Chapter 34
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
KEATON
A fter leaving the offices of HANNETH, I spend some time around town, getting to know the area.
I pick up a few brochures from the University of Washington.
It’s not like Savannah wants to see me again, but I can mail them to her.
One day, she’s going to have to figure out what to do with her future.
Hannah calls me in my hotel room, inviting me to dinner with her in Silver Lake, where she’s visiting some friends. I want to say no, but I need some company.
I’m still too shaken from my conversation with Aslan. It’s been two days, but it feels like it only happened five minutes ago, and I’m hurting. I have to find ways to keep myself busy before I go into the deep end and start crying.
Since Hannah is already there visiting family, she sends a car to take me to my destination.
I arrive at Bliss Winery an hour later. I feel underdressed. I should’ve changed my jeans and t-shirt for a dress or something less casual.
The driver helps me out of the car and points to the right. “If you walk through that corridor, you’ll find your table, ma’am.”
“Thank you.”
I do as he says, but soon after he leaves, I realize that the place looks vacant. It looks more like a scene out of The Omen . As I walk toward the direction the driver told me, I’m thinking this is it.
This is the part of the horror movie where the guy wearing a mask jumps out of the bushes with some sharp tool and attacks me.
Hannah is helping Aslan dispose of my body. Though, at the end of the path, I can see a table inside a gazebo. There are candles around the pavilion, and there’s a man wearing a suit. If this didn’t feel a little scary, I’d call it romantic.
As I come closer, I recognize the man. “Aslan.”
“Hey,” he greets me.
My heart thumps fast. It feels like a dead engine coming back to life.
He’s here.
He came for me.
“What are you doing here? I’m meeting with your cousin in…”
“Lysander called an associate who lent us his vineyard for the night,” he says. “Hannah just helped me a little, so I can ‘fix my fuck up,’ as she called it.”
I’m about to speak when he takes my hands. “Listen, I handled things poorly. We had the best week of my life, and when we went back to work, you had new plans. It wasn’t even a plan, but all I heard was the sound of my self-fulfilled prophecy. All women are with me because of my money.”
I stare at him unamused. If this is his idea of an apology, he has to try better.
“I’m so sorry for being so stupid. I should’ve said something completely different.
If working for HANNETH is what you need, we’ll move to Seattle.
But, and this is an offer I’ve been planning to make since Hawaii, by the way, if you accept to be my COO instead of moving to Arizona—or Seattle, we can both manage Spearman LP. ”
It sounds nice, but I don’t believe him. “Are you just saying that because you don’t want me to leave the company?”
“I don’t want to be away from you because I love you. If you want to move to the other side of the world, I’ll follow you.”
“What about the company?”
“I’ll sell it or hire a CEO to manage it. It doesn’t matter. You’re the only person who matters to me. Let’s talk, come to an agreement, and…tell me what you need from me because I’ll give it to you. All I need is to be by your side.”
“I just want to find a place to belong,” I mumble.
“We belong to each other, Keat. I can’t imagine my life without you. I faked for the last week that I wasn’t in love with you, but I’m madly in love with you. I’m not asking you not to leave me. I’m asking you to let me follow you to the end of the world if that’s where you need to go.”
I want to say yes, that like him, all I want is to love him, but I don’t do that.
“Listen, before I agree to anything, I need to know that you’re not going to behave the way you did at your office. You shut down, and not even I could get through your thick skull.”
He hangs his head. “It wasn’t my proudest moment. I was hurting too much and not thinking straight. I have to work on my behavior, and I will because I don’t want to lose you or cause you any pain. That’s the last time I’ll let my past and my old wounds blind me.”
He tilts his head toward the pergola. “Why don’t we eat dinner and try to fix what I broke.”
“Only because I love you, Aslan Spearman.”
He grins. “You do?”
“It’s hard not to. There’s a loving, soft heart underneath that hard, angry shell.”
“I love you so much. It was hard to breathe without you,” he says, taking me into his arms and kissing me deeply.
I feel a million minuscule solar flares warm my heart, melting it with his, making me fall in love with him all over again.