Page 85 of Home Coming

“I checked the app. We’re still on time, but we do have almost an hour layover,” Josie said, cell in hand.

“Would you mind if I ran to say hello to someone quick?” Quinn asked.

Both women frowned at him.

“Who do you know at the Atlanta Airport?” Bailey asked.

“It sounds crazy, but it’s this volunteer at the USO. She’s…odd. But really nice.”

“Oh, really?” Bailey crossed her arms.

“She?” Josie echoed his word.

Quinn let out a short laugh. “She’s like fifty.”

Josie cocked up a brow. “Fifty is the new thirty.”

“Who says?” he asked.

“The cosmetic company I just designed a site for. Hey, why don’t we all go say hello?” Josie suggested. “I’ve never seen the USO. Maybe there’ll be some hot military guys inside.”

“Well, it’s by the entrance so we’d have to go out and then come back through security.”

If they all went they’d have to take the bags and then come back through with the carry-on that the TSA had already opened in San Diego because something Josie had packed set off the machine. If he went alone it would be faster and easier.

He got a look at Bailey. Her body language screamed what she wouldn’t voice aloud.

She was jealous. He could see it in her face. In the slump of her shoulders. In the stiffness of her spine and the downcast of her eyes. He never wanted her to feel insecure because of him. Especially since he knew her history with Axel.

He put one hand on her shoulder. “First of all, I love you. I only have eyes for you, so stop. You’ll never have reason to be jealous of anyone but especially not of Blessing.”

“Her name is Blessing?” Bailey narrowed her eyes.

“Remember we graduated with a girl named Precious,” Josie pointed out. “People name kids all kinds of stuff. Isn’t one celebrity kid named Apple?”

“Anyway, Blessing might not even be there but I just thought I’d say hello because—” He shook his head. “Never mind. This is going to sound too weird.”

“I love weird. Weird is my favorite color,” Josie declared. “Please proceed.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Quinn said, “Well, she’s kind of psychic, I guess. I was there for hours with these four other guys. We all had delays from the storm. So she made some kind of woo-woo weird ass prediction for each one of us. And damned if mine didn’t come true.”

“What was yours?” Bailey asked.

“I think it was about you. She told me it was good I was going home even though Mom and Dad wouldn’t be there, because there was someone there who really needed me.”

“Aww. That is you,” Josie said.

“It was.” Bailey wiped at her eyes.

Quinn shook his head. “Aw, jeez. Don’t cry.”

“I’m not crying,” Bailey denied.

“Okay, never mind. Let’s grab a snack and head to the gate.”

“Quinn Baldwin?”

At the sound of his name he turned and there she was. “Blessing? What are you doing here?”

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