Somee went first and I followed, shamelessly admiring her ass in her jeans. I was a guy with eyes and she was a woman with a body worth using them on.
As soon as we were on board, Rylee came running down the center of the plane with her hands in motion.“Somee, this is like our house. They have two bedrooms and a bathroom.”
She had a big grin, making me appreciate that I’d bypassed the first class seats to fly private.
“Oh that’s exciting,”Somee signed enthusiastically.
“And there are no people. A-N-N-A said we’re the only ones. We get the whole thing to ourselves and she has snacks. Come see,”she signed and grabbed Somee’s hand, dragging her to the back of the plane.
“You have about twenty minutes before you have to be seated for takeoff, Mr. Parks,” Anna said as she approached. She signed the words as she spoke. I wasn’t sure if that was out of habit but I didn’t sign when I responded.
“’Preciate that.”
“If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to ask. By the way, your sister is adorable.”
She left the main cabin and closed us in. I dropped into a seat, removing my phone to check my messages. I had several from multiple people but none I wanted to talk to right now. Theonly reason I didn’t have notifications from my Skroll account was because I’d deleted the app from my phone.
Everything was crazy right now and the last thing I needed was to see someone dragging my name. The clip of a reporter shoving a mic into my face after we’d lost the game because of a bad call was already circulating and Vanessa was not happy about it. I was sure the only reason I was still on her roster was because she was giving me grace considering Rylee.
That was only going to get me so far. I had to figure things out, but for the next couple of days, everything would be on pause. I shot Omiri a text to let him know I would hit him later, once I got my sister and Somee settled.
After the text was sent, I felt a presence and looked up to find Rylee standing in front of me. She pointed to my hat and signed,“I had the Sharks on yesterday when I watched the game.”
I grinned.“I know. I saw the pictures, see.”I held my phone up so she could see the screensaver. I changed it to a picture of her and Somee after the text came through with them. And yeah, I should have just saved Rylee, but fuck it, I wanted Somee’s pretty ass on my screen too. “You had my number on.”
She nodded and signed,“You lost but I still cheered for you. I think it made Somee sad that I cheered for you because she likes the Tigers not the Sharks, but she told me it was okay to cheer for you.”
“I’m glad you did.”
Her nose wrinkled.“But you still lost.”
“Yeah I did.”
“Are you sad that you lost?”
I signed,“A little bit.”
She smiled.“Do you want a hug? Somee gives me hugs when I’m sad and they make me feel better.”
“Yeah, I think a hug would make me feel better.”She smiled widely and took off running, dragging Somee to me before shesigned,“Can you give Ryland a hug? He’s sad because he lost the game.”
Somee delivered a death glare which she paired with a scowl and my smile stretched wider. Her eyes narrowed a little more. I signed,“Her idea, not mine”before I stood and opened my arms.
Somee stepped into my embrace and attempted a quick hug that I extended when I held her longer than necessary. She smelled so damn good and the feel of her fitting perfectly into a spot I was more than willing to hand over ownership for had my mind considering possibilities that shouldn’t have been circulating. Once freed from my embrace, she shot me an evil glare, then signed,“We sit anywhere we want?”
“Yes.”
She nodded and signed to Rylee.“You get to pick. Where are you sitting?”
“Can I sit by the window?”
“You sure can,”Somee signed and motioned across the aisle after I was seated. I watched the two get settled. Rylee by the window and Somee taking the seat next to her. Everything about how she handled Rylee was so caring and attentive. If anyone saw the two together, they would likely assume Rylee was Somee’s child.
No matter how I felt about any of this, I appreciated that my sister had someone who cared about her in my absence.
Not long after Somee and Rylee took their seats, we were alerted to settle in for takeoff. Since the two of them were in their own world, I decided now would be a great time to catch up on some sleep. Spending the night on a bean bag did very little for my neck and back, but the minute I slouched to get cozy, locked my arms over my chest, and my head met the back of the seat, my phone was vibrating.
Under any other circumstances, I would have hit ignore, but with trade talks lingering, I checked to make sure it wasn’t anything I needed to address immediately.