I’d always told Ava that I was overprotective of the people around me. But I hadn’t told her I loved her. I hadn’t had the courage to tell her that. I hadn’t had the courage to risk anything in my life.
I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t swallow.
Brody smiled and shook his head. His hands fell down to his sides, and he walked up to the window and looked out. And then he turned around. “No matter what you choose, you won’t lose me, Desmond. I’ll always be your family.”
I felt my chest expand, and before he could react, I walked over and gave him a hug.
The heaviness that I’d felt ever since the night of the accident lifted.
I had one person in my corner now. And with that came the courage. I let go of Brody, and when I stepped back, he clapped me on the shoulder.
“All right. You can leave now.”
42
DESMOND
The afternoon sunlight streamed into my office, the light dancing off the bare wood windowsill.
“Anyway,” Juniper said, settling back in the chair opposite my desk, “we’ve done the best we could, and I think the fallout from that old scandal isn’t going to affect us as much as we feared.” She exhaled and looked at me with a gentle smile. “You always take risks, and some of them are worth it.”
I did. But this time, I’d done one too many. Today, an hour from now, I had a meeting with the board of directors. A meeting where I would come clean with them about the nature of my relationship with Ava Hale. A meeting where I would offer my resignation and move on from Luxe Hotels.
I stood up. “Thank you, Juniper.”
I extended a hand to her, looking at her kindly. She had worked with me for three years, and I would miss her wise judgment and the patient ear she had for me.
But I needed to leave. I needed to do a lot more to be the man Ava needed me to be. But first, I needed to stop hiding in the shadows whenever I wanted to be with her. And to dothat, I couldn’t be Luxe Hotels’ CEO anymore. She would have to work here for the next six months until The Galley was up and running, and I didn’t want to lose another single minute with her.
Juniper took my hand and looked at me with some surprise. “Is everything okay?” she asked as she stood up from her chair.
I exhaled. “There might be some changes from here on out. I just need you to know that I really appreciate everything you’ve done for Luxe Hotels and everything you will continue to do.”
The expression on her face changed to one of dismay. “No,” she muttered just as Zach knocked on the door.
“We’re ready for your ten a.m. meeting,” he said when I opened the door.
“Goodbye, Juniper,” I said, walking out of my office with Zach at my heels, keeping up a constant stream of updates that he presumed I needed to know for my meeting.
“Dave Keith has had a recent change of heart about clean power investments, so I’d keep your dislike of the offshore drilling rig scandal out of this. Chad Morrison has lost a lot of money on cryptocurrency, so he’s not?—”
I turned to him with a smile, and that stopped him. “Zach, I want you to know that you’ve been very invaluable during my time here,” I said.
His face fell.
“Your time here?” he echoed just as one of the notebooks in his hand fell down. He didn’t rush to pick it up. “Are you—” He looked past me, at the glass walls of the meeting room, where some older men and one woman were seated, looking grim. “Oh my God,” he said, turning away, his jaw dropping.
“Zach,” I said, putting my hand on his shoulder andlooking at him calmly, “it’s okay. It’s for the best. I just wanted to say thank you. That’s all.”
I turned around and reached for the brass doorknob of the meeting room and yanked the glass door open. I walked in, head high.
“Good afternoon,” I said, letting the door fall shut.
Ten minutes later, I walked out of the same room, feeling the weight fall off my shoulders.
I found the hallway empty and went straight to my office. Zach was nowhere to be found, and his desk seemed strangely bereft of his snowman globe paperweight.
I walked into my office and looked around at my things, trying to decide what I wanted to take home with me—the personalized football jersey that had been gifted to me by my uncle, a photo of my mother hugging me after a football win, and a personalized key chain with the initials A and D on it. It had been a gift from Ava right after I gave her that heart-shaped locket.
