Chapter 26
CHAPTER
TWENTY-SIX
MYLES
I wake up to an empty bed. Then I hear the flush of the toilet and the pad of her feet as she tiptoes back into the bedroom. She’s wearing my t-shirt and nothing else. It falls to her thighs and reveals her smooth, tan legs.
The ones that were wrapped around my hips an hour ago. I harden at the memory of it.
She notices I’m awake and climbs back in, snuggling against me. I put my arm around her as her cheek presses against my chest and something weird happens inside of me.
“I never thought you’d be a cuddler,” she whispers, tracing her finger in a circle on my skin.
“I’ve no idea what gave you that impression,” I tease, because I know exactly what did.
“Me either. You’re such a teddy bear at work.”
I lift a brow. “It’s hard to be cuddly when everybody hates your guts.”
She looks up, the smile melting from her lips. “Everybody doesn’t hate you.”
“Yeah, they do. And it’s okay, I understand. If somebody came from Charleston to the New York office and started changing everything I’d probably feel the same way.”
“They just don’t know you,” she whispers, and it makes my stomach clench. Does she know me?
Maybe she does. But not everything. And I know that I’ll have to tell her soon.
“You hated me, too,” I remind her.
“No. I just didn’t understand you.” Her gaze lifts to mine. “But I do now. And there’s nothing about you that I hate.”
It’s not exactly a declaration of love. But I’ll take it.
She kisses my chest. “I wish I’d not hated you sooner.”
“We didn’t exactly get off to the best start,” I point out. “You screaming at me before we’d even been introduced.”
“Only because you were disrespecting Dandy. You know as well as I do that protecting a character’s integrity is everything.”
“Yeah, I do. Which was why I was telling the interns to erase the cartoon and never draw something like it again when you walked in.”
She lifts her head up. Her brows drawn together. “You were?”
“Yes.”
She blinks. “So why didn’t you say something? You just looked at me like I was some kind of banshee.”
“What would you have done if I’d walked into the office on my first day and started screaming at your intern because her filing system sucks?” I ask.
Ava blinks. “Um…” She lets out a mouthful of air. “I’d have stood up for her and told you that if you have a problem come and talk to me about it.”
“Exactly.”
She looks mortified. “Oh God…”
“Stop it,” I tell her. “It’s water under the bridge. I just want you to understand that I’ve never hated you. Or even disliked you. Yeah, I was annoyed but then you kept ignoring me and I realized that we were never going to see eye to eye.”
“I should have talked to you,” she says, crestfallen. “I shouldn’t have assumed…”
“It didn’t stop me from wanting you.” I don’t think anything could have. She’s a force of nature. She’s springtime warming up the cold earth. She’s everything.
I want her to be mine.
“I’m sorry,” she says softly. “I just wish I’d taken the time to get to know you.”
I dip my head to kiss her brow. “We should go back to sleep.” Not that I’m desperate for our night to end.
In a few hours we’ll be attending the big family brunch before everybody goes their separate ways.
I just want to stay here, but I’m pretty sure they’ll come searching for us if we don’t show up.
But she doesn’t look sleepy. Just contemplative. “When we’re back in the office I’m going to tell everybody how wrong they are about you.”
I shake my head. “Don’t ruin my reputation. Maybe I like instilling fear in them.”
“But why?” she asks. “Why don’t you want them to like you?”
I blink. “It’s not that I don’t want them to like me. I just don’t care. The only person whose good regard I’m concerned about is yours.”
“You don’t have to worry about me,” she whispers. “You’ve already charmed me. You make me weak at the knees.”
“Do you think anybody would notice if we stay here for the next few weeks?” I ask, reaching for her leg and curling it around my hip.
She frowns. “I wish we could.”
I lower my head to kiss her, and I’m as hard as a rock. “We might not be able to stay forever, but we have seven hours until we need to be packed and at brunch,” I tell her. “So do we go to sleep or…”
“Or,” she says with certainty. “Definitely or.”
“Good choice, Miss Quinn.” I flash her a dirty smile. “Now roll over onto your front. I’m going to OR you until your eyes roll into the back of your head.”
AVA
“It’s been so lovely to meet you,” Linda says, grasping my hand in hers. “You should come again, next time we all get together.”
I look to my left, but Myles is out of earshot. He’s talking to Liam again. Liam looks worried but Myles lays a reassuring hand on his shoulder.
“Thank you for being so hospitable,” I say, giving her a genuine smile.
The Salinger family is huge and complicated but somehow they make it all work.
More than that, there’s so much love here I can feel it seeping through my pores.
Linda, Deandra, and Julia have such affection for each other and for Rupert.
I know he hurt Myles, but I don’t think he’s a bad man.
Just a careless one. He assumes everybody is as laid back as he is and when they’re not he has no idea what to do.
He’s the next to hug me. “Thank you for being here,” Rupert says, patting my arm. “You make Myles very happy, I can see that.”
“Oh,” I say because that’s not what I expected at all. “We’re not together.”
“Of course you aren’t.” He winks. “But if you were I’d say you’re good for him. And he’ll be good to you, he always is.”
Deandra and Julia say their goodbyes to me next, and then I’m encompassed in a series of bear hugs from the Salinger brothers.
Eli hugs the hardest, and Holden is gentle, but Brooks and Linc are definitely the most enthusiastic.
I’m going to miss them all. Their dynamic and their affection for each other.
I might even miss the fights.
I turn to Liam and he’s looking at me with a curious expression on his face. I smile and he winks back, then we hug tightly. He looks so much like Myles, but he doesn’t have his intensity. He’s more laid back like their father.
“I hope you got what you came for,” he says softly, and I’m reminded that he knows our secret.
“Thank you.” I nod. “I appreciate that.”
Two tiny lines appear along his brow. “Can I ask something of you?”
“Okay…”
“Don’t hurt him. He’s a good man. The best. But he’s not indestructible.”
I blink because that’s such a strange thing to say. How would I hurt him? If anybody’s going to get hurt it’s me.
“Are you ready?” Myles asks.
“Yes.” I nod, and he carries our luggage down to the car, sliding his foot beneath the fender to open the trunk. I climb into the passenger seat and tie my hair back, because he’s taken the roof down and I know it’s going to get messy.
And as he pulls away, I feel a little lost. I also wonder if I’m taking more back with me than just some memories of good fun.
Maybe there’s a baby inside me. Maybe there isn’t.
But what I do know is that I’m different than when I arrived.