I crack my lids. It’s still dark, early.
I left a message for Novak last night, so I don’t need to call in this morning. No way I could show up at school with my eyes swollen up like golf balls from wringing the tears out of them for eight hours straight.
No, I’m going to stay like this with Hank for as long as I can and then I’ll go see my mom, the woman who loves me and waited for me and wanted me above all else. The woman who gives me my only reason for being grateful to Candice. Because without going through what I did, without all that waiting, I never would have found my true mother. I never would have found this little life that I love so very much.
Hank’s hand moves over my back in a slow caress, and as incredible as it feels, disappointment washes over me. Because if he’s awake, then this is almost over. And I don’t want it to be.
“How are you feeling?” he asks, his voice far too clear for him to have just woken up.
“Better.”
Another slow stroke of his hand over my hair and down my back, and I wish I could stay like this forever.
“Are you hungry?”
I press my forehead against his chest, overwhelmed with emotion. He’s trying to take care of me. It’s so Hank. But I stop to think.
“Hank, where were you yesterday? Honestly, I was so grateful to see you, I didn’t stop to think about how you ended up in my apartment. I was just glad you did.”
That hand running up and down my back slows and tightens, pulling me in closer before resuming.
“Florida. Dan called me after your—after Candice left. I caught the next flight out and came straight here.”
Florida. I swallow, hating the knot that forms in my gut at just hearing it.
“I’m sorry to have pulled you away.”
“Don’t be.” Catching my chin, he tips my face so I’m looking up. It’s still dark, but I can see his eyes. I can hear how serious he is. “Abby, don’t you get it? You’re the big deal for me. SpaceWalk is exciting. It’s cool. It’s a lot of things to me, but at the end of the day, it’s still just a job. None of that is as important to me as you are.”
I flatten my hand against his chest. “It means a lot that you were here for me. Thank you.”
He’s quiet for a moment. “I would have been here with you for everything, Abby. If you’d let me, I never would have left.”
I know he means it and even after all the tears from the night before, I find myself blinking away more. “And that would have been a loss to the world I wouldn’t want to be responsible for.”
AFTER BREAKFAST, DAN meets us downstairs and takes me to my mother’s house.
“Would you like to come in?” I ask when I see the way Hank is looking at the small two-story we share so many memories from.
He sits back in his seat and gives me a smile that’s as bittersweet as I feel. “Not today.”
I nod. Another car pulls up behind us and Dan knocks on the window to let Hank know it’s the car that will take him to the airport. He’s heading back to Florida.
It’s time to say goodbye and we both know it. Our eyes meet, and then Hank is reaching for me, his warm palm curving around the back of my neck and drawing me slowly into him. Our lips touch, catching together in a soft cling that holds until I think I’m going to cry again if I don’t pull away.
When there’s a breath between us, Hank nods and together we climb out.
I put one foot in front of the other, concentrating on my steps until I get to my parents’ door.
I know I shouldn’t, but I look back.
Hank is standing in the open door of his car, watching me.
My breath catches and my heart twists with a need to run back to him. To—
“Abigail, honey, what’s going on?”
My mom must have seen us from the window and come out. Her eyes fill with concern as she lays a gentle hand on my arm.
I look back at Hank, still half ready to run down the walk, but his car is already pulling away from the curb.
“Abby?”
I turn to my mother, the only one I’ve ever really had, and step into her, wrapping my arms around her as I rest my head on her shoulder. “She came back, Mom. She finally came back and all she wanted was money.”
The warm hold around me tightens, and even at twenty-eight years old, my mother’s love makes me feel protected and safe.
At lunchtime, she makes a can of tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches and I tell her about Candice and Hank. About how much my heart hurts and how I don’t know whether it’s because of seeing her or saying goodbye to him again.
We decide to stop by the home and visit Dad. I know he won’t recognize me, but I want to put my arms around his shoulders. Maybe the company, even of a stranger, will be something he enjoys. That would be enough for me. Just to see his smile for a moment.
And of course, Mom always feels better going. Maybe it will be her day.
We walk through the front doors and sign in at the desk. Nancy is on the phone but waves us through with a welcoming smile and we head down the hall to the right. It smells of disinfectant, and the only people up and about are the staff. The patients in this hall don’t move around by themselves. When my dad first came to the home four years ago, he started in the other wing, but fourteen months later, he was moved over here.
Mom knocks at his door and we walk in to the brightly lit room.
My father is seated in his wheelchair, facing the window, a vacant look in his eyes.
He looks older today, and I wonder how long I’ll have even this.
“Hello, Dale,” my mom greets with her singsong voice, crossing to kiss his forehead. Confusion clouds his expression and she stands in front of him, smile firm, giving him a chance to place her.
I walk up beside her and smile. “Hi, Dad.”
His gaze shifts from her to me. It’s the same as it has been for months… except suddenly it isn’t. His forehead crinkles deep and those cloudy eyes clear.
My mom gasps, reaching for his hand as she kneels beside him. He smiles at her, and my heart leaps. It’s exactly what I needed today, and I realize I have Candice to thank for this too.
