8. Halliday
8
HALLIDAY
My phone ringing wakes me.
I glance at the clock. 5:30. No one calls this early unless something’s wrong. I lurch up into a sitting position, my breath catching as I swipe my phone up and hit answer.
“Hello?”
“Good Morning.”
“Sterling?”
Goosebumps pepper along my arms at his deep voice.
“Can I still have your company this morning?”
I flick the bedside lamp on and run a hand back through my hair. “I, um… I’m still in bed.”
“So am I.”
The rough gravel of his sleepy voice has my stomach dancing as I picture him calling me from his bed. Is he sitting up like me? Or lying, with his head resting on the pillow? Was I his first thought as he woke up? Does he sleep naked?
“I… yes, absolutely,” I croak.
I need to pull myself together. This weird pull toward him has to stop. I’m getting everything mixed up. I’m here to find him a match. So why do the flutters in my stomach feel more like they’re trying to tell me something, and less like the usual buzz of energy I get while working with clients?
“Great. I’ll be with you within thirty minutes.”
“Okay. See you then.”
I toss my phone down and launch the covers back from the bed, my heart racing. Thirty minutes to calm the hell down and get some sense into myself.
I spend the first ten minutes trying, and failing, to meditate, the way I usually start each day. But my mind keeps wandering, hearing his voice over and over as he called me from his bed.
The buzzer for the door goes moments after I step out of the shower. I walk to the security panel and peer at Sterling’s suited form waiting outside on the street.
“You’re early,” I say, clutching my towel around my chest after I press the speaker button.
He looks up, straight into the camera, a warm smile on his face. “There’s no rush. I’ll wait down here.”
“No, come on up.” I press the button to unlock the main door. Maybe he brought a car he can wait in. But it’s still dark outside. I can’t leave him waiting there if he hasn’t.
I don’t even have time to get my underwear on before there’s a soft knock at the door. I go to open it, holding my towel around myself.
“Hi.”
“Good morning,” he rasps. His eyes meet mine, and for a moment, we just stand and stare at each other.
“Um, come in.” I stand back and am greeted by the aroma of his aftershave as he walks past me into the apartment.
“I’ll just get dressed. I won’t be a minute,” I say, closing the door behind him.
He turns, and his eyes drop down my body, noting my towel for the first time. He clears his throat before looking away. “Right, yes. I’ll wait here.”
He strolls toward the living area window, pushing his hands into his pant pockets. I study his back. The way his broad shoulders fill out his dark gray suit. The way his suit pants fit him, hinting at the defined thighs beneath them… and a firm, muscular ass.
I hurry to my bedroom, pulling on my underwear and selecting a silk blouse and smart jeans to wear. I run my fingers through my hair, hoping it looks more ‘cute waves’ than tangled mess, slip on a pair of ballet pumps, and grab a black blazer. I don’t have time for makeup, only a swipe of lip balm before I walk into the living area.
Sterling looks up as I enter, his gaze subtly dropping down my body and back up in a way that makes my thighs clench. “You look lovely.”
“Thank you.”
He tilts an object in his hand toward me. “Jenny?”
I walk over and look at the photograph he’s holding. Jenny and I have our arms around one another. And there’s a huge cake on the table in front of us. It’s the last picture we took together before she got ill.
“Her eighteenth birthday.” I smile sadly.
“Ah,” Sterling murmurs softly, studying the image. “She has such a beautiful smile. And I take it she liked Taylor Swift?” He chuckles at the ‘I’m Taylor’s biggest fan’ T-shirt Jenny’s wearing.
“She really did. Knew every single word of every single song.” I smile as I stand next to him, close enough that my arm brushes his jacket sleeve.
“As a biggest fan should,” he muses, smile lines crinkling around his eyes as he admires the picture.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“What for?”
“Most people see the Down syndrome first. They don’t see Jenny.”
He holds my eyes for a moment, his brows creasing, before looking back at the image.
“Well, she deserves to be seen. Why don’t you bring her with us?”
“What?” I frown as he holds the frame out to me.
“Give her a different view today.”
I take the photo from him and look at it, my throat tightening. Instead of putting it back, I walk to my purse on the kitchen counter and slide it inside. “I’m ready when you are.” I look back to find him watching me.
“Then shall we?” His soft smile has me looking away with a quick nod to hide the heat blooming in my cheeks.
“Liberty enlightening the world,” I murmur with a bittersweet smile as I stand looking out at New York’s harbor lit up by the sunrise.
A new day. New possibilities.
“Indeed,” Sterling rumbles as he comes to stand by my side.
“Thank you for bringing me here.” Emotion bubbles in my throat as I slip Jenny’s photo out of my purse and hold it in front of me, facing out, so she can see. “The view is stunning. She would have loved it.”
After we left my apartment, he showed me to his car, where his driver was waiting. He drove us to a private boat that brought us to Liberty Island, where we climbed up inside Lady Liberty.
Right inside her crown.
No one else is here. It’s just me, Sterling, Jenny’s photo, and a thousand memories. All witnessing the way the sky is turning every shade of orange over the glistening water.
