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Oh geez. I did end up having to nudge her. She was going to spill the beans on her own secret wedding if she wasn’t careful.
Patrick noted the nudge and Charlotte’s obvious attempt to cover something up.
I wanted to say something clever to smooth it over, but Patrick’s presence was throwing me off my game.
“Izzy can show you to your suite,” Charlotte hurried to say, out of the blue. That certainly deflected attention from her slip-up.
But it didn’t help me at all. I jerked my head in her direction so fast I was going to need a chiropractor.
Charlotte flashed me her newly found evil grin. “I would do it, but Drake and Jameson will be here any moment, and they want to take me out to dinner.”
I couldn’t tell if she was lying or not. Baby sister had some skills.
“Uh ...” I lost my ability to speak.
Charlotte took that as her opportunity to press a set of brass keys into my hand. We’d thought about installing an electronic card system, but there was something charming about the old skeleton keys.
“Have fun.” She jaunted off, leaving me staring at my hand.
Dean Martin’s rendition of “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” played in the background on Daisy’s old record player. Baby, it was cold in here. I could feel Patrick’s icy gaze.
I steeled myself. I had never been intimidated by anyone, and I wasn’t going to start now.Maybe.I curled my fingers around the keys and turned toward an expectant Patrick. For half a nanosecond, I swore the corners of his lips twitched like he might smile at me, but then he thought better of it.
“I’ll show you to your suite,” I said, businesslike.
He nodded and waited for me to come around the front desk. When I approached him, I was hit with his cedar-and-cinnamon scent. It brought back a rush of memories, but foremost was the one of the night we first met. He was dropping off a gift basket from his parents to Nina’s family. He’d only meant to stay for a minute, but later he told me that when he saw me, he knew he had to get to know me. He basically invited himself to dinner, where he sat next to me. We talked to each other like no one else existed at that table. We sat there for hours, well after it was cleared and everyone else had gone to bed. I had never talked so much in my life, but I never ran out of things to say. I’d even told him all the names of the goldfish I had killed over the years and about my fear of the dark. To this day, I kept my door open a crack with a hall light on.
In that moment, I wanted so badly to tell him about the last twenty years. How afraid and alone I had felt lately. I wanted to be me again, vulnerable and sweet. Mostly, I wanted to tell him how sorry I was that I’d never called. Not sure it would have altered my life’s course, but at least he would have known I was a woman of my word. That the three weeks we spent together meant something to me.
Patrick stepped closer and a softness washed over his face, as if the same memory of that first night together came to mind. But as he’d done previously, he stopped himself from smiling at me and took a step back, running a hand through his thickish hair. It had thinned a bit since the last time I saw him. But for a forty-seven-year-old man, he had an enviable mane.
He still did not speak to me.
With a disappointed sigh, I led the way out into the hall where his children waited. Both eyed me with great interest. Had Patrick told them anything about me? They obviously had to know he knew me.
“Is it true your sister is going to marry Drake Foster?” Rory asked.
“Yes.”
“Sick.” Rory nodded.
I assumed that meant cool. I wasn’t well versed in teen slang nowadays.
“I heard he lives here,” Rory stated.
“Sometimes. He travels a lot, but he’s here this weekend,” I informed him, wanting to make him happy for Nina’s sake. I was sure she would want me to.
Rory’s eyes, the same shade of chocolate brown as his mother’s, lit up. “Can I meet him?”
“Rory.” Patrick’s voice was steady with a hint of warning. “I’m sure the man would like his privacy.”
“He loves to meet fans,” I interjected.
“Dope.” Rory gave me an appreciative grin. “Do you have Wi-Fi here?” He was obviously quite concerned about his access to the internet.
“What’s Wi-Fi?” I asked as seriously as I could.
Rory’s face went ashen. Patrick faintly chuckled, and Bridgette, I believe, gave me a conspiratorial smile. Something in her crooked grin told me there was a fire brewing under her quiet exterior just waiting to be unleashed.
