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After clearing out Libby’s condo and grabbing a quick bite to eat, we checked into a hotel near the airport where I set about straightening out travel arrangements while Libby’s in the shower.
Separating tomorrow now seems like more than a cop out, but she insists she’ll be fine. We both have work waiting and... it still seems wrong, wrong trying to work out how I’ll manage to see her again. Absurd that I finally found this spark, this drive only to sense it already eroding from a distance.
Shortly after I wrap up booking a new flight, my phone vibrates and a number I don’t recognize pops up on my scream. Libby had borrowed my phone after we cleared out the condo, so I tap accept.
“Hello?”
“Riker, I assume?” the man says. “This is Trent. Is Libby around?”
“Just jumped in the shower.” The whine of the shower fades away, so I roll off the bed. “Actually she might be out soon.”
“Is she doing all right, really?”
Given the circumstances, she seems to be handling it all as well as anyone could, but I suspect she’s bottling it up. “Sore. Quieter than normal. Not unexpected though. Still snarky.”
“Ah.” He chuckles. “So you metthatLibby.”
“Yeah. Hang on.” I tap the back of my knuckles on the door and Libby pulls it wide open—still in her towel. A very short towel, revealing not only her curves, but the bruises that splotch her thighs and arms. I can’t imagine how many other bruises are still hidden.
If I had left the condos ten minutes earlier, I might have never realized what was happening.
Libby shifts her weight, leaning her hip against the sink. “Change your mind?”
“Uh,” my voice dies in my throat, and I swallow. “Phone call.”
God damn, why am I going to Virginia again? Why did I ever let her leave my bed to begin with?
Chapter Eleven
Libby
The fog of paranoia and exhaustion is relentless. I’m shaking and it’s hard to tell why. My head thumps out a constant beat, while my right side aches slightly out of rhythm.
My thoughts veer toward what could have happened if Riker hadn’t been there or preparing to leave at that moment. Hell, this entire vacation had become a string of lucky flukes attributed to having him around.
Or... not so lucky flukes?
I don’t want to follow that line of suspicion, Riker rubs my back, spreading warmth over my shoulders.
“I don’t want to close my eyes again, but I’m losing the battle.”
I fold against him, stealing his warmth and comfort for as long as it’s possible. When he presses a kiss to my head, my throat seizes and I clutch the fabric of his shirt.
“Did I hurt you?”
“No... just...”Just fighting back the crash of emotions that threaten to rip me apart.“I’m used to dealing with stuff like this from the other side of the room.”
I try to joke about it, but the tears burn at my eyes. That’s not even the worst of it. Yeah, I’ll make it through this, but I wasn’t ready to say goodbye, and now I squarely face doing it again after all this.
Getting on a plane tomorrow. Alone, heading back to status quo with the best and worst vacation experience of my life. All with new doubts and questions hanging over my head.
What a time for my hopeless romantic side to show its doe-eyed face. Somehow in the vast mess of the world we ended up in neighboring condos. Two distant and distinct paths somehow finding a way to cross. If this week has proven anything, it’s that crazy things can happen. Of all the flukes and chance meetings possible in the universe, it brought us together once. But what are the chances it will happen again?
“It’s weird to reckon with the fact that there are now so many parts of this trip I want to forget and one I don’t want to let go of.”
“Well, you did promise me tacos.” Riker’s fingers gently trace my jawline, carefully avoiding the bruised areas. “I start work for the new contract in about two weeks. I’ll be home around Thanksgiving—”
“You mean you’ll be in Maine around Thanksgiving.”
