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“Hannah? Hannah Graham?”
“Oh!” Hannah exclaimed, sharp relief coursing through her veins at the sound of her own name.
By ten forty-five, butterflies had settled into her stomach as she’d anxiously paced the lobby, wondering if any of her co-workers were actually going to arrive—because if she was standing in the visitor center, in fact waiting for no one, she was going to a) feel extremely stupid and b) heads were going to roll.
Well, maybe not actuallyroll, but proverbially.
“Yes, that’s me. I’m Hannah,” she answered brightly as she turned around—and almost bumped into an extremely pale-skinned man with short white-blond hair. A man who looked…well, albino.
A man she’d never met in her life.
She blinked. And blinked again.
Who was this guy?
She’d known that there’d be at least one member of their party she wouldn’t know, so this wasn’tthatmuch of a surprise, but still… Hannah took a step back, glancing to her left and right, then back at the guy, puzzled. “Where are Ron and—”
“Hello, I’m Fucyu,” the guy cut in.
Hannah hesitated, not quite understanding. He spoke with an accent she couldn’t place. His bright, inhuman-looking silver eyes stared at her intently behind thick lenses. He used his pointer finger to push his glasses higher on the bridge of his chalk-white nose.
“My name is Fucyu T’Antor,” he said slowly. “Ron and Daisy aren’t here, but I came to take the tour with you anyway.”
Her mouth fell open. “F…fu…” she sputtered and stalled. She must’ve heard wrong. Did this guy just say his first name was…a curse word? No.No. That wasn’t possible. She stared at him, waiting for the punchline, waiting for him to crack up and tell her it was all a joke. Except he continued to watch her with those bright silver eyes, unlike any she’d ever seen before, with a completely serious expression on his face, like that was actually his name.
Holy shit.
She kept running through the pronunciation in her mind, trying to place that accent and what country he must be originally from…but had to bite her lip to keep from letting out a huge snort-laugh, because his name…Oh no…
This was terrible. It wasn’t nice to laugh over someone else’s name.
But…
Again—whowasthis guy?
Hannah’s panicked mind wrestled with this question as she stood in the sunlit lobby of the Hearst Castle visitor center—a place echoing with the laughter and chatter of people milling about and rushing past—as she tried to take in this whole situation and avoid a public meltdown.
Because, holy crap, when she’d agreed to go on this tour today with a group of co-workers at her new job, she hadn’t remotely expected to be signing up for a trip involving hours of one-on-one small talk with a total stranger. There was a reason why she’d never applied for customer service positions. She sucked at this shit.
Fucyu’s mouth curled at the edges, revealing surprisingly bright white teeth for a man with no color elsewhere. “But you may call me T’Antor,” he finally finished. “Ron and Daisy aren’t here,” he repeated, “But I’m here and ready to take the tour of Hearst Castle with you.”
“T’Antor?” she squeaked. “All right…T’Antor,” she answered with an exhale of relief, thankful for the ability to call him something other than a curse word. “You’re saying Ron and Daisy cancelled, too?”
“Yes. Their vehicle broke down.”
“Damn.” Their car broke down? And they hadn’t told her? Hannah pursed her lips. Daisy was a sweetheart, and her favorite friend at work, but, come on, you didn’t break down at the side of the road and not take a moment to call or text the person you were planning to meet. A simple, “Hey, not going to make it,” at the very least.
Right?
Not saying anything and leaving her there to be surprised by a meetup with this total stranger was just—not how this worked. That wasn’t how any of this worked!
Hannah let out a long-suffering sigh. Maybe they’d sent a text too late for her to receive…Ugh.
She’d been eagerly awaiting this chance to go to Hearst Castle since the moment she’d moved to Paso Robles for her new job at the winery. In fact, this trip was supposed to be a special bonding experience with her new co-workers. Except they’d all started dropping off like flies at the last second. One got sick. Someone else’s mother unexpectedly came into town for an overnight visit. There was a husband on a business trip and no babysitter…on and on…
Shit, if she’d known it was going to end up like this, she would’ve just cancelled, and they could’ve rescheduled the tour. But as she was driving over, she’d thought Ron and Daisy were still meeting her at the visitor center at ten thirty, bringing along some new friend.
