To my surprise, when we got to the airport and purchased our tickets, we found all the other teams seated at the terminal, still waiting and looking not too happy about it.
"Good," Brodie said under his breath. "We're caught up."
We couldn't really be caught up if nothing had happened yet. Something wasn't quite right. I watched as Brodie bee-lined for Tesla and Liam, and then proceeded to greet and smile at everyone else. He jumped right into the throng of people, clearly forgetting about his little sister, who wasn't quite as extroverted as him.
I hung on the fringes of the group, then glanced around, deciding to get answers on my own. Another person was hanging back from the boisterous group - Abby. Dean’s wife and the woman from Endurance Island. Luckily for me, she was the only person I was even halfway interested in chatting with. I headed toward her. "Hey. What happened? Why's everyone still here?"
She smiled over at me and waved a hand at the empty flight attendant stand in front of the rows of seats. "Air Iceland doesn't fly out until the morning, and we all hit Reykjavik at the same time. From there, the charter flights are staggered, but it looks like we're starting this race all grouped together." She shrugged and stuck out her hand. "It'll give us a good chance to get to know each other. I'm Abby."
"I know," I said with a grin. "I saw you on Endurance Island last year."
She groaned. "You probably saw way too much of me, then. I swear, I'm never going to live that down." She thumbed a gesture at her spouse a short distance away. "That's Dean, though I guess that was easy to figure out."
"I do. I'm Katy." I pointed at my brother, who was shaking hands with the black-dressed duo. "That's my brother, Brodie."
"Ah, the brother-sister team." She nodded, as if this answered some things for her.
"That's us."
She glanced over at me. "Not sure why we're sharing names. We're practically tattooed with them." She gestured at the bold ABBY written across the chest of her shirt. "They think viewers won't remember who's who unless they brand us."
I chuckled at that. Abby didn't seem dazzled by all of this, and I liked that about her. "We can at least try and be normal about it.” I studied her. "I'm kind of surprised to see you and Dean here. I thought after watching Endurance Island that you guys were done with this sort of thing."
She sighed, as if suffering. "I thought so, too. But we do strange things for love." Her gaze warmed and she watched Dean's back with affection. "It's not so bad, though. At least in this, no one can backstab us out of the game." As a cameraman circled close, she grimaced. "Though I can't say I missed that aspect of things much."
I didn’t blame her. It was getting a little weird for me, too. I carefully stepped aside as a cameraman zoomed past and headed for Liam, Brodie and Tesla. I guessed they were more exciting than we were. "You're old hat at this sort of thing. Any advice for me?"
Abby tilted her head, thinking. After a moment, she gave a calculating grin and leaned in. "Make good TV."
"Good TV?"
"Yep," she said, and flipped one of my perky pigtails. I flushed at that - she must have guessed that it hadn't been my hairdo of choice. "Make good TV," she repeated again. "Dean doesn't believe me, but I know I'm right. You make good TV and the producers will tweak things to go in your favor so you last longer. Not all of the challenges are random."
Interesting. As we stood there, I heard Brodie burst out into a wild laugh, and it was joined by Tesla's flirty one. I glanced over at them and they seemed to be having a grand old time. Well, except for Liam, who was ignoring my brother as Brodie proceeded to make a fool of himself all over Tesla. Liam stared out the window onto the tarmac, his fingers drumming a beat on the bag across his lap, as if he were writing a song.
"Looks like your brother's already decided he wants to make good TV," Abby commented. "Unless he's wrangling for an alliance with them."
I snorted. "He's more likely trying to get her phone number." Though I did frown a little in Brodie's direction as Tesla flipped her red and black hair and giggled at whatever my brother was saying. We were not about to ally with those two. Not when the guitar-playing jerk had knocked me to the ground and stolen my number. Forget that. I glanced back at Abby. "I don't want to ally with them."
"Well," she told me in a low voice. "You look harmless and you’re not hamming it up for the camera, so you’re on my good side. We could always have a private alliance just between us two. Help each other out if we get the chance and all." She raised a pinky in my direction.