Near Misses & Cowboy Kisses by Katrina Emmel EPUB & PDF – eBook Details Online
- Status: Available for Free Download
- Authors: Katrina Emmel
- Language: English
- Genre: YA
- Format: PDF / EPUB
- Size: 13.0 MB
- Price: Free
RILEY
Midwestern air smacks me in the face the minute I step off the plane onto the Jetway. It’s
cooler, damper, and greener than I’m used to. Back home—what used to be home,
anyway—it’s arid and dusty. Trudging up to the gate, I adjust the straps on my
overstuffed backpack. The wisps of hair at the nape of my neck curl in the humidity.
Unlike the continuous chaos of our layover in Las Vegas, Eppley Airfield is quiet.
There’s a reason Nebraska is called a flyover state—you’re not supposed to actually
land here. And yet, here I am. In Nebraska.
The rest of my family snagged a row of seats together in the front of the plane, so
they were able to disembark first. It irritated me to be stuck in the back near the
bathroom, but honestly, I didn’t want to sit with them anyhow. Their extra-chipper
“we’re going to have so much fun” attitude is grating on me.
As if their positivity could
make up for uprooting our lives and transplanting us to the Midwest with hardly any
warning. I was supposed to be sunning myself on Huntington Beach and working some
crap part-time job to save up money for college when I wasn’t volunteering at the
marine nature center or working on my art portfolio. Enjoying my summer before senior
year with friends. Nowhere on the list of activities was “board a plane the day after
school gets out to fly to Nebraska for some ridiculous weeklong family excursion to kill
time while the moving company carts our stuff to our new house.”
Instinctively, I reach for my phone, but what’s the use of switching it out of
airplane mode at this point? Do I really want to read all the wish you were here and
having so much fun messages? Or worse, what if they’ve already forgotten about me?
Not Quinn, of course. Quinn would never forget about me. We’ve been friends
since kindergarten, when we were both put in time-out for lobbing fistfuls of sand at
each other at recess the first day of school. But I think a text from her right now would
only make me sadder.
I spy my parents by a bank of cell phone charging stations that remind me of
library study cubbies. As soon as Mom makes eye contact with me and waves me over to
where they’re standing, she makes a beeline for the restroom. Dad takes a moment to
stretch his legs.
My younger brother, Caleb, hovers nearby, his fingers flying over his
phone. He’ll be a high school freshman in the fall, so the move is less disruptive to his
plans, since he was going to start the year in a new school anyhow. We’re quiet as we shuffle toward baggage claim. The three of them walk together
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