rumpled and sleepy. He wanted almost nothing more than to kiss her.
But this time, he didn’t.
Several days later, as the limo took them to the airport with only a mounted camera and no cameraman, Madi avoided looking at her phone and notifications. She needed to once they made it through to the other side of security, but for now she was avoiding the speculation about why she and Wyatt had been sleeping apart for the last few days.
Had Wyatt looked?
They’d both been quiet as they prepared for their very early morning departure. It would be nearly a full day of travel that required them to be at the airport not long after three in the morning. Consequently, they’d both gone to bed a few minutes after the production people left the house when the episode ended.
Before she could ask him if he’d checked, the limo glided to a stop in front of the Springfield Branson National Airport.
Even at the insanely early hour, Madi could feel the stares and hear the whispers as they walked toward the ticket counter. They kept conversation to a minimum as they checked in. Their reservations were separate, which Madi thought was kind of odd, but what did she know? It was all supposed to be paid for by the show, but Wyatt pulled out a credit card anyway.
Her ticket agent and his whispered for a few minutes, did some clicky things on their own computers, then the woman smiled and handed Madi cardstock tickets. “Here you go, Ms. Beach. Thank you for flying with us today.”
She picked up her backpack and slung it over one shoulder as Wyatt took his card back and picked up the small stack of papers and his passport from where they lay on the counter.
Together, they walked through the smallish airport toward security. When they reached it, Wyatt went to the left toward precheck. Madi looked at her ticket to make sure she wasn’t allowed in that line. It happened occasionally but not often.
“I have to go this way,” she told him. Not that the regular line was super long. Even if the queue had been filled completely, the wait time would likely be less than half an hour. Instead, she guessed it would be about fifteen minutes, twenty tops.
“You weren’t given precheck?” He frowned as he reached for her ticket. After checking it, he shrugged. “I guess we go through the main line then. I’ve been in precheck lines longer than this one, though, so it won’t be too bad.”
“You don’t have to,” she told him as she followed him into the queue. “I wouldn’t want to wait here if I didn’t have to.”
Wyatt took her hand and linked their fingers. “No. But I do want to wait with you, wherever that is.”
They reached the end of the line, but stayed back a bit. Fortunately, no one seemed to pay too much attention to them, not for the first ten minutes or so. Then someone realized who Wyatt was and knew about the reality show.
“Hey, Carson.” The guy on the other side of the retractable belt shrugged at him. “Still a little annoyed about the Series, man, but congratulations.”
Wyatt gave him what appeared to be a real smile. “Thanks, man. I’m still more than a little annoyed about the Series, too.”
The man winked as they all started to move forward a spot. “Just don’t let it happen again.”
That made Wyatt laugh, a little bit. “I’m going to try my best.”
A minute later it was their turn. The first security guy waved them forward together. “Mr. Carson, you’re welcome to use the precheck side, if you’d like,” he said after checking the ticket.
“I know, but I’d rather stay with my wife.”
“Understood.”
It took another ten minutes to get through security. Madi had to have her bag checked for something, but they never figured out what it was and finally let her go on.
By then Wyatt was waiting for her near the stainless-steel table. “We need to get you PreCheck and Global Entry,” he said softly as she put her shoes back on. “That wasn’t too bad, but it’s much better to have them at bigger airports.”
“I’ve never even thought about it,” Madi admitted. She stopped out of everyone else’s way but short of the area where the cameras were allowed to follow them again. “We should probably put up a joint social media post.” She smirked at the thought of having people. “There’s going to be speculation that our relationship is