Chapter 1

MAY 13 – SATURDAY 10:13 AM

T heo

Why the hell did I have to go on this trip? Nash and his brilliant ideas. Yes, I understood that Ren needed protecting, but why was it us protecting her? When had this responsibility dropped into our laps? I was going to miss two races, and I had to cancel the advanced law class I'd signed up for so that I could intern at my dad's firm right after graduation. Of course, my dad said I was hired no matter what, but that was totally beside the point.

"Oh shit, I'm sorry," a random woman said as her toddler crashed into my legs. I looked down at the pint-sized human and couldn't imagine myself that small or that disgusting. No way would I have had food smeared all over my face and something sticky on my hands.

"Please have it let go," I said, as she pulled on her child, but it refused to un-fist my jeans. Great, now I'd need to throw these out.

I sucked in an annoyed and steadying breath as she pried the small fists off of me, but that only triggered mass hysteria as the child screamed and kicked, getting me in the shin.

"Oh, dear lord. I'm so, so sorry," she said, continuing her battle.

"I should have you sued," I said to her as Blake laughed at me. Completely humiliating.

Ren shook her head at me and pulled a package of cookies out of her pocket. Squatting down, she tore it open, and like magic, the child's head snapped in her direction. The tiny terror was a strange combination of Chucky and a T-Rex as its eyes followed the treat.

"Do you want it," Ren asked sweetly and smiled. How did she do that? I couldn't do that. It wasn't in my DNA.

The toddler let go, and the mother scooped up the child in her arms as it squealed. It was definitely magic. Ren laughed and held out the cookie to one of the chubby little hands that were opening and closing like a claw on one of those arcade games. I shivered. Yuck. Me and kids were like oil and water.

"Thank you so much. This is our second transfer, and we missed our plane because of delays. She is just wiped from it all," the woman said as the toddler snatched the cookie from Ren like a Gremlin.

Praying that the mother didn't release it, I moved away to the other side of Myles to keep as much space between me and the two-foot menace as possible. I glanced around the busy terminal and cringed.

"Can you please explain to me one more time why we are not taking the private jet?"

"Cause this is safer," Myles said.

I glanced at the tired and annoyed workers. "Are you sure about that?"

Myles wrapped his arm around my shoulder. "Yer just butt hurt that you don't get to sit with me, but yer gonna have so much fun with Ivy." Myles smiled, and I wanted to punch him in the face. Getting arrested and tossed in the airport holding was almost preferrable to the chatterbox, who was equally annoying as the child.

"Why are we bringing her again?"

"Because Ren didn't want to leave her alone with Sheriff Morrison for the summer, not that I blame her," Myles said, and I crossed my arms.

"Flight 2134, flying from Portland to Alberta, Canada, is now boarding." Everyone jumped out of their seat and rushed the woman standing by the gate. This was stupid. I didn't want to go. What the hell was I going to do all summer?

"Ya know ya pout as well as the kid. Keep it up, and Ren may give ya a cookie, too," Myles mocked and then laughed as he walked away. Asshole.

Hefting my bag on my shoulder, I followed everyone toward the gate. There was nothing like being the odd man out. "Go to keep her safe," Nash said. "You'll have a good time," he said. With who and doing what? Okay, I needed to stop thinking about it, or I was going to be miserable for the next month.

I rolled my eyes as the person handling the tickets looked at the passport, then at Blake, and then at me. I wanted to ask , "Have you never seen twins before?" But I kept my mouth shut.

"Wow, you two really look identical," the woman said, and I cocked an eyebrow at her.

"Indeed, a true miracle," I drawled, my lips curving up.

I stepped onto the plane, and if Myles wasn't right behind me, I would've turned around and walked right back off again. This was not a plane. This was a sardine can with wings. Myles had to step in close, pushing me into Ren, but she just smiled over her shoulder at me.

"Are you excited," she asked, her eyes practically glittering. Her enthusiasm was oozing out of her pores.

I forced myself to smile. "Oh, am I ever," I said, and she laughed.

"You're a horrible liar. But trust me, when we get there, you'll have a good time," she said, reaching her seat. Blake helped put her bag in the overhead, and I looked across the aisle at Ivy, who was sitting in the window seat with her face almost pressed up against the glass.

