Making It Last (Camelot 4)

She said it loudly enough that he listened.

So did everyone else within thirty feet.

Amber took a deep breath and turned toward Jacob and the plant, because she didn’t want to see the curious stares of the strangers waiting for the airport shuttle van, the passengers who were checking in, or the casual clusters of people lounging on lobby furniture with cool drinks in hand. Their vacations were still ripe with possibility. Amber’s was over, and the puking was a pretty solid indicator of how it had gone, overall.

She wasn’t in the mood for her family’s sympathetic monitoring, either. Caleb and Ellen had moved on to their private couples-only honeymoon resort, but the rest of the gang all seemed to be on this shuttle—her parents; her aunt Jamila and Jamila’s latest boyfriend; her sister, Katie, with her new guy, Sean. Other relatives milled about. Too many witnesses.

Her mom was huddled in conversation with Jamila, and the sisters kept looking in Amber’s direction, their foreheads identically concerned. Which wouldn’t normally bother her, except the same concern had been aimed in her direction ever since the two of them had found her on the beach after Caleb and Ellen’s wedding ceremony, crumpled against the trunk of a palm tree, unable to stop crying.

Worse yet, Jamila had decided this morning to cut her Jamaican vacation short in favor of following her sister back to Camelot for a few days, saying she and her boyfriend had been having so much fun visiting with Amber’s mother and the rest of the family that they didn’t want it to end. Which meant Amber would likely be seeing more of those concerned foreheads back home.

Her mother was nosy and pushy. Jamila was well-off and indulgent. The two of them together were a force to be reckoned with, and Amber didn’t have the energy to reckon with anyone.

Jacob drew in a deep, sniffly breath and straightened up.

“You think it’s done?” she asked.

He sniffled loudly. “Yeah.”

“Let’s sit here for a minute to be sure.”

She took a seat on t

he warm tile and patted the ground next to her. Jacob dropped to his butt, legs crossed. He leaned his head against her arm, poking one bony elbow into her stomach. Amber found the bottle of water in her purse and handed it to him. “Rinse out your mouth, okay? It’s bad for your teeth.”

He tipped water into his mouth, swished it around, and spat. Then he swallowed some.

“Not too much,” she warned.

She took the bottle back when he handed it to her, then turned and dumped the remaining contents on the soiled leaves of the plant and the mess Jacob had made in the mulch.

When she looked up, Tony caught her eye from the other side of the lobby, near the shuttle van. He raised his eyebrows.

Amber lifted her hand, fingers spread. Five minutes.

He nodded.

She could count on Tony to keep the shuttle driver’s impatience at bay a little longer. Five minutes of stomach-settling time, and they could all squeeze into the van and spend an hour on bumpy, winding roads getting back to the airport.

If she was lucky, Jacob wouldn’t throw up in her lap, all their flights would be on time, the kids wouldn’t embarrass her on the plane, and she’d have a few minutes between all their demands to read a magazine.

Maybe she could actually sit by Tony and talk to him about something other than the boys. Or the work he needed to do in the coming week. Or how worried he was about his brother Patrick.

Yeah, right.

Amber scanned the lobby again. Clark had disappeared from his bench. She located him with Tony’s fingers wrapped around his elbow, being frog-marched toward the van. She could see from her husband’s expression that Clark had done something worse than just getting up from the bench. Removal to sit in the van alone must have been the best punishment Tony could come up with.

She repressed a sigh, wishing it hadn’t been such a long day already. It was only nine a.m. That left at least fifteen hours before she got to bed.

“Do you have any snacks?” Jacob asked.

“Not yet, okay?”

“I’m hungry.”

“I know. But wait until we get on the shuttle so we can make sure your stomach is settled.”

“What do you have?”