THIRTY-THREE
TALK ABOUT AN early start! They were in Honolulu by eight in the morning, and LA by five p.m. local. Some people were staying the night in California, others had connecting flights to catch. Alessia’s tears were expected, she hated goodbyes, but it was nice she’d made friends she promised to keep. Whether they would or not was anyone’s guess. Good intentions and all that.
By the time she got home, it was almost two a.m., that’s in the morning. Oh-two hundred. Usually, she’d unpack. Not then. What a day. She hopped in the shower for less than three minutes, brushed her teeth, and crawled into bed.
Even as she relaxed, she missed him. Being in his bed, their bed on the island, felt weird without him, but at least they had memories and the scent of him was in the air. Her own bed came with none of that joy.
Had he been in LA when she passed through? In her and Alessia’s hour between flights, she had a fleeting thought of calling him. Meeting up with him for mere minutes would only be torture; a reminder of what she missed, what she needed so badly.
Oh, sleep, sleep. This was sleep time. For sure she needed it. Needed to recalibrate for work in the morning. It already was the morning. Work was coming in fast. Too soon. Like a meteor hurtling toward her, or was she the meteor? Who even knew? Everything was too soon while so bone weary.
What was that…? The buzz of her phone vibrating in its dock was so alien, she almost didn’t recognize it. Who’d be calling that late? No one who’d known about her being on the island or the time she got back. Who would know she’d just got home?
She sat up. Alessia or her mom.
“Hello?” she answered before her tongue was really ready to move.
“I got you something.”
“Got me…” She frowned into the darkness. “Who is this?” A guy, that’s who it was. Not her mother or her sister, it was… “Drift?”
“Good, you got me worried there for a second. How many other guys would be calling this late? It’s not three yet, should I call back then to tell you something?”
“Something trivial?” she asked, recalling one of their early conversations. “Tell me anything, any time.” Loosening, she lay down. “How did you know I was home?”
“I’m tracking your location.”
Her lips curled as her eyes closed. “That’s kinda hot.”
Or Red Flag City, but, hey, optimism had treated her well of late.
“Wait ‘til you see what else I can do,” he said. “Your present’s in the hall.”
“Present?” Right, he’d got her something. “I don’t have a hall, it’s a bedroom, a bathroom…”
“On your doorstep then.”
“Oh.” Suddenly, she didn’t mind standing up so much. Tiredness could wait. “Is it flowers?” Leaving the bedroom, she hobbled across the living room. “Candy? Who delivers this late? Pizza?”
She opened the door, gaze down, expecting a box or bouquet. Instead she spied his boots.
“Dyce,” he said, hanging up the phone as her eyes ascended, absorbing his presence.
Her wonderful, excellent, amazing—
Throwing open the door, she jumped up, wrapping her arms around him. “Oh my God.”
“Guess you’re pleased to see me.”
She heard the door close, so assumed they were inside. Who cared anymore? Oh, her Drift. Their mouths met and she tried to hook her leg up around him, but it was just too awkward with her boot.
Against her will, she relinquished the kiss to drag him through to her room. “How did you know I’d need you?”
“By always needing you myself. You are no less mine today than you were yesterday and the day before. We spent the night together there, why not here too?”
And, damn, she loved his logic. “God, I’m so tired, and so horny, I don’t even know which to—how to—”
First thing came with him losing the jacket, the tee-shirt, his pants.
“Whoa, hey, hey,” he said, capturing her hands at his fly. “Can I take my boots off first?”
“If it gets you naked sooner.” She crawled onto the bed as he sat to unlace. Sliding her hands up his back, into his hair, she buried her face against him. “I have to go to work in the morning.”
“I know.”
“Not like work on the island. Actual work. With people who don’t want to see me naked.”
“Can’t imagine there are any of those.”
He stood and was nice enough to face her as he lost his pants. Wasn’t much time to admire the view. He scooped her up, shoved the covers away and settled them both skin-to-skin.
“Will you stay?”
“Little late to ask that, isn’t it? I’m naked, people will frown on me going outside.”
Nobody with eyes in their head.
“Tomorrow. I have to go to work, but if you stay, we can have dinner. This might not be the most exciting city in the world but—”
“I’m staying, Wanderer,” he said, pulling her up to kiss her head. “I’m not going anywhere.”
And it was nice, so goddamn nice to just exist with him in that moment. So they were missing the surf and tropical fauna, but that didn’t matter, it didn’t mean anything.
They’d left the island with so much still to say, still to agree on and organize. There it felt like the real world didn’t exist, that they had all the time in the world. Almost as soon as her feet hit Californian land, the na?veté of that struck her. Just agreeing to be together wasn’t enough. Saying they’d make a go of it didn’t shore up their security.
Had he felt it too? Had he wished they’d said more before parting ways? In his defense, he’d tried to put more concrete foundations in place. She’d been the resistor. Was it na?veté? Fear? Uncertainty? Whichever it was, or all of them, doubt no longer existed.
“Drift,” she whispered, her breathing slowing down.
“Yeah, baby?”
“You can work from anywhere.”
A beat and then he spoke with a smile. “I can work from anywhere.”
So it wasn’t a scream of passion or an exclamation of devotion. It didn’t need to be. When he’d said that to her, she’d ducked the prospect, now she got it. He could work from anywhere. That wasn’t just about work, it was about them. Their future.
A lot of guys—see: most—would expect the woman to give up and move her life. Zane hadn’t gone there. It was a consideration, and this wouldn’t be forever, but he was his own boss. While she needed to be here, appeasing hers, he’d be with her, at her side.
Unless…
Maybe she was reading too much into it. Maybe this wasn’t a long-term situation. Could be he’d just showed to seduce her and leave again. Except he hadn’t seduced her. No more than them just being together did. So that was her point in the almost statement. Zane could work from anywhere. And he’d chosen there, with her.
“My Wi-Fi sucks.”
“Not for long.”
Because he’d fix it. Would anything keep him away? These weren’t barriers, these were realities. If she could break down every possible reason he might have for leaving her, maybe he’d stay. For a long time. Forever.
“I think we should spend Christmas together.”
On a snicker, he said, “Me too.”
They’d be okay. One day at a time. The wedding was at the weekend. Maybe he’d stay until then. If he didn’t, at least she had an idea about the next time she’d see him. Every minute was him, every thought, every flicker of consciousness.
Halloween. Thanksgiving. He’d said his plans were already set. Alessia spent Halloween with her friends and—damnit, she had to stop. Exhaustion, jetlag, dread over returning to the office. The weights on her mind lightened when she lost herself in him. Lost herself. It didn’t feel that way. Lost sounded negative and he was the opposite. Zane Dyce held her up, strengthened her. And, if she got through her day at the office, maybe she could return the favor in some way.