Ignite (16 page)

A flight attendant ushered us to our seats, which were in front of the normal cabin. I made a right when we entered the plane, but Dean grabbed my hand and led me left. I felt like a complete idiot when Callie laughed at me.

“Shut up,” Jenny told her as she unwound her headphones. At least someone was on my side.

We were seated three and three on each side of the aisle in the huge, reclining chairs that looked nothing like any plane I’d ever been on. Dean let Emma sit by the window on the right. When she saw that she had a new view, it was like she had never been asleep at all. He sat next to her, and the other three took the seats on the left. That meant I was sitting on the aisle next to him.

“This is amazing,” I told him as I sat down. “I guess there’s more to you than rugged sexuality.”

He shut his eyes slowly and smiled, and I could have sworn I saw a blush creeping up his cheeks.

LITTLE KNOWN FACT: this was the first time Emma had ever been on an airplane. She spent the entire takeoff trying to crawl into Dean’s lap while he was trying to stop her from screaming, and I was trying to make sure the flight attendant didn’t ask the pilot to turn the plane around and kick us off. If this was what parenting was like, it was not my new favorite activity.

By the time that Emma had cried herself into a frenzy and fallen asleep, my eardrums were ringing and my head was pounding. I popped a painkiller and handed one to Dean, which he swallowed wordlessly.

“How does she sleep so much?” he whispered, rubbing his temples.

“I don’t know,” I said, looking over at Emma. “But right now I’m not complaining.”

He nodded. “She’s cute when she’s not screaming.”

I smiled and laughed lightly.

“She’s cute all the time, but I kind of like my hearing intact. Anyway, how about that secret?”

I looked to the left to check on the other kids before leaning in towards him. Part of me felt like I was invading his personal space, but the other part of me wanted to.

A smile played on his lips and I could have sworn his eyes flicked down to mine.

Our faces were only inches apart.

“Miss, did you want something to drink?”

I sighed but didn’t turn right away. For all the flight attendant knew, we could have been kissing. Why would you interrupt that?

“I’ll take a water,” I told her dryly.

She jotted it down on her notepad, and then flashed Dean a seductive smile.

Seriously?

I scoffed. “Another water,” he told her. “Thanks.”

She winked at him and flounced off.

I turned back to him.

“You have to turn that whole rugged sexuality thing down. You’re going to cause a frenzy.”

He laughed.

“You don’t seem to be complaining.”

I scoffed again and gaped at him.

“You’re so full of yourself!”

“No, I just like teasing you,” he said, smiling brilliantly.

I rolled my eyes.

“No really,” he said, leaning closer. “I’m sure she would have winked at anyone.”

He sounded as though he genuinely thought that.

“Are you really not aware of the effect you have on women?”

He looked down and blushed in that humble way that proved my point.

“I’m not going to lie and say I haven’t used it to my advantage in the past.”

This time it was my turn to get warm cheeks and look away. He leaned in closer and put a strand of hair behind my ear.

“But not right now,” he said softly. “Not with you.”

I was breathless.

“I’m pretty sure you’re doing a good job with me right now,” I told him, not daring to meet his gaze.

“Well that’s good,” he said. “But I’m not actively trying to use my rugged sexuality against you. It’s not my fault you’re so attracted to me.”

I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You and your rugged sexuality better scoot over,” I whispered. “Unless you want to be responsible for making me pass out on this plane. I’m not sure that flight attendant knows CPR.”

He looked over my shoulder and then returned his gaze to me. I shouldn’t have looked up.

“It’s okay,” he said, lowering his lips all the way to my ear so they touched my skin when he spoke. “I’m really good at mouth-to-mouth.”

Holy shit.
He was
so
using it against me on purpose right now.

I let out a breath and shifted away from him slightly. I couldn’t take it much longer. This wasn’t me. I wasn’t some girl who swooned when a guy got all cheesy.

He laughed and leaned away.

“But seriously, don’t you want to know my secret?”

I sighed and crossed my arms.

“Do I?”

“I think you do.”

“So, what is it?” I was kind of mad at him for making me feel the way I did.

He leaned in close one more time.

“I like you.”

His words made my breath catch, but I tried not to let him notice.

“So? I like you too,” I said casually as I glanced over at him and narrowed my eyes. “Sometimes.”

He chuckled softly.

“No, I don’t think you get it. I
like
you.”

“So what is this, third grade? You
like me,
like me?”

He nodded and traced a finger down my cheek.

“Yes, Annabelle. I
like you
, like you. And I’m willing to bet you little more than just like me, too.”

I swallowed and dared myself to look him in the eye, just this once. My stomach flipped. Bad idea.

“Wouldn’t you like to know?” I tried to play it off.

“Touché, Lauren Lindsay. But I think you just told me everything.”

He looked pretty satisfied with himself, and I both loved and hated that he made me feel this way.

“Here’s your water.” The flight attendant said, and she brought my attention back to the real world. She handed me a full bottle instead of the little cup I was expecting, and batted her eyelashes at Dean when she leaned over me to hand him his water.

I rolled my eyes, but he reached for my hand and put the bottle in the cup holder between him and Emma. The flight attendant definitely noticed, but it didn’t do anything to deter her from checking him out one more time.

