Page 6

Joe

M y hands twitched at my sides as I waited for the car to pull up. Like a fucking idiot, I hadn’t thought that picking Aiden up would be a better idea than his parents dropping him off at the airport.

As usual, SeaTac bustled with busy travelers coming and going. Cars swarmed the departures lane, which made the dash to unload Aiden and get him inside frantic. I also had Teresa drop me off since parking at the airport was such a pain in the ass. McKenzie had been all upset. Big, fat crocodile tears had rolled down her cheeks and my damn heart wanted to split in half, leaving her behind for a week. Even if I’d never wanted to have kids, my niece was everything to me.

The car horn blaring snapped me from my thoughts. I frowned when Nathan glared at me from behind the steering wheel. He’d made it very clear he was pissed I’d offered to take Aiden on this trip and no one else. It might have looked a little less suspicious if I’d invited all the guys to come with us, but even with as much money as I’d been making, I wasn’t making that much .

I reached for the passenger door, helping Mrs. Grant out so she could give her youngest child a hug after he’d pulled his bag from the trunk. She turned to me next and pulled me into a loose embrace as well.

“Don’t mess this up, Joseph. I told Nathan that he had nothing to worry about and I’m counting on you not to prove me wrong.”

Well, shit. How fucking weird was it that Mrs. Grant had more faith in me than my own friend?

“No problem, Mrs. G. Aiden is safe with me. There’ll be no worries about your boy being hauled off by drug cartels or any of that business.”

The side eye she gave me said that maybe her faith in me didn’t stretch quite that far.

The car horn blared once again, and the passenger window rolled down. Nathan’s glare could have melted the polar ice caps. “I’m serious, Joe. Just because you guys are going to be alone for a week...”

I held my hands up in surrender. “Yeah, yeah. No touching the goods. Got it.”

Mrs. Grant’s face tinted pink as she looked between all of us and then got back into the car. We were already getting a nasty look from one of the security guards for taking too long with the drop-off goodbye.

Once Nathan’s red Toyota was out of sight, I slung an arm over Aiden’s shoulder and dragged him through the double doors into the busy check-in area of the airport. People were every-fucking-where, shoving huge bags around or chasing small kids that didn’t want to cooperate. All I needed to worry about was my one suitcase, and the dude at my side.

“Now, Aiden, have you ever flown first class before?”

His eyes widened comically. “I—I’ve never even been on a plane.”

Shit, I’d forgotten that, while the Grant family wasn’t hurting, they still didn’t get out much. My parents had taken me and Teresa on a few trips when we were kids, but we’d never traveled in anything other than economy. The big, cushy, and roomy seats of first class had always called to me. Now that I was spoiling Aiden with this trip, it was the prime opportunity to splurge on the luxury.

“That’s fair. I’ll walk you through everything. First, you need to get your passport out and then we need to go check your bag.”

Aiden nodded, pulling the small blue booklet from his backpack and grasping it tightly in his hand. I frowned at where he’d been keeping it. If I were going to keep my promise to his mother about keeping him safe in a foreign country, even if we were in a tourist trap, he had to know that wasn’t safe.

“From this point forward, find another spot for your passport. Somewhere you can easily reach it so that no one can sneak it out of your things without you noticing,” I explained.

Aiden nodded vigorously as we approached the counter to check in for the flight. A woman stood there in a pressed stewardess uniform. With her dark chestnut hair pinned back in a tight bun, she gave us the warmest smile as we handed her our paperwork. “Hola! Thank you for choosing AeroMéxico. What’s your final destination today?”

I tried and failed miserably to hide the amused grin on my face while Aiden watched in fascination as I spoke to the woman in very broken Spanish. I’d taken the required two years we needed in order to get into college in Washington state, but I hadn’t wasted my time learning any more. If I ran into someone on the street, I tried to be a little less of an asshole and speak to them how they understood me the easiest. It was times like that when I’d been grateful I hadn’t slept through most of those classes.

When I nudged Aiden’s arm and motioned for him to set his bag on the conveyor, he laughed, a bright smile spreading across his face. Once our boarding passes were in hand, I waved goodbye to the woman behind the counter, wrapped my arm around Aiden once more, and led him off to security.

“You speak Spanish?”

I laughed. “Fuck, no. I’m terrible at it. She was just being nice. If there’s anything I’ve learned when going to other countries, if you make any type of effort with their language, they’ll instantly love you.”

“So you’ve done a lot of traveling?”

My steps slowed as I looked over at Aiden. He seemed so shy as he asked the question. “A little. Nothing extreme. I don’t fucking know, man. Mom and Dad wanted us to experience other cultures or some shit like that. When I was in elementary school, we went on a trip to Europe and I made their lives such a living hell the entire time. They learned their lesson. We didn’t do another family trip until I was in high school, when we went on vacation to the Bahamas.”

His laughter did something funny to my gut. Maybe it was because my arm was still around him or the knowledge we were really about to spend the week alone, but I liked this side of Aiden. I enjoyed getting to know him on a more personal level, other than being Nathan’s little brother.

“Got it. Younger Joe was just as much of a pain in the ass as older Joe.”

A high-pitched squeal filled the air as my fingers dug into Aiden’s side as I tickled him. The people who stood in the security line stared at us like we’d lost our minds. And maybe we had. Couldn’t blame us for trying to have a little fun.

I normally wasn’t the touchy-feely guy, but the second we were through security, my arm found its way around Aiden again. It felt natural, but also like it was the best way of keeping him safe. He hadn’t seemed to mind and relaxed into the touch as we walked through the concourse to our gate.

Aiden was like a child on Christmas when we reached the gate. He ran right up to the large panes of glass and pressed his nose to it, oohing and awing at the airplane. “I’ve never seen one this close before. It’s so freaking big.”

I snorted a laugh. “Big, huh?”

Aiden slapped me on the chest before collapsing into one of the seats, waiting to be called for our turn to board. “I should have known you’d make a joke like that.”

“You fell right into that one. Fuck, kid. You’re in for a rough week if you can’t take one immature joke.”

He rolled his eyes. “I can handle them fine. I’m just a little nervous, I think.”

And damn, my arm slid right back around him, pulling him into my side. He nestled in like we were some real couple going on vacation together. “It’s normal to be nervous, Aid...” And like the fucking idiot I was, I kissed the side of his head.