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God, that sounded so good right then.
She’d no sooner settled in at the vanity and pulled a makeup remover wipe from its packaging than she heard a deep voice from the doorway say, “Wow. I think I should’ve brought bigger flowers.”
Her head snapped up. She couldn’t believe her ears. But, yes, there he was—she could see him reflected in the mirror, leaning jauntily against the door jamb.
She spun around on the vanity stool, not quite trusting her eyes, or maybe not quite trusting the reflection.
And yes, there he was, clear as day.
“Troy? What are you doing here? How did you get here?”
He held out the single red rose toward her. “I came to see an incredible performance by a brilliant woman. It was well worth the trip.”
Tears began streaming down her face and she made no move to wipe them away. She launched herself into his arms, kissing his face, and then his lips.
They kissed passionately, and then just held each other tightly for a long moment. She drank in his presence. The manly musk of his cologne that never failed to turn her on, even at moments of heightened emotion like this one.
Finally, she pulled back and put her hands on either side of his face, searching his eyes for…she wasn’t quite sure what.
“You’re really here,” she said wonderingly.
“I am.”
“It’s not a dream.”
“Not unless I’m having the same one.”
She pulled him over to the couch that ran along the far wall and they sat together. She gripped his hand tightly. She still wasn’t entirely convinced that he wasn’t going to just, POOF, disappear—that he hadn’t been a figment of her imagination all along.
“Alison, I have something to say to you. I’ve given it a lot of thought.”
Her eyes widened and she steeled herself as her stomach turned over. Oh, shit! There’s no way he’d fly all this way and surprise me backstage just to officially break up with me in a singularly dramatic fashion…right? I mean that would be crazy!
She kept her face as neutral as she could, waiting for him to fill her in on what he’d been thinking about.
He took a deep breath. “I’ve been an idiot. There’s no reason you can’t have everything—Valentine Bay, me, Mila, your career…I don’t know what I was thinking. My only excuse is that I’ve been so fiercely protective of Mila for so long that when I started to feel like there was a chance of you drifting away and not coming back, I flipped.
“But I realize now it wasn’t even about her, not completely. It was about me. Feeling scared. Feeling out of control. Because I love you. God, so much. It’s deep, and it’s permanent, and it’s not something that can be torn apart by some fucking travel that you need to do for work. God, I was such an idiot! And I’m just praying I’m not too late to show you how I feel.”
“I bought the house!” she blurted.
Troy stopped, drawing his brows together. “What? What house?”
“The house I’m living in. I called the owner and made a ridiculous offer. Which she accepted. I know I paid way more than it’s worth, but I don’t even care. It’s worth it to me. Because I’m staying in Valentine Bay. It doesn’t matter how many trips I take for work. Valentine Bay is my home. You’re my home. And I needed you to know that.”
Troy kissed her then, with so much passion it took her breath away. When he pulled back, he had a sheepish smile on his face.
She giggled. “What? What’s that smile about?”
He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a sheaf of photos. He handed them to her without a word and she took them and leafed through.
She tilted her head to the side. Each photo was more beautiful than the last.
“Troy, how did you find these? Whatever space this is—it’s the perfect combination of all of the ideas I had for Triple Threat. It’s amazing…it’s perfect! Where is it? I want to go visit it. I want to go right now!”
Troy smiled. “It’s in Valentine Bay.”
She drew back, shocked. “What? What are you talking about? Where?”
