Chapter 44
Chapter Forty-Four
TRISTAN
The taxi pulls up to Evan’s house. It’s just like that day months ago now when I came to Miami and Lexi was here. I pull in a deep, cleansing breath of relief. Just through that door and I’ll see her again. The thought is enough to propel me out of the taxi and up to Evan’s house.
I’m exhausted but traveling for forty-eight hours straight without a phone or a laptop does things to you.
I had a lot of time to think, and I had to arrange my thoughts one way or another, as I couldn’t shop for a new phone or laptop while traveling.
Every airport duty-free has endless booze and jewelry, but if you want to shop electronics, you’re mad.
I ended up asking for paper at the Heathrow business lounge.
That was a novel experience on both ends, but the receptionist finally handed me some sheets of printer paper.
At least I could write, and the process was eye-opening. Honestly, it was cathartic.
I ring the doorbell and start digging for the house key, but I can’t find it. The taxi driver carries the rest of my luggage to the door, and I hand him a tip with a quiet thanks.
My heart sinks. What if nobody’s here? It’s nine in the morning on a Saturday. Surely they’d be here? I finally get hold of the house key, squashed in my carry-on bag’s side pocket.
The door jerks open. Evan blinks, confused, giving me a split second to take him in—boxer shorts, hair disheveled, and a wonky line of hickeys leading the eyes south.
“Bro!” Evan’s eyes go wide. “What the hell? What’re you doing here?”
“Lexi’s here?” I’ve been worried about her, but now the anxiety fists my stomach with a nasty twist.
“No.” Evan shakes his head as he steps closer to look outside. “She’s supposed to be with you.”
“She left Ne’emba four days ago.”
“What the actual…? Dude! Have you lost my sister?” Evan’s tone rises with a flash of panic. “What do you mean she’s left Ne’emba?” He steps aside to let me in and rakes his hands through his hair, his eyes wild.
“Things went down, man, and she left.” My hands curl into fists. “I don’t have a phone, and—”
“Jesus Christ. You don’t have a fucking phone? You got mugged or what?”
I shake my head. “No, someone else needed it more.”
“Fuck me.” He rushes away and up the stairs.
Yep. I’m an idiot, that’s what I am. When I was so generous with Roger before I left, I didn’t think very far.
My head was too full of Lexi and getting back to her.
I didn’t for one moment consider she wouldn’t make it home.
Jem confirmed that she’d booked her a plane ticket straight through to Miami with all the easiest flight connections.
Lexi was hopping from one airport to the next. But now…
I drag my things into the house and close the door. Evan comes down the stairs, his face flushed and his phone glued to his ear. “Fuck. Her phone is off.” He glares at me. “I’m going to have to phone my mom. Tristan, if something happened to Lexi, it will kill her.”
And he will kill me.
“Maybe she went to Anchorage?” I’m praying so hard now, the words shake my core. Where else could she be? In LA with her old roommate?
“I’m sending Mom a message. Testing the fucking waters. She may actually be up already. You’re dead fucking meat.”
I walk to the living room and collapse onto the sofa, broken. How can I lose her when I haven’t even told her I love her yet?
Evan sends his message and paces the room while I stare at him, nuked with worry. After a few minutes his phone pings, and as he reads, he physically deflates. “She’s in Anchorage. Has been there for two days already. What the fuck, dude? And why the hell does nobody let me know!”
Our gazes clash across the room, and I drop back into the sofa as tears sprout behind my eyes, my throat squeezing tight. I put my hands over my face. God. I never want to feel this anxiety again. The relief is slow to seep into my muscles—this was too real, too close a call, too everything.
“Things didn’t pan out as we expected,” I begin, dragging my hands down my face. I’m so tired, but I owe Evan an explanation.
By the time I’m done reliving the whole clusterfuck that was our last day on Ne’emba Island, we’ve had coffee, and now he’s pouring me a stiff whiskey. It’s a bit early in the day, but who the hell cares. My body isn’t on any clock right now.
“But that’s not the whole story, is it?” Evan hands me the tumbler with raised eyebrows.
There’s no being skittish about it now—not after he prodded into details that probably gave everything away. “I’m a goner, Ev. I’m in love with her. I’ve never thought—knew or imagined… Godammit, Evan, she’s the only thing I can think of, and it aches, it aches not to be with her.”
“Excellent,” he says, clinking his glass with mine. “Things panned out exactly as I expected.”
Jesus Christ. “You’re a real asshole sometimes, you know that?” But I’m not complaining.
“You can thank me later. Let me book you a flight to Anchorage.”
Right on cue, something scrapes upstairs, and I look up to the ceiling. “Entertaining, are you?” Evan is the most private guy I’ve ever known. He likes his business to be his business only.
“If you want to call it that,” he says with smirk. He’s back on his phone, typing away. “You’re good to keep going? You made it all the way from Ne’emba to here. Why stop now?”
“Yep. I’m good to go. I need… I just need to get to her. You get it?” I want to laugh now that the adrenaline spike is fading.
“Nope. I don’t.” He doesn’t look up, confirming that whatever is going on upstairs is a hook-up. “Anyway. Via Denver in two hours? Shortest layover, and with the four-hour time difference, hell, you might be able to tuck her in tonight.”
The notion is so sweet, but things may not be smooth sailing. Still, I smile. “Best get cracking.”
“I’ll drive you.”
“No need to—”
“She’ll be here when I get back.” With that, he disappears up the stairs again.
I take a blitz shower and toss some clothes into a carry-on bag. I grab my warmest jacket, and by the time I’m done, Evan is showered too and ready to go.
“Thanks, bro,” I say as we get into his car. “I owe you.”
“Yep. Big time.”
I laugh. “Mind if I check my email on your phone while we drive?”
“Sure. You’re such a fucking Neanderthal.” Evan hands me his phone. “Jeez, no phone for how many days now?”
“Four and counting. I’ll sort it out in Anchorage. It’s weird. I got weaned while on Ne’emba. You should try it.”
“Uh…nope. Thanks.”
I open the internet and log on to my email, scrolling for anything important. Nothing from Lexi. More than one email from my agent, Nick Mallet. He’s going to be pissed. Too bad, so sad.
Then there’s an email from Dad. I open it and scan.
Bottom line, it will take time, probably months, but after initial contact with St Chalamet, the hotel group has agreed to settle out of court.
At issue is the amount they’ll pay Mia Reed, and that’s something the lawyers will negotiate.
Reed would like to sue them for every last bedsheet, but this case is never going to see the light of day if St Chalamet has a say in it.
I lean back with a groan and close my eyes.
Idiots. The truth will come out, sooner or later.
It’s sitting there like a time bomb, except nobody knows when it’s going to explode.
Paying Mia Reed won’t stop anything, but St Chalamet will probably settle as soon as possible, hoping it will all go away.
“All good?” Evan asks.
“Mostly.” I look over at him. “What’s your take on Lexi’s part in that video that’s trending?”
“Old news already.” Evan shrugs. “I’ve seen fewer of those popping up, and in six months it will be buried under all the new crap that keeps being piled on.”
“Yeah. Probably.”
And until then, until forever, I plan to help her not give a damn and just live her life. And I’ll love her all the way.