“What I wanted to do tonight was flyyou to New York City. Have you eat at one of the best restaurants in the country. Stay in the penthouse of the Cole and Spade Hotel that overlooks Central Park and fly you back tomorrow.”
She pressed her chest into the edge of the table. “When you say fly … are you telling me you have your pilot’s license?”
“No.” I chuckled. “But I do have a private jet, and that’s the only way we’ll travel.”
“Dear God.” Her eyes went the widest.
“I had a feeling that if I took you on the jet and we went to New York, it might send you into an overwhelming spiral.”
Her brows rose. “Ya think?”
“So, I tempered things down a bit and brought you here.”
“Tempered down?” She shook her head. “Because a Rolex and a dinner in a private room in San Diego that’s decorated like a dream is nothing? Walker, in my eyes, this is everything.”
I knew this was incomprehensible for most. I knew there was nothing normal about the way my family lived. We hadn’t come from this. We had grown this.
But the only way I could explain her future to her without having it feel like it was too much was by showing her little by little.
Tonight was a step.
I needed to know she was willing to take more.
I stroked my thumb across the back of her hand. “This is what my life looks like, and it’s what your life is going to look like. It’s what I come with. And if you want me, Alivia, then you have to accept all of me.” I glanced up and around. “And all of this.”
“I do want you.” She squeezed me. “More than anything.” She bit her bottom lip, hiding a grin that felt extremely devilish. “But if you feed me another course tonight, I really might bust open.”
TWENTY-FOUR
Alivia
“FUUUCK!”
Walker’s voice came shouting through the closed door of his office, where I stood on the other side. Even though my hand was raised in front of it, inches from knocking, I immediately froze.
“SHIT!”
That same hand, the one that was getting ready to pound, left the door and went over my ear, wishing I could do that with my other fingers, but I was holding something.
“MOTHERFUCKER!”
Please stop.
Please, Walker. I can’t take it.
I turned around, my back to the door, trying to breathe past the anxiety that was plowing through my body, but I couldn’t. No air was moving through me at all.
My feet felt weak.
My earswere ringing.
Everything was shaking.
“FUCK THIS?—”
“Walker!”
A few seconds passed before I heard, “Alivia?”
