Page 95 of Whatever It Takes

I still have this job.

And that has to count for something.

21PRESENT DAY – December

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

WILLOW HALE

Age 20

As soon as my plane lands on the tarmac, a text from Garrison pings my phone. Nervous, giddy butterflies invade my belly. Countdown to seeing my boyfriend:minutes away.It somehow doesn’t even feel real.

I click into my cell, the plane rumbling to a halt and the other passengers grabbing suitcases from overhead.

Garrison:Waiting at baggage for you.

He’s waiting for me. I take a deep breath, excitement trouncing nerves.

And then my phone rings.

But it’s not Garrison.

“Hey?” I answer quietly, crammed in a window seat and hugging my backpack on my lap.

“Did you land yet?” Ryke asks.

In the background, I hear Lo retort, “She already did. I’m telling you the flight tracker says so.”

Ryke growls back to him, “Let me ask our fucking sister, Lo.”

Our sister.

It still rings through me like a soft padded hammer to a bell, even after two years of knowing Ryke is also my brother.

I can feel a smile on my lips. Palm sweaty, I adjust my grip on my phone and stare out at the tarmac. “Yep, I’ve landed.”

I’m back.

“We’re waiting in the car,” Ryke tells me.

Lo chimes in, “Paparazzi won’t hound you that way. Garrison should be at baggage.”

“Yeah, he texted already.”

“Great,” Lo says. “Can’t wait to see you.” He mumbles something to Ryke about a honking asshole nearby, and after a fewsee you soons, we hang up.

I’m thankful there’ll be less chaos when I reach baggage claim. Lo and Ryke would definitely bring a stampede of adoring fans.

They wanted me to fly on the family private jet, but I chose commercial, wedged in the back near the growling engines.

I still have a difficult time accepting the perks of being a Hale. Garrison says it’s because I only learned that Jonathan Hale is my birth father two years ago—when I was eighteen.

It means that Lo is my full sibling. Same mom and same dad. And Ryke is my half-brother.

But my relationship with Jonathan Hale is new. Fresh. And it comes with a load of baggage.

Ryke hates Jonathan.