not exactly how I wanted anyone to think of me, was good enough for now. I nodded in Ethan’s general direction and avoided eye contact. Talking to him was a bad idea for about 453 different reasons, not the least of which was that I’m not the most extroverted person. If I was going to make awkward small talk with anyone, it would absolutely not be the grandson of Buzzy Timmons.
Turning away, I scanned my boarding pass, then hustled to catch up to BamBam, who was already halfway down the jet bridge.
“She always has to copy me,” BamBam said through gritted teeth. “That woman has never had an original idea in her entire life.”
Part of me wanted to point out that, for all BamBam knew, Buzzy had booked her first-class tickets months in advance. She probably thought BamBam had copiedher. Not that I’d ever say that to BamBam. I value my life.
The smell of recycled airplane air interrupted my thoughts, and I stopped just short of walking right into BamBam. The family that had boarded in front of us was trying desperately to herd two toddler twins down the aisle with little success.Instead, the tots kept pausing to wave at literally the entire plane, including empty seats and each other.
BamBam started waving back, which made the twins wave harder. My grandma loved kids. And unlike the twins’ parents, BamBam had no qualms about holding up an entire plane, so it could be a while before we made it to row six. I smiled, then took out my phone to text my parents that we were boarding our flight.
“ ‘Come to Vegas,’ they said. ‘It’ll be fun,’ they said.” A low voice came from over my shoulder, startling me. Leaving my text unsent, I whipped my head around to find Ethan, half a smile tugging at one corner of his mouth. “You got suckered into this, too?”
His mop of sandy-brown hair curled at the edges, just a little too long, so it framed his pale face and hung in his eyes when he looked down at me. He’d gotten taller and filled out, the once-gangly line of his shoulders replaced by muscle. His face was still round, but the edges of his jaw and cheekbones had sharpened. Even with his eyebrows raised at our precarious situation, there was no other way to put it: Ethan had gotten hot.
I nodded, an awkward laugh forcing its way out of my throat as I tried to get my brain to function while standing this close to him. We were not supposed to interact. I was only supposed to admire him from afar and hope my grandma, or his, didn’t catch me ogling him. Instead, here he was making jokes while my brain gave offdangersignals mixed in with useless bits of information like the fact that he still had freckles sprinkled across the bridge of his nose.
The sound of a shrieking kid hit me like a jolt, and I checked over my shoulder to make sure BamBam hadn’t heard him. Luckily, she’d abandoned her luggage and was squatting halfway down the aisle, presumably to get a better waving vantage point. The three of them were now waving at a baggage loader outside the window who also didn’t seem to have concerns about holding up a flight.
Turning back to Ethan, I said, “If someone gets murdered in Vegas, does that still stay there?”
Ethan blinked at me, and I kicked myself. Really, who makes murder jokes with strangers? Why couldn’t I be a normal person? I waved the hand clutching my phone at him as I flailed around trying to explain the death joke before he thought Iwas threatening to murder him or something. “You know, because—”
“What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. I get it.” A full-blown smile swept across Ethan’s face as he laughed, the sound low and rich as if the joke were a secret between the two of us. “Jamie, right?”
I arched an eyebrow and leaned to the side so I could see around him. Buzzy was talking to a flight attendant as other passengers remained stuck behind her, crowding the mouth of the plane. Meanwhile, BamBam and the waving children were also holding up the plane. We weren’t getting to Vegas anytime soon. Catching my hesitation, he looked down the aisle toward my grandma before saying, “I’m Ethan. You probably don’t remember, but we met a few years ago at—”
“I remember,” I said quickly as I stretched toward our row,attempting to dump my backpack off into my seat, trying not to shudder at the memory of the last time our grandmothers were in close proximity. “I’m hoping to avoid a repeat of last time.”
“I guess it is kind of hard to forget about that…” Ethan’s voice trailed off as he rubbed the back of his neck, clearly thinking about the same incident. I won’t go into the gory details, but I will say that a thrift store, a can of Mountain Dew, and some discount glitter were involved. It hadn’t ended pretty for either grandma. The dry-cleaning bills were enormous. After a beat, his smile returned. “This time won’t be so bad—everyone is older and wiser.”
“Older, yes. Wiser?” I narrowed my eyes at him before lowering the handle on BamBam’s carry-on bag. I tried, then failed to heft it over my head and into the bin.
“Do you need help with that?” Ethan laughed, and my face got hot all over again. Great, I was having a messy hair day, and the fact that I had almost no upper-body strength was on full display, too. The zipper on my pants better be up, or I would officially be on a losing streak.
