My Favorite Souvenir(29)

I sighed and sat down across from him. “Yeah. I guess I was lost in my head.”

He drank more coffee and looked at me over the rim of the cup. “You want to talk about it?”

“What?”

“Whatever is on your mind?”

I frowned. “No…not really.”

Milo’s eyes roamed my face. “Okay. How about if I talk about a problem that’s been on my mind instead?”

I shrugged. “Sure. Of course. What’s up?”

“Well, I met this beautiful woman.”

I felt a pang of jealousy in my chest. He met a woman? When? Last night?

Milo smiled and looked down at my coffee on the table. “You can loosen your grip on that cup. It’s not what you’re thinking.”

My brows furrowed. “I’m confused. Who did you meet?”

“I met an amazing woman. She’s adventurous and gorgeous. And has a spitfire personality that matches her fiery red hair.”

Oh. Oh! I smiled. “She sounds pretty awesome.”

He chuckled. “She is. I sort of love everything about her…except one thing.”

My smile fell. “What’s that?”

“She just got out of a long relationship where she was hurt. It’s left her in a pretty vulnerable state. Because of that, I need to be a friend instead of pushing to a place we could both really use visiting right now.” He paused and searched my eyes. “You see, I really like her, and I don’t want her to regret me later.”

I closed my eyes and nodded. “I get it.”

Milo reached out and took my hands in his. “Do you, Mads? Because I don’t want you to think me keeping my distance after what you told me last night at that gas station has anything to do with not wanting you.”

I shook my head, looking down, though I still felt weird about what I’d admitted. “Okay.”

Milo lifted my chin. “You’re completely, out-of-my-league gorgeous, and your ex is a giant fucking idiot for not locking you down. I would love nothing more than to be with you, be inside you, Maddie. You have no idea how many times I’ve fantasized about it since the minute we met. But using sex to get over your relationship is like doing shots to get over your hangover. The only way to truly feel better is to keep off the sauce for a while so you can see things clearly again.” He paused, and his eyes dropped to my lips. “Don’t mistake me trying to do the right thing for not wanting to do all the wrong things to you.”

I smiled sadly. “You’re really a good guy, Milo Hooker.”

He winked. “That’s because our mother raised us right.”

? ? ?

“I’m sorry.” The hotel clerk shook her head. “We’re completely booked. There are two big conventions in town this weekend.”

“Yeah, we heard,” Milo said. “Thanks anyway.”

That was the third hotel we’d dragged our luggage to after parking the rental car at a lot in New Orleans. We walked away from the front desk still roomless. Milo lifted his chin to a bar in the lobby. “Why don’t we have a drink and figure out our game plan?”

“That’s a good idea. I’ll check online for some nearby hotels.”

At the bar, Milo ordered us two hurricanes and asked the bartender to point him to the men’s room. While he was gone, I pulled up a list of local hotels and started making some calls. The first two were sold out, but the third said they had two rooms left. They were both suites, though, and pretty expensive, so I figured I’d check with my partner in crime when he came back before booking anything.

“There’s a hotel about three blocks away, on the corner of Bourbon and Orleans, that has two suites available. But they’re a little over three hundred a night, plus tax. It’s sort of steep, so I didn’t book it yet.”

Milo straddled the barstool and picked up his hurricane. “I think anything available is going to be expensive. I’m okay with it, if you are. We can just stay the one night.”

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s fine with me. Let me give them a call back.”

“Why don’t we take our drinks and walk over?”

“Take our drinks? Like, out on the street?”

“Yeah. Everyone does it here. That’s why they gave us these plastic glasses. It’s not like the Northeast where you can’t walk around with alcohol. Walking around with alcohol is part of the charm of this city.”

“Okay!”

Milo and I walked to the Bourbon Orleans Hotel drinking our hurricanes. Even though they were pretty big cups, I’d guzzled mine down, since it tasted like candy and I’d been thirsty. It had gone straight to my head.

“What’s in these things?”

“I should have warned you to be careful. They’re loaded with rum, but the grenadine makes it taste like there isn’t any alcohol in them.”

“Wow. Yeah. I’m a little buzzed from just the one.”

The doorman at the Bourbon Orleans welcomed us and opened the door. Milo and I walked straight to the front desk.

“Hi. I just called a few minutes ago to see if you have any rooms available. We’d like the two suites, please.”

The woman shook her head. “I’m sorry. I just reserved one over the phone two minutes ago. So I only have one suite left. It’s a busy weekend for conventions.”