Chapter 26
CHAPTER 26
ARLAND
W hile Mariam was in Gatlinburg, I kept myself busy with work. There was more than enough of it. I mostly managed to keep occupied, but I still missed her a lot more than I’d thought I would.
After all these years of being alone, I’d thought I was past the point where it could bother me. It had been at least a decade since I’d even noticed it, but the last couple days, my big house had felt emptier than ever.
I lay in my bed, watching the snow fall outside and wondering why I was feeling her absence so palpably. Mariam hadn’t even spent that much time at my place. It wasn’t like she’d moved in here or had spent every night before she’d left in my bed.
She’d only ever slept over here a handful of times, but that didn’t seem to change the fact that the house felt so damn empty without her in it—as did the resort and even the town. I sighed, knowing I needed to get up and start the day at some point, but my motivation to do so was severely lacking today.
In the weak early morning light, all I wanted was to roll over and go back to sleep. Preferably with her in my arms. It was much too easy to imagine doing that, not only this morning but every morning for the rest of my life.
I had sworn up and down that I would never trust another woman, but Mariam had made that too easy as well. Everything with her was easy and I was coming to realize that was why I felt so drawn to her. Our relationship was effortless, the bond we were developing as natural as breathing.
There was no strain. No awkward push and pull. No drama and no pretense or performances necessary.
She’d come to mean a great deal to me as a result. Too much, under the circumstances. There was a deep, dark part of my brain that kept insisting it was too easy . Too natural . That somehow, I was falling into a trap and that I had to resist.
If she had been anyone else, I might’ve been inclined to follow the advice of that part of my mind. It had been a hard-won lesson in the past, after all. So many people had warned me not to trust Lisa, and after what she’d done, I’d simply decided it was much less complicated not to trust anyone.
Until Mariam.
With her so far, it had been like I didn’t even have a choice. She’d crashed into my life that night at the bar, and almost immediately, she’d gotten under my skin.
My phone rang and I blinked hard, surprised when I realized I’d gotten so lost in thought that I’d even forgotten it was morning. Groaning, I checked my phone but let it go to voicemail.
It was one of the vendors for the opening though, which meant it really was time to get to work. I forced my butt out of bed and hit an ice-cold shower, willing myself to stop thinking about her, but it didn’t work. The girl had caught me in some kind of spell, and no matter what I did, she was never far from my mind.
Thankfully, I’d become rather used to having to go about my day with her on my mind, and when I got to Everwood, I was able to hit the ground running. After a full and ultimately productive day, I met up with Gregory for a guys’ night.
It was just the two of us this evening though, and I was grateful for that. I enjoyed our nights with the other guys just as much, but sometimes, it was great just to be able to touch base with Greg. He grinned at me as he handed over the beer he had waiting.
“What’s on your mind?” he asked with a knowing look in his eyes. “Let me guess. It’s a certain twenty-something you haven’t been able to stop thinking about?”
I laughed, taking the beer glass and lifting it in both thanks and acknowledgment. “Is it really that obvious?”
“Written all over your face,” he replied without skipping a beat. “Has something happened that I should know about?”
“Not really,” I admitted. “It’s not so much that something has happened as it is that I’ve realized what’s been happening.”
“Which is?”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “I’m going to marry her.”
Greg’s eyes widened. Then he started laughing and didn’t stop for at least a solid minute. I stared at him, my head shaking as I waited for him to collect himself. By the time he did, I was more than ready for his opinion.
“Is it really that funny?”
He shrugged, eyes still filled with laughter as he held my gaze. “What’s funny is that you’ve finally admitted it. I saw this coming from that very first night, but I wasn’t sure you’d ever come to terms with it.”
“You saw it coming? No. No way. Nobody could’ve seen it coming. I didn’t even see it coming.”
“Sure, but I know you better than anyone, and as soon as she walked into this bar, you got this look on your face even I’ve never seen before.” He took a sip of his beer, swallowing it slowly before he turned to glance at the spot where Mariam and Gemma had sat at the bar that night. “At first, I thought it was just because she’s young and hot, but then you went over there and you were laughing a lot.”
“So? I always laugh a lot.”
