Page 90 of Outside Looking In

And to me.

“And Kelly smelled,” Walt said.

“Walt!” Mark said.

“What? She did.”

Liam put down his fork and pushed away from the table. He didn’t need to be ridiculed or chastised by his family. Maybe they were fine with everything, but not him.

“He asked about you,” Mark said.

Liam’s heart paused. “He did?”

“He misses you.”

“He said that?”

Mark shrugged. “He didn’t have to.”

“Interesting,” Liam said.

“He’s leaving to go back to London tonight.”

“All good.” Liam pushed himself back to the table. “That makes sense. That’s his home.”

“No, it’s not. This is his home,” Mark said.

Franny sighed and clanged her fork onto her plate. “Uncle Liam! Are you really going to let him go?”

Liam looked to Mark for backup, but he seemed to be siding with his daughter. “There’s more to it than that.”

“Is there? The only person lying here is you,” Mark said.

“Javert!” Walt said while pretending to sneeze.

Liam shot him a glare. “It’s too late. He’s already on his plane.”

“He’s taking a night flight,” Mark said. “That’s what he told me.”

In a flash, Franny and Walt were on their phones, typing and scrolling with dogged determination.

“There’s a flight that takes off at ten o’clock. It’s the final flight out,” Franny said. “It’s flying to Los Angeles, then onto to London.”

“And it will take thirty-eight minutes to drive to his hotel,” Walt said, showing his dad the Google Maps preferred route.

“He might not have left for the airport yet,” Franny said.

“We don’t know that’s his flight! And he…” Liam thought about waking up with Nathan in his arms. He pictured Nathan’s face when he delivered Tilly’s lambs, the shock and joy and tinge of sadness glowing in his eyes and brightening his cheeks. It was pure. It was real.

Liam looked over at his brother, and after a whole life together, they didn’t need words.

“I can get us there in thirty-one,” Mark said.

Chapter 32

Nathan

Nathan waited at the foot of his hotel bed, watching the weather report on the TV, silently hoping for a freak blizzard. His father was filling his toiletry bag with free bathroom soaps. Someone knocked at the door. Nathan’s breath caught in his chest. He raced to the door.