The First Flight ❀ COLIFER

Chapter 49 ❀ Epilogue

❀ Do you have a drink and a snack? Is your family in the other room so you can freak out in peace? Are you ready for the final part?

Okay, let's do this... ❀

I stared back at him as he pushed past the other passengers, and every step in my direction seemed less and less real.

Until he was only inches away from me, still holding his phone up to his ear. And he was so real.

"Show you the house?" I asked, too startled to remember that I was still holding my phone as well.

"The house from your dream. It's real, right? That house is really here, in Vancouver?"

His gaze was boring into mine with such intensity that it completely cut off my air supply, but eventually I nodded.

I ended the call on my phone. "Yes, the house is real."

"Okay, so show me."

I didn't understand what he meant, and I was pretty sure I still didn't understand when we walked to his car, neither of saying a word, but one thing was as clear as crystal.

He was supposed to catch his flight in less than an hour. But he was here, with me, and he wanted me to show him the house I dreamed about.

I sat in the driver's seat. My hands were shaking the entire ride, and I was clenching the steering wheel so tightly that my knuckles turned white. I couldn't look at him, let alone ask him why he wanted to see the house, and for some reason I knew he wasn't looking either. The closer we got to the house, the more nervous I became.

Until I knew that he knew where we were going.

And then my heart started racing.

We got to the quieter area of Vancouver, where we passed the little park with the water fountain, the swing set and the slide. I drove past the 24-hour shop, and then it was just a few more blocks until I parked the car in front of the house.

When I turned off the engine, it became so silent that I could hear us breathing. Colin looked out the window, and then at me, and then back out the window.

I couldn't look at him. My hands were still clenching the steering wheel, my knuckles where still white.

"Jen."

I let go of the steering wheel and bit my lip.

"I— I don't get it." His gaze wandered to the front of the house one last time, from the blue gate to the front door, and then he turned his full body towards me.

"That's your house."

It was getting incredibly hard to keep my emotions in check, almost to the point where I felt like I was going to burst into tears.

"Yes," I said.

I got out of the car, not feeling really stable as I walked around the front. My gaze went up, and our eyes locked for the first time since we left the airport; if Colin was a cartoon figure, his eyes would be popping out of his head by now.

I took the lead and opened the blue gate. I walked to the front door, dug my keys out of my bag and let us in. It felt weird to be inside only half an hour after I left the house, thinking I would never come back here, but it felt like I'd been gone for months.

I stopped about halfway down the hallway. Then I turned around, slowly, because there was no point in showing him around.

He knew this house. He just didn't know the whole story.