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“You could refresh my memory,” he teased softly, smiling at her.
“Warthog,” she muttered, raising an eyebrow. “A warthog, okay?”
He laughed easily, taking another sip, and then smiled knowingly at her, reaching for her hand, lacing their fingers together, and setting it on his knee.
“Warthogs are my favorite.”
“They would be,” she muttered – and chanced a glance at him as she took a sip of her glass, only to still see him smiling at her. She felt the corners of her lips turn upwards, smirking… and heard him call for the flight attendant again.
“Miss?” Austin began easily. “Could we have another glass of champagne?”
“Certainly, sir.”
“Austin…” Giselle began, feeling her pulse become thready, wondering what was going through his mind as he just continued speaking, like all of this was nothing.
“We are celebrating,” he told the flight attendant easily, not even looking at Giselle as he held her hand in his. “This is going to be an incredible trip.”
“Congratulations, sir.”
“Thank you.”
“What are you celebrating? An anniversary?”
“Warthogs,” he said casually – and Giselle choked on her champagne as everyone around them started laughing again. “My girl adores her warthog right down to her pretty fingertips, and that’s definitely worth celebrating.”
“I see,” the flight attendant laughed easily, shaking her head, as Giselle tried to catch her breath, staring at Austin like he was insane. He was sitting there, grinning, and released her hand, moving to rub her back, patting it gently.
“Are you okay, babe? Getting all choked up?”
“You are something…” she gasped, still laughing painfully as she looked at him sitting there beside her.
“Don’t get so freaked out about the word,” he whispered, smiling at her. “Someday you’ll want that ‘W’ word used around you…”
Her eyes met his as he continued.
“… And that warthog might be excited to be a part of this crazy world. You just never know about those strange animals. They do all sorts of weird things, and they are completely unpredictable creatures.”
“I guess so,” she managed to strangle out as the flight attendant brought them both another glass of champagne. He handed her one and continued to rub her back between her shoulder blades gently.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
“A toast,” he said softly, smiling at her. “To warthogs, wonderful women, waffles, wizards, wives, and all those other beautiful ‘W’ words in our vocabulary.”
There was something in his voice that touched her as she realized he wasn’t teasing her, taunting, or playing around. He was simply testing the waters, and she was fully aware of it.
Holding the glass, she ignored the pale alcohol that was sloshing against the glass as he wrapped his arm around hers in the sweetest way, like a groom making a toast at a wedding.
… Another ‘W’,her brain said, seizing on it as she met his eyes.
“To the future - and words that begin with ‘W’… like wondrous,” he murmured, taking a sip and she nodded, almost afraid to speak as it might break the spell.
“To wondrous things, Austin,” she breathed, basking in his smile, and took a sip as well.
* * *
A couple of hours later,they were watching Tangled together with the headphones on and she was leaning against Austin’s shoulder, feeling awfully languid after the champagne – only to nod off during her favorite movie.
