by Keelan Storm
Isabel knew the sun’s presence meant they’d have to leave soon, break the happy reverie their special stretch of the shore had created for them that night, but it wasn’t so disheartening for her to think about it now.
She knew she had a lot of hurt left to go through, that her heart and Tucker’s would need time to heal, but now that she knew she had him, that he was still hers and always would be, she knew they could make it through.
Keep reading for a sneak peek.
SURVIVING FATE
Second Book in the Tied by Fate Series
1
Airport Reunion
“Attention, passengers, we will be arriving at our destination in approximately forty-five minutes, bringing us to the Houston airport about twenty minutes behind schedule. We apologize for the late arrival time, but please sit back and enjoy the remainder of the flight,” came one of the flight attendant’s voices over the speakers in the plane, followed by several very distinct groans from more than just a few of the passengers, Jet included.
Nic scowled and pushed his ear buds back into his ears. Jet shrugged and stretched as tall as possible in the limited space, pulling his arms above his head and extending his legs out as far as he could until they hit the bottom of the seat in front of him.
“An extra twenty minutes,” Jet thought sardonically as he relaxed his still tight muscles as much as was possible and leaned back into the seat, “Great”.
The flight back from Greece to Texas had been long and uncomfortable after his emotionally exhaustive week in the country where his parents had grown up and then left more than twenty years ago.
A country in which Jet had never been to before or even known much about until a week ago at dinner, when his parents let him and his younger siblings know about the unexpected phone call they’d received. A phone call that had thrown Jet’s world for a bit of a loop, rearranging his plans for his senior year spring break into a surprise trip to Greece where he and his siblings would both be meeting and saying their permanent goodbyes to their father’s mother, their grandmother, who was apparently on her deathbed.
When told about the trip that essentially cut off all of his plans for the week, he had been a little disappointed. This was his last spring break of his required school years, after all, but more than anything, he had been surprised. Up until that awkward dinner conversation with their parents, he and his siblings hadn’t even been aware they had family to go visit over in Greece.
Their parents never spoke about anyone over there, and they didn’t keep any Greek traditions in their home as far as Jet was aware. Everything about his home seemed to be completely Americanized, except for the slight accents that still hid and sometimes surfaced in his parents’ speech when they were tired or angry.
So he had never even thought of asking about it before. He had always assumed that if there was any family to know about, his parents would have shared that bit of information before Grandma Aggie was on her deathbed.
Why not? Why shouldn’t he have expected that of them? They had told him and his siblings about their relatives over in London, his cousin, uncle, and aunt, the last of which he had never had the chance to meet. Sadly, Aunt Sophia had been in a horrific car accident a few years ago, and a badly timed case of strep throat that ran through the household prevented them from attending that particular funeral.
When Jet had gotten the chance to ask his dad why he had never mentioned their grandparents before, Stefano had just shaken his head wearily and said, “I don’t know, son. I guess I just thought it was easier not to talk about them because I never thought you’d get the chance to meet them. I was very surprised to get the call about my mother this morning.”
“Why?” he had asked. “I mean, why didn’t you stay in touch with them? Did they not want you to go to America or something?”
“That was part of it.”
“What else?”
“The distance had a lot to do with it.”
“But you stayed in touch with Uncle Dimitris, and he lives in Europe. Distance didn’t affect that.”
Stefano’s expression had grown tense at this point in the conversation, his jaw hard and his mouth set. Jet knew he was beginning to push too much on the topic. His dad was upset about his mother, after all, and normally he would have backed off before now. He was typically pretty good about reading people, but he really wanted to understand.
“I can’t explain everything, Jet, but I do know that I am grateful now that you will get the chance to meet my parents, and your uncle and cousin, too. I did tell you about them because Dimitris and I did mean for you and your cousin to meet one day. I hope you two get along. He’s the only other part of our family in your generation,” Stefano had finally responded. “Now go finish packing please. We have an early flight tomorrow.”
“Trash?” Jet heard someone ask then, breaking into his thoughts.
He looked up to see a busty, blonde flight attendant wearing too much makeup holding out a black trash bag. She was looking at him expectantly with kind, gray eyes that only barely hid her exhaustion.
“Um,” he replied, taking a quick look around the space where he was squished between his completely unresponsive little brother, who had conked out a few hours before, and his older cousin that had been lying back with earbuds plugged into his ears for pretty much the entire trip, making the option of conversation fairly obsolete.
He was about to tell her no, but then he remembered that Chris had stuffed a granola bar wrapper into the pocket of the seat in front of him. “Yeah, thanks,” Jet said to the woman after grabbing the wrapper and tossing it into the bag. She smiled and moved to the next row of seats where his parents and sister sat.
He watched his dad toss a few cups into the bag and then looked down at his watch. It was now four-thirty central-standard time. A whole fifteen minutes had passed since the flight attendant’s last update.
He groaned inwardly, wishing that the next half hour would pass quickly so he could be off this plane, standing, walking around, and using his tense, tired muscles. About thirty seconds passed before he sighed in impatience, and then he had to laugh because his actions were so like Annie’s, except she would be well past irritated by this point in the flight.
