But none of that was why a huge grin split my mouth. Of all the hotels in Charlotte, North Carolina, I was staying at one with a massive indoor garden and my room was going to overlook it. Remi would have no doubt loved it and found pure and utter joy sitting out on the balcony, drinking her coffee each morning. The bittersweet view would probably torture me the whole time I was there, but that was nothing new.
My smile never faltered.
Not thirty minutes earlier, the woman I hadn’t spoken to in months had accidentally called me. It wasn’t the wholehearted, open-arms reunion I’d been hoping for, but it was something. At the very least, it felt like a sign. Some greater force was out there, bringing us together even when we couldn’t do it ourselves.
There’d been so many nights when I’d lain in bed, wondering if holding on to Remi was the right thing to do. Maybe I was focusing on the wrong side of the equation. Sure, fate had brought her back to me time and time again, but it had also taken her from me just as often.
Doubt was the hardest part, because never in my life had I been as sure about anything as I was that Remi and I belonged together.
But what if she could have been happier with someone else?
Someone she didn’t share such a dark and twisted journey with?
Someone who knew nothing about her past but adored her for the woman she had become?
Then there were days like that one when the universe spoke, loud and clear, through Siri and unexpected upgrades to garden view rooms.
“Garden view is perfect,” I told Emily, opening my credentials.
She grinned up at me with red-rimmed eyes. “Good. But in an even bigger gift for you, I made sure Oscar will be on the opposite end of the hotel. Are you sure you don’t need a travel companion? An assistant? I could come and run interference with Oscar for you?” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I could go for a long, hot soak in a jacuzzi tub right about now.”
“Oh, ummm…” I immediately took a step away, crossing my arms over my chest. “I’m not sure that would be appropriate.”
Her eyes grew wide and she blushed. “Oh, God.” She slapped her hand over her mouth, mumbling around it to say, “I didn’t mean your jacuzzi tub. I just meant…” With a low groan, she lowered her hand. “You know what? Just fire me already. Put me out of my misery before I have the chance to say or do anything else stupid.”
I twisted my lips. “I’m not firing you.”
“You should strongly consider it.”
“But then who would get me free garden view upgrades?”
She slanted her head. “Shit. Did you think it was free?”
I blinked at her several times.
She lifted her hands in surrender. “Just kidding. It’s totally free.”
I wiped the nonexistent sweat from my brow as she giggled.
After the day I’d had, I’d surely end up with whiplash. Remi calling and not answering. The texting. The flirting. The cutting it way too fucking short to keep my word to the woman I craved more than my next meal.
But along with the high of our encounter came a semblance of peace. If I believed in fate, then I was going all in and trusting it would do its job.
Two days later…
“No, Tyson. It’s the little blue bottle above the stove.” I lifted a finger to Oscar, who was walking beside me, bitching my ear off about the quality of the hotel’s muffins.
The muffins served at the free continental breakfast, where there were at least a dozen other options for him to choose from.
We had been quite literally having this conversation for eight hours. Not the whole time, of course. It had started when he’d offered me a banana nut muffin at breakfast, claiming it tasted rancid. And if that sales pitch wasn’t enough for me to say no, it was a freaking banana nut muffin. Had I known he was going to spend the entire day, finding me between lectures, to continue his bitchfest, I would have eaten the whole damn pastry just to spare myself the torture of listening to it all day. Anaphylaxis had to have been better than that shit.
“Do you want to grab dinner?” Oscar asked, clearly seeing I was still on the phone and not giving the first damn if he was interrupting.
I tilted my cell away from my mouth and gave him my attention. “Sorry. I can’t tonight. Clyde isn’t feeling well. I need to help my brother locate all his meds and set him up for the evening. I’ll probably grab something quick to-go and then head back up to the room for the night.”
“Okay, then. See you in the morning for breakfast?”
