Page 4 of Homebody (The Long Road Home #21)

Chapter Four

T he short flight from Norfolk to Atlanta wasn’t even long enough for a full drink service, but if Dean wanted to fly into Albany, the airport most convenient for his parents to pick him up, he didn’t have much choice.

Annoying, but necessary, he had to lay over in Atlanta.

If he thought he was annoyed about the stopover before actually touching down at ATL, it was nothing compared to how he felt now in the terminal…

After his plane had landed in Atlanta and he made his way to check the status of his connection there was no good news to greet him.

Staring at the big board of connections and seeing the morale-killing number of flights that were delayed, including his to Albany, he was beginning to second guess his decision to fly home at all.

Especially as he typed in a quick text to make sure his parents didn’t leave for the airport to pick him up at his originally scheduled time.

Maybe he should have flown direct.

In hindsight, that direct flight from Norfolk into Laguardia that Skip had taken was looking pretty damn good.

But Skip’s family lived on Long Island. Just a hop, skip and a jump from the airport in Queens.

Dean lived upstate. Although, looking at the new departure time, three hours from now, he did the calculation and figured out what time he’d have been home if he’d taken Skip’s flight to Laguardia.

It didn’t help his mood when he realized he could have rented a car in Queens and driven the three hours upstate and been home at his parents’ house hours sooner than he’d be arriving with the delay getting into Albany.

It was too late now. He’d just have to sit there in Atlanta and wait for his flight to take off. If it took off when they said it would, which was never guaranteed.

And then, after a day of travel hell, he’d get to put up with being in the backseat of the car for the hour and a half drive home with his parents.

“Shit,” Dean grumbled.

The man next to him shot him a sideways glance. “Yeah, my flight’s screwed too.”

“What the hell is going on that everything is delayed?” Dean asked.

“Who knows? Weather maybe,” his fellow traveler suggested.

“I guess. And I guess I’ll be cooling my heels in the USO for the next few hours.” With a sigh, he glanced up at the sign suspended from the terminal’s ceiling to get his bearings.

His companion smiled. “Sounds like a good plan. Noah Ziegler. Army.”

“Dean Sinclair. Navy. Hoping to make it to Albany, New York sometime today,” he said as they both spun and walked in the direction of the USO.

He’d been through Hartsfield-Jackson Airport enough times during his career in the military to know where the USO was located. Noah probably too.

Dean’s phone vibrated once as he walked. Incoming text. He ignored it.

What else could he do? He was walking through a crowded terminal, dodging crashing into distracted travelers, many wheeling more luggage than anyone should carry on a flight with them.

And he wasn’t alone. Walking next to Noah as they both headed to the same place, it would be ridiculous for Dean to step off to the side to check a damn text. Whoever it was could wait a few minutes until he was settled in a seat.

It was a hike to get to but not too much later the glass fronted USO came into view.

The two men stepped through the open doorway and headed toward the check-in desk. There, they stopped, waiting for the volunteer to turn around from where she was speaking to someone so they could check in.

Dean drew in a breath as his phone vibrated again.

Even on vibrate, Dean, Noah and probably the volunteer too could all hear it, clear as day. Why did the damn phone companies make cell phones so damn loud? If he set his cell on vibrate it was because he didn’t want anyone else to hear it. But that apparently was too much to ask of big tech.

“Your girl?” Noah asked, eyeing him.

“Nope,” Dean answered with certainty.

He’d blocked Lara’s number on his phone back in Norfolk.

Even if she didn’t figure out he’d blocked her, she was still going to lose her damn mind that he wasn’t answering.

No doubt she’d try to track him down in person once he returned.

He knew that. But that was a problem for future Dean.

For the next week and a half, he’d be safely hundreds of miles away.

But since it wasn’t Lara, the suspiciously numerous texts coming through were either from the guys, or from dear old mom. Unless—crap—maybe Lara had figured out he’d blocked her and she was calling him on someone else’s phone.

Dammit.

No matter. He definitely wasn’t checking his cell here and now. It didn’t matter who it was.

The volunteer finally turned around and smiled at him broadly. “That’ll be Mom checking on you,” she said, tipping her chin toward the source of the sound, the cell shoved in his pocket.

He returned her smile with a tight-lipped, less exuberant one of his own. “Good chance you’re right. She and my father are picking me up at the airport.”

Why he told her all that, he wasn’t sure. It was as if her open friendliness was an infectious disease that compelled him into oversharing. She had him talking more, revealing more, than he ever did in these kinds of situations.

It was hard to determine the volunteer’s age. She had one of those timeless faces, but he’d guess she was older than he was. Maybe a little younger than his mother’s age.

She kind of reminded him of his mother actually, with her dark chin-length hair and flawless skin marred only by smile lines. Maybe that was what made her too easy to talk to.

His cell vibrated again and he drew in a breath in hopes it would give him patience.

“Oh, my. She is anxious to talk to you. Let me get you signed in and seated so you can answer. Shouldn’t keep Mom waiting.” She smiled again broadly.

Overly familiar though she was and weirdly interested in being involved in his personal life, Dean was still grateful to get this sign-in process over with so he could go hide in a seat and deal with these texts.

