Chapter 30

his felt big. I was going to my first away game since I started dating Camden…and I was flying on Lincoln’s private jet with Monroe, Blake, and Olivia freaking Davis. Or at least I thought it was Lincoln’s jet. Camden had been kind of vague about the details.

I had also taken my first voluntary day off of ballet—ever—to be here.

It felt like a big step in our relationship.

As Camden liked to remind me, not as big as a dick tattoo…but close.

He’d had to leave early to fly with the team, so I was waiting in the lobby for the car that was going to take me to the plane. Camden had told me to wait in the penthouse until it got here, but I was too anxious, so I came downstairs. Despite my best efforts…I had already started depending on Camden even before our life altering conversation last week—especially in social situations.

It was going to be fine. The game was going to be great, and when Dallon bitched at me again about missing practice, I was just going to ignore him. Better than I had yesterday at least.

“Are you serious, Anastasia? A fucking day off! Do you even care about this performance? About the Company?” I bit down on my lip, preventing myself from pointing out that he had been thirty minutes late today…again. “You think you can just waltz in and out whenever you feel like it? This isn’t a hobby, it’s your career!”

“I know that, Dallon. I fucking know that!” The ferocity in my voice shocked both of us because it took a second for him to respond.

“Don’t ask for another day off, Anastasia. Or I’ll find a different partner.”

Thinking about that was not going to help me make friends today. I would be in a pissy mood if I was stressing about missing practice. This was a big deal for Camden.

And I wasn’t going to let him down.

The car arrived, and I freaked out the entire drive to the private hanger.

Private hanger. I still couldn’t believe it.

I’d never even flown a commercial airplane, and now, here I was, about to step onto someone’s personal jet.

We got to the hanger, and my heart pounded harder with each passing second. There was the airplane, sleek and imposing. As the driver opened my door, my legs felt like jelly. I slowly walked toward the stairs leading up to the jet, and then I gripped the handrail tightly, willing myself to move forward.

I had just reached the top when a seventy-something-year-old woman wearing a cat apron popped into the entry. She was carrying a tray of cookies. Her silver hair was tied back in a neat bun, and she had the warmest smile I’d ever seen.

“Hello, dear!” she greeted cheerfully, as she extended the tray toward me. “Would you like a cookie? Freshly baked.”

I blinked, completely taken aback. “A cookie?”

Another grandma-looking woman stepped out from the small hallway to the left. “You must be Anastasia. Aren’t you a pretty thing! Although, I guess that’s to be expected. Mr. James is a fine specimen of a man.” I couldn’t help but grin as the elderly woman pretended to swoon. “I’m Edna and that’s Mabel. And we’ll be taking care of you today.”

Mabel’s smile widened. “Now, why don’t you take one of these cookies and settle on in? They’re chocolate chip, my specialty.”

It took me a moment to stop gaping like a fish. On the plus side, though, my nerves were gone, replaced by sheer bewilderment. Was this how the airline industry was? I’d never heard that the flight attendants were senior citizens. Camden had definitely left this part out when I’d pestered him for details about the flight so I could be prepared.

Probably on purpose. He would be enjoying my reaction if he was here.

“Thank you, Mabel,” I finally managed to say, taking a cookie from the tray. As I stepped onto the plane, I had a view into the cockpit—the pilots also seemed to be in the over seventy crowd…and female. There were three of them, and they all waved at me when they saw me looking.

I turned to walk down the aisle, only to see Blake, Monroe, and Olivia almost falling out of their seats as they laughed at me.

“Welcome to Grandma Airways,” sang Blake.

“Our boys’ answer to the taxing dangers that come from air travel from the male species.” Monroe’s voice was dripping with sarcasm, but there was a smirk on her lips that said she didn’t really mind.

I absentmindedly took a bite of the cookie and a moan slipped out. It was the best fucking cookie I’d ever tasted. “Holy shit,” I gasped.

Olivia nodded knowingly. “Good right? Makes up for the insanity—fortunately for Walker.”

I giggled, a little dazed because Olivia Davis was talking to me like we were friends. I needed to get a hold of myself.

I realized then that Olivia was hooked up to some kind of device. There were cords coming out from under her shirt and a computer looking machine was on the table to the side of her, a heartbeat line beating on its screen.

“Don’t mind this,” Olivia said, gesturing to the device and looking adorably embarrassed. “Walker won’t let me get on a plane without it, so we can make sure the baby is okay. Even though the doctor has told him a million times that air travel is completely fine at this point in my pregnancy.’

“That’s kind of…cute,” I mused, thinking I could see Camden doing something like that.

Don’t think about having babies with him, Ana. Your ovaries might explode.

Monroe snorted. “You’re going to fit right in if that’s cute to you. Others might call it overprotective, possessive…”

“Crazy,” Blake added with a giggle.

Then, we all were laughing at the same time.

I think I was going to like these girls.

“More cookies?” Mabel asked, appearing out of nowhere beside me the second I’d sat down, this time with spectacles perched on her nose.

I glanced at the girls who all looked to be holding in gasping laughter. Blake had a hand over her mouth.

Mabel seemed used to it, her own eyes twinkling like she was definitely in on the joke.

I grabbed a cookie, and then another, and settled into the flight.

I’d missed out when I’d sat in the nosebleeds. The front row was a completely different experience. The players literally crashed into the glass right in front of you. Your seat actually shook with the force of it.

I’d never seen anything so exciting in my entire life.

Although, if I had sat with the girls that day, I would have missed what happened after…and I certainly didn’t regret that.

I shifted in my seat just thinking about his hand palming my ass.

Camden winked at me as he skated by…like he could read my mind.

“Oh, we’re up there…again,” Olivia huffed.

Blake slung her arm over our shoulders, reaching farther to grab onto Monroe’s shirt. “Smile ladies,” she laughed as she pulled us close.

I stared up at the Jumbotron now displaying our faces—our smiling faces.

I barely recognized the girl up there, with color on her cheeks and a grin so wide it took up her whole face.

I’d never believed I could be that girl, either.

So happy that I could barely breathe without smiling.

I glanced at Camden, watching as he slammed someone into the boards, fighting over the puck.

And it was all because of him.