Of Mountains and Men: A Why Choose Romance

Chapter 31

It feels like a blink of my eyes and we're at the small airport in Paleriver on Friday after work. I'm trying to stay calm, hundreds of thousands of people fly every day. This is only an hour flight, it's not even that long, I've got this.

"Mommy! Look!" Charley points at our plane slowly moving towards its docking spot.

"That's our plane, are you ready for your first trip?"

"Yes! I want to see ocean!" He jumps on top of our carryon bag.

I laugh lifting him off the bag to set back on the seat. "We'll see the ocean tomorrow. It's already to dark." I remind him, "We'll just have dinner in James' apartment tonight."

"The girls?"

"They are with their mothers this weekend." He begins to pout, "But your..." I pause and take a deep breath, I have to get used to saying this, it's still odd. "Your dads will all be there."

"Daddys!" He grins, "I get big bed?"

"I'm not sure, I didn't ask James. I guess we'll find out when we get there."

The stewardess calls us to start boarding, I grab our boarding passes and Charley in one hand. The bag in the other. I'm so flustered, I can't imagine how the guys have been doing this every weekend!

Charley tugs on my hand, "Yes, baby boy?"

"It fine." He smiles up at me.

I grin back down at him, "You're right." I hand the stewardess our boarding passes.

She looks at us adoringly, "Is this your first time flying?"

"Yes." I blush.

"We go see my dads!" Charley says helpfully, making me blush even more.

She glances at me questioningly, "You'll be perfectly safe, make sure to tell the flight attendant she'll have something for your adorable son."

"Thank you." I tell her, stuffing the passes back into my purse.

Charley pulls me down the runaway, too excited to contain himself. I barely manage to keep us at a fast walk, "There's no rush. The plane won't leave without us." I remind him.

As we step onto the plane, I realize I didn't look at the seat numbers, "Charley one second I need to see what seats we're in." I dig back through my purse to find we're in 10 A and B. Easy enough. I point to the window seat for Charley, then stow our bag over the top of us. I let out a deep sigh of relief as I sit down, "Let's buckle you in." I tell him.

He sits down, trying to keep his face pressed as close as possible to the window. "I see airport." He says to me happily.

I let out a quiet laugh, "That's right, we won't be able to see much of the mountains since it's nighttime. Do you know what we will see soon?" He shakes his head. "We'll see all the pretty lights of Seattle."

He bounces in his seat, "Yay!"

"Shh." I tell him, "Do you want to color while we wait to see the lights?"

"No. I watch."

I grin at him, content to sit and watch out the window with him on the short flight.

...

"Look lights!" Charley says.

"Yep, that's Seattle. We're here."

We're both quiet as the plane lands taking in miles and miles of lights from thousands of people living in one area. So different from our couple of hundred in Paleriver. I take deep calming breaths, everything is fine.

It's eight p.m, when we land, and yet still the airport is crowded. James had assured me the number of people isn't much compared to the normal traveling hours. If this is the lessor amount of people, I certainly don't want to travel during the busy hours.

We bump into people as we start following signs towards baggage claim. Charley is practically bouncing along, it's a bit hard to keep ahold of him. I'm sweating from my nerves as we finally see the gates to freedom, and my men.

I see Michael first, grinning at me, as he nudges James and Andrew. "Hello gorgeous." He calls, as Charley breaks free running into James' arms first.

James laughs scooping up a giggle Charley. "How was the flight?"

"Awesome!" Charley says.

Michael bends down to kiss me, taking my bag from me. "Are you alright?"

I narrow my eyes, "I do not like flying. How do you fly everywhere all the time? You're insane."

They laugh, "Let's go to a diner to get you some food."

I snuggle into Michael's chest, "That sounds really nice, I didn't realize I was hungry till you said something."

"Burgers!" Charley squeals from James' arms. We all laugh, and Michael leads us towards the exit to find their suv in the garage.

The city is making me feel claustrophobic, I've never been anywhere so full. I crack my window, Andrew is sitting next to me, he wraps his arm around me pulling me into him.

"Are you alright?" He whispers in my ear.

"I am, just nervous, there's so many cars, and buildings it's a little much." I admit my fears.

"Instead of panicking, think of everything the city can offer that you normally wouldn't find elsewhere."

"Like Indian food?" I peek up at him.

"We can have that tomorrow, I know a place." He winks.

"That sounds good."

I stay snuggled into him, with Charley in the far back ooh and aww all of the lights of restaurants, clubs and who knows what else.

"At least Charley is easy to please." Michael chuckles from the driver's seat.

"That he is." I laugh.