Chapter 44
MAGGIE SCANNED THE DINING room but Gray wasn’t there and, for a brief second, she cursed everyone who’d delayed her from going up to him. What if she’d missed the moment?
What if he’d just gone to the bathroom, she then thought, feeling foolish.
Turning to the bar, she looked for a bottle with anything left in it. Empty bottles, glasses seared with fingerprints, discarded lemon quarters and corks covered the surface.
She glanced once more around the room before wondering if Gray had gone outside. She ducked through the French windows and frowned at the terrace around the pool. A milky half-disc of moon shone down on the water, but nobody was out there.
She walked around the front, listening to the voices of various guests disappear as they staggered down the drive and the hum of car engines fading, but there was no sign of him.
Turning on the gravel, she looked up and saw that Gray’s bedroom light was off, his curtains drawn, and her heart fell like a stone in a well. Had he gone to bed without coming to find her? But there’d been that look between them in the dining room. That had meant something.
She walked around the other side of the hotel to avoid being caught by anyone else leaving, and to the open back door, where a rectangle of yellow light shone out, but the kitchen was empty too. Or at least, empty of people. A great pile of plates and dishes, dirty bowls and sticky knives and forks covered the surfaces, which would have to be a job for the morning.
She tilted her head at the sound of a fridge closing. ‘Jamie?’
‘Uh uh,’ said an American voice, and Maggie turned to see him in the pantry doorway holding a bottle of Champagne.
‘Oh, hi, I thought …’
‘You thought?’
‘I thought you’d gone to bed.’
‘Without toasting the immense success of tonight? Maggie, c’mon. Shall we?’ Gray motioned towards the back door.
She followed him outside and sat on the bench as he poured.
‘Congratulations,’ he said, holding up his glass of water. ‘Congratulations for tonight and also, congratulations for you.’
She frowned. ‘For me?’
‘For you, because you’re pretty talented, Maggie Lemon, or however you pronounce it, and I don’t believe enough people tell you that.’
She matched his smile. ‘You don’t?’ she teased.
‘I don’t. I’ve observed this, over the past few weeks. You’ve been running this place, looking after everyone, organizing the sale, packing up, cooking … You’ve done everything. You do everything. And you do it all without seeming like it’s a hassle.’
‘I guess because it’s not really. This place is like home to me, so it doesn’t feel like work, apart from when we have fancy, demanding guests staying.’ She grinned to demonstrate this was a joke, but Gray’s face remained serious, searching hers.
‘I’m not sure you know how impressive it is.’
She looked at him with suspicion. ‘Is this because you have nine hundred staff in LA?’
‘No!’ He laughed before leaning in closer and lowering his voice. ‘I mean, I do have nine hundred staff. But still, you’re astonishingly capable.’
‘Thanks. And you’re a really good gardener.’
Gray laughed so hard that his shoulders shook, which made Maggie crack up too, and they sat together, shoulders shaking as laughter rolled through them.
‘Jeez,’ he said, once he’d got control of himself, running a hand through his hair. ‘It’s been so good out here, to be away from the bullshit. I’d forgotten what it’s like to laugh like that and really lose control, you know?’
‘I do, and same. It’s been kind of amazing, really. I thought you were such an arsehole.’
His eyes widened.
‘Not now, I mean,’ Maggie reassured him, batting his arm with the back of her hand. ‘To begin with. When you were all “I don’t need dinner, take my tray away”.’
‘Honestly? I thought you were a little schoolmistressy.’
‘Oh my god!’
‘What? You just said you thought I was an asshole.’
‘It’s funny though, isn’t it? When you know someone and you think back to your preconceptions about them. I thought you were this big celebrity.’
Gray leant closer and lowered his voice again. ‘I don’t know if you know this, but I am actually quite a big celebrity.’
‘Shut up,’ she said, laughing and swiping his arm again, except this time he caught her hand and wrapped his fingers around hers. ‘I’m trying to say something nice,’ she went on, struggling to keep her voice level while her heart spun at the sensation of his touch.
‘Tell me.’
Maggie swallowed. ‘What I was going to say is I thought you were this big celebrity, but you’re so much better than that. Gray Hudson the handyman is a great, great guy and I’m going to miss him.’
‘Will you give me five stars on Google?’
‘I will.’
They held each other’s gaze for a couple of beats until he looked out into the night and sighed. ‘Yeah, leaving here is going to be harder than I thought it would be a few weeks ago too. But I don’t know what to do about that,’ he said, looking back before she could reply, ‘because there are complications.’
Maggie nodded and glanced down at Gray’s hand covering hers. There were complications.
‘But the thing is,’ he went on, ‘right now, I’m not sure I care very much about those complications.’
Their eyes met as they had across the throng of guests earlier. There was recognition, a secret acceptance between them, and Gray had released Maggie’s hand to cup the back of her head.
‘I think let’s not worry about those complications now,’ she whispered, with a small smile.
‘Agreed,’ he murmured, before pressing his mouth to hers.