“I thought you said it had been planned for months?”
Double dammit!
“Well yeah, but…I’m kind of in the keeping my options open frame of mind at the moment. The No Plan Plan. Flying by the seat of my pants. Spontaneity is the spice of life, you know?”
“I thought that was variety,” he countered, mischief sparking in his tantalizing eyes.
“No.”
“Yes. That’s literally the quote. Variety’s the very spice of life. It was written by William Cowper.”
The audacity.
“You know what,” I snapped. “Shut up.”
“Shut up?”
“Yeah. Because how do you think you get variety, Mr. Know-It-All? It comes from spontaneity. Therefore, spontaneity is the origin of variety and hence…furthermore…moreover…without further ado…the spice of life.”
“Fascinating,” he said in a lofty tone, not surprised in the least. “So—you with all your lack of premeditation and me with enough planning for the whole East Coast—we both end up in a totally different state, on the same day, and since your hotel was full, you were forced to stay at my hotel. Where, upon, we both just happened to end up at the bar at the exact same time directly across from each other. And you’re still going to tell me this isn’t fate, right?”
With about as much fervor as I could muster, I grimaced and suggested, “It’s a fluke?” My voice couldn’t hide how far out on the overreaching limb I’d wandered.
Why was I even arguing with him?
I rolled my eyes and found a more confident tone. “There’s such a thing as coincidence, ya know? Outside of Atlanta, Charlotte has the largest conference centers in the Southeast. With the rates being cheapest in the fall, I’m not surprised that there are two large events happening at the same time. Combine that with the fact that last-minute planning is a drug to me, and me not being able to get a room isn’t all that shocking either. But you can carry on believing whatever you like.”
He grinned and damn if that wasn’t sexy.
Unibrow McPleatedKhakis finally jumped in and swung a finger between us. “Do you two know each other?”
“Something like that,” I replied.
Bowen, however, had a slightly more descriptive explanation. He extended a hand toward the man. “Hi. I’m the love of her life. And you are?”
My mouth fell open, and both men looked at me expectantly. Bowen daring me to deny it. Whatever-his-name-was hoping I would.
There was no right answer though. Mainly with regard to Bowen, because I could not have cared less what the other dude thought.
“And on that note, I’m calling it a night,” I announced, grabbing my phone and purse off the bar.
Bowen patted the guy on his shoulder. “Better luck next time. Come on, babe. I’ll walk you to your room.”
“No, you will not,” I snapped, completely ignoring how much I loved that he’d called me babe because my shoes were already sticky and I didn’t have time to melt into a puddle right then and there.
He hit me with another lopsided grin. “Your pink cheeks say otherwise. But okay. Suit yourself. May I at least get my handkerchief back, please?”
I’d forgotten I was still holding it—and wishing he had forgotten too. I slapped it into his hand. “You and your damn hankie, always there to save the day, huh?”
This didn’t just get me a grin. His mouth stretched into a full-blown heart-stopping smile. “Why do you think I carry it? You’re always getting into some kind of mess. It’s come in handy quite a few times over the years.”
My chest got tight and my attitude slipped as a thought dawned on me. “You didn’t carry one before me?”
Right there in the middle of a busy hotel bar, a palpable sadness washed over his entire strong body. “I didn’t have anything before you, Remi. The same way I don’t have anything after you, either.”
My shoulders locked up tight. Every conflicting emotion I possessed dueled inside me for the right to control the situation. None of them were winning. I was just being shredded in the war.
I wanted to hug him.
To kiss his damn face off and go back on every single word I had said to him in that hospital room when I’d decided healing myself meant going at it alone.
I wanted to turn back time and never go for that run at Grove Hill and then never get on the damn plane to begin with.
But if I was being honest with myself, in that moment, I was standing there with a man I had broken, yet was in no condition to fix. Especially when I myself wasn’t even whole. It was exactly why I had left in the first place.
“I’m not trying to hurt you, Bowen.”
He grabbed my hand, resting it over his heart. “You aren’t. This is the best pain I’ve felt in four fucking months.”
God, why did he have to be so sweet?
