Never Standing Still (The Never Duet #1)(56)
“Calm down, Marky. It’s gonna be a while before we even get on the plane.”
And that’s how the next six hours of my life went.
Marcus was impatient to get to the airport, impatient to get on the plane, impatient for the plane to land, and then impatient to disembark from the plane. Not impatient enough, however, to turn down a tour of the cockpit from the pilots. I smiled watching my little brother look wide-eyed at all the buttons and knobs, laughed along with the flight attendants when he asked if he could talk on their radio, then thanked them for letting him sit in the pilot’s chair. It took an extra ten minutes, but the smile on Marcus’ face as we walked through the airport, him staring down at the wing pin he’d gotten, was well worth the extra time.
“Marcus, buddy!” I heard Riot yell from at least fifty yards away, shouting down the large walkway of the airport once we’d cleared the security checkpoint. Marcus took off, running at full speed toward Riot, and nearly pummeled him when they finally collided. Marcus wrapped his arms around Riot, and Riot hugged him right back. My eyes misted a little at their reunion, and at Riot’s obvious affection for my little brother.
I continued to walk at a normal pace and when I finally reached them, Marcus was pulling away. Riot’s eyes met mine and all of a sudden there were butterflies in my stomach.
“Come here, you,” he said as he pulled me toward him, his hand finding the back of my neck and his mouth coming down to mine. He gave me a slow and sweet kiss, with just the tiniest hint of tongue, which was appropriate with my brother standing next to us, but also just enough to thoroughly wind me up, to leave me wanting more.
His thumb brushed over the side of my neck as I opened my eyes to look in his caramel ones, feeling relieved to be near him again and still feel that perfect connection with him. His hand came down and took my bag from me, then he linked his fingers with mine.
“Do you guys have checked bags?” Riot asked, looking at me.
“Nope. We packed light.”
“Great.” He looked to Marcus. “You ready to have an awesome weekend, buddy?”
“Yeah! Kalli said there was a beach and a sidewalk with people’s names on it and a place with a bunch of Legos.”
“She was right about all of that, and we can see it all if you want.”
“What time is your meeting tomorrow?” I asked, turning to look at Riot, still not really believing that he was right next to me. There were definitely strange qualities of being in a long distance relationship with someone; no matter how many pictures of himself he sent me, or how much time I spent trying to remember what he looked like, I always felt like I forgot him a little bit. The realization was both good and bad. Bad in that I never wanted to forget any part of Riot, ever. But good in a way that I got to see him for the first time all over again, marvel at how handsome he was, reacquaint myself with just how much taller he was than me, and I definitely spent a few moments staring at his t-shirt, which did nothing to hide all the muscles under it.
“Early. Seven a.m. It’s not exactly a meeting, it’s a training session. It’s contracted through the network.”
“They’re making you see a trainer?”
“Yeah. In one of the new episodes there is a shirtless scene, so they hooked me up with a trainer.”
At that point a few thoughts ran through my mind. The first being confusion, because, had they not seen Riot before asking him to see a trainer? He was already in amazing shape. Second thought was just a twinge of jealousy because he would probably be shirtless with a female. The third and biggest thought was excitement.
“They offered you more episodes?”
He squeezed my hand and gave me an award-winning smile, all white teeth and scrumptious lips. “They wrote me into the cast,” he said excitedly.
“What? Riot, why didn’t you tell me? That’s amazing!” I wrapped my arms around him and he picked me up off the floor, his face buried in the crook of my neck.
“I was waiting to see you in person. I wanted to see your face when I told you, wanted to hug you and see you all excited, just like this.”
“I’m so happy for you,” I whispered into the skin of his neck.
“Can we go look at the stars on the sidewalk now?” Marcus asked impatiently from beside us.
“Marky, didn’t you hear what Ri said? He’s going to be on his TV show for a long time! They like him and gave him a big part! Isn’t that exciting?”
Marcus’ eyes went wide and he looked to Riot. “Is your name on one of those stars?”
Riot and I both laughed at his question and he didn’t understand why, so he pouted.
“Ouch, dude, way to bruise my ego,” Riot said, gently slapping Marcus’ back. “Come on, we’ll get you to see all the famous people’s stars.”
We’d spent the entire day doing every silly touristy thing you could think of in LA. We went to see the stars on the sidewalk, found the Hollywood sign in the hills and tried to take pictures of it in the background of our selfies, and we even rode around on a double-decker bus, taking a tour of famous people’s houses. The bus tour was probably more fun for me as Marcus didn’t really know who most of the stars were, but he was pretty impressed with the giant bus, so it was a win for everyone. Plus, it gave me a chance to sit and cuddle a bit with Riot.