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Settling into her own seat, Steph couldn’t help but be charesture It had cost her dad a pretty penny to get the three of therade was a reminder of the lifestyle they had once enjoyed As Jerry sat down next to his daughter, she leaned in, ready to pry out some details

“Okay, spill You have to tell uy, Dad Just one tiny little detail!”

Jerry shook his head, casting a glance at Elora, as accepting a glass of mimosa while she perused the ht Her expression was one of pure bliss Steph realized that her ainst theh she had never once co that the rest of the family did, too

“Not a word fro with tradition I’d never hear the end of it”

“Co Look!”

Elora had her headphones on and what looked like a roled under a plush blanket and sipped on her

“I’ to marry this man, Dad Don’t you think I deserve to know about hi! Throw me a bone here!”

Jerry considered her request, pursing his lips as he stroked his cleanly shaven chin “All right,” he said, turning to her in a conspiratorial way “He’s the kind of man ould put your whole family in first class on the way to meet him Doesn’t that speak volumes about his character?”

“I guess,” Steph et anyday

Pulling up her own blanket and pointedly ignoring her father, Steph snuggled in and picked a very longseveral of them on the way to her new home country

That was, if she could really stomach the possibility of aited on the other side

Many hours later, the pilot ca in El Farah in twenty , and watching movies, as Steph had opted tosole woman

By the end of the week she would beco to her mother, that took precedence over her relationship with anyone else besides any children she nore how old fashioned that sounded as she fought to savor every little bit of her time with her parents As the ocean came to an end, an arid desert landscape, laced with pal pieces of oasis, ca cities dotted the scene, but the country seemed to be comprised mostly of beaches and desert

Steph watched with curiosity as her mother’s homeland ca co The plane approached the runway, landing gently as it touched the ground, sealing Steph’s fate

There would be no turning back now She was in El Farah, possibly forever She felt a sudden wave of homesickness wash over her, and she silently chastised herself How many times over the years had she wished for an opportunity like this? To get away from her small Ver hoood, she re subsided

Being in first class, the O’Hanlons were a the first off the plane They quicklyout into the hot, desert air

Steph lost her breath in the dry heat, which was scorching co by her town’s lake, basking in the gentle Northeastern sun, not being beaten down by this harsh desert one Her father hailed a cab, and before she knew it, Steph was speeding along toward their hotel, staring out theat this foreign land that shouldn’t have been foreign

Steph should have traveled more Her father had certainly had the er, but what he’d lacked was the tiht, and there was never a good tih to take one, all she could afford was a road trip with soh school friends down the East Coast, which wasn’t exactly as exciting as she’d thought it would be