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“But does his mansion have a beautiful woman and a pink couch?”
The door to our suite looms in front of me, and I eye it as if it’s a fire-breathing dragon. “I’m frustrated with myself, Mom.”
“Why?”
“Because you’re right about all of it, obviously, and I do still have feelings for Derek—love him, even—and did when I broke up with him too. But I really thought there wasn’t a way that we would work out back then and be able to pursue our separate dreams.”I also might have been trying to beat him to the punch by breaking up with him before he had a chance to break my heart.“But now that I’m hereand we’ve both achieved our goals and our feelings have lasted all this time, I can’t decide if I regret breaking up with him or if I’m happy I followed my career?”
“I think both realities can be true. You don’t have to pick. Maybe Derek was always the right person, just at the wrong time.” I can hear the smile in my mom’s voice because she knows that what she’s saying is profound, and she will likely turn it into an inspirational quote for Pinterest after we hang up. She’ll take up embroidery just so she can stitch it onto a pillow.
“Now, I’m just your old mom, but I say Derek’s right and you could ease up on yourself this week. Use this time to get to know him again and figure out what you really want. Have some fun.”
It feels like my stomach grows wings and dashes off a cliff at those words.Have some fun.The concept is definitely long overdue.
“Do you want shiny silverware or matte?” she finally asks.
“Matte. Thank you, Mom.”
“I’m just a call away if you need me, lovey. But maybe wait until my movie is over because those people in there would be excellent hall monitors and I’m scared to find out what they’ll do to me if I act up again.”
We end the call after exchangingI love you’s and Mom reminding me to wear sunscreen (a little too late for that, lady) and then I lower my phone and eye the door again. I would touch it longingly if I didn’t think the security cameras out here would catch me looking angsty.
Before I let myself start thinking too hard about this, I fill my lungs with a breath so big they might pop and then I march into the suite.
Derek is on the floor foam-rolling his right hamstrings when I storm into the room. His eyebrows lift.
“First of all, that is a very scandalous position you’re in, sir.”
“I’ve learned not to do this stretch around any cameras for a reason,” he says. “Do you have a second following the first?”
“Yes,” I say with one final, definitive Nicole-esque head nod. “Let’s break all the rules, Derek Pender.”
I can’t stop staring at Nora. She’s like a sexy stick of bubble gum right now. Not sure she’d actually think that comparison is attractive, but believe me, it is. She’s wearing a two-piece bright pink outfit that I was told is called a bandeau and trousers fit. All I know is her shoulders are completely bare, still a little red from the burn and sprinkled with cute freckles that have darkened from our day out by the pool this morning (taking pictures for the article), and a section of her abdomen is peeking out from behind the high waist of her flowy pants.
She looks good.
So good that as Alec took photos outside the restaurant and people stopped to watch and snap pics with their phones when they realized who I was, I felt the urge to stand in front of Nora. Her body looks too incredible. Her smile is too wide and sparkling. I want to hide it so no one else can see it.She’s mine.
But no, Nora is very much her own person. And hiding any part of this woman would be a mistake—so instead, I angled behind her, setting her up front and center where she belongs.
Her lips curl around the rim of her drink now—oblivious to the desire and possessiveness thrumming under my skin.
“What’s next when you get home, Nora?”
She eyes me sidelong. “Like…next for us?”
“I mean, what’s next foryou.” I tilt my head. “You haven’t so much as slipped a mention of your career plans for after we’re back—which tells me they’ve been swirling through your head for days and you’ve been extra careful not to hint at them.”
She sits back in her seat, eyeing me appreciatively—hesitantly. “I didn’t want to bring it up and risk messing with whatever this connection is again.”
“You think it’s that fragile?”
She shrugs. “I don’t know. It seemed wrong to flaunt my dreams in front of you when yours are…”Hanging in the balanceis what she doesn’t say. And now she looks like she instantly regrets those words.
I get it. There was a time when I unintentionally prioritized my career over hers. When I wouldn’t have been able to stomach watching her success while mine was fading. And now she thinks this truth might shut me down completely.
I sit forward and smile. “It’s Demetris, isn’t it?”
Those lips pull into a soft surprised smile. She leans forward too. “What do you know of Demetris?”
