It's Only Love(67)

“I’m way better than okay.”

“Why the tears?”

“I can’t help them when you say the things you do while you make love to me like that.”

“I’ve never said those things to anyone before you.”

“I still feel like I have to be dreaming that you’re saying them to me.”

“You’re not dreaming.” He kissed her lips, her cheeks, the tip of her nose and then her lips again.

“I have to go.”

“I know.”

“You have to let me go.”

“I know.” He said the words but made no move to withdraw from her.

“Gavin . . .”

“I don’t want to let you go. I don’t want to have to live without you for two days.”

“I’ll be back before you have time to miss me.”

“No, you won’t.”

“Will you be okay tomorrow? I know how hard the holidays have to be for you and your parents.”

“We’ll get through it. We always do.”

“I wish I could be there with you. I’ll come home early to have dinner with you guys.”

“You should have dinner with your family. I’ll be waiting when you get here.”

“I’ll leave as soon as I can. I promise.”

“Call me tonight?”

“Yes, yes, I’ll call you.” She would have to borrow a cell phone from Lucy or Cameron. “It might be a New York number, so make sure you take the call.”

“I’ll take the call because it might be you. I feel like a lovesick fool because I don’t want to let you go for even a couple of days.”

“I’m okay with that.”

He smiled, kissed her and finally withdrew, leaving her feeling bereft without the heavy feel of him inside her. “How about a shower?”

“A platonic shower?”

“Completely,” he said with a wicked grin that let her know there’d be nothing platonic about it.

What did it say about her that even after having him three times overnight and with a thousand other things she needed to be doing, she followed him willingly into the shower?

She had it bad, and bad had never felt so good.





CHAPTER 20




Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn

hope that if you just show up and try to

do the right thing, the dawn will come.

—Anne Lamott



Though she was sleep-deprived and eager to get to Burlington, Ella put in a couple of hours at the store, making sure everything was in place for the official day-after-Thanksgiving start to the holiday shopping season. She hadn’t missed a Black Friday in the store since she graduated from college. Only for Gavin would she consider missing this one.

Charley popped her head in Ella’s office just after nine thirty. “Heard anything more from Burlington?”

“Not yet. You?”

“Nothing. What time are you heading over there?”

“I’m shooting for noon.”

“Could I hitch a ride with you? My car needs oil, and I haven’t gotten around to getting it into Nolan’s.”

“Sure. Then we can go over all these notes I’ve made for you so you can cover for me next week.”

“You are going to owe me so big for that it’s not even funny.”

“So you’ve said, at least a dozen times now.”

“Just making sure you heard me,” Charley said with a grin. “When are you telling him about the trip?”

“Tomorrow night.”

“That doesn’t give him much time to get his shit together.”

“It also doesn’t give him much time to come up with a thousand reasons why he shouldn’t go.” She’d given careful thought to the timing and decided the less time he had to think about it, the better off he’d be. Or so she hoped.

“You really think he’ll do that?”

“I’m not sure what to expect, to be honest. He’s got some sort of issue where the Sultans are concerned. I’m not sure if it’s a big issue or a small one. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow night.”

“What’ll you do—and I’m just playing devil’s advocate here, so don’t shoot me—if he says he won’t go?”

“I don’t know. I’m trying not to think about that possibility.”

“For the record, I think he’d be crazy not to go after you went to so much trouble to arrange the trip and everything.”

“Thanks. I’m hoping for the best.”

“Me, too, Ella. It’s a really nice thing for you to do. I hope he sees that.”

“I hope so, too.”

“I’ll be ready to go at noon,” Charley said. “Maybe we can grab lunch at the diner before we leave?”

“I’d be up for that.”

“Okay, see you then.”

Alone in her office, Ella printed out a brochure for the resort, their plane tickets and some pictures of the romantic settings in Turks and Caicos. She couldn’t wait to see those sites with Gavin by her side, and the thought of it not happening . . . Well, she couldn’t entertain that possibility. She just couldn’t.