AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I did skip the cannoli though. He was eating Italian for dinner.
By the time I got back to the hotel with three different lobster rolls and a few slices of Boston cream pie, it was late. I’d slipped away while the couple went to dinner, thinking it would give me plenty of time, but I’d underestimated the wait times I’d have to endure. Rhett and the team had returned to the hotel an hour ago, according to a text I got from Adalyn, and the place was pretty quiet. I used my keycard to get up to Rhett’s floor.
It wasn’t until I stood in front of his door that doubt crept in. He’d been awfully suspicious of my behavior in San Francisco, and this was the second time I’d gone to his room today. The last thing I wanted was for Rhett to think I was trying to get with him.
I wasn’tnottrying to make him fall in love with me. Here was the plan: I would knock, leave the food, then breezily walk away. Maybe my lack of trying to get into his room would make him realize that my lobster-roll hunt was purely charitable and in no way me going full-Beth.
Or was it? I still didn’t actually know what that meant.
The paper bag straps were cutting into my bent fingers. Okay, Beth. No more stressing about something that totally wouldn’t have stressed me out last week. I blew out a breath and knocked at the door.
“What’s up, Frenchy?” a deep voice said behind me.
I squealed and threw the bags. They hit the door and fell to the ground with a splat.
“Shoot.” Rhett slipped around me and bent to pick them up. He paused when he straightened, inhaling, his dark eyebrows drawing together.
“Well, there goes your cake,” I said ruefully.
He lifted an eyebrow.
I pointed to one of the paper bags in his hand. “It’s probably more like Boston cream mush now, but that’s your own fault for sneaking up on me.”
“What are you talking about?”
I lowered my voice in case his diet controllers were on this floor. “I brought you contraband.” I nodded to the bags. “And now that you have it, I’ll be on my way.” I turned away, proud of myself for my smooth-ish delivery. Smooth would have been handing the food over, not shrieking and chucking it at the door.
“Wait.”
I happily obliged.
He lifted the bag with lobster rolls and sniffed. “What contraband?”
“Just a few chicken breasts with a side of grass. I threw in a dandelion for a treat, so be sure to savor it.”
His lips quirked a bit, and he turned around to unlock his door. I didn’t realize until this moment that he was in joggers and a tee, sweat darkening his gray shirt on his back. He’d been at the gym? Now the extra pie felt a little mean.
Rhett paused just inside his room, lifting his eyebrows. The tilt of his head was an invitation that made my stomach swirl with anticipation. “You coming?”
Was this a test? I didn’t want to fail. My future and our someday wedding on a Maui beach could very well be riding on this moment.
“I don’t eat seafood,” I said.
Rhett wrinkled his nose. “You got me seafood cake?”
“No.”
“So, you coming?”
“I don’t want to disrupt your evening.”
Rhett left the door open and started walking into his hotel suite. It was slowly drifting closed, shutting off the image of him walking away. “Suit yourself, Frenchy, but I’m happy to have company.”
The door continued closing in slow motion, and I watched myself from the outside, as though I were in a movie and this moment pivoted the course of my life. He’d invited me in, more than once, and he didn’t seem at all like he was testing me. My hand shot out and stopped the door just before it closed. Who was I trying to kid? If Rhett invited me to hang out with him, there was no way I was turning the man down.
When I pushed into the room, he looked at me over his shoulder with a soft smile that melted me into a puddle on the floor.
Rhett put the bags on the table and slid his earbuds from his pocket. “I’m not sure we can be friends if you don’t like seafood. It’s one of my favorite food groups.”
