Chapter 23
Istopped off at the concierge desk before I went upstairs, wanting to make sure that all of my plans had been carried out as requested.
“Absolutely, sir,” the perky woman assured me. “Just give us a call when you’re in your room and ready and we’ll send up the drinks.”
She had responded by the time the elevator reached my floor. Andy has a conference call in twenty minutes. I’ll be up in a few.
“Take that, fuck-face,” I muttered to myself, then looked up as a scandalized woman with a toddler passed me, glaring.
“I’m so sorry,” I called after her, but it was hard to feel much remorse when I knew I was finally going to get to spend some real time with Gracie.
I let myself into my room. It had taken some finagling to get the travel department to let me have it.
I was sure it was nothing like the suite Andy had reserved—and the girls had apparently commandeered—but it had a separate bedroom and living space—and enough room for us to have a full meal.
I was pleased to find the hotel had set things up exactly as I asked.
Now I just had to make sure I didn’t mess anything up while I waited.
Her knock came sooner than I’d expected, and I rushed to the door.
As soon as I opened it, she kind of collapsed into my arms and a swelling of something like relief rose up in me.
It struck me, then, how very much I wanted her to be as affected by this relationship as I was.
I was falling head-over-heels for this woman, and I wanted her to feel the same way, wanted it so bad it felt like a constant ache in my chest.
“I missed you,” she whispered against my shirt, and I tightened my arms, lifting her up a little so I could back into the suite, bringing her with me. I let the door slam shut and then my lips were on hers, hot and insistent and very impatient.
“Missed you too,” I mumbled against her mouth. “So much.”
When her hands slipped to my lower back, edging up against my belt—God, she was close to my ass and I wanted her hands on me—I made myself pull away. If I didn’t get a handle on myself, I was going to have her naked and under me within minutes. And there were things I needed to take care of first.
“Come on,” I said, tugging on her hand and pulling her away from the entryway and into the living area. She stopped short, staring around. “What is this?”
I rubbed my hand over my neck, feeling suddenly nervous. What if she thought it was too much?
“I, uh, wanted to plan something special for you.”
She finally stepped forward into the room itself, gazing around with wide eyes and a slightly parted mouth. “Liam. This is…” she trailed off, shaking her head.
“Overkill?” I offered.
She spun around to face me, eyes flashing. “What? No! Of course not.” She shook her head again. “I was going to say…amazing. This is beautiful and amazing and I can’t believe you did this for me.”
Everything in me relaxed. “I wish we could have done real candles, but the hotel insisted on these LED things.” I gestured at the fake candles covering just about every hard surface in the room, casting the space with soft yellow light. “Apparently real candles are like a fire hazard or something?”
She grinned. “An open flame is a fire hazard. Who would have guessed?”
I grinned. “Right? Anyhow. We had to settle for these. But they’re pretty cool, I guess. I mean, at least there’s no wax to worry about.” I was kind of babbling but it didn’t matter because the next thing I knew Gracie had launched herself back into my arms.
“This is beautiful,” she breathed against my shoulder. “Thank you. You didn’t have to do anything. Just being with you would have been enough.”
I pulled back enough to be able to look down at her face.
The prettiest face I’d ever seen. “I’ve been wanting to take you out on a real date for weeks, Gracie,” I told her.
Hell, I’d been wanting to take her out on a date for more than a decade.
But I hurried to continue when guilt flashed over her face.
“And I understand why you’re skittish about that.
I really do. I just thought that since we have this night together and this room all to ourselves, maybe I could show you what a date with me would be like. ”
“Well, starting a date with dozens of candles is pretty impressive.”
I traced her full bottom lip with my thumb, loving the way it curved up when she smiled. “This is only the beginning, sweetheart.”
“There’s more?”
I grinned. “So much more.”
As if on cue, there was another knock on the door. Gracie went stiff in my arms, probably worried that her brother had somehow followed her. “Relax,” I told her, releasing her reluctantly so I could let the server in.
The man pushed a shiny metal bar cart into the room. “Where would you like your drinks prepared, sir?”
“Balcony,” I said, waiting until he was outside before taking Grace’s hand.
