It Wasn't Me - Lani Lynn Vale Page 0,14

my sister, and I also shared the same father that Downy had. Only, we didn’t know that at the time.

Without going into the lurid details with her as to why my childhood had been a shit show, I left it simple so she wouldn’t pry and ask questions.

“Now boarding group one.”

“That’s us,” I said, standing up. “Let’s go.”

Piper stood and gathered her belongings, throwing the hood of her sweatshirt backward so it no longer covered her head.

“I noticed you procured a new article of clothing,” I teased.

She looked down at the sweatshirt.

“I was cold,” she admitted. “In fact, I’m freezing my ass off.”

“Why?” I asked.

“Medicine,” she answered. “It does strange things to me.”

I could imagine it did.

“Interesting,” I said. “Well, if you feel like doing anything weird later, let me know.”

Chapter 5

I don’t get offered drugs anywhere near as much as the DARE officer said I would.

-Piper’s secret thoughts

Piper

He held my hand the entire hour and a half flight. He’d never let go, not even when the flight attendant had handed him his drink or his complimentary meal.

He’d eaten one-handed. Then, when he was done, he’d wiped his hand one-handed.

I was honestly on cloud nine.

I didn’t know how the hell I’d lucked out getting the man on my flight again, but I was thanking my lucky stars.

We were seconds away from deplaning, waiting on the hacking lady who’d coughed the entire goddamn flight to move her ass, when Jonah muttered something under his breath.

“What?” I asked, hoping he’d repeat himself.

“I feel like I need to scrub myself with disinfectant wipes,” he said, much louder this time.

The woman with the hacking cough looked back at him, and Jonah didn’t try to hide the fact that he was disgusted.

“My daughter is getting married,” she said. “I couldn’t miss it.”

“Well,” Jonah said as the flight attendant finally opened the door. “I just hope you realize that you exposed every single one of us on this plane to your sickness.”

She scrunched her nose up.

“I covered my mouth when I coughed,” she defended.

“Yes,” Jonah rolled his eyes. “Like that is really going to help anything at this point. We were in a sealed cabin with all your bullshit for over two hours. Hopefully we have some immune systems that can handle it.”

The woman’s face flamed.

That was when I decided to interfere.

Squeezing Jonah’s hand and bringing his attention to me, I said, “I’m ready to get married, dear.”

His eyes twinkled.

“Yeah?” he asked, then turned to the old lady. “Which chapel is your daughter getting married at?”

The woman blinked, then croaked, “Clover Hill on the strip.”

Jonah turned back to me and gestured his head for me to go ahead of him.

I did.

As we passed the old lady who’d stopped to repack her bag, he said, “I want to go to any chapel that’s not Clover Hill. I think we’ve been exposed to the plague enough.”

I choked at the lady’s outraged gasp.

“Oh. My. God.” I shook my head as we made our way up the gangplank to the entrance. “I can’t believe you just did that.”

My snicker was audible as he threw his arm around my shoulders. “I’m serious. If I can get out of here before I get anything, it’ll be a goddamn miracle.”

“That was pretty bad,” I admitted. “But at least we weren’t next to the crying, screaming kid.”

The flight attendant closed the curtains at some point, as if that would help, and offered us all sympathetic looks.

It wasn’t that I was upset that the kid was crying. I wasn’t. Kids cried. It is what it is.

What I was pissed about was the parents allowed the damn kid to throw a fit over not getting any more free peanuts.

At one point I honestly considered buying some for the little shit just to shut him up.

“You’re not lying,” he said. “There are some days that I want kids. Then days like today happen and I realize that maybe kids aren’t on my horizon.”

I snorted. “You and me both. I love my sisters. Love their kids. But Jesus, I’m so happy to not have to deal with the sleepless nights, the constant crying, and the other shit they tell me is awful on a daily basis.”

Jonah rolled his eyes to look down at me.

I felt my heart skip a beat at the look in his eyes.

“I’m sure it’s different when you have your own kids,” he said. “Not that I would know. I felt the same way about my brother’s kids when I was younger. And my sister’s