Page 28 of Unsaid Things

“Sweetheart, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m just relieved you’re going to be here tonight. Today sucked.”

“For me too. I’ll see you soon.”

“Okay. Love you.”

“Love you, too.”

When he hung up, he turned off his phone, stashed it in the front pocket of his backpack, and pulled out his iPad to stick in the seat back pocket in front of him. Sitting up, he caught the eye of the older woman sitting next to him. “Going home, I take it?”

He smiled back politely. “Yes.”

“It’s nice you have someone waiting for you there.”

“Yes, it is.”

She went back to her knitting, and Lance buckled himself in, waiting for the flight attendants to get through their safety spiel so he could start reading in an attempt to keep himself occupied. He’d been antsy about getting home before, but now that he’d told Abby and would see her at the airport, it put him even more on edge. The only other times they’d been apart since their relationship got serious, he’d been a grumpy asshole. He was trying to rein that in. And the fact that Abby wanted him to come home early helped. He viewed it as reassurance that they were both committed to their relationship. And maybe this meant she was done pushing him away when her personal stuff came up. He hoped so.

Abby sat on the vinyl seats across from the security exit waiting for Lance. His flight had been delayed by a half hour, so she’d been here for a while, trying to distract herself with games on her phone or reading, but nothing could hold her attention. Every time people came down the ramp, she looked up, hopeful that maybe the monitor was wrong, maybe they’d landed already and Lance would appear. Each time she was disappointed.

Megan had dropped her off almost forty-five minutes ago. She’d offered to come in and wait with Abby, but Abby had said no. As much as she loved Megan, she wanted to be alone with Lance. Megan had understood, giving her a hug from the driver’s seat of her car. “Go get your man,” she’d said before Abby got out.

Abby stood up, pacing back and forth, unable to sit still any longer. She’d go crazy if Lance’s damn flight didn’t get here soon. Walking over to the monitors, she checked again, and this time his flight number was gone. A spurt of panic shot through her. What did that mean?

She turned back around, and just then a familiar figure, tall and broad with dark hair, came down the ramp. He didn’t see her at first, his head turned away from her. A giant smile took over Abby’s face, and she walked as fast as she could toward the foot of the ramp.

His head turned and his face lit up, a matching smile on his face. He reached her in three long strides, wrapped his arms around her, and picked her up, kissing her like they hadn’t seen each other in weeks instead of just over twenty-four hours.

When Abby managed to pull back from Lance’s kiss, he set her back on her feet, and she buried her face in his chest, inhaling his scent, feeling more settled than she had since she got out of his mom’s car at the airport in Dallas. “I missed you so much.”

He kissed her temple. “I missed you, too.”

They stood there for several long minutes while the remainder of the passengers walked around them, enjoying the feel of each other. Lance pulled back, lacing his fingers through hers and hitching his backpack on his shoulder again. “Come on. My suitcase should be out soon. Then we can go home.”

It took almost no time to get his suitcase. The wait for the shuttle to get to long-term parking took longer, but Lance wouldn’t let Abby go. Which she didn’t mind at all. She’d missed him so much, and the feel of him against her again was home. More than anyone or any place had ever been before.

They stood huddled together in the cold air of the December night in a pool of bluish light from the fluorescent bulbs all around the airport doorways waiting for the shuttle. Abby turned her face up to Lance. “I love you.”

His eyes met hers, warm and dark, but questioning. It wasn’t the first time she’d said those words. They’d been saying them for months. But it usually happened in the context of something else—sex, a goodbye, a shared joke. She felt the need to say it now, apropos of nothing, just to reaffirm her feelings out loud for both of them.

He kissed her, a quick press of his warm lips to hers. “I love you, too.”

The shuttle pulled up before either of them could say more, and they rode to the car in silence, hands entwined, bodies pressed against each other on the narrow seats. They got dropped off feet away from Lance’s car, covered in thick frost. While Lance loaded his bags in the trunk, Abby took the keys and started the car, cranked up the defrost as high as it would go, and sat shivering in the passenger seat, the puffs of her breath visible in the car. He reached in the back seat for the ice scraper, and Abby made faces at him through the windows as he cleared them off. He didn’t notice at first, focused on what he was doing, but her movement must’ve caught his eye as she switched expressions, puffing out her cheeks, crossing her eyes, and pulling her ears out to the side. She could hear him laughing through the closed window, and she smiled back at him. He finished scraping the windows with a smile on his face, and when he got in he wrapped an arm around her, pulling her across the bench seat and into his kiss. It was a strange juxtaposition of hot and cold—his skin chilled from being outside, his mouth hot against hers, his fingers freezing as they teased under her sweater inside her unbuttoned coat, heat pooling between her thighs.

She broke away gasping. “Let’s go home.”

Lance smiled, a devilish glint in his eye, like he knew exactly why she wanted to go home. He probably did. They knew each other so well, even though they’d only met six months ago. No one knew her better than him, not even Megan.

Instead of scooting back to her side of the bench seat, she fished the lap belt for the middle out of the crack where it met the back, wanting to stay close to Lance. He glanced down at her before putting the car in reverse and maneuvering them out of the parking lot. “I love you.”

She lay her head on his shoulder, enjoying the feel of his muscles working as he turned the steering wheel hand over hand. “I love you, too.”

They didn’t speak on the twenty minute drive home. Abby wanted to ask about his family’s reactions to her leaving yesterday and now him leaving today, but fear of what they might’ve said kept her silent. She didn’t want any negativity to ruin their reunion, even if they hadn’t been apart long. It felt like it had been ages since they’d been together. So talk of families, both families, could wait until they were home and fully reunited.

She could tell Lance had the same idea when he parked his suitcase just inside their door, dropping his backpack next to it, and immediately went to her, his hands going to her hips, his mouth melding with hers. She hadn’t even gotten her coat off yet, and his hands slid inside it, moving over her back, down to her ass and up her back again, this time under her sweater, his hands still chilly against her bare skin.

Her hands made a similar path over him, first up his chest, then down, pulling his sweatshirt up at his sides until her hands encountered bare skin. He broke away first, pushing back from her, his eyes glinting. “Bedroom. Naked. Now.”

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