“Call us after dinner. The kids want to talk to you. And Skye?” She paused. “Just talk. This wasn’t on either of you.”
“Tell the kids I love them and I’ll see them when I get back.”
“Don’t forget to get them something.”
I hung up as the cab pulled through the resort gates. The property opened up ahead of me. Warm stone, tropical green, and water catching the late-afternoon light everywhere I looked. It was a beautiful reminder that you had stepped entirely out of your regular life.
This was paradise.
I entered the villa and stood in the entrance, taking it in. It was beautiful and massive. Floor-to-ceiling windows. White linen and blue everything. A soaking tub was visible from where I stood. A full lunch spread on the terrace, with a card on the table that read:
See you at seven!
Turkey Avocado Club Sandwich with Regular Lays chips and raspberry lemonade.
I stood there staring at the tray a beat too long. I tried to hold onto being mad. It didn’t work. I’d never say Ducane wasn’t a good man because that would be a lie. I smiled and sat down, thinking about how he never let the small things slide, not with me.
By the time I stood, I was full and feeling jet lag set in. I peeled my uniform off and stepped into the shower, letting the water run hot over my skin.
I’d been in the air all day. My body felt it.
Sleep wasn’t optional. Not if I was about to sit across from Ducane Simmons and keep my composure intact.
His scent wasthe first thing I noticed, before my own eyes were even open. That made no sense because the last time I checked, I was alone in this villa. I sat up slowly, curls falling over my shoulders, and found Ducane Simmons standing nearthe terrace door, looking entirely too comfortable for a man who had not been invited inside.
“Ducane, why are you being a creep in my room?”
“I always loved it when you wore your hair like that.”
“Cane.” I squinted at him. I wanted to reminisce, too, but I was afraid to expose myself that way. “Why are you here, and when did you decide boundaries were optional?”
“It's eight thirty, Spot. I gave you space past seven, figuring you were just running behind, but I knocked for ten minutes straight after that and thought the worst.” He looked me over once. “Turns out you were just exhausted. Still snoring like a bear in hibernation. I just let you sleep.”
Eight thirty made me lunge for the lamp and then my phone. Several missed calls from him and Airalynn. I wasn’t surprised that neither of us had changed our numbers.
“My bad. I didn’t mean to fall asleep. Jet lag.”
“I ain’t trippin. I had them set dinner up on the beach instead.” He paused just long enough. “We could?—”
“Pivot.”
He grinned, and it was the same grin from the first day of class, wide and unbothered and fully aware of its own effect. “I knew you remembered.”
“Ducane.”
“Witness protection, fake names, I was going to coach using nothing but movie quotes. You were going to?—”
“I told you no past. Those were the terms.”
“You said no pops and no past.” He tilted his head. “That’s not the past. That’s still a possibility. That’s the future.”
“Get out so I can get dressed.”
“Aight. Beach in twenty.”
I stood and stretched as he left. I let myself have exactly one second of feeling terrible about being late before my mind reminded me to give this man hell. Then my stomach growled,and I decided hell could wait. I was starving, and there was dinner on a beach with my name on it.
I prayed while I got dressed. A real prayer, asking God to keep me in my right mind and out of my feelings. I did not want to be in some twilight zone situation. Spin the block energy needed to arrive in an Escalade, not a hooptie, and right now I had no way of knowing which one this was. Was I Keyshia Cole or Ashanti here?
