“Oh, don’t be. I was happy to come,” she assured me with a polite smile, but she didn’t meet my gaze. “It’s surreal to be around all these professional athletes.” She looked around the bustling room.
Was she purposefully avoiding eye contact with me?
Aunt Maggie hummed in agreement. “It is rather exciting.”
I put the cap back on the marker. “Where are Alex and Uncle Paul?”
Aunt Maggie tsked, but her face held no real anger. “Working, if you can believe that.”
I could believe that. It’s all they ever did. My only memories of Uncle Paul growing up were of him working, so I wasn’t sure why Aunt Maggie sounded surprised.
I only nodded.
“We’ll let you get back to the rest of your fans,” Aunt Maggie said, glancing over her shoulder at the long line.
I watched her and Belle walk to the next line to meet another one of the athletes, my eyes tracking Belle’s movements.
And track her movements they did for the next hour as I greeted fans. I tried to be present as I talked witheach person, but my eyes would eventually betray me, easily finding her in the crowd, always knowing where she was in the room.
That was frustrating all on its own, but what was even more frustrating was that not once did I ever catch her looking at me. Almost like she had forgotten I was here. That shouldn’t have bothered me. She had a boyfriend—my cousin. And yes, I needed to keep reminding myself of that fun little fact. Because as much as I knew she was off-limits, I couldn’t deny the pull I felt toward her, the desire to see if I could feel again what I’d felt for her when we’d shared a meal at Rolf’s restaurant, the longing to watch her eyes light up when she talked and her hands tried to keep up with whatever she was saying.
Except it didn’t matter if there was a pull, a desire, or a longing, because nothing could ever happen between me and her. Plus, even if my cousin wasn’t standing in our way, and besides us living in two completely different states, I didn’t do relationships. I didn’t get close to people. Choosing to be alone in life had served me well, and I wasn’t going to give it up for a pair of warm brown eyes and a laugh that drowned out my solitary thoughts. Nope, I wouldn’t spare her another glance.
So when my eyes betrayed me again, I knew I was in trouble. The kind of trouble that cracked your walls and made you ache for something you swore you’d never need.
Chapter 7
Belle
December 18th
The hour spentat the VIP experience was the longest hour of my life. Dramatic? I think not. I dare anyone to be in the same room as Holden Prescott and not look at him in all his handsome hockey player glory.
Once Maggie and I had left his table, I hadn’t looked at him one time. How I’d managed this feat was still a miracle to me. I had wanted to—had almost done it about a million times—but from some inner strength I didn’t even know I possessed, my eyes behaved. Barely. I had practically run out of the event room after meeting the last athlete.
The number of times I’d said the word boyfriend in my head during that hour was enough to have me hating the word. Not that I hated Alex, but I definitely hated how he was working when he’d told me this tripwould be about reconnecting. So much for that. Now I was wondering if I should have listened to my siblings and not only said no to this trip but gone through with my breakup speech. I had no desire to spend a week hanging out with his mother while he worked, as nice of a lady as she was. Although, I could get some amazing photos here, so that would be something.
Walking back into my hotel room, I stopped short at the sight of Alex repacking one of his bags.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“You’re never going to believe it,” he said, barely sparing me a glance as he shoved in his toiletry bag. “You know that Sterling deal I’ve been telling you about?”
How could I forget? It was all he talked about lately.
“Well, they want to meet tomorrow,” he said without waiting for a response. “This is huge. Might be one of the biggest deals of my career.”
“So, wait, we’re leaving?” I asked, not sure I understood what exactly the plan was now.
“No, just me.” He still hadn’t stopped packing. “I’m flying out tonight and then meeting with them in the morning. I’ll be on a flight back here tomorrow night. You’ll hardly know I was gone.”
I stood there, not knowing what to say. Was he really going to leave? We hadn’t even spent any time together or done any of the fun activities he’d said we would do.
“But I thought you said you weren’t going to work this week—that we were going to spend quality time together to rebuild our relationship.” I hated how mywords sounded desperate. I wasn’t sure if I was desperate to save our relationship or desperate to prove that coming on this trip wasn’t the stupidest thing I’d ever done.
He zipped up his bag and came to stand in front of me, taking both my hands in his. “This is really important to me,” he said, like he was explaining something to a child. “Yes, I’ll be gone for a day, but we’ll still have the rest of the week to do all the Christmas things together. I’ll be back before you know it.”
I pulled my hands out of his. “Okay.” Because what else did you say when your boyfriend cared more about a meeting than you, and now he was stranding you seventeen hundred miles from home?