“How did you even arrange this? I only told you yesterday how much she wanted to come here. I tried getting a ticket before I left England, but they were booked up for months.”
I turn to look at him as he watches the sunrise, and he tips his head casually. “I made some calls, that’s all.”
A smile twists my lips. Some calls. It’s easy to forget he’s a billionaire with a wealth of connections at his fingertips. To me, he’s a man with a hidden pain that I recognize in his eyes.
Pain that I’m determined to help lessen before my time with him is up.
“You know, the twenty-five windows of her crown each represent a different gemstone on Earth?” I say as I look out of the window in front of us.
I sneak a sideways glance at him. A knowing smile graces his lips, but he keeps his eyes forward.
“But of course, you know that. You’ve lived here your whole life, and your family’s history is built around diamonds and jewels.” I roll my eyes with a smile.
“It is. We’ve become known for our family-mined diamonds. But it wasn’t always diamonds. It was all kinds of gemstones once.”
“Before you met your wife?”
His smile vanishes, and he gives a tight nod.
It’s something I came across in my research after Sinclair hired me. Sterling’s family owned an established jewelry firm on the East Coast. But it’s only been in the past thirty years that they’ve become famous for the diamonds they source from their own mines. Mines that were previously linked to his late wife’s family.
“What was she like?” I ask, hugging Jenny’s photo against my chest as the sun rises higher in the sky.
“She…” Sterling runs a hand around his jaw, exhaling slowly. “She was a great mom. She loved the kids more than anything.”
“And you,” I add softly. “She loved you more than anything too.”
A muscle clenches in his cheek, and he keeps his focus trained on something in the distance.
Guilt tugs at me for being the reason a heaviness has shrouded him all of a sudden. I know what it’s like, remembering how much someone who’s gone loved you. It makes you feel like your heart is being torn out, knowing you won’t ever hear them say it again.
“It’s okay to let yourself be loved again. You deserve it,” I say gently.
“Thank you, Halliday.” His voice is weighted with something I can’t place.
The sun’s rays flow over the two of us, warming my skin and making my fingertips tingle around Jenny’s photograph like she’s trying to tell me something.
“Hallie,” I whisper.
It’s barely more than a breath through my lips, but Sterling turns and looks at me with such an intensity that I know he heard.
“I…” I falter, avoiding his gaze, before allowing a small smile to lift my lips. “I liked the way hearing it again made me feel. How it made memories, happy ones, surface again.”
I chance a look into his eyes and they’re shining, studying me.
“I’d like it if you call me Hallie,” I breathe.
His gaze softens, the heaviness that was in him moments ago, gone. “Of course. If that’s what you want.”
I nod, unable to add that I only want him to call me Hallie. No one else. That I loved the way his deep tone made goosebumps scatter up my spine when it rolled from his tongue like butter on hot toast.
Perhaps the universe put us together for this reason. Maybe while I find him love, he’s supposed to help me remember it. Remember to focus on the things that made my heart lift in my chest and not on the gaping hole that’s been left there in its place. Because any other explanation for the way my body lights up when he’s around just doesn’t make sense.
“You okay?”
“Yep,” I reply too fast, my voice cracking. “Fine.”
“Hallie?”
The sound of my name from his lips again makes me choke out a small, muffled squeak.
Everything rushes me at once. Jenny’s smile. Her laugh. The way she felt in my arms when we hugged.
Memories of a love so pure.
One I’ll miss every day for the rest of my life.
“I’m f-fine,” I lie without conviction.
Strong arms surround me, gathering me up gently and drawing me in against his warm, solid chest. I rest my cheek over his heart and listen to the steady thud of life inside him.
“It’s okay,” he soothes as I clutch Jenny’s photograph with one hand and slide my other hand beneath his jacket to cling on to a handful of his shirt at his back like it has the power to ground me.
A tear slips free, sinking into the cotton. I suck in a shaky breath, willing my throat to stop burning, scared I might burst into full-blown sobs at any moment.
Sterling strokes my hair from my face and dips his head, pressing his nose into the strands. He inhales slowly, making his chest expand against my cheek.
“You’re not alone, I’m here,” he says, pressing a kiss to the top of my head.
“I’m sorry. I just need a minute.”
I fist his shirt harder and tilt my chin up, letting his eyes capture mine between my damp lashes.
He stares with a tenderness that makes my heart stall.
“Take all the time you need.”
I nod, unable to respond with words.
He traces my jaw with his thumb, following its path with his eyes until he reaches my chin. His brows scrunch together, his attention falling to my mouth. He exhales, and his minty breath flows over my lips.
I part my own to breathe him in.
“I’ll be here anytime you need me, Hallie.”
He dusts his thumb over my cheek one final time.
Then it’s gone.
I miss his touch immediately. But his eyes stay on mine, the same promise held in them; he’ll be here anytime I need him.
Anytime I need him.
I gaze back up at him and he smiles at me softly, his blue eyes bringing with them a calm reassurance that I’ve never felt before.
Sterling Beaufort sees my broken parts.
And for the first time, I’m not overcome by the need to hide them.