My mom is telling him how handsome he looks and asking if he’s hungry. His gaze shifts to me and I brace for the blank stare, the confusion, but instead his smile widens even further. I hold my breath.
I don’t want to hope.
I don’t need this for me. It’s enough that he knows my mom. I don’t want to let myself be disappointed—
“My Abby girl,” he croaks, eyes crinkling at the corners, and I fall to my knees beside my mom, the tears in my eyes those of pure joy.
And it hits me, this moment, no matter how fleeting, was worth the wait.
HANK
“YEAH, I KNOW he doesn’t like it, Nate, but that’s the offer. It’s a good one and if Walker can’t see that then it’ll be his loss. I’m not giving on this.”
The elevator doors slide closed and I half hope the signal will cut out, because I’m ready to be done with this conversation.
But Nate just presses on. He wants another meeting, he wants more time, he wants a compromise. I get it. I’m throwing a lot at him at once. But the truth is, I’ve been throwing a lot at him for months now. More and more from as far back as the reunion… and he’s handled it all.
At the twenty-sixth floor, the doors open and I step out of the car, pausing to remember which way my room is. So many rooms. So many years of so many rooms in so many hotels. I’m tired of it.
Nate clears his throat, then lets out a long breath. He doesn’t bother to hide his frustration. “You’re really doing this thing?”
“Yeah, man. I am.” I’ve got a vision for the future and nothing is going to get in my way.
He sighs. “Okay. I imagine Walker will want to meet with you personally. He may even back out altogether.”
He won’t. He knows how good Nate is. He’s seen it firsthand. “If that’s what happens, we’ve still got
the guys out of Boston. But I’m confident it won’t come to that.”
I round the last corner of this maze and stop short.
“Hank, it’s just—”
“You’ve got this, Nate.” I hang up, not sure I trust what I’m seeing.
She’s turned away from me, talking with the woman from housekeeping, but I recognize the spill of dark silk around her slim shoulders, that pale stretch of skin along her neck and, fuck, that stand-out freckle. And then I hear it, that laugh. The one I fell in love with not once but twice. The one I’ll never get enough of.
“Abby?”
She turns toward me and her smile does something to my heart I’m not entirely sure my body can handle.
“Hi,” she says, pushing her hair over her ear in a nervous move I recognize but don’t understand.
What is she doing here?
It’s nothing I expected, but what I expected doesn’t matter, because I haven’t seen her since I forced myself to leave her at her mother’s door yesterday.
No promises. No plans. No more waiting.
And now she’s here. In Florida. In my hotel. Standing outside my room.
“I hope you don’t mind that I stopped by,” she says, those big blue eyes hopeful, nervous. “I needed to get out of the apartment for a bit.”
“And you ended up here.” With a bag.
“Crazy, right?” She laughs, her hands coming together in front of her, her fingers twisting.
“Crazy.” Incredible. Mind-blowing. Earth-shattering. World-changing… Fucking heart-stoppingly phenomenal. “Nice.”
Her smile spreads and I realize ten solid feet separate us, when all I’ve been thinking about since leaving this woman was getting her back in my arms.
Closing that last distance, I slip my arm around to the small of her back and pull her steadily into my chest.
Her chin tips up and I brush a kiss over her soft lips, feeling her shudder.
I have my key card out and swipe it over the lock so I can pull her out of the hall and into my room.
“Abby,” I growl against her lips when the door latches behind us and she’s leaning against it. “Christ, you’re a sight for sore eyes.”
I’m not making it up. I didn’t sleep the night I spent with her and I’ve been working nonstop since I got back yesterday.
Her fingers slide up and down the lapel of my suit jacket, and I can’t get enough of that restless touch. “You’re not so bad yourself.”
I kiss her again but resist that primal demand to take her mouth.
“Don’t you have class this afternoon?”
“Novak’s got a sub for me through next Wednesday.”
She’s taken a week off. In the middle of the term. “What happened to the girl who never played hooky a day in her life?”
She takes a slow breath and, holding tighter to my jacket, meets my eyes again. “I-I can’t let you go. I was wrong, Hank. I was wrong and I’m so sorry for being too afraid to believe in what we have. What we’ve always had. For being too scared to wait.”
It should have been obvious. Abby there with her bag—but I can barely believe the words I’m hearing are actually coming from her lips.
I run my hands over her hips, fisting the fabric in a hold not nearly possessive enough to satisfy that part of me that’s been waiting to hear this for more than ten years. The part of me that never stopped thinking of Abby Mitchel as mine. The part of me I’ve spent most of a decade trying to pretend didn’t exist.
“What changed?” She could tell me the wind and it would be enough. The fact that she’s here is all that matters.
“Candice. She’s a part of it. I realized that even though I didn’t want to be, maybe I was still waiting for her. Waiting and waiting for this woman who had never done anything but let me down. When I realized who she was, this part of me that will never stop being the four-year-old waiting for her mom to come back, was like, finally. Like I knew one day she would come.