"Don't lick it," I said, and Ivy laughed like it was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. The insult obviously went over her head.

"Do you want the window seat? I don't have to have the window, I like it, but it's not necessary. I haven't flown a lot, but I went to England over Christmas break, and it was incredible. Have you ever been to England? If not, you really should go. You could see so much flying in. What an incredible view, and the tube system—that's what they call the subway—was like a maze of fast-moving worms. That was kind of gross, and it made me think of Dune. Oh, I'm sorry, do you want the seat?"

The mere idea of being trapped in the window seat with Ivy blocking the way out had me shaking my head as I sat down and pulled out my laptop.

"Okay, good, cause I would've given it to you, but I really wanted to sit here. I love watching the clouds when we take off."

Ignoring her rambling, I pulled out my earbuds and phone, starting my music. I turned it up until her mouth was moving, but I couldn't hear a thing. Not that she gave you time to answer anyway. Glaring at the twist clip on the back of the chair in front of me, I reached out and turned it. A tiny table fell down in front of me. You have got to be kidding.

Opening my laptop, I got to work. I was only a few minutes in when my shoulder was tapped, and I turned my annoyed stare up at the stewardess.

"I'm sorry, but you'll have to put that away until after take-off. The table must stay up and in the locked position until the seatbelt sign goes off." She pointed at the glowing red sign above my head. This was archaic. Who could stand flying like this?

I could feel Blake, Myles, and Ren staring at me from across the aisle, but as soon as I looked at them, they looked away. Jerks. They were all waiting to see how long I lasted before I blew a gasket. Well, the joke was on them because I wasn't going to give them that kind of satisfaction.

"Yes, of course, my bad. I'll put it away right now." The stewardess smiled, and I glared at the three snickering asshats.

Ivy continued to yap like a dog as they made announcements—that didn't make me feel any safer flying with this airline—before they taxied us out to the runway. This was my favorite part. The surge of speed reminded me of when I was on my bike and racing through the streets. Polly was as much my baby as Blake's guitar was his, maybe even more. When I rode, I left it all out on the street as I became one with my girl.

The engines revved, and soon we were roaring down the runway, and the nose of the plane lifted off the ground. It was almost shocking that the bird could actually take off. I waited. It seemed to take forever, but as soon as the light went off, I pulled out my laptop again. My eyes flicked to Ivy, who was staring at me, and I realized she must be waiting for an answer.

"I didn't catch that," I said.

"Sorry, but I need to go to the bathroom," she said and bit her bottom lip. Are you kidding me? Grabbing my laptop, I stood and held the tray up as she got out. "I'm so sorry, the plane always makes me feel like I need to pee every ten minutes. It's terrible."

"How are ya enjoyin' the flight so far," Myles asked and burst out laughing. Was it too late to demand they turn around?

I refused to get up every ten minutes, so while Ivy was gone, I moved all her stuff and plopped down in the window seat.

"Oh, you decided to take the window seat."

"Very observant of you," I said, and her face flamed red, but she turned the opposite way and began talking to Myles.

An hour later, I was so engrossed in the report I was working on that I hardly noticed the offer of something to drink. Ivy grabbed me some sort of soda in a plastic cup. I looked at her sad expression and sighed.

"Thank you," I said, and her face lit up. She no sooner sat it on my tray when we hit an air pocket, and we all flew out of our seats as the plane dropped dramatically. My knees slammed into the underside of the tray, and I watched like a horror movie in slow motion as the sticky soda bounced and landed right on my keyboard. There were very few things in this world that made me cry, but I would rather the plane fall out of the sky than the blue screen of death that flashed on the monitor.

"Nooo. I hadn't hit send." I grabbed the laptop and turned it upside down to try and get the liquid out as the announcement came on to buckle up because we were hitting turbulence. I growled low, not caring about my seatbelt, as I used everything I could to try and sop up the wetness. "This did not just happen," I said.

"Theo, I'm so sorry," Ivy said, and my glare lifted to her as the plane shook like it was going to rattle apart. She screamed and grabbed the arm rests.

Nash owed me if I lived, and so help me god, he would pay for putting me through this.