I glanced over across the aisle, where Jenny and Callie were giving us twin looks of confusion. They looked at each other, made a face, and went back to the movie they were watching.

“They’ll get over it,” Dean whispered. Then he said, “So what did you bring as your designated plane activity?”

I shrugged.

“There’s a book in my bag, but I kind of forgot. I guess I thought we’d be wrangling Emma the whole time.” I looked up at him. “What did you bring?”

He smiled.

“You.”

“You have to stop being so corny.”

“I’m not trying to be corny, I’m trying to be serious.” He frowned, mocking me. “So let’s read your book.”

“I’m not sure you’d like it,” I told him.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll like it, as long as it doesn’t have Fabio on the cover.”

I laughed slightly. Thank goodness I didn’t bring one of
those
books. It was certainly an option. I reached down and pulled the book out of my bag.

“I can’t really tell you what it’s about without giving it away,” I told him. “But we can start from the beginning so you’re not confused.”

“Sounds good to me.”

He held one side of the book and I held the other. I was surprised that he was genuinely interested in what I was reading, and I hoped he wouldn’t judge my taste in books. Whenever he was done, he would glance at me to make sure it was okay to turn the page. To be honest, I was paying more attention to him than the book, so I couldn’t care less.

After a few pages, he finally spoke. “I just have one question.”

I looked at him expectantly.

“What kind of a name is Aric?”

I laughed.

“He’s like a knight in shining armor, Disney Prince kind of guy, okay? You said you wouldn’t laugh.”

“I know. We’ve already established that you like Disney,” he said, smiling his half smile that made my heart do cartwheels.

I knew where we were going.

MY SUSPICIONS WERE confirmed when our limo pulled up to the Grand Californian. Tom Cruise stayed at this hotel, and we were in a limo. How did Dean have so much money?

He had booked two rooms; one for me, Callie, Jenny, and Emma, and one for him and Chase.

“Can we do cool guy stuff?” Chase asked as we took the elevator up to the right floor.

“Sure,” Dean said as he ruffled Chase’s hair.

I pushed myself up onto my toes to whisper into his ear. “What does he mean that?”

He turned to me and I could have sworn his eyes fell on my lips again, but I brought my heels back down so he had to lean down to whisper back. “I have no idea.”

I smiled, wondering what Chase had in mind. Climbing trees, shooting arrows?

Emma was between me and Dean, holding one hand each. I was wearing the Tinker Bell backpack, which Dean told me was very stylish.

“Do we have to share a room with you guys?” Callie complained as we made our way down the enormous green and brown lodge-like hallway. “It would be cooler if we had our own room.”

Jenny didn’t say anything, but if I had to guess, she was getting sick of Callie’s bad attitude too.

“Be nice,” Dean said pointedly as he unlocked our room and handed me the keys.

“Do we get one?” Jenny asked, pointing at both keys.

“Only if you’re good,” I told them, pushing the door open. Dean and Chase had the room right next door. I had half a mind to make Chase switch me and Emma. Not so I could be with Dean, but just so I could escape Callie’s wrath. Even though she knew I was her only hope to keep her family together, she still openly hated me.

I knocked on Dean’s door two minutes later. Callie demanded that she needed to fix her makeup because she looked haggard from the plane ride. I told her to be ready in five minutes while Emma and I went over to the boys’ room.

“Sweet setup, guys,” I said, flopping on one of the beds.

“Isn’t yours exactly the same?” Chase asked.

I nodded.

“Yes, but yours doesn’t have brooding teenage girls.”

I heard Dean snicker.

Emma climbed up on the bed next to me and played with my hair. I was sure she was making a mess of it, but it was already a pile of messy curls, so unless she got her fingers tangled in it, I wasn’t sure what she could do to make it worse.

“I wish I had the same hair as you,” she said, fluffing it up.

“No, I wish I had the same hair as you, little one,” I told her. “Your hair is the same color as Elsa’s from
Frozen.
”

“And yours is like Anna’s,” she told me.

Chase was playing with his iPad, and Dean had stopped whatever he was doing to openly stare at Emma and me.

“What?”

He shook his head and returned from whatever place he had gone in his head.

“Nothing. Who’s ready to go?”

“Me!” Emma said excitedly, recharged from her nap on the plane.

“Where are we going first?” Chase asked.

I shrugged.

“Well, I have a map here,” Chase suggested. Seriously? Kids and their technology. I could barely take care of my Furby when I was his age.

Chase planned out what rides he wanted to go on, starting with the big roller coaster in the park that was attached to our hotel. From there, we would make our way to Disneyland for the fireworks.

Emma didn’t want to go on the roller coaster, and neither did Callie. They sat out and ate cotton candy while the rest of us waited in line. I was sort of afraid to leave Emma with Callie, but they were sisters. In reality, that should be safer than Emma being with me. Somehow, it was weird not to have my shadow, and it made me nervous.

“She’s fine,” Dean assured me, and somehow I felt like I was being overprotective. It wasn’t as though she was my sister or my child, like everyone thought.

Next, they made me go on the Jumping Jellyfish ride which was basically a kids version of the Tower of Terror. I hated it. I screamed and maybe even cried a little bit, and Dean couldn’t stop laughing at the way I curled up into a ball on the way down.

“So you can do the Tower of Terror, but not that?”