Chapter Three #3
A strange sensation settled deep in his chest. During his years as a SEAL, he had learned to trust his instincts because they had kept him alive more times than he could count. And right now, every one of them was telling him that he knew this woman.
But as quickly as the thought came, he dismissed it. He shook his head. No, it couldn’t be her.
For twelve years, he had caught glimpses of women in airports, restaurants, shopping centers, and city streets—women with chestnut hair, and familiar smiles who looked enough like Amelie from a distance to make his heart skip. And every single time, he had been wrong.
The elevator chimed softly, and the doors slid open. The twins stepped inside first, still talking quietly between themselves as the woman stepped in behind them.
Grant tried to look away, telling himself he was being ridiculous. But he couldn’t. As the elevator doors began to slide closed, the woman turned, and the breath left his lungs. His heart slammed against his ribs as a face he hadn’t seen in twelve years looked back at him.
Amelie.
For one stunned moment, he could only stare, his mind struggling to reconcile what his eyes were seeing. After years of searching, years of wondering where she had gone and whether he would ever see her again, she was suddenly standing right there.
Before he could move, before he could call her name, the elevator doors slid shut, cutting off the view and leaving him standing motionless in the middle of the lobby.
Grant stood frozen.
It wasn’t possible. Yet, he would have recognized her anywhere.
She was older, more mature, and even more beautiful than the last time he had seen her, but there was no doubt in his mind that the woman he just saw was her—his Amelie.
“Grant?”
Mac’s voice cut through the fog surrounding him.
Grant gave his head a slight shake and slowly looked away from the elevator.
“What?”
“Are you okay?” Mac asked, looking concerned.
For a brief second, Grant considered telling him what he saw. Then he imagined how insane it would sound.
Hey, remember the woman I’ve been trying to find for 12 years? Well, I think I just saw her in the elevator.
That sounded ridiculous even inside his own head.
“Yeah,” he said, forcing a small laugh. “I’m good. Just tired. It’s been a long day.”
Mac didn’t look convinced, and neither did Nico or Rafe. But before any of them could press the issue, Jessie stepped in.
“Well, you boys better rest up. Aren’t you going snowboarding tomorrow?” she asked.
“Yup,” Mac said, smiling and looking at the guys. “We plan to spend all day up there.”
Jessie grinned. “Good, while you guys do your thing, I’m going shopping. Ever since I laid eyes on some of those boutiques, I’ve been dying to go.”
Mac groaned dramatically while Grant welcomed the change in conversation.
“Shopping all day?” Nico asked, looking as though shopping ranked somewhere between jury duty and a root canal.
Jessie’s smile widened. “Absolutely. Then I’m meeting the jewelry designer.”
That finally pulled a little more of Grant’s attention back to the present.
“The one who designed your wedding bands?”
“The very one,” Jessie said proudly. “You should see these rings. They’re gorgeous.”
Mac immediately looked like a man who had already spent far more money than he intended.
The group laughed, and for a few minutes, Grant managed to participate in the conversation well enough that no one seemed concerned.
Plans were made for breakfast the following morning.
Snowboarding was discussed. Jessie continued teasing the guys about voluntarily throwing themselves down mountains for fun.
Through it all, however, Grant’s thoughts kept drifting back to the woman on the elevator.
By the time he finally separated from the group and headed toward his suite, he had almost convinced himself that exhaustion was playing tricks on him.
It had been a long day. The human brain was capable of strange things when running on too little sleep.
That explanation should have comforted him, but it didn’t. Because no matter how many times he tried to rationalize it, one undeniable fact remained: he knew exactly what he had seen.
The elevator ride to his floor was quiet. When he finally stepped into his suite, he bypassed the bedroom entirely and walked straight to the windows overlooking the village.
Thousands of Christmas lights sparkled below against the snow-covered streets, and beyond them, the Matterhorn stood watch over the valley beneath a sky filled with stars.
Normally, a view like this would have commanded his full attention. But tonight he barely noticed it.
Instead, he stood there staring out at the village while the image of a woman in a red sweater replayed over and over in his mind. The chestnut hair. The familiar face. The impossible certainty that had hit him the second she had turned around.
For twelve years, he had imagined what it would feel like to see Amelie again.
But nothing had prepared him for the way his heart reacted, or the desperate hope now taking root in his chest that somehow, against all odds, it had really been her.