“Why do you think? You could have any woman in this room. On this beach, for that matter. Why me?”
“You’re the only woman I want.”
His words, the way his gaze dropped to her mouth, thrilled. Even as the chill bumps raced up her arms, warning bells sounded in her head.
She silenced them. “You look like that character from the show Mad Men.”
He cocked an eyebrow, obviously amused. “Don Draper?”
“That’s the one. You’ve been told that before, haven’t you?”
He shrugged. “People see what they want to see.”
“And what do you see when you look at me?”
“Not Don Draper.”
She laughed, liking his sudden moments of humor. “God, I hope not.”
His smile faded. “I see you, Bailey.”
She pouted and he frowned. “Don’t do that. You don’t have to and it’s not you. You’re not like these other women. Not a Barbie doll. Real, no artifice or games.”
He leaned closer. “You still believe anything is possible. You believe in true love, in good triumphing over evil and in happily ever after.”
She did, she realized. In her heart of hearts, despite a life that had time and again exhibited the opposite.
How had he learned so much about her in such a short time?
The same way she had learned so much about him.
“What about you?” she asked. “Do you believe in happily ever after?”
Shadows came into his eyes. He gathered her hands in his, leaned toward her. “Could you believe enough for the both of us?”
Her mouth went dry. A lump lodged in her throat. How many times had she told her world-weary, brokenhearted mama just that? “I’ll believe enough for us both, Mama. Everything will change for us, you just wait and see.”
It’d come too late for her mother. But not for her. “I can,” she said softly. “I love you already.”
He smiled, slow and satisfied. Like a cat. A big one. Sleek and dangerous.
“You’re perfect, Bailey Browne. Absolutely perfect.”
*
Bailey’s suitcase lay open on the luggage rack. Tomorrow she’d be going home. Her heart was breaking.
Logan sat on the corner of the bed, silently watching her pack. He’d said little in the last few hours and she filled the silence with chatter. “All good things come to an end. That’s what Mom used to say.” Bailey took a stack of folded shorts and shirts and laid them in the suitcase. “Bailey,” she mimicked, “if Christmas came every day, it wouldn’t be a special day. Or if you ate chocolate ice cream for every meal, it wouldn’t taste so good anymore. That’s the nature of—”
“Don’t go.”
She tried not to look as devastated over this moment as she was. “My flight’s tomorrow. I have to.”
“No, you don’t. Stay. Extend your vacation.”
She met his eyes. “Just like that?”
“Yes, just like that.”
Her heart began to rap against the wall of her chest. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Dead serious. Change your flight.”
“It’s nonrefundable.”
“I’ll pay for another.”
Her thoughts raced. What did she have to go back to? She’d quit her job to care for her mother and the new semester at school had just begun. She had no family and few real friends.
Bailey shook her head. “It’d cost a fortune.”
“It doesn’t matter. I can afford it.”
“But my room—”
“I’ll make arrangements with the hotel. Or you can move into my room.”
Into his room and into his life, her own disappearing forever.
“Young women go missing in places like this.” The words popped out of her mouth; she hadn’t even realized they’d been there.
Cold crept into his expression and he stood. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know you felt that way.”
“I don’t. I just … I’m a single woman. I have to be careful.”
“I get that.” He started for the door, then stopped and looked over his shoulder at her. “I guess I thought this was as important to you as it is to me.”
She’d hurt him. Impossible as that seemed for her, she heard it in his voice and saw it in his eyes.
“Wait!” She held out her hand. “It is, I just—”
“Don’t trust me.”
“No, I do. But—”
“We’ve only known each other five days? But you have to be smart or play it safe?” His voice deepened. “You can’t have this, us, and play it safe at the same time.”
He was right. Physical time didn’t matter, her heart had known him forever. He was the one she had always dreamed of finding. This thing exploding between them, the love she had always longed for.
“I’ll do it.” She nodded her head for emphasis. “But I’m paying for it myself.”
A smile tugged at his mouth. “I get you wanting to be self-reliant, but—”
“No. It seems right, spending Mom’s life insurance money this way. She always wanted me to find what she never—”
Her throat closed over the last. He took her in his arms, drew her close. She curved hers around him, nestled her head on his shoulder. They stood that way a long time, his heart beating steady and strong against hers.
How could anything that felt so wonderful be anything but right?
Bailey leaned back, tipped her face up so she could meet his eyes. “My dad abandoned us when I was a baby. It broke her heart and she never found love again. But she wanted me to have what she didn’t. She wanted me to find you.”
“You have, Bailey. And I’m never letting you go.”
*
The same suitcase lay open on the same bed. The same heavy silence surrounded them. The sense of loss, of her heart breaking.
No, Bailey thought, now the loss cut deeper. If he had meant to snare her in a seductive web, he had succeeded. The thought of living without him was almost more than she could bear.
“But we’ll see each other,” she said, voice artificially bright. “We’ve made a plan. It’ll work.”
He didn’t respond and she went on. “You come to Nebraska for the sunrise, then I’ll come to Louisiana for the seafood.” She collected a stack of shirts from the bureau drawer. “It’s not like we live on different planets. It’s not—”
“Stop,” he said. “Please. There’s something I have to tell you.”
Bailey’s mouth went dry. “What?” she managed.