“Hank, I’ve been waiting twenty-four years for a woman who didn’t have anything more for me than a request for a quick buck so she could afford to move someplace warmer. I waited for her, but I wouldn’t let myself wait for you. When you’ve never, in all the years, given me a single reason to doubt you.” Her eyes close and she shakes her head. “So many years wasted, Hank. Because the only thing I was willing to wait for was getting hurt. I’m sorry.”
“No, baby, don’t cry. Not over us. No more tears because of you and me.” Her brows pull together, and I point to the bed and the packed bag on top of it. “I didn’t want to leave you yesterday, but I knew before I did that I was going to be back. I’m never going to make you wait or wonder again. It’s why I didn’t tell you what I was doing… I didn’t want to say anything until I’d made the break. Until I was back in Chicago. For good.”
She looks to me, her eyes wide. “What are you talking about?”
“I’m handing over the reins. I told Walker that I’m out of the SpaceWalk deal. Nate’s been doing the heavy lifting since we got here, so he knows the guy’s up for the job. I’m just making it official. Chicago is my home and I’m not leaving.”
“No, Hank. You can’t give up your—”
“I’m not giving anything up. I’m going after what I want.” I run my hand back through her hair, loving the feel of it against my skin. “I’ve worked damn hard for the past ten years, Abby. To the exclusion of most everything else. I was trying to fill this emptiness that’s been inside me since I lost you. But no matter how many hours I put in, how much harder I pushed myself than everyone else, how many companies I owned or how much I accomplished, that emptiness—that sense of something critical missing—never went away. I never felt right. Whole. Not until I found you again. And then suddenly it was like everything that mattered started coming together and all the things that didn’t started falling away. I know what I want my life to look like. It’s not what we planned in high school, but it’s not that far off either.”
She’s breathless when she says, “Tell me.”
“I want a life again. I want to come home to you, no matter where that home is. You are the one thing I can’t live without.”
She presses her forehead to my chest and then looks up at me with a watery smile. “Hank, you have me. I don’t want you to have to give up anything. Not to be with me. I want to make your life more, not less. And what I’ve realized is that there are some things worth waiting for. You are worth waiting for. We’re worth fighting for.”
Christ, I feel like my heart is going to beat right out of my chest, it’s so full.
“That’s what you’re doing here? You’re fighting for me?” I ask.
She nods, and I kiss her hard, letting that possessive beast out of his cage. I pin her to the door with my body, wanting as much contact as physically possible.
“I’m going to come back and help out with the BHS robotics program through the end of the season, but I think next year I’m going to start a couple of teams in areas where they can’t afford them. I’m going to make a difference for the generation who’ll be making a difference in the world next.”
She smiles. “I like the sound of that kind of legacy. But what about… everything?”
I own a shit-ton of companies, so it’s a reasonable question. “I’ve surrounded myself with good people and I’m ready to let them take on more responsibility. I’ll still be around, just not as much. It’s time to do the things that really matter.”
She opens under my kiss, moaning around the thrust of my tongue. Inviting me to take more, to stake my claim.
That hold she has on my jacket changes, and she starts pushing it back off my shoulders. She wants me out of it, and I want to give her everything. I continue kissing her, tasting her as I shrug out of the coat, and when I drop it on the floor, she sighs against my lips and gives my tie a tug.
Taking the hint, I smile into our kiss. The tie goes next. And then the belt. By the time she gets to my shirt, she’s pulling a
t the buttons with trembling fingers, her breath as ragged as mine. I rock into her, bend my knees to take the contact that much further and the sounds she makes that much sweeter.
My shirt hits the floor at the same time she has my fly open.
“Arms up, baby.”
I whip the baby-fine sweater over her head and grab her by the backs of her thighs, carrying her to the bed, where I knock my bag to the floor with a sweep of my arm before I lay her back on the bed.
She’s gorgeous, her creamy skin contrasting with a sexy-as-fuck cotton black bra with an itty-bitty silk bow between her breasts and the slim black trousers that follow the lines of her legs down to her ankles. Getting those off is a two-handed job, but then she’s lying on my bed in a matching bra and panty set that’s so hot I have to press open-mouthed kisses against all the important spots they cover.
I hook my fingers in the sides of her panties to pull them down, and she arches her back to unhook the bra.
“Beautiful,” I growl, not sure where to look first.
I feel like a caveman for the way seeing my big hands smoothing over the flat of her belly affects me. And then her hands are sliding over mine and I realize she’s wearing the ring I gave her in high school. The one that became the first promise I ever broke.
“I love you,” I say, unashamed of the way my voice cracks on the words that have never been truer than they are in this moment. “I’m going to make you happy, Abby. You’ll never regret this. You’ll never have to worry.”
Her pretty foot slides over the back of my knee, urging me higher. I move up her body and align myself between her legs so I’m snug against that spot where she’s slick and warm for me.
“I’m done worrying,” she whispers, her soft hand cupping my cheek. “I’m done holding us back.”
She guides me down to her mouth for another slow, sexy kiss that ends with us both moaning as I push inside her, sinking deep, deep, and deeper still. I bottom out, and her inner muscles clench and spasm around me.
“I’m never going to let you go again,” I promise, gently rocking into the cradle of her hips, giving her just that much more. “You’re mine.”