A Cosmic Kind of Love(56)

“Oh no, why? I can come up with a better theme if that’s the problem.”

I grinned. “It’s not that. I know you’d put together a fantastic party. It’s just that the party was Aunt Richelle’s idea. She gave me this speech about how it would bring me closure, and that seemed reasonable at the time. But the more I think about it, the more it makes me uncomfortable. I don’t want to drag my friends from all over the country for a party. They would come out of respect, make time in their lives for it, and I don’t think that’s right. I think I’d seem like a big shot who thought he deserved a send-off.”

“You won’t seem like a big shot, but you do deserve a send-off.”

“Not at the expense of wasting people’s time.”

“I’m sure your friends don’t think you’d be wasting their time. They’d be happy to see you.”

Hearing the disappointment in her voice, I sighed. “I’ve wasted your time. I’m sorry, Hallie.” It was a jerk move on my part to put her through all that trouble only to back out.

“No, it’s okay. I get it. You’re not really the center-of-attention type. Um . . . you do know we still charge you for the time spent on planning, though, right?”

“Of course. I wouldn’t expect you not to. You deserve to be paid for your time.”

“Right. So . . . I guess . . . that’s it.”

Realizing why she sounded so forlorn, my mood lifted. “Let me make it up to you. I’ll cook as an apology. We can have dinner at my old place tonight before some asshole with too much money to burn rents it out. I’ll text you the address.”

Her laugh was breathy, and my cheeks hurt from grinning at how relieved she sounded as she agreed. “That sounds great. Should I just text you when I’m leaving work?”

“Yeah absolutely. Can’t wait.”

“Me too.”

We hung up, and I stared at my phone for a bit. It took me a second to realize I was still grinning like an idiot. The phone rang suddenly again, and I raised an eyebrow at the sight of Darcy’s name. Wondering what she could want, I answered after a couple of rings.

“Chris!” She yelled my name, and I could hear the traffic of the city loud in the background. “How are you?”

“I’m good. How are you? Everything okay?”

“So good. I’m just on my way to a meeting with my wedding planner. We decided to go with the same company who did the engagement party. Right move?”

Meaning Hallie? She hadn’t said anything about that. “Excellent move. The party was fantastic.”

“Yes, we thought so. Anyway, I’m just calling because it was so wonderful to see you at the party, and I wanted to call right away, but then I thought maybe you’d find it too weird, and I kept going back and forth—”

“Darce,” I cut her off because it wasn’t like her to ramble. “You sure you’re okay?”

“What I’m trying to say—and managing it poorly—is that I miss your friendship. I don’t know if I’m allowed to miss your friendship, so you can absolutely tell me if I’m not.”

“I miss our friendship too,” I answered honestly.

“You do? It’s okay I called?”

“Absolutely.”

“Great! So how are you? What are you up to?”

“Uh, I’m in the middle of getting ready to rent out my apartment.”

“No,” she gasped. “Chris, I’m sorry. I know you love that place.”

“Yeah.”

“Where are you moving? Oh my God, are you going back to Houston?”

“Uh, no. Brooklyn.”

“Fantastic. They say Brooklyn is the new Manhattan.”

I chuckled. “Is that what they say?”

“Sure, why not. You know, we should grab drinks sometime. Catch up. We didn’t really get to talk at the party.”

The door to the bedroom opened, and Megan appeared with the photographer. “We need to photograph in here, Chris.”

“Darce, I need to go but, yeah, call me and we’ll set something up.”

“Great! Talk soon.”

I hung up, and Megan narrowed her eyes.

“What?” I asked at her pensive expression.

“Do you think it would be crass to advertise the fact that this is an astronaut’s apartment?”

What the fuck?

She exhaled heavily at my expression. “You’re right.” Her gaze moved to the bed. “But I imagine there are plenty of guys out there who’d love to tell their dates that Captain Christopher Ortiz slept in that bed.”

Hearing the innuendo in her voice, I shook my head and marched past her. “My name does not come into it, Megan. We’re renting an apartment, not selling sex.”

“When the apartment is as sexy as its owner, sometimes we are!” she called after me.

“No!”

I was pretty sure I heard her mutter “spoilsport” under her breath.





TWENTY-TWO





Hallie


It was difficult to concentrate on my lunch date with Darcy Hawthorne. As she looked over my digital inspiration boards for her wedding, I’d sometimes lose focus thinking about Chris. When he told me he was canceling the retirement party, it gutted me. I thought that meant the end of whatever had sparked between us, but then he’d invited me to dinner, and my hopes rose again.