Chapter 43: Terminal Jealousy

AVA

“I’m going to run to the restroom. Or do you think they’ll start boarding soon? I can wait.” I bobbed up and down nervously in my seat.

Cyrus smiled at me reassuringly. “You’re fine, baby. They won’t leave without you. Go ahead.”

I took a deep breath and practically ran to the bathroom. I’d never been a nervous flier; I felt perfectly comfortable on planes. But I was always scared I was going to miss my flight.

I’d insisted we arrive at the airport multiple hours early, just in case. Cyrus had tried to convince me that wasn’t necessary, but he gave in once he noticed how on edge I was.

When I got back from the restroom, I found a pretty flight attendant standing next to him, clearly flirting with him. To my relief, he couldn’t have seemed less interested.

Still, I felt jealousy bubble up in my chest, and I was ashamed of it and tried to suppress it. I walked over to him reluctantly, wondering if I should give him some space.

The second I decided to wait elsewhere, Cyrus noticed me, and his face lit up.

“There’s my girl!” He stretched out his arm to me invitingly.

I slowly closed the distance between us, and Cyrus grabbed me and pulled me to him as soon as I got within reach.

“This is my girlfriend, Ava.”

My stomach flipped as it had every time he’d called me his girlfriend, and I hugged him tightly.

“Nice to meet you,” the flight attendant said stiffly.

I rested my hand possessively on Cyrus’s shoulder. “Likewise.”

“We’ll best be on our way,” he said, nodding to the girl. “Wouldn’t want the plane to leave without us.”

I looked around and saw that most of the other passengers had already boarded the plane in the meantime. “I thought you said they wouldn’t lea—”

“Work with me here, baby.”

Cyrus pushed me toward the plane. He handed our boarding passes to a different flight attendant, who welcomed us with a kind smile.

We got to our seats, and I marveled at the luxury of it all. I’d never flown anything other than coach before.

It didn’t take long for the plane to take off, and I felt my nervousness subsiding as soon as we left the ground.

I was going home. And I was bringing Cyrus. Butterflies surged through me, and I got so excited I could hardly contain myself. I started making calculations in my head.

“There’s so much I want to show you,” I said. “I’m not sure there’s enough time.”

Cyrus pulled me out of my seat and onto his lap. He stroked my hair reassuringly. “There’s no need to rush. This isn’t a one-time thing. We can go back as often as you like.”

“Right.” Somehow that hadn’t occurred to me. I tried to go back to my seat, but Cyrus held me back.

“Stay,” he said. “Get some sleep.”

I shifted on top of him. “I’m pretty sure that’s illegal.”

He pointed to the Fasten Seatbelt sign, which wasn’t illuminated. “We can do as we please as long as that light is off.” His smile turned wicked. “I could even meet you in the bathroom if you’d like.”

I swatted at him. “I’ll sleep with you.”

His eyebrows raised in happy surprise.

“~Sleep,~ Cy. Right here.”

He wrapped his arms around me. “Fine. There’s always the return flight.”

We slept most of the flight until the flight attendant came to wake us. “So sorry to disturb you,” he whispered. “It’s time to return to your seat, Mrs. Brentstone. We’re about to land.”

I pushed myself off Cyrus and into my own seat. Then his words dawned on me. ~Mrs. Brentstone.~ My heart pounded in my chest, and I felt my whole body heat up.

I looked at Cyrus, who was staring at me from under his brow, a grin on his face.

“Yes, ~Mrs.~ Brentstone. Your husband cares about your safety too.”

I giggled nervously. ~Husband.~ The idea of getting to marry this man sent shivers down my spine.

I imagined walking down the aisle and seeing him standing there waiting for me. I imagined promising him my love and my life, surrounded by the people I loved.

Then I pinched my arm to snap me out of my racing thoughts. It was way too soon to start thinking of marriage. Right?

CYRUS

We walked out of the gate and made our way into the arrivals hall. I held on to Ava’s hand. I felt her get more and more excited with each step.