He took the pen she handed him and happily filled in all the required information.

Meanwhile, the woman— Blessing according to her name tag—chatted away with Noah now. No doubt delving into his life as well.

Shaking his head, Dean laid the pen on the paper and pushed it toward Noah.

That prompted Blessing to return her hyper-focused attention to him.

“Now there are exactly two empty seats in the Library just waiting for you both. Those are the good seats ,” she said conspiratorially before adding, “The big leather chairs. It will be a perfect place to relax and wait for your flight. And for while you return those texts.”

“Sounds good. Thanks for the tip.” Noah nodded.

“I’m gonna head over now. Deal with this phone. I’ll see you over there,” Dean said with a glance at Noah.

Only half of his motivation was to get to the texts. The other half was to escape from the burden of Blessing’s intense attention.

Noah nodded, glancing up as he took the pen in his hand.

Dean happily left Noah to deal with the volunteer who seemed a little too obsessed with his mother and his damn texts. The fourth one in as many minutes had just vibrated in his pocket.

Finally seated in one of the two empty leather chairs Blessing had told them about, Dean read the messages that had accumulated while he’d been making his way to the USO.

That was when he knew two more things with complete surety.

One was that he loved his mother and she loved him.

But it was a certainty that she was going to drive him completely insane.

And he hadn’t even stepped foot in the state yet. This couldn’t be good.

Mom

When are you landing in Albany? Will your flight be on time?

Just chatting with the ladies at Ruby’s and they want to know if you’re seeing anyone. Just curious. What should I tell them???

FYI I’m thinking MRI for dinner tonight. OK? You love the wings there. Let me know!

Are you in Atlanta yet? Are you getting these? Call me! You know I hate texting.

It was subtle, for his mother anyway, but if he weren’t mistaken she was feeling around. Trying to find out if he was dating anyone back in Virginia. Why? He had a sneaking suspicion and he didn’t like it.

Was she hoping to fix him up with someone while he was home?

That would be right up the alley of the ladies who hung around at the salon. Matchmaking while getting made over.

He could picture it now. A whole group of mother hens all focused on fixing him up with lord only knew who.

But there was no time to think more about that now because Blessing was currently escorting Noah over.

“I hope you gentlemen are comfortable,” she asked everyone seated in the area with one sweeping glance.

Dean had been so focused on sitting and checking his damn phone, he’d barely acknowledged the others when he’d arrived.

“Yes, ma’am,” one said now.

“Couldn’t be better,” the second agreed.

“Yeah. Thanks,” the third added.

“Let me introduce you all to the newcomers since it looks like you’ll be spending a bit of time together thanks to the delays.

” Blessing glanced from Dean to Noah then back to the three men—and one black German Sheppard—already seated there.

“Gentlemen, may I introduce Dean Sinclair and Noah Ziegler. This is Tyler Marconi, retired Army, heading to Montana. Seth Hansen, who is heading to South Dakota with his newly adopted and retired MWD Gomer. This is Code Drakos, who is heading to Tennessee. So, now that you’re all acquainted, can I get you anything? ”

“No, ma’am.” Seth smiled.

“No, thank you,” Tyler said.

“We’re good.” Code added.

“Okay. Then off I go. I’ve got three more coming to check in. They’ll be here any second now.”

Blessing turned and rushed to the desk, as if she knew for sure exactly three more people were coming even though there was no one at the desk nor walking through the door.

But damned if by the time she made it behind the counter and had picked up the sign in clipboard a man with a woman and a child in a stroller came around the corner and into view.

Had this family called the USO phone in advance? Or did she just know they were coming, just like how she knew it was his mom texting?

Strange didn’t even come close to describing Blessing.

“Everything all right?” Seth asked, interrupting Dean’s thoughts as he tipped his chin toward the cell still gripped in Dean’s fist.

He groaned aloud at Seth’s mention of the texts. But since the texts that had him groaning were in fact from his mom, he wasn’t sure he was too keen on revealing that it was his mommy blowing up his phone to the four strangers surrounding him.

Eh, whatever. They all had moms too, right?

“All good. It was my mom just checking on when I’m getting in. Funny though. That lady at the desk was dead on when she’d guessed it was Mom. It was like she somehow knew before I even checked the phone myself.”

Noah’s brows rose. “You know what’s really funny? She just dumped a whole bunch of personal shit on me that was dead on too. Right there at the desk while I was signing in after you left.”

“You talking about Blessing?” Tyler asked.

Dean nodded.

Tyler sighed. “Oh yeah. We’ve all had experiences with her.”

Seth let out a short laugh. “No kidding. She told me the name of the vet in the town I’m going to. There are maybe three hundred people in that town, and she knows two of them. What are the chances of that?”

“So she’s like…” Dean began but had no clue how to finish the sentence.

“Psychic?” Code suggested.

“Woo-woo,” Seth said in a spooky voice.

“A witch?” Tyler added.

Possibly all of the above. “All righty then.” Dean nodded and decided it was time to let the subject drop.

Even if Blessing seemed nothing but sweet and kind and helpful, there were some things a man shouldn’t mess with. Heading up that list, for him at least, was voodoo, Ouija boards and women who could predict the future and knew things they couldn’t possibly know.