19. Grant
19
GRANT
Grant
I woke up before Elise but didn’t linger and watch her sleep in like a creep. We kept each other busy all night long, burning up the sheets. While I knew she needed her rest, we had a wedding to catch.
After my run, I’d wake her. I headed out to the beach for my routine run, and when I realized this would be the last morning here, I thought ahead to when I could next run in a tropical setting.
With Elise waiting for me in bed.
She was embedded in my thoughts now, and I didn’t have a problem with that at all.
As far as I knew, weddings didn’t typically happen on Sundays. Reese and her fiancé had explained that they wanted this specific date for some reason, and as I pondered it, I rolled my eyes.
What were they hoping for? That some tangent of numerology or zodiac signs would make their marriage last longer? That they’d have a better romance because the number of the month, date, and year meant some kind of cosmic bullshit?
Superstitions didn’t belong in the realm of romance and love. I was no expert—far from one—but I knew enough that relying on luck or astrology wouldn’t make a difference. According to my limited beliefs, all two people needed to have a lasting and complete relationship was love. That spark. Just like what Derek tried to explain to be about this mystery woman who was changing him so much.
Elise and I didn’t need to roll the dice and cross out fingers for more fortune. We already had it in each other. I planned to sit down and have a talk with her after the ceremony was over. Or I supposed we could hash it out on the flight home.
Better upgrade our seats for more privacy then…
I cooled down with a walk after my run, doing just that, and I frowned at the limited options for flights. Passing the front desk, I caught a glimpse of the TV screens anchored overhead. The tropical storm easing this way was causing more alarm, and I guessed that more people were trying to get off the island.
Hell, if Elise and I got stuck and had to weather it out here, safely, then that would be more time to spend together.
I chuckled, amused at the direction of my thoughts.
It wasn’t like I’d say goodbye to her after this weekend. We worked in the same place. I knew how to get her again. We could have all the time in the world to be together, just like we had over the last six years, just in a new light now, with a sexy, romantic twist as more than boss and assistant.
Elise was already up when I came to the room, and she rolled her hand to prompt me to get ready. “Hurry. We don’t want to be late!”
“I’m never late,” I argued good-naturedly. Because she’d already showered and had her makeup on, I settled for a quick kiss with my sweaty status.
“I think if you and I stay in this room long enough, we could manage to make ourselves late for everything.” She swatted my ass as I walked back, and I grinned, loving her playfulness.
We made it on time, despite both of us checking our phones constantly. Between the weather alerts and push notifications about the storm and the continued checks with our flights, we were glued to the screens on the walk to the ceremony area outside. Flowers stayed on the posts at the rows of chairs on the sand, but the ribbons wrapped around the arbor where Reese and her fiancé would stand billowed and whipped in the increasing wind.
Elise and I took our seats, and we held hands as the ceremony began. Ginny sniffled with happy tears from her seat next to Vince, who beamed so proudly at his daughter getting married to an overall decent guy.
Sitting so close to Elise, it was all too easy to let my mind drift. I wondered and imagined so many what-ifs. Namely, I envisioned that it was us up there. That we would last as a couple past this weekend, through a length of dating, and then a real engagement to result in our getting hitched. I was getting ahead of myself. I was getting my hopes up high.
Once I started on the train of thought, though, the vision in my mind’s eye wouldn’t fade.
She’d stand there with flowers in her hair, smiling at me with those sparkling blue eyes that rivaled the color of the ocean beyond. And she’d hold a bouquet?—
Wait. No. That wasn’t right. A beachy wedding wasn’t her dream. I thought back to her adorable, honest ramble at the museum, when Ginny asked her about our ‘plans’, as though we were really engaged and preparing for our big day.
I turned to stare at her instead of watching the couple exchanging vows. The mere sight of her smiling and so happy warmed my heart. She must have felt the weight of my stare, though, because she tipped her face up and gazed right back at me.
“I’ve had a lot of fun this weekend,” she whispered, respectful of not making too much noise as the ceremony went on.
“Me too,” I whispered back. Far more than I counted on. “It’s not over yet,” I reminded her. This ceremony was happening early, but the reception would follow. Our flight wasn’t until nine o’clock, before the storm would come.
“I heard Ginny mention that the reception might be postponed with the weather. They don’t want to risk anything.”
I nodded. Good. I didn’t care if that made me selfish. I’d have that much more free time with Elise to myself before our flight.
“To think I was so mad about your springing this trip on me the way you did…” She smirked and shook her head.
Now that she said it, I remembered how peeved she’d been before I filled her in on the fake engagement idea. “Why didn’t you want to come? What were you supposed to do with Claudia?”
I’d never minded the meek and quiet woman in the bakery at the ground floor of the Bowen Industries building. I never went out of my way to know her, but in passing, she seemed pleasant. The little I did know about her from what Elise said gave me the impression that she was timid and easily vulnerable as a pushover. For that matter, I applauded Elise for wanting to stand up for her, but no one learned to be strong with a relative being an overprotective mother hen. I tried to be the responsible one between me and Derek, but I’d never tell him how to live.
