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All the way to the hotel, I stare at her. Wondering what she is thinking, what she’s done all day. If she missed me like I missed her. I’m so transfixed, I don’t realize the cab has stopped.
“We’re here, sir,” the cabbie says, eyeing me like I’m crazy. I pay him through the window as Sin struggles to shoulder her heavy camera bag.
“Let me,” I say, walking around to her door and opening it. She shrugs, stepping out on the pavement with nary a protest.
I join her on the portico and shuffle her equipment to grab her hand. She smiles as I trace her knuckles with my thumb. We head to the elevators and in a nod to our night together in New Orleans, I press the button with our joined hands. The gesture makes Sin’s big eyes darken with desire.
After the short ride, I lead the way to my suite. Once inside, Sin asks to use the bathroom.
I smirk. “A little déjà vu, don’t you think?”
She rolls her eyes.
“There’s a powder room to your right,” I say, nodding my head in that direction.
She gives me a thumbs up as she crosses the hallway to use it. As she closes the door, I toe off my shoes and socks and let the conversation I had with Gramps filter through my mind.
I don’t know what he has planned, but I’m sure I can weasel out of it. If I can wrap up my work at STS, I can leave on Thursday evening. That way, I’ll have all day Friday to do whatever Gramps needs me to do. I can then fly back on Saturday and spend the rest of the weekend with Sin.
Wait?
Why am I thinking along those lines? What has changed?
Gramps’s voice breaks it down for me into cold, hard facts. Are you rushing back to that woman? Maybe you are more like your father than I realized.
Or maybe those are my thoughts, materializing in my grandfather’s voice? Either way, I gave Gramps my word. I should do the honorable thing and keep it, right?
I’m still debating that thought when Sin, as if she were a homing beacon to my body, has me turning her way the moment she comes from the bathroom. Planting her feet and standing tall and straight, everything flies from my head except the vision before me.
“Explain,” she croaks.
“First off,” I say, giving her my sternest expression, so she knows I mean business. “I don’t want you talking anymore. We’ll pass my phone like we did before.”
She purses her lips for a beat, then nods.
Speaking of phones, I need to get her a new one. It’s my fault hers is more messed up that it already was. Not to mention her phone is over four years old. Cameras have improved so much. She needs to take her pictures with a better one.
“Second,” I say, rubbing my gurgling stomach. Now that the drama has died down, my hunger is back. “I’m going to order something to eat since I didn’t get to enjoy my chili.”
Sin gives me a look that says ‘Not my fault’ before she moves to sit on the brown leather couch. She crosses her legs and jiggles a foot in her impatience.
We have a stare off; me grinning and her scowling while I place my order with room service. When I ask for some tea with lemon and honey, an excellent remedy for a raspy throat, Sin’s frown disappears at the same time her foot stops jiggling.
Seems I’m winning points already.
After hanging up with room service, I remove my phone from my shorts then join Sin on the couch. After opening the Notes app, I hand it to her and prop a leg on the cushion, turning so I can see her fully.
To open our conversation, I start from the beginning. “Do you know the son of the former owner?”
Sin: Shane? Yes, I’ve seen him around but never met him.
“When I first got here, I had dinner with Mr. Williams and his family, and that’s when I met Shane. He has a gym. Did you know that?
Sin: No. I heard from the rumor mill that Mr. Williams and his wife were selling the company because their kids didn’t want to take it over. I didn’t know Shane had his own thing.
Handing her the phone after I read what she wrote, I explained that Shane invited me to his gym and had taken me to his home to meet his girlfriend Joyce. Subsequently, I’d befriended them both. During a visit, Joyce had asked if I was single as she had a friend—blah-blah-blah.