He scoffed. “Not like that, you don’t. Definitely not with women, but look, I’m all for her. She makes you happy, so I don’t care that she’s young, but you should probably consider telling Brian now that you’ve decided you’re going to marry her. Don’t let him find out when he gets the save-the-date in the mail.”
“I’m pretty sure I need to tell her first.”
He frowned. “You haven’t told her how you feel yet?”
My eyebrows hiked up on my forehead. “Are you serious? You want me to tell her that we’re going to get married? It’s only been a few weeks, Greg. I’m pretty sure she’d run for the hills if I told her that now.”
“See, I don’t think she would,” he argued lightly. “She looked pretty smitten that night too. It absolutely was not a one-sided thing. You know how people always say that when you know, you know?”
“Yeah, and I do know, but she’s not even thirty yet and she has a whole lot of plans,” I said. “She sold her company to her friend to travel, remember? A successful company that she started. That’s not the kind of thing you do if you’re not serious about the next step you want to take.”
He shrugged. “So what’s the problem? You’ve always loved traveling and you’ve always done a lot of it. Wait until Everwood is running as smoothly as you know it will once all the systems are in place and functioning, and then go.”
“Easy as that, huh?” I chuckled and narrowed my eyes at him. “I feel like you might be oversimplifying things.”
“Oh, I am, but that’s what it comes down to. After you’ve been honest with her about your feelings, obviously. That has to be the starting point. When’s she getting back?”
“Tomorrow,” I said, wondering if perhaps he was right. Gregory had a way of putting things in perspective for me and it was possible he’d just done it again. “I’ll think about it. In the meantime, how are your kids? Any less moody yet?”
He groaned. “Nope. I’m starting to think they’re only going to like us again when they turn twenty-five, but I hear those are the breaks.”
I laughed, happy to listen to him as he told me all about their latest antics and lamenting about how much he missed the terrible twos. The next morning, I woke up early with a massive grin on my face despite my mild hangover.
Mariam was getting back today and I was picking her up from the airport later this afternoon. I couldn’t fucking wait to see her. Honestly, this weekend had felt like three years instead of three days.
Brian and I did a walkthrough of the restaurant and the spa, changing a few things here and there, but it was a slower day at Everwood. Gabby and Elizabeth weren’t around and the vast majority of the contractors weren’t there either.
Eventually, he glanced at me and laughed. “Wherever you need to go, just leave already. You’re checking your watch every two minutes and I’ve got things covered here. There’s not much left to do today anyhow and it’s going to be a long week. Hot date?”
“You could say that,” I admitted with guilt punching a hole through my stomach.
As soon as I told Mariam how I felt, we needed to talk about telling Brian. Perhaps after the opening, we could sit down with him. Doing it this week would just add a lot of stress and tension that we didn’t need with everything else that would be going on, but once the event was over, if she felt the same way I did, then we needed to be honest with him.
He chuckled as he waved me toward the door. “Go for it. I’m just waiting for a system update to finish running, then I’m taking off myself.”
“See you tomorrow,” I said, not about to wait for a written invitation. I couldn’t help him with the system update anyway, which meant that my work here was done for now.
It was finally time for Mariam to come back, and right then, the airport was the only place I wanted to be. Cars filled every spot in the parking lot when I got there, travelers rushing to and from the doors. The airport was small but busy.
I slowed to a crawl as I searched for a spot, eventually finding one when a car right up ahead of me left as I was approaching. Relieved that I was one step closer to seeing her, I parked and decided to meet her inside instead of letting her know where I was. Checking my watch, I quickly climbed out of the car and headed into the terminal, making it just in time for her flight to start disembarking.
Weaving my way through the crowd of families and resort representatives, I stood as close to the doors as I could get, waiting impatiently for my girl to appear. I felt her approach before I saw her. My skin prickled with anticipation just a moment before she appeared from behind a much larger dude carrying a toddler on his hip.
My heart went wild when I saw her, pounding and thrumming. I watched her look around. I’d texted to tell her I was waiting. A grin I couldn’t help split my face. A moment later, those cornflower blue eyes connected with mine and she smiled, upping her pace until she was right in front of me.
