Excerpt: The Last Chance

She wanted to kill him. She hadn't even seen him yet and he was already screwing with her emotions and her schedule. "I should have known better." She berated herself as she started to lug Sammy and their carry ons towards the baggage claim.

"Known better than what?" A voice that she wouldn know anywhere was suddenly beside her. Natalia looked iup to find Ryan walking next to her with a huge smile on his face. Suddenly she didn't know whether to cry or throw her arms around him. She did neither in the end.

"Nothing."

"How was the flight?"

"Well, I had a nine month old baby who didn't understand what was happening to his ears the entire time we were in the air. How do you think the flight was?" She knew that her tone was a little less than friendly but she really didn't care. She was exhausted and frusterated and all she really wanted to do was take a hot shower and go to sleep for a very long time. But Natalia knew that wasn't in the cards for that night. It would take her days to go through the boxes that she had shipped to Florida ahead of her and Sammy and she was not looking forward to rummaging through them every time she needed something. So also didn't want to plan on unpacking everything. She didn't want Ryan to think that the situation was going to be perminant. "You did get all of my boxes, right?"

"All seven hundred of them?" Ryan asked, jokingly. Natalia glared at him as he took the luggage away from her and easily slung it over his shoulder. "Yes, we got all of your boxes. They are waiting in your room for you."

"Wonderful." Of course she sounded a little less than enthused. When they reached the baggage claim she quickly described her luggage to him and together they stood in silence while waiting for the damn thing to start moving. Sammy was finally calming down and on the verge of falling asleep on Natalia's shoulder.

"Do you want me to take him?" Ryan asked after almost ten minutes of no talking.

"No, I'm alright."

"Didn't you bring a stroller?"

"Yes, but I had to check it. They wouldn't let me bring it on the plane with me."

"That's lame." Natalia nodded her response and went back to silently waiting for her bags.