A Cosmic Kind of Love(81)

Since the point was moot, I tried to shake it off and not worry about it.

When the TV show relocated to Thailand for a scene, I allowed myself to be distracted. “Thailand is on my bucket list,” I commented. “It was going to be my first port of call on that backpacking trip I told you about.”

“It’s on my list too.” Chris seemed to take a breath. “What if . . . what if we did it?”

“Did what?”

“What if we went backpacking together?”

A thrill shot through me, and I scrambled up into a sitting position to stare at him. I needed to know if he was serious. His expression said he was. “What? When? How?”

He grinned at my barely contained excitement. “We could take next summer off. You could ask for a sabbatical at work, and it would give us all year to save.”

The prospect sounded as daunting as it did wonderful. “What if Lia won’t let me do that?”

“Then we won’t go. No pressure.”

“But we could seriously try to figure out how to do it?”

“Absolutely.” He tugged on my hand, his sexy smile giving me butterflies. “I want to travel the world with you.”

I love you so much.

Swallowing the words I was afraid would send him fleeing, I confessed, “I want to travel the world with you.” And there was a particular country that popped into my mind first. “What about Mexico?”

Chris’s fingers tightened in mine. “What about it?”

Since his tone was neither defensive nor sharp, I forged ahead, “Maybe we could start there.”

Something I didn’t quite understand brightened his dark gaze. “Yeah,” his voice was a little hoarse. “Yeah, I’d like that.” He pulled me into him again, and I rested my head on his chest.

“So we’re doing this? We’re planning a three-month trip around the world? Mexico first . . . then Asia?”

“Sounds like a plan to me, mi cielo.”

I raised my head at what sounded like an endearment. “Mi what?”

His eyes darted over my face, and there was no hiding his affection. I could only hope that his affection was as deep as mine. “I had a friend in the air force, Juan, second-generation Mexican and raised in a big Mexican American family. He’s the one who taught me the basics of Spanish. And he called his fiancé ‘mi cielo’ all the time. It means ‘my sky,’ ‘my heaven.’ I never really gave much thought to it—” He stared deeply into my eyes. “But now, every time I look at you, those words fill my mind. Mi cielo.”

It took everything within me to stop myself from blurting out how I felt about him. I tried to hide the surge of emotions I was feeling by kissing him playfully. But as he murmured “mi cielo” again, my kiss turned hungrier, more desperate.

Chris groaned, guiding me onto my back. “I think I need to learn more Spanish if this is the reaction.”

“I’m absolutely on board with that idea,” I murmured before his lips found mine again.





THIRTY-ONE





Hallie


That I had clean clothes and toiletries at Chris’s place didn’t seem weird to him, and I was ecstatic to walk into my bathroom and see his stuff cluttering up my counter. Althea worried we were moving too fast, but it didn’t feel fast for us. It felt right.

The Monday after my embarrassing rendition of “Sweet Caroline” had started like a regular Monday in Chris and Hallie’s world. I woke up in his bed, he made it very difficult for me to leave it, we eventually did, he made me breakfast while I showered and then dressed in the clothes I’d dropped off at his place the morning before. I departed for work, and Chris went for his morning run before he’d return home to work on his book. Writing had started to occupy most of his day, which was exciting because it meant he was getting close to finishing it.

On cloud nine, not long later, I clung to a pole on the train and swayed with its movements, not paying any attention to the crowded car as I made my way into the city.

Until my phone vibrated continuously, distracting me from the podcast I half listened to through my earbuds. What if it was my mom or my dad? Hope blossomed within a confusing, icky tangle of resentment and hurt as I rummaged through my purse for my cell. When I pulled it out, however, I was shocked to find a bunch of texts and social media notifications from my friends. Seeing a text from Althea, I clicked on it.

    Have you seen this? Are you okay?



Attached to her text was a link. I’d discover all my friends had also shared and tagged me in photos some random person had taken of Chris and me and posted to their social media.

A local New York paper had picked up the story in their gossip column.

Althea had sent me a link to that news piece. My stomach dropped.


HAS OUR NATIONAL HERO FOUND A NEW HEROINE?

And beneath the headline were photographs of Chris and me in Central Park on Saturday. In one we were holding hands and laughing, in another we were cuddling, and the pièce de résistance was a photo of us kissing. He cradled my face in his hands like I was precious, while classy me had my hands on his ass. It was a hot picture.

Cheeks burning, I skimmed the article, which outed who I was, where I worked, my college education, and that I was a surprising choice for Chris to move on with from Darcy Hawthorne. They then discussed Darcy breaking up with Chris to become engaged to Matthias. I could see from the tags on socials that a few big influencers had reposted the story on their feeds. Great.