Chapter 76
VICTOR
“Hold back, there’s an intruder at the gate,” the burly security guard tells me, listening to his radio.
But I will not hold back. I’m a Penmayne - we don’t shy away from danger.
An intruder trying to break into this airport?
I don’t care about my security - this I want to see...
It’s raining as I step out of the limo parked next to my private jet. The security is trying to usher me back into the vehicle, but I’m really not afraid of their warnings. The water pelts down as I try to stare out in the distance and spot the intruder, but it’s too wet and windy to make out any figure.
I squint.
Who could this be?
And then I see them.
And I know who it is immediately. I could place that figure anywhere.
Josie Gunn.
She’s running across the runway, straight toward me. Running through the rain. Running and running and running and running...
“They’re on the move,” one of the security guards says, reaching for his gun.
I reach out and place a hand on his shoulder.
“Don’t,” I say. “I know her. She’s with me.”
The security guard nods and calls off the other men. They follow my command. They withdraw.
And Josie continues to run to me across the airport.
By the time she reaches me, she’s totally out of breath. The rain soaks her dress. Her hair is stuck to her face.
It feels like forever since I last saw her.
“I saw you win,” she says to me before any kind of greeting. “That award. Well done.”
I smile.
“Thank you, Josie. May I ask, what are you doing here?”
She blinks. She wasn’t expecting that question when she decided to run across a runway in the pouring rain.
“I heard you were in Crystal River for a night and so I waited to catch you at the airport before you left,” she explains.
“Sounds like you’re stalking me,” I reply.
“Well, congratulations anyway. I know how much that award means to you.”
“Yes.”
“Was it true what you said?” she asks. “On stage? What your speech was about?”
“It was true,” I say, genuinely.
“About it not being fake?”
“I’m sorry that I ever made you feel like it wasn’t,” I say. “I was holding out on it so long because I didn’t know what I was feeling. I refused to even acknowledge it. I refused to even try to understand my own feelings. I was caught up in my own mythology, and I didn’t even see you or fully process what you meant to me. What you still mean to me.”
Josie nods.
She takes it in.
A pause.
“That’s better than any of your movie performances,” she remarks finally.
“That’s because I’m not acting,” I reply. “I love you, Josie. I was stupid to think I would never fall for a girl. I really thought I never would until I met you.”
“I’m sorry to think of you as just a playboy,” she says. “That really scared me.”
“I’m not one, though,” I say.
“I know that now. It just took me a whole moment...”
“There is something else,” I say. “Something I’ve forgotten.”
“What is it?” Josie asks.
“I’ve decided I want a family. I want a baby, Josie. And there’s only one woman I want to do that with.”
And the barista leans up in one move and kisses me.
It’s a long kiss. The most perfect kiss.
And when we finally stop, I just have to add something else...
“You told me you found it cheesy when the hero ran up to the heroine in the rain at the end of the movie, Josie. That’s what you’ve just done.”
“Yes, I did,” she replies cheekily. “But I’ve changed my mind. It’s pretty damn romantic.”
And now it’s my turn to kiss her.
“Do you want to come with me?” I ask her, gesturing at the private plane behind me. “Do you want to come to Australia? I’m filming a new movie there.”
“Are you joking?”
I smile at her.
“No, I’m not.”
“Then yes, please.”
I grab her hand.
“Let’s go, then.”