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I want to say yes, which is a good indication I shouldn’t. “Yeah. Maybe.”
The rest of the walk is silent. To the hotel and into the lobby and inside the elevator.
Once the silver doors glide shut, I pull the ball cap off my head and hand it back to him. “Thank you. For dinner. For tonight.”
“Yeah.” His voice is quiet.
The doors open, revealing the empty hallway of our floor. He lets me walk ahead, trailing behind until we reach my room.
I shove a hand into my pocket and freeze. “Fuck.”
“What?”
“I put my room key in here. And it’s gone.” I glance back at the carpeted hallway, hoping it will magically appear. No such luck. “It must have fallen out at the park.”
“I’ll go down to the front desk and get you a new one.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” I reply. “I’ll handle it. It’s late, and you’ve been traveling for the past day.”
“Ridiculouswould be heading to bed and hoping you don’t have to sleep in the hallway.”
He moves to walk past me, so I grab his arm.
“I’ll have to call Hannah. She booked the rooms. And she’ll call Suzan, and then—”
“Do you need anything in your room?”
I blink at him. “Um, do you mean like every single thing I brought?”
Teddy rolls his eyes. “For tonight. Is there anything you need?”
I run through a mental checklist. Pajamas, phone charger, face wash, toothpaste, toothbrush…
“Nothing essential for one night, I guess.”
“They gave me a room with two queens. If you want, you can take the other bed. Sort everything out in the morning.”
Logically, I know that spending the night in the same room as Teddy is a dangerous idea. More close proximity isn’t the answer to the emotions I’ve been battling all night. But I’m just as desperate to prove to myself that I can handle this.
Tonight is just the first night we’ll be around each other in a long series of them. The sooner I ensure I can act normal and in control, the better.
So, I say, “Okay,” instead of,Bad idea.
Rather than Teddy trailing behind me, I end up walking behind him, watching his confident strides and straight posture. His room is only a few doors farther down the hall. He swipes the key and turns the handle, propping the door open for me to walk in first.
There’s a noticeable temperature difference between the hallway and his room. Cool, crisp air sucks the moisture from my skin, chilling every surface it touches.
“Sorry. Cottage doesn’t have air-conditioning, and the plane was hot. I went a little overboard.”
“It’s fine,” I say, studying the room and resisting the urge to shiver.
There’s no living room attached the way there is in my room. Just the two beds and a pair of armchairs in the corner. An open doorway reveals a bathroom visible to the right.
“Pretty sure I saw some extra toiletries in there. And I can grab you a shirt to sleep in?”
I wind my hair into a knot and snap an elastic to hold it in place. “Yeah. That’d be great.”
Teddy nods. Unzips the duffel bag that’s resting on one of the armchairs and digs through it until he finds a white T-shirt.
