Flight Risk

22 - Twin Lakes Beach Part 1

My dad carried a cooler to the car, which my mom had loaded with far more than Caleb and I would eat in a week. Caleb had a tent under one arm and two camping chairs slung over the opposite shoulder as he and my dad chatted about fishing. Caleb's eyes lit up as my dad mentioned we had gear in the basement.

"You two should give it a shot. Audrey had a knack for it," Pete said.

"Really?" Caleb raised his eyebrow at me and grinned.

Had he always been that adorable? While he'd been subdued first thing this morning, full-energy Caleb had returned with his usual charm and enthusiasm, and my heart loved every second. While he may be selling our couple-act to my parents, it seemed like more.

"Don't get your hopes up," I said as much to myself as him. "It's been a few years since I've gone."

"I'm sure you're sweet as." His accent still got me. From the extra cheekiness in his smile, he must have sensed it.

My mom came through the door with two shopping bags loaded with chips and other snacks I hadn't packed in them earlier.

I laughed. "We're going for a week, not a month."

"Everything's expensive up North. Take advantage of the deals while you can."

I took the heavy bags from her and swung open the rear car door. "Thanks, Mom."

Once we finished loading the remaining gear in the vehicle, Caleb grabbed my travel backpack and insisted on putting it in the trunk for me.

"He's a real gentleman, isn't he?" my mom asked.

The playful way he met my eye and grin had me suspecting he wanted to remind me of our first interactions.

"Wouldn't want you to have a luggage mishap so early in the trip. These bags can be so tricky."

I shook my head but couldn't keep the smile off my lips. It astounded me that a man I'd sat next to on a plane, whose personal bubble I'd popped, stood here with me chatting with my parents like he'd done it for years and prepping for an amazing journey together. Initially, the invitation may have been out of pity, but he sounded excited I was joining him.

As Caleb and Pete headed inside to get the fishing gear, my mom looked at me.

"I quite like Caleb. He's such a nice and respectful man. Sometimes it pays to wait for the right person."

My cheeks warmed, and her words reassured me that whatever this was between us seemed very real. I hoped Caleb's charm and flirting would continue in the car. Despite the stress at the wedding, my heart was ready for a relationship or whatever this turned out to be.

"He is amazing."

My mom smiled in her subdued way, wrinkles crowding the corners of her blue-gray eyes. "I was quite relieved when you broke up with Paul. He never seemed that good to you. Trevor was... I liked him, but when I see you with Caleb. You two have more in common."

That echoed my sentiments. Trevor and I may have fit together, but we were two pieces of different puzzles who'd never created the true image. Caleb and I were from the same box and matched. If even my pessimistic mother saw it, it had to mean something, right?

"We do. It makes everything easier."

Except for telling him I had sincere feelings for him. I should have told him at the wedding when he'd been so close and practically confessing to me (though I still doubted my interpretation of that moment), or on the drive home where my hands had a vice-grip on the wheel, or this morning when I knocked on his door, and he had the most adorable bedhead and dozy expression. It would have been as simple as saying, 'Ready, boyfriend?' and he'd quip a clever reply about 'even after the wedding', and I'd say something charming and flirty about how our relationship was too good to end so soon. It seemed so damned easy in my head but impossible to say in real-time.