Vanessa Gray Bartal - Lacy Steele 07 - Icy Grip of Murder (19 page)

They were the only three people in
their corner of the airport, so it didn’t matter if they read out loud. At
least it didn’t matter to anyone but Jason. He reluctantly read his part, but
he refused to read it like Elvis. And he adamantly refused to sing “Love Me Tender”
as the closing song.

Their plane arrived and they said
goodbye to Michael again. “I don’t want to leave home again for a long time,”
Jason said. “I feel like every part of me is bruised for some reason. It’s
weird.”

“I’m not bruised at all,” Lacy muttered.
He didn’t hear her. He was too busy trying to stuff his duffel into the
overhead bin. His suitcase had never arrived. The airline finally found it and
assured him it would be waiting on him at home. All he had were the clothes he
had purchased in Minnesota, and the hat. That hadn’t left his head in a long
time. Too long, Lacy thought.

They settled sleepily into their
chairs and faced each other. “Thanks for showing up,” Lacy said.

“We’re going to disagree, probably
a lot. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be supportive, even when you’re wrong,”
Jason said. “Next time we fight, I think we should go somewhere warmer.”

“Definitely,” Lacy agreed, eyeing
his hat. It was askew because of his position in the chair. She watched as he
sank slowly into sleep, and then she gently eased it off his head and tucked it
into the seat pocket in front of her.

Let
us never speak of this again,
she thought as she fell into her own deep
sleep.

The plane bumped as it touched
down. Lacy woke with a start. Jason was already awake and blinking in sleepy
confusion. She crossed her fingers that he wouldn’t mention the hat, and he
didn’t.

They disembarked the plane and
immediately began to shed layers. Though it was only in the forties, it felt
balmy and warm after their time in Minnesota. As soon as they stumbled into the
terminal, the smell of something delicious hit Lacy’s nose and her stomach
began to growl.

“I’m so hungry. You want to get a
snack before we head home?” she asked.

Jason curled his lip in the
direction of the food court. “I’m not hungry, and especially not for fast food.
I could go for some fruit or yogurt, though.”

It was the first mention of fruit
he had made in days. “We could grab some doughnuts,” she suggested.

His grimace deepened and he put a
hand to his gut. “Never again.”

She linked her arm through his and
gave it a squeeze. “Welcome back.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Let’s go.”

She had checked her luggage. They
headed in the direction of baggage claim, but first they met with a moving
sidewalk. Lacy hesitated. She and moving floors had never been friends, but the
week had been so good, so free of accidents. She was empowered enough to try
it.

She stepped on without having to
grab for the handrail. Jason had his back to her and hadn’t noticed her
hesitation. A quick glance at the people around her showed her that no one else
had noticed either. And now she was doing it; she was riding the moving
sidewalk without vertigo. She had this; she could do it.

They reached the end. Her right
foot took a smooth step off the platform. Her left leg didn’t follow. It was
held firmly in place. For a minute, she dangled with one foot in the air like a
flamingo, and then she went flying.
 
The contents of her purse flew around her. The man behind her tripped
and caught himself on the handrail. Jason, alerted by the commotion, turned
around, assessed the situation and sprang into action.

First he hit the emergency stop on
the conveyer. Next he herded the other walkers around the pile of humanity that
was Lacy. When the traffic situation was under control, he knelt to inspect her
foot.

“I had no idea shoelaces could
actually become stuck in these things,” he said.

“I don’t think they can. I think
just mine,” Lacy said. It was hard not to be dismal. Her calamity reprieve was
over.

“Don’t sound so sad. It’s not that
big of a deal,” Jason said. His expression told a different story. Her shoelace
was really lodged in there. “This is going to take some time. Try to relax.”

She lay flat on her back, staring
up at the ceiling and trying not to think about how many people had placed
their feet where her head was. Her stomach growled. When did she last eat? She
couldn’t remember, and the realization made her panicky. Soon she would be back
in her grandmother’s care with real food.

“Almost there,” Jason said as he
tugged furiously on her foot. Lacy’s phone rang. She heard it from far away.
Jason sprang for it, reminding her that she still needed to pick up the contents
of her scattered purse.

She was too rattled from the fall
and lack of food to register the caller’s ID. “Hello.”

“Where are you?”

It was her mother. Though she knew
her mom was safely in Florida, her stomach still clenched.

“At the airport.”

“You need to leave right now.”

“Why? What’s wrong?” Lacy asked.
She tried to use her abs to sit up. They were helpless from years of
disinterest. She flopped onto her back again and almost dropped the phone.
“What?” she asked when she retrieved it
again.

“I said Riley’s in labor. You need
to go to the hospital. Your dad and I are catching the first flight out. I
expect you to hold our place until we get there.”

“I’m not going to have to be in the
room with her, am I?” Lacy asked. She was looking forward to being an aunt in a
detached
way,
the sort where she held the baby after
it was cleaned and clothed.

“You’re going to have to do
whatever Riley needs or wants you to do. She’s your sister, Lacy. Act like it.
I have to go. Your father’s honking.” She hung up before Lacy could ask what
that meant. Hopefully he was in a car of some kind.

“What was that all about?” Jason
asked. Her foot popped free and he rubbed the circulation back into it.

“Riley’s in labor. My parents are
coming.” He gave her a hand and helped her sit up. “Do you have a passport?
It’s not too late to flee the country. We could go to Ireland with Michael. The
three of us haven’t done enough together lately.”

“It’s going to be okay,” Jason
assured her.

“Jason, my mother is coming.
Riley’s having a baby.
It’s going to be a circus.”

“We survived her last visit.”

“This one is going to be worse,”
she said.

“How do you know?”

“Because every visit gets a little
bit worse,” Lacy said.

“Your dad’s coming this time. He’ll
be a buffer.”

“Or they’ll fight endlessly and
I’ll be stuck in the middle.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Jason
promised.

“What are you going to do to stop
it?” she asked.

He paused. “I’ll think of something.
In the meantime, you’re about to be an aunt. Let’s go to the hospital and watch
Tosh cry.”

“What if…” she started, but he cut
her off.

“Lacy, it’s going to be okay.”

Somehow when he said it, she let
herself believe it. The next few weeks were going to be spent in servitude to
Riley while being picked apart by her mother, but now she had an out. Jason was
her escape hatch. Her phone buzzed again with a text from her mother. Lacy
didn’t have to look at it to know it was a to-do list. She stuffed the phone in
her pocket and grasped Jason’s hand, clutching it tightly.
And so it begins. Again,
she thought. Together, they walked out of
the airport.