“What’s going on with you?” Nic asked from next to him, pulling his earbuds from his ears.
“Nothing, why?”
“Do you always laugh at nothing?”
“Sometimes…but no,” he continued when Nic gave him an odd look. “Actually, I was just laughing at myself for acting so much like Annie. This trip would have driven her crazy. She has practically zero patience.”
“Oh,” Nic replied as his brow crumpled, his curiously troubled eyes becoming distant as though in momentary thought before he responded. “That’s right. Anna’s your girlfriend, right?”
“Annie,” Jet corrected.
“Mmmm,” Nic nodded, and his expression went back to its steady state of irritated nonchalance. “Right. She’s your girlfriend, isn’t she?”
Jet ignored the look. He was learning fast that Nic wasn’t one for sharing what was on his mind. “Yeah. Going on five years now.”
“That’s…unusual. You were how old when you started dating? Thirteen? That’s kind of young, isn’t it?”
“Naw. Not for us anyway. We’ve been friends for as long as I can remember. Izzy and Tucker, too.”
“You have a friend named Izzy?”
“Yeah, well Isabel actually, but everyone calls her Izzy. Just like everyone calls Annie Annie instead of Annabel.”
“So they’re twins or something?”
“Yeah, identical. I thought I told you that.”
“Probably. There’s been a lot to absorb this week.” He said this as though it were the most acceptable excuse one could provide.
“I’ll give you that one,” Jet agreed, having previously decided to give his cousin the benefit of the doubt. It had been a crazy
week. “So have you thought about how long you’re gonna stay?”
“I don’t know. A few weeks I suppose. I wasn’t even planning on coming really until my dad suggested it. ‘Get away for a while. Get to know your cousins. See America’ he said.”
“You make it sound like a bad thing.”
“Not a bad thing. Just annoying. Not meeting all of you or coming to America,” he added when he noticed the look on Jet’s face. “What was annoying was how persistent my dad was about it. Uncle Stefano, too. It didn’t start until after that day we were in with our grandmum. You know.”
Jet nodded. That cryptic conversation had taken place the last day their grandmother was conscious, before she slipped into her near two-day coma and passed away peacefully in her sleep.
Well, Nic might find it annoying that their dads were trying to fulfill their last promise to their dying mother, but the request made perfect sense to him, and he intended to make the effort, even if Nic didn’t seem so enthused.
* * *
Annie cursed under her breath, slamming on the brakes of the Thanos’ minivan in the middle of the parking lot to avoid being backed into by a hasty driver of a large, diesel truck. She honked to show her frustration, even though the danger of collision had already passed, the truck already speeding forward down the row in front of her.
“At least now I can park,” she thought, thinking of the one positive the near accident had brought her as she pulled into the vacant space the diesel had left behind.
She had wanted to get here a little early, just in case Jet’s plane was ahead of schedule, but thanks to her lack of consideration for the overwhelming amount of traffic she’d find in Houston, she was now in danger of making the whole Thanos family wait on her.
“Of all the days to have an Izzy moment,” she thought in aggravation as she jumped out of the minivan, locked the doors, and stuffed the keys into the pocket of her shorts along with her cell phone. She felt her other back pocket to make sure her cash and ID were still there, and after feeling the crumpled wad next to the small rectangular piece of plastic, she dashed across the parking lot to the airport entrance.
She hadn’t seen Jet since last Sunday when she’d dragged herself out of bed at the ungodly hour of five in the morning to run next door and give Jet a goodbye hug and kiss. She had known it would suck to spend nearly her entire spring break without seeing him, but the five-day separation had just about driven her crazy.
Izzy and Tucker had humored her restless, irritable behavior and Jet obsessed conversations for the first few days, but by Wednesday evening, they had basically refused to do anything with her, claiming they’d already made date plans for that night and the next and vehemently expressing they didn’t want her to tag along.
That was fine. She could take a hint. She went down to the beach instead, hung out with other friends there. Besides, this gave her the chance to wear her new yellow and orange bikini instead of the solid red, one piece she was required to wear on duty now that her lifeguarding duties had started up again.
Once inside, Annie found the board that showed flight arrival times and felt a combination of aggravation and relief flow through her. Jet’s flight was late, which meant they hadn’t had to wait on her, but still, she’d have to wait that much longer to see him.
She looked up which baggage claim that particular flight’s bags would be sent to and began making her way down the corridors. Even though she walked at a deliberately slow pace, she reached the benches placed around the edges of the baggage claim area before she knew it. She sighed and took a seat, her foot already starting to tap with her impatience.
She distracted herself as best she could, reading all of the signs around the people packed area, counting the number of stitches along the toe of her left tennis shoe, comparing it to the number on the right, (the same). She spent a minute people watching a funny looking man in flaming red, skin tight, leather pants and a white designer looking shirt that was practically plastered to his upper body. She’d even resorted to tapping her ever fidgeting foot in time with the second hand of her watch before she couldn’t stand it anymore.
It had only been twelve minutes, and she was already out of things to do. She bit down on her lip and started to wish that Jet had had to wait on her after all. Anything would have been better than this torture, though you’d think she’d be used to it, growing up with Izzy and all.
