Ari wiped away her tear. “I miss them.”
Then, her phone went off. She began jumping up and down. “It’s from Grace! It’s from Grace!”
“Read it to me!”
Ari smiled. “Hey, Mama, please tell me you are still coming home tomorrow. Oh my gosh, Aunt Ellie took us to the mall. Mom, it was awful. Did you know she hates shopping? Who hates shopping? I miss your good-night stories, Mama, and Daddy’s good-night hugs. I can’t wait to see y’all.”
Ari started crying as she dropped her arms to her sides and looked at me. “They still love us!”
I let out a chuckle and pulled her into a hug. “I told you, baby. I told you.”
Ari’s knee was bouncing a mile a minute as we drove to the airport. “He’s gonna make us miss our plane,” she hissed through her teeth.
“We have plenty of time, Ari. Stop worrying.”
She let out a sigh. “Um…are we close to the airport, sir?”
Right after she asked, the cab driver turned the corner, and right in front of us was the airport.
I grabbed her hand and kissed it. “We’ll be home in a few hours, baby.”
She smiled weakly. “I just want to see the kids.”
“I know. Me, too. Grace will be happy that we have three new horses heading our way.”
Ari chuckled. “Yeah, she will.”
After getting our luggage out of the taxi we headed into the airport and checked in our luggage before making our way to the gate.
It didn’t take long before we were sitting in our seats, and the plane was taking off for Austin. Ari fell asleep, and she slept during the whole flight while I worked on my computer. Every now and then, I would look over at my sleeping beauty and smile. I silently said a prayer and thanked God for the blessings in my life.
Ari must have been exhausted because she was still asleep when the plane landed.
I gently nudged her shoulder and kissed her cheek. “Baby, we landed.”
She sprang up and quickly took off her seat belt. “It’s about time. What a long flight!”
I looked at her like she was insane. “How would you know? You slept the whole time.”
She rolled her eyes and pushed me out into the aisle. I reached up into the overhead bin, pulled out her carry-on, and handed it to her. I was pretty sure she was about to push the older couple in front of us out of the way if they didn’t speed it up.
After exiting the plane, I laughed as I tried to keep up with her as she practically ran to baggage claim.
She turned and said, “You get the truck. I’ll get the luggage and meet you out front.”
I kissed her on the cheek. “Yes, ma’am. Text the kids and let them know that we will be there in a couple of hours.”
She clapped her hands and did a little hop.
I made my way to the truck and then headed to the pick-up curb in front of the baggage claim doors. Ari was already standing there, talking on the phone to someone. I couldn’t help but smile as I saw the huge grin on her face.
She must be talking to the kids.
I jumped out of the truck and grabbed the suitcases. I put them in the bed of the truck as Ari went on and on about how proud she was of Luke. My heart soared when she told me that Luke had hit two home runs.
I held the door open for my beautiful bride as she hopped up into the truck. I ran around and got into the driver’s seat. Then, we headed off toward Mason. The closer we got, the more excited Ari and I got.
“Next time, I say two days. I think two days is about all I can take being away from the kids.”