“I don’t want to leave you,” I said after a while, running my fingers through her hair with my eyes on the city sprawled out in the windows behind her. My chest was tight with the admission, and when Belle lifted her head to look at me, that grip strengthened.
“Stupid work trip. Also, quite possibly the longest conference to ever exist.” She wrinkled her nose. “You sure you can’t skip it? Didn’t you say you already have a list of clients and connections here, anyway?”
I swallowed down the lies I’d sprinkled throughout our conversations, wondering how much they’d cost me in the end. “It’s more than just a conference. It’s like… the Super Bowl of Real Estate.” I inwardly cringed at the comparison. “Good for networking. Besides, there’s always something new, something hot.”
I have no fucking idea what I’m talking about.
Belle nodded, resting her head on my chest again.
“It’ll just be a couple of weeks,” I said. “Two and a half-ish.”
“Two and a half-ish,” she echoed in a song.
“And you’ll wait for me?”
I hated the desperation in my voice, and it lingered between us for a long while before Belle leaned up again, smiling. “You think I’m going to bail now?”
“You wouldn’t be crazy if you did.”
“Are you ready to bail?”
I scoffed. “Hell no. I’m just getting started on the long list of things I want to do to you.” I paused. “Er, with you, I mean.”
Belle pinched my side. “Mmm you have a whole list, huh? What’s on it?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know.”
She kissed me on a giggle, but then she pulled back again, her eyes a sky blue tonight as they searched mine. “Am I an idiot if I say I can’t even think about anyone else now that I’ve met you?”
My heart surged with hope. “Am I a fool if I say I’ve felt this way since the moment I saw you in your office?”
“We’re disgusting.”
“I kinda like it.”
She smiled at that. “I think I kind of like it, too.”
Belle nuzzled back into my chest, and I sighed, closing my eyes, fingers drawing circles on her back.
“Three weeks apart,” she whispered.
“Two and a half-ish,” I corrected.
She smiled against my chest. “I think if we can survive that, we can survive anything.”
I nodded, kissed her hair, and prayed she was right.
Belle
“Okay, so, at this one, we’ve got Luke, Dave, Mariana, Sasha, cousin Eddie, and his wife,” I said, pointing at the table I’d drawn on the huge poster. Pink and blue sticky notes surrounded it, each with a name, so we could move them around easily, if necessary.
Gemma was cross-legged on her floor next to me, and she tilted her head, feeding herself popcorn from the bag between her legs. “I think that works. Let’s leave that for now and move on to the next.”
“Okay,” I said, dragging my finger to the next circle over. I read off the list of names, nodding in agreement when Gemma said to switch a few people over to a different table.
Zach was at work, running Doc’s bar for the night and leaving Gemma and me to our own devices. I’d been a little needier than usual the past couple of weeks, thanks to Makoa being gone for work. I’d expected it to be a little weird, but had definitely not expected to barely hear from him, and for me to be so up in my feels about not hearing from him. We had been talking, sure, but it was short — mostly at night for a half hour or so before he’d say he was exhausted and needed to get some sleep for the next day.
Who knew a real estate conference was so demanding? I sure as hell didn’t.
Fortunately, Gemma rejoiced in the chance to have me help her with wedding to-do’s, and I didn’t care what we were doing, as long as I was out of my house and not alone.
When I was alone, I was thinking.
And when I was thinking, I was an anxious mess of what the hell am I doing falling for a guy when the last time nearly broke me?
“I don’t see your parents on here,” I commented when we’d gone through a few more tables.
Gemma shifted uncomfortably. “They’re not going to be able to make it.”
My jaw fell open. “You’re joking.”
She swallowed, shrugged, ate a piece of popcorn like it was nothing. Her parents were like mine in the sense that they were travelers at