“Izzy!” she thought excitedly, pulling her phone from her pocket. Surely, she could spare a few moments during her babysitting to talk. Annie swiped her fingers over her password and found Izzy’s picture to start the call, holding it up to her ear. It rang once…twice…three times. She bit down harder on her lower lip. Four times…
“I wondered how long it would take you to call,” her sister’s voice stated upon answering.
“Funny,” Annie replied.
“I take it Jet’s not there yet.”
“No. His plane’s running late.”
“Mmm. TYLER! DON’T YOU DARE!” she heard Izzy yell at their now eight-year-old brother.
“What’s he doing?”
“He found a toad earlier, and he’s been telling Chelsea and Victoria he’s going to throw it down their shirts. Of course the girls freaked so he’s not letting it go. He was sneaking up behind Victoria just now. He’s so bored without Chris here.”
Annie grinned as she thought about how Tucker’s seven and nine-year-old sisters, Chelsea and Victoria, would have reacted if Tyler had succeeded. “Wow, he’s so much like Tucker sometimes it scares me.” Their brother even had sandy blonde hair, though it was slightly darker and he wore his short while Tucker’s was a casual disarray of tousled strands that fell across his tanned forehead.
“So there’s hope for him yet?” Izzy teased. “Although, I guess I am a little biased.”
“Maybe a little. But seriously, do you remember when Tucker used to do crap like that to us?”
Izzy groaned over the phone, and Annie knew by the tone of it there was a smile on her sister’s face as she remembered. “Yes. To think I’m going to end up married to the guy who chased me with lizard tails and made a toad pee all over my bathing suit.”
“Yeah, but you love him.”
“Head over heels. TYLER! Crap. Annie, I’ve got to go.” The call went dead as Izzy hung up, but not before Annie heard a shriek and a loud “EW” followed by her little brother’s laughter.
She laughed slightly as she stuffed the phone back into her pocket. “At least it’s Izzy handling it, and not me,” she thought to herself, temporarily distracted from the time.
Izzy had so much more patience with kids and had been babysitting their younger siblings for several years now. She loved the gig, even if the rest of them didn’t really get the appeal. They had all worked at the beach since they’d turned sixteen, she and Tucker lifeguarding, and Jet at the beach rental shop, Waves.
But in Izzy’s defense, she didn’t get the nice, deep tan like Annie or the guys, sun burning way easier than most. While her best friends got gorgeous, tanned skin, Jet’s even darker since his had a natural tint in the first place, Izzy pretty much stayed creamy white, rubbing on gobs of high SPF sunscreen whenever under the sun’s rays for any length of time.
Annie felt kind of bad for her twin about this, but it didn’t seem to bother her as much anymore since Tucker had expressed his taste for Izzy’s extreme paleness last summer when they’d started dating and he’d finally realized he was in love with his best friend, putting an immediate halt to his very available and datable hunk status. The hunk part was still true, but the whole dating a different girl every weekend thing was finished. Now, he only had eyes for Izzy.
That had taken Annie some time to adjust to; stepping aside had been hard.
She looked down at her watch and felt her stomach flip. Jet should be here any minute. She couldn’t wait to feel his sturdy arms wrap around her and bury her head into his neck…
As if to confirm her thoughts, the board above the belt to her left lit up, and the flight number scrolled across the screen. She stood up, no longer able to sit, and started pacing, her emerald green eyes eagerly scanning the crowd, searching for the well-built five-foot ten-inch robust frame of her boyfriend.
The throngs of tightly knit people coming through the gate made it hard to see at first, but eventually the crowd began to thin so that she could see a wonderfully familiar head with soft, black curls grown just enough to rest against the top of his forehead.
“Jet!” she cried out, finding his vivid, ocean blue eyes and racing toward him, her long, chestnut ponytail flying out behind her as she closed the distance between herself and the man she loved, her forever.
Jet smiled widely and shared a quick look with his rather startled cousin next to him. “Told you she was impatient,” he bragged before taking the few strides that brought him to Annie as she jumped into his arms.
He wrapped his arms around her slighter, muscularly toned body, spinning her around a few times as she buried her head into his neck. He held his head against hers and breathed in her exhilarating scent of fresh air and apples. When he set her down, he didn’t let go, embracing her tighter.
“I missed you so much, babe,” she breathed into him.
“I missed you, too.”
“I’m glad you’re back.”
“Me, too,” he replied, finally easing his hold on her so he could look at the beautiful girl he hadn’t been able to see for days, appreciating her simple jeans and tank top look that matched her so well: fast paced, raring to go, and ready for just about anything.
“Wow, you look beautiful,” he commented, taking in the sun kissed bronze of her skin the past week had given her, her eyes shining with excitement.
“Thanks, you’re not so bad yourself,” she replied, appreciating the relaxed happiness that often radiated from him that she’d had to do without for too long.
“Hi, Annie dear,” Helen said from behind Jet.
Annie looked up past Jet for the first time to see his family gathered around, all looking weary and stiff from the plane.