Wearing a pair of faded blue jeans with her brown leather boots, she had her hair up in a messy ponytail right on top of her head and a jacket hanging over her arm. She was pulling her suitcase behind her, a small backpack over her shoulder.
As she drew closer to me, I opened my arms and she walked right into them, wrapped her arms around my waist, and rested her head against my chest. While I knew she could probably feel my heart going nuts, I didn’t care. I was excited to have her back in my arms and I wanted her to know it.
“Hi,” I murmured against her sweet-scented hair. “How was it?”
“So amazing,” she gushed, glancing up at me with an electric energy sparkling behind her eyes. “I’m still buzzing, but it’s also good to be back.” She paused before adding, “I missed you. Next time, I’d love it if you would join us.”
Almost immediately, her cheeks started glowing with a rosy hue and she groaned. “I didn’t mean to make it sound like we were definitely still going to be together by next Christmas. We have several girls’ trips in a year, so I just meant?—”
I cut her off by pressing my lips to hers. She moaned quietly, responding by melting into me and stroking my tongue gently with her own.
“I’ll come with you wherever you go and whenever you go,” I promised softly after breaking the kiss, looking intently into her eyes so she would know that I meant it. “Also, if I have anything to say about it, we absolutely will still be together by next Christmas.”
She arched an eyebrow, but I didn’t miss the hope sparking to life in her eyes. “You really think so?”
“I do.” I slid my hand into hers and took her suitcase from the other, finally leading her away from the crowd and back to my car. I glanced at her, finding it hard to keep my eyes off her for even a moment. “How are your friends?”
“They’re so good. Laurel is going to surprise Leif in Denver this week and Gemma has a red-carpet event with Noah, so they’re super busy, but in the best way possible. How are things at the resort? Are all my carefully laid plans still carefully laid?”
I hesitated. “Weeeeeell…”
Mariam slammed to a stop, spinning to face me with her eyes wide and a solemn expression on her features. “Well what?”
“Well, I’m kidding,” I said, chuckling. I started tugging her toward the parking lot again. “Everything is exactly as you left it. We didn’t touch any of your plans. I just came from Everwood and we made a lot of progress this weekend, but all your stuff is still in place.”
She smacked my shoulder, giggling. “Jokes like that will take years off my life.”
“I definitely can’t have that,” I said, sliding the hand that had been in hers around her shoulder and keeping her tucked into my side as we walked the rest of the way to my car. “I’m assuming if your friends are so busy, they’re not coming to the opening?”
She shook her head and sighed softly. “They really want to try to make the trip, but they’ve got so much going on that we just don’t know if it will be possible.”
I held her closer. “That’s a pity. I know how much you would’ve wanted them here and I can’t wait to meet Laurel, and to possibly spend some actual time with Gemma. I didn’t really have the opportunity to get to know her when she was here.”
“I’m excited for you to meet them. Whenever that might happen. I’m not so excited about you meeting my parents though, and they will be here for the opening.”
“It’ll be fine,” I promised her, but I also felt an unexpected rush of nerves at the prospect.
The last time I met a girlfriend’s family, I had been in high school. When Lisa and I had started dating, there hadn’t been any awkward meet-the-parents moments because our families had already known one another.
“You might just need to give me some information about them,” I said. “At least that way, I’ll know which topics to discuss and what to avoid.”
She chuckled. “That’s not a bad idea. Do you want to stay over at my place tonight? I’ll give you all the information you want, and perhaps a few other things too.”
“Done deal.” I grinned all the way to her condo and spent the entire night with her naked and close by.
For the next few days, we worked hard with the team to put together the finishing touches at the resort and we spent every night together. Before any of us even knew it, it was the night before the official opening of Everwood Chalet.
It was also the night of our first event for the weekend, which meant that tonight was the night I would meet Mariam’s parents. I felt woefully unprepared, but I was confident that I knew enough to at least keep my head above water with them.
The stakes were high, though. She might not be that close to her parents, but their opinions would always matter and I had enough counting against me with her that I desperately didn’t need anything more.
Everything had to go well this weekend, or I would be dead in the water.