“I was going to help her move.”
Shit. Now I felt bad. “If she still needs help, I’ll arrange for movers.”
She patted my hand and smiled. “The last time I spoke with her, she said she had it under control.” Her brow furrowed. “But I’m getting a little worried that I can’t reach her.”
“I know what you mean,” I whispered back. I hadn’t talked to Derek yet. “Reception has been hit or miss with this storm coming.”
“I’m glad we’re flying out before it’ll hit.”
I leaned over to kiss the top of her head. As if I’d let her be in the path of danger. Based on the uptick of activity in the resort’s main lobby, it seemed like people would be hurrying to fly off the island.
I understood that we couldn’t linger, but I didn’t want this feeling to end with her. I didn’t want my free time or this fun weekend with her to be over.
I had to tell her, not show her, how I was beginning to seriously fall for her. We had to keep our clothes on long enough to talk it out.
As soon as the wedding is over. If Ginny and Vince called off the party and rescheduled it, Elise and I could bunker in our room until the flight and talk. It was overdue.
“Aww…” Elise stood, and I took my cue from her to get to my feet as well. Reese and her new husband were all smiles as they walked down the aisle. They lifted their joined hands and waved at the guests who’d flown here to witness their day of matrimony.
Behind them over the ocean, a zigzagging streak of lightning cut down from the growing and darkening clouds. Thunder followed, and Reese jumped with a squeal, startled.
“Oh, dammit,” Ginny said from the front row she’d sat in. “I don’t think we can have the reception.”
“Hey.” Elise tugged on my arm. “I think Claudia is trying to call me.” She frowned as she held up her phone that she brought in a small clutch. Pointing off to the side, she hung on to her blonde waves to keep them out of her face with the harsher wind.
I nodded, understanding that she wanted to take the call. “I’ll check in with Vince about the reception. Go on. I’ll find you.”
I cut through the crowd of guests scrambling to get inside.
“What a twist,” I told Vince, squinting at the sky.
“Oh, this just sucks !” Ginny said. “I wanted her to have those flowers for keepsakes.”
“I’ll help, Aunt Ginny,” one of the bridesmaids said.
The women darted out to grab the flowers that were now starting to fray petals and fly down the sand. Vince followed suit, and I jumped in to help him.
“We’ve gotta postpone the reception,” he said.
I nodded, wondering when the skies would open on us. “The radar shows that this isn’t even the worst of what’s to come.”
Vince groaned. “Terrible timing there.” He glanced at me as we gathered the errant flower bunches. “But good timing here with you. I’ve enjoyed seeing you and Elise like this. You’ve shown me what a solid man you are. A balanced man.”
And a liar. Hearing his praise should’ve had me feeling triumphant. But it didn’t matter. Elise did. One day, I’d need to come clean to him. A deal was just a deal. Realizing I’d had the woman of my dreams right in front of me for years was more important.
“Ginny will just have to plan another reception later,” Vince said, chuckling.
“Oh, what a crime,” I quipped.
He laughed as we gathered the flowers tied together. None of the chairs, aisle posts, or arbor had the décor anymore.
“She’ll enjoy it. Two party planning sessions will be her form of heaven.”
I narrowed my eyes at the sand whipping into my face. “I hope everyone managed to get their flights on time.”
“Me too. I heard that many had changed their times for earlier. Ginny and I will leave later, but I think we’ll be all right yet.”
On the thought of the flight, I imagined how good it would feel to talk things out with Elise and let her know where my heart lay. Perhaps I could convince her to stay with me when we land. It would give Claudia time to settle before Elise’s return.
After I helped the Newmans stow the flowers inside, I headed up to my room and smiled at the idea of Elise moving in with me someday.
One thing at a time , I cautioned myself.
I didn’t like how down she got about that nonsense yesterday and the day before, that crap about her not being someone who “belonged” with me. That she could distance herself and think that we couldn’t be a good fit because she was somehow inferior to me. She was perfect for me, and I wanted to assume that she agreed I was a good match with her after the way we made love all night long. A thread of doubt would remain until we had a chance to talk about what happened next. And I couldn’t wait. I wanted to tell her in clear terms how she was the only woman I wanted to have in my life. A serious conversation would dissuade her from any of those worries, and I looked forward to it.
As I opened the door and stepped inside, I saw that the housekeepers had already come through the room. Everything was clean and tidy, the messy bed now made with a towel sculpture of a swan sitting in the middle.
But Elise’s luggage was gone.
“What the hell?”
She wasn’t here. I checked the bathroom and all of the suite. No sign of her lingered.
She was gone.
First things first…
I frowned, realizing I had been pushed back to square one.
Before any plans could form, I had to find her. I had to understand why she felt the urge to run from me when I was impatient to start the rest of my life together.