60. Naina
Chapter Sixty
NAINA
Did you take all your panties back?
Of course, I needed them, and I refuse to go through life sans underwear.
I’ll just have to steal them again.
Maybe it as me who had changed, but the Windfield had a life to it that had been missing before.
I could suddenly picture it all renovated, opening the doors to guests.
And yes, there was a much better and bigger SFV resort up the road.
But ever since photos from the Chicago hotel’s opening were published, we had been getting a lot of bookings.
More than then we ever had before.
Sami and I decided that if people wanted to believe we were a part of SFV, we won’t do anything to change that.
Yes, dad hated chain hotels. We never going to be that.
We were going to take advantage of the Sutherland name, and SFV’s brand.
“We can actually go crazy with these renovations,” Sami said, as we walked through the Inn. “You’re like crazy rich now. Insane wealth.”
“Have you been talking to Kash?” I asked.
He reminded me of this fact nightly during our phone calls over the last week.
He wrapped up in Chicago, and had gone to see his lawyers in New York. But he was expecting to return today.
I missed him. It made me feel like I was coming out of my skin with how much I missed him.
My very soul ached.
Was this what he felt when he said he was trapped by me? How did he survive like this?
“We text.” Sami shrugged. “I send him pictures of the kitties.”
Lucy and Jo had come back with us, and I had to rearrange all of our mom’s plants in case they were toxic.
But the house already felt fuller with them there.
Even though Kash could move into his father’s vacated house up in Carmel Heights, he suggested that we live here.
He also had a house up in Carmel Heights, and I reminded him that it would be much bigger and provide more closet space, but he insisted that the Windfield be our home.
I could understand his reasoning.
Our house was filled with love and laughter, memories of lives lived with comfort and safety.
He never had that, and I wanted to share it all with him.
Sami was going back to college soon and we would have the house to ourselves, at least when Kash wasn’t travelling.
“Hey, are you okay with all of this?”
Sami stopped at the end of the hall and turned back to me, throwing her head back in exasperation.
“Yes! You don’t have to keep asking me this,” she said. “He loves you and you love him. He makes you happy, doesn’t he? And he’s a good guy?”
I nodded. “He does, and he is.”
Sami hooked her arm through mine.
“Then that’s all that matters. I just want us to be happy.”
“I want that, too.”
I told her the real reason I was hesitant to renovate the Windfield on the flight back, and she had hugged tightly, crying into my neck.
The two of us spent the Fourth of July weekend lazing about the house and only got up when Nick and Sonia came over for the BBQ.
Then we sent down to Carmel beach to watch the fireworks.
I video called Kash while the fireworks were happening so we could share that experience.
Now it was back to work.
Sami and I went down to the first floor and saw the interior designer sitting in our little lobby, her tablet open.
Stella Wilson was a blonde, five-foot five woman screaming exuberance.
She was the consummate professional as we toured the Windfield, and she took photos and made notes.
Sami and her hit it off right away over their love of romance novels.
“How are we looking?” I asked.
Stella looked up, standing up to meet us in the middle.
“We’re looking good. I’ve already got some design ideas going. Your Inn is absolutely beautiful, and I think we can bring it back to life.”
Sami squealed a little, making us laugh.
The front door opened, and Stella’s boyfriend came in.
Since she was coming from San Diego, I asked her to spend a couple of days here and she brought her boyfriend with her.
Who just happened to be one of my favorite thriller writers.
Nico looked at Stella, and his eyes green eyes softened.
“I found a local coffee shop and they had a sugary concoction that I think you will like,” he said.
Stella took the iced drink from him and took a sip, moaning softly.
“So good.”
He handed me and Sami our iced mochas, and we each thanked him.
“You really didn’t have to,” I said.
“I was making a coffee run anyway,” Nico said. “This one can’t function without it.”
He had the warmest smile and kindest demeanor. It was hard for me to compute that he wrote thrillers. Although, I doubted personality had anything to do with the imaginary friend’s writers created.
“Do you want to see some of the designs I sketched?” Stella asked.
“Already?” I asked in surprise.
“They’re rough sketches. I will send you the final finals when I get back to San Diego.”
“I’ll leave you two alone to it,” Nico said, leaning down to kiss Stella’s cheek.
He disappeared out the front door again, probably going back to the gazebo he had been using to work.
While Stella and I reviewed the rough sketches, Sami wandered off.
Afterwards, I went back to the office.
All my arguments with Kash to let me keep paying off the mortgage slowly just as I had been to the bank were ignored.
Honestly, I stopped trying. The jewels and fancy dresses were nice, but having this debt off my back made me feel like I could breathe.
Sami poked her head into my office.
“He’s here.”
When she used to announce that before, my heart used to fill with dread.
Today, it had the opposite effect.
I jumped out of the chair and hurried out the door, Sami laughing behind me.
Kash was just getting out of his car when I ran down the steps and jumped into his arms, wrapping my arms and legs around him.
Kash made a sound as if all the breath left his lungs.
“If this is the greeting I get on my return, I should go away more often.”
I pulled back to look at his dear, dear face.
“Don’t think about it. You’re not allowed to go anywhere for a long time.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Goldie,” he promised.
I kissed him, our tongues sliding against each other, tasting and memorizing each other again.
Kash turned us, pressing me against the side of the car. His hand slipped under my shirt to cup my breast over my bra, thumbing my nipple.
“Fuck, I missed you,” he breathed on my lips.
I moaned, rocking my hips into his erection.
“Ew! I don’t want to see this, I’m scarred for life!
The words were like cold water thrown over us. I pulled away from Kash to see Sami on the porch with her back turned to us.
Oops.
“Later?” Kash whispered.
I nodded. “Good luck trying to get away from me.”
Kash lowered me to the ground and cupped my face between his hands, looking deep into my eyes.
“The one thing I never want is to be away from you, Goldie.”
I placed my hand over his, turning my head to kiss his palm.
“I love you,” I said.
His blue eyes sparkled with happiness.
“I love you, too.”
As we turned to walk into the Inn, I wondered how I got here.
A random chance meeting on a rooftop had turned into the best thing that could ever happen to me.
Maybe Kash and I were too broken.
But our broken pieces fit together like pieces of a puzzle to make one perfect whole.
As I watched his eyes sparkle at me, belying all the lovely and naughty things he wanted to say and do to me, I knew I was the luckiest girl in the world.
Because this wonderful, beautiful, brilliant man was all mine.