It touched me, knowing that she’d wanted to go home so badly but had never been able to do so, for both emotional and financial reasons.

I felt proud, providing her support on both counts, playing whatever part I could in making any of her dreams come true. ~And this was just the beginning.~

“Mom!” I heard Ava yell.

I scanned the crowd, trying to see for myself. A pretty woman, with features that slightly resembled Ava’s, and a tall man in a baseball hat were shuffling through the crowd toward us.

They looked young. They must have been in their early twenties when they had Ava.

The man was a good-looking dude with dimples like Ava’s and smile lines around his eyes and mouth, giving him a happy appearance even when his expression was neutral.

His hearing aids were almost completely hidden by the thick dark hair that tufted out from under his hat.

The woman hugged Ava first and then turned to me. “So you’re the boss.” She had a twinkle in her eyes.

I nodded, taking a deep breath to gather some courage as I clumsily started signing. “My name is C-Y-R-U-S. Nice to meet you.”

All the Mayweathers’ eyes widened in surprise. Ava’s dad slapped me on the back happily, and his mother squealed as she hugged me. Ava looked at me in awe, her eyes glistening with happy tears.

“You learned ASL?” She squeezed my hand.

“Just a little. Some basic stuff. I’m sure I’ll mess up a lot.”

She got up on her toes to kiss me, whispering her thanks against my lips between kisses.

We went to her parents’ car, and her mom drove us while her dad leaned backward from the passenger’s seat to sign to Ava.

I could make out some words, but it was mostly too quick and too fluent for me to comprehend, so Ava interpreted for me.

They mostly talked about family stuff, clearly having a lot of catching up to do, so I kind of tuned out and thought about my plans for the weekend.

I needed to make sure I got her dad alone at some point, preferably toward the end of the week, when we’d gotten a chance to get to know each other.

I was happy to hear Ava say he had a cookout planned for the second to last day we’d be there. That would be perfect.

We pulled up in front of a charming little house in a suburban neighborhood and went in to have a drink together.

We’d be staying in a hotel ourselves, since I didn’t want to do the things I was planning to do to their daughter in the same house her parents were in. We tended to get a little loud.

We sat down at the dinner table and talked mostly about me.

Ava’s parents, Violet and Lincoln, asked me questions back to back, trying to find out what kind of man their daughter was seeing, and I answered all of them happily.

I could only imagine how scary it must have been for them to trust another man after what had happened last time. I tried to show my good intentions as much as I could without overdoing it.

“So how about your mom? What does she do?” Violet asked.

Ava quickly shook her head, probably trying to be subtle.

“Oh.” Her mom shifted awkwardly.

“My mom passed away when I was little,” I said.

I took a sip of my coffee. It was really bad coffee (Ava hadn’t gotten her skills here, apparently), but I drank it with a straight face.

“Giving birth to me, actually.”

I gauged their reactions. It wasn’t my intention to dampen the mood, but I wanted to be as honest as I could with these people.

Ava paused and gaped at me. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “I had no idea.”

I smiled sadly at her. “Should’ve told you sooner. Guess dropping bombs at family meetings is the way we like to go about things.”

She grimaced and squeezed my thigh before telling her dad.

“How did it happen, if he may ask?” she said, interpreting Lincoln’s question.

“Amniotic fluid embolism.”

Ava bit her lip in thought and then proceeded to fingerspell the words, which was pretty impressive-looking, honestly.

She turned to me, boring her eyes into mine. “That has ~nothing~ to do with you, Cy. You had no part in that.”

I frowned as I looked at her, and I took a deep breath. I’d heard those words so many times before, from so many different people, and they’d never rung true to me before.

But just hearing Ava say them, they shook me to my core. Just hearing her say those two little sentences healed a part of me I thought was beyond repair.

And my response came tumbling out of my mouth before I realized what was happening.

“Marry me.”