Time to Bounce (Carter Brothers #6)

Chapter 8

Your boyfriend looks like he asks Auto Zone to change the wiper blades.

— Athena’s secret thoughts

ATHENA

“ Ma’am .” The flight attendant came up to me, her eyes smiling. “ I have a family here,” she pointed to a mom, dad, and three kids. The kids were all teenagers by the looks of it. Older teens at that. “ They would like to sit together, but to do that, they’d need to take your seat.”

I nodded. “ Where is the seat I’d be taking?” I went to grab my bag.

“24B.” The dad handed over his boarding pass.

I didn’t take it.

“ I’m sorry,” I apologized, dropping my arm. “ I just assumed the seat I’d be taking was in first class. Unfortunately , I won’t be switching. I had to upgrade a lot of airline miles to get this first-class seat.”

Almost all of them, actually.

The man looked at me dumbfounded, surprised I’d told him no.

“ But how will my kids sit with us?” the mother asked, pointing at the three sullen teens behind her.

“ Well ,” I suggested. “ You could possibly go sit in coach and leave the three kids up here to sit with one parent. That way they’re not back there alone.”

The woman didn’t like that answer at all.

I didn’t give a fuck.

If that seat had been in first class, I would’ve been the first one to trade seats.

I would’ve offered up my second seat, but I called the airline last night and explained my situation, and she’d given me a full refund for Gavrel’s ticket.

I was all alone.

“ Such a bitch,” one of the teens said under his breath.

My eyes went to him. “ It makes me a bitch that I planned ahead and purchased the seat that I wanted?”

The teen rolled his eyes.

“ This was an upgrade for us, too,” the mom explained, sounding miffed. “ When we talked to the ladies at the check-in desk, they were able to upgrade them all but one.”

“ I guess you should count your family lucky that you were able to do that.” I took my seat.

The family was very loud.

And even worse, they made one of the teens go to their seat in coach.

I would’ve never done that to my kids.

How would you even choose which one to send back there?

What assholes.

Speaking of assholes, one of the teens took a seat directly behind my pod-shaped seat.

He started kicking my seat the moment he sat down, and I gritted my teeth, determined to force myself to deal with it.

But the entire boarding, the kicking persisted, leaving me fuming mad.

I knew why the kid was doing it.

He was pissed that he couldn’t sit with his sibling.

Well , I really didn’t give a flying fuck.

Truly , I didn’t.

What I did care about was the fact that I paid for this seat, because I was flying to Japan , and I wanted to do that in comfort.

What I didn’t want to do was sit there for the entire flight and allow them to kick my seat.

That was eighteen hours I would have to deal.

And let’s be honest.

There was a reason that Gavrel told everyone who would listen that I had a short temper.

He said it was because I was Asian spicy—i.e., extra short.

God , I missed my brother.

I missed him even more since I was making this trip alone.

Kick .

Kick .

Kick .

I gritted my teeth and tried to deal; surely, he’d get over it, right?

But nope.

Three hours later, and the motherfucker was still kicking my seat.

When I finally got tired of it and stood up to address the kid and his mother, asking him to stop, she laughed.

“ Guess maybe you should’ve gone back to coach if you wanted me to make my kid stop.” She huffed, dismissing me.

I sat down, but not before I pressed the flight attendant button above my chair.

She arrived with a flourish, and she had a co-conspirator look in her eyes as she began speaking.

“ Excuse me,” the flight attendant came to rest her hand on my shoulder. Her eyes flicked backward to the seat behind me—she was well aware of what the little shit had been doing for the last three hours. “ I have a seat available behind them. There’s an elderly lady that said something about how hard it was to get to the bathroom from her seat.”

I stood up. “ Done .”

Me and the elderly lady, who did indeed look like she was going to have trouble getting to the bathroom, switched.

She thanked me profusely, and I hoped that little motherfucking teenager didn’t kick that precious lady’s seat.

When I passed the little fucker, I smiled at him.

He looked chagrinned.

Like he knew what was about to happen and was rethinking his last three hours of stupidity.

Taking a seat in the chair behind him, I buckled my seatbelt.

Then I started kicking.

Kick .

Kick .

Then I’d stop. Give him a false sense of security.

Kick .

I spent the entirety of the eighteen-hour flight kicking him.

The flight attendant didn’t say a word when the asshole teen brought it to her attention.

Needless to say, when I got off the plane, and the teen’s bloodshot eyes caught mine, I couldn’t help the smile.

That smile stayed in place through the next few hours as I got off the plane and navigated my way to the pickup area.

Learning Japanese was a Godsend .

The moment I got off the plane, everyone started talking to me, welcoming me home, unaware that I’d been raised in America and not here.

I smiled, used my flawless Japanese and admitted that I wasn’t from here, and asked the nearest friendly woman for directions.

The woman was my barnacle for the next twenty minutes as she helped me get to where I needed to go, and we found a man holding a sign with my name written on it.

I smiled and waved, and the woman wished me the best for my stay in Japan for the next few weeks, then left me in the capable hands of my driver.

The driver took me to the hotel, and the entire time I watched the scenery of Okinawa pass in my window.

The hotel was amazing.

The room was amazing.

And the entire city was amazing.

The entire trip, I sent photos of my days to Maven , sharing all the special places with her as I went.

I also managed to stop myself from asking her about Gable , or the jerk, Madman .

I enjoyed myself so much that I decided to stay another week and had Maven text her father-in-law and let him know that I would need more time.

Which he’d agreed to immediately and said he would handle it on his end.

After promising I’d be home in a week, I went back to enjoying my vacation.

But not once in all my exploring did I stop thinking about a certain grumpy Carter .