“So, here’s the thing. When you told me you were coming to New York, I started thinking about all of the things I would want to do with you in the city if I had the chance.
” I grinned. “My list got a little long, so we’re definitely going to need to come back someday.
But for now, I narrowed it down to some favorites. ”
“Liam—”
Again, I brought my thumb to her lips, quieting her this time.
“If I was taking you on a date in New York, we would start off at my favorite place to have drinks. It’s this little bar in the West Village, close to where I used to live.
The place is really cool, not at all pretentious.
Just really interesting drinks and a comfortable atmosphere.
And they have a little patio out back with tons of those string lights overhead.
It’s a nice place to sit outside in the middle of the city.
” I reached out my hand for hers. “I arranged to have their signature cocktail brought up. If that sounds good to you.”
She shook her head, eyes shining. “You’re unbelievable.”
“Is that a yes on the drinks?”
She laughed. “Yes. It’s a yes.”
The server was mixing our drinks when I led her outside to the balcony. I heard her intake of breath as she took in the view, the lights of Manhattan stretching off in every direction.
“Wow,” Gracie murmured, walking straight to the railing.
“Not bad, is it?” I asked, coming up to stand next to her.
“It’s gorgeous.” She leaned into my shoulder. “You must miss this.”
Before I could answer, the server cleared his throat and I turned to take our drinks. “There are two more servings in the shaker,” he told me, nodding to the silver canister on the cart. “Will that be all?”
“That’s great, thanks,” I told him, handing Grace her drink so I could reach into my pocket for my wallet. I pressed a fifty into his hand.
“Thank you, sir,” he said. “They’ll bring dinner up in fifteen minutes, if that works for you?”
“Fifteen minutes is great.” Part of me wanted more time to stand there with Gracie, sipping our cocktails but I was starving. I’d had a sandwich before leaving the arena, but playing hockey burned a hell of a lot of calories.
After the server left, I rejoined Gracie at the railing. “Do you know what we’re looking at?” she asked. “I don’t know New York geography.”
It took me only a moment to orient myself. “We’re facing downtown,” I told her. “That strip without lights there is the Hudson River. And that’s New Jersey on the other side.”
“And where did you live?”
“We’re actually pretty close,” I said. “About twenty blocks that way.”
“Twenty blocks is close?” she asked.
I chuckled. “In New York? Sure. That’s only two or three subway stops.
” I pointed to a tall building. “That’s the Rockefeller Center.
Josie and I used to go skating there every winter.
It was always crowded as fuck. I would tell her she could skate with me at the arena, but she insisted it was more fun.
” I swallowed, suddenly missing my little girl with an intensity that threatened to steal my breath.
“You can’t see it from this angle, but Central Park is just up there.
We’d go every Saturday when I was in town, rain or shine.
She loved the Children’s Zoo and the carousel. ”
“I can see why she’s been homesick,” Gracie said quietly. “But you didn’t answer my question about whether you miss it.”
I took a sip of my cocktail, thinking about it.
“I do and I don’t,” I finally told her. “I have a lot of good memories here, especially with Josie. And with the team. This is where I started my career, you know? Where my little girl grew up. So there’s a certain amount of nostalgia.
But the past few years…” I shook my head, not wanting to talk about Chloe right now.
“It was a lot harder, after the divorce,” I finally said.
“And I think that makes it a little bit more difficult for me to look back at my time here with rose-colored glasses.”
“I get that,” she said. She was quiet for a moment but I sensed there was more she wanted to say.
“I feel like that when I think about Minnesota,” she finally said.
“There are still good memories there, but so much of it is wrapped up in my mom and the way we grew up. It’s hard not to think about that stuff whenever I remember home. ”
“Do you ever go back?”
She shook her head. “I haven’t been back since I moved here.”
“I used to hope I would run into you,” I admitted. “Whenever I was home from college. Or later, when I’d bring Josie to visit my parents.”
She gave me a sad smile. “Your family were probably the only people from that town that I would have liked to see again.”
I leaned down to kiss her just as a loud knock came from the room behind us. “Damn,” I whispered, straightening up. “That’s probably dinner.”
She smirked. “You better get it then. Don’t think I haven’t heard the way your stomach has been growling.”