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“I’ll be home the day after tomorrow,” Daisy said. “Thank you so much for coming. That you would all pack up and fly out here just for a few hours, means the world to me.” She swallowed the lump in her throat.
As the room cleared, Bryson, the guy who won Male Rookie of the Year, waved a hand to get Daisy’s attention.
“Mr. Hot Stuff wants to talk to you,” Noah mumbled as he approached.
“I knew you’d win,” Bryson said, hugging her. He was tall and handsome, but Noah had him beat on both fronts.
“You going upstairs to the after party? It’s at the rooftop bar,” Bryson asked.
“I’m not sure,” she said. She’d rather go back to the room and celebrate with Noah.
“There’ll be sponsors there. You really should.”
“Yeah,” she said. “You’re probably right.”
Noah stood with his hands in his pockets, waiting. She turned to him. “There’s a party upstairs I should make an appearance at. You okay with that?”
“Sure,” he said.
As she made to leave, Noah cleared his throat. “Uh, Daisy? You forget something?” He nodded to the award.
“Ha.” She laughed. “Oh, yeah.” She’d gone through so much to earn it, only to forget about it ten minutes after winning it.
She grabbed the trophy, and they headed to the elevators. Daisy thought Noah would come to the party with her, but he got off on the twentieth floor, saying he was done for the night.
Upstairs, she got a drink and made the rounds of the sponsor tables. She spent a few minutes at each booth, putting names with faces and schmoozing the reps.
She ran into Gabbi a little while later.
“Congrats, Daisy,” Gabbi said. “If it wasn’t me, I’m glad it was you. And after all Lance put you through, you deserve it.”
“That was pretty wild,” Daisy said. “What d’ya think will happen to him?”
Gabbi shrugged. “I’m sure he’ll go to jail. I can’t believe I didn’t see what kind of person he was. What he was capable of.”
“He was willing to kill for you,” Daisy said. “He must really love you.”
“No. That just means he’s not all there,” she said. “You, on the other hand, have a perfectly sane, perfectly gorgeous man willing todiefor you.Hemust really loveyou.”
Daisy smiled. And then wondered what the hell she was doing up here when Noah was downstairs in their room waiting for her. Screw the sponsors. They knew how to contact her, and she felt confident they would.
“I gotta go,” Daisy said, gulping down the last of her drink. “Later.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Outside the hotel room, Daisy checked her breath, fluffed her hair, and smoothed her dress. All of which proved unnecessary because the room was empty. Noah had packed up his stuff and left. A hastily written note lay next to his hotel key card.
Had to get back. Took an early flight. Congrats on the win. Noah.
He’d ditched her. Huh. Okay. His job was technically done, so of course, he had every right to go home. But to sneak out in the middle of the night? Without saying goodbye? She must have grossly misread their situation. Bare minimum, she thought they’d become friends. And friends didn’t just slink away.
She changed into pajamas and crawled under the covers. Alone. The bed seemed a mile wide without him in it.
The award she’d gone to so much trouble to win sat on the TV credenza. She assumed winning would make her feel confident, successful, accomplished, something. As it turned out, the win didn’t seem as important as it had ten days ago.
After the death of her uncle and her own near-death experience, the award seemed pretty trivial. It did, however, mean she could put her new plan into motion. And that was really what she wanted. Wasn’t it?
Now that starting something different was an actual possibility, she wavered. What if the new venture failed? What if people couldn’t get past her as the ditsy, low-budget traveler? And mocked her for trying to be serious?
