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"Not 'just like that.' I'd never planned to stay this long, but I extended my visit because of you." I sit up too and force myself to look into her eyes while I explain. "Now that I know Dexter wants to sign with my company, I don't need to be in the Caribbean anymore. I'll draft a contract from here, so I can have Dexter sign before I leave. But my company needs me. I've ignored work for too long, and I need to straighten things out back there."
"I get it." She whisks her hands up and down her arms, hugging herself tighter.
Maddie looks so…dejected. I want to hug her, but after what I've told her, I'm not sure she'll want me to do that. I'm feeling the way she looks, my shoulders caving in and an ice-cold lump forming in my gut.
"Where do you live?" I ask. "Can't believe I've never asked you that, but I just realized I haven't done. So where do you live, Maddie?"
"Nowhere." She hunches her shoulders. "I had an apartment in Chicago, but I was gone so much that I only went there maybe once a year. I gave up the lease so somebody else could have it. My job takes me all over the place, which means I haven't really had a home in years. My parents moved to Sweden several years ago, and my sister lives in England now. I'm a vagabond, I guess."
Her voice conveys a loneliness I hadn't noticed in her before. I suppose she's hidden it because we were virtual strangers when we met, and we've only just gotten better acquainted. I can't blame her for not sharing her deepest feelings with me. Maybe on some level, I sensed her loneliness, and that's why I've thought of her as a kindred spirit since the day we met. I've felt the way she looks right now. We've both let work take over our lives to the detriment of everything else.
Maddie's family lives closer to my home than to America, especially Rika. That realization prompts an idea, one I'm sure will be blown to bits once I voice it out loud. Maddie won't do it. How can she? We've known each other for less than two weeks.
She's gone quiet, her head down, her hands slack on her lap.
"If you need a place to stay," I begin, "I may have an option for you."
"You'll let me keep this suite for a while after you leave?"
"No." My mouth has suddenly gotten so dry that my tongue feels like a lump of wool. I glance at the palm trees, the sand, the surf, even my feet, before I order myself to stop acting like a coward and tell her what I want. I clear my throat. "Come home with me, Maddie. To England."
She jerks her head up, pinning her wide gaze on me. "What?"
"Come home with me. You said you have nowhere to go back to, and your sister lives not far from where I do, so…" I take her hands in mine. "Please come back to England with me. I can't say goodbye to you yet."
Though I'm not at all sure I can ever say goodbye to her, it's too soon to tell her that. Scaring her with a ridiculous, if heartfelt, declaration won't convince her to follow me home. I need her with me. Am I falling in love with her? I don't know for sure, but I wouldn't mind at all if I am.
I'm not stupid enough to blurt that out, though. Not yet. Wait until we're not ensconced in a tropical paradise where everything seems like heaven. Wait how long? Days? Weeks? I don't know how much longer I'll be able to hide my growing feelings for her. Not for weeks. Days might be a stretch too.
Maddie smiles in the sweetest way. "Yes, Richard, I would love to go home with you."
"Brilliant!" Do I shout that like a ruddy moron? Possibly. I'm too old to act like a lovestruck teenager, but I can't disguise how happy I am that she said yes. I drag her into my arms and kiss her. When I finally give up her lips, I say, "Let's skim through the rest of Dexter's books, then I'll draft a contract and call Ilsa. We may need to fly back to Dex's island, but I'm hoping I can take you home sometime tomorrow."
"I love that plan. Do I get to meet your family?"
"Why wouldn't you?"
"Don't know. You might feel weird about introducing me to your family since we met last week. This was supposed to be a vacation fling."
"But it's much more than that now." I pull her close again. "My parents will love you."
"My parents will love you too. Rika's already been telling them about you as part of her matchmaking scheme. She had Mom and Dad convinced you're my soul mate before we ever laid eyes on each other."
No one has ever made me feel as good as Maddie does. But soul mates? I don’t know if I believe in that.
We go back to the resort to order dinner, then eat in our suite while skimming through Dexter's manuscripts. I'd known after reading one of his new books that I need to publish all of them. Even a quick browse of the others solidifies my commitment to this project. These eight novels are the best things he has ever written, and though they are a bit different from his previous books, I know the public will love the new novels. Each tells the story of one member of a large family. Every book can stand on its own, but the way they interweave makes the entire series so bloody good that I have trouble sticking to my plan to skim them so I can finish quickly.
At three o'clock in the morning, I finish the last page of the last book.
Maddie is lying beside me on the bed, asleep on her stomach.
She read one more book before she dozed off, and I read all the rest. My eyes are gritty and hot, but I don't care. I pull a Maddie trick, though for different reasons, and rifle through her purse to find a bottle of moisturizing eyedrops. I pour those into my eyes until I feel like I can look at a computer screen without going cross-eyed, then I draft a contract for Dexter. My company has a standard contract, so all I need to do is adjust some of the details to tailor it to this project. By the time I've emailed the contract to Ilsa, the sun is up.
I glance at the bedside clock. It's six a.m.
Maddie is still sleeping, her lips curled in the faintest smile.
She's so lovely. Just watching her sleep gives me a dull pain in my chest, but it feels good instead of unsettling.
