Her heart leapt at the double meaning.
He sat down on the edge of his bed. The bow tie slipped from his collar as he pulled it free and set it aside.
“Christmas chaos over?” he asked.
“Mostly. Everyone left around one. The house is eighty percent back to normal. My cousins ate everything that wasn’t nailed down.”
“Good,” he said. “I’ve been waiting.”
“For what?”
“You sent me a message at midnight.”
Bea groaned softly. “That was a whole day ago.”
He leaned back slightly, one hand resting on his knee. “Which means I’ve been very patient.”
She gave him a look. “You really want to have this conversation while you’re still half in formalwear?”
“Would it help if I took the rest off?”
Her heart stuttered. “You’re being smug.”
“Spill, sweetheart.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to tell him. The words were just hard to say. “I was dreaming.” Bea tucked her chin into her collar. Stalling. “You were in my room.”
Gage said nothing.
“You came in after work. I was in bed already. You didn’t say much. You just…we were about to…” She bit inside her cheek. “It felt real.”
The silence between them was loaded.
“And then you woke up. Without me.”
She nodded, fingers tightening in the sleeves of his hoodie. “I wanted you here. I wish it was real.”
It was the closest she’d come to admitting what they both knew—that she shouldn’t have gone home for the whole summer. Not without him.
“Me, too.”
Bea let out a slow breath, trying to clear the heaviness from her chest. She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. It was too early in the morning for repentance.
“How was dinner?” she asked softly.
“Fine.”
“Formal and full of polished glassware?” she teased.
A faint smile touched his mouth. “That about sums it up.”
“Who was there?”
He listed names. She recognized a few of them: Nate West, his best friend. Some old friends of the family. A few from the King Global Capital board.
Then, like it was nothing: “Catherine.”
Bea didn’t flinch. It hit anyway. Her stomach twisted. She kept her expression even, gaze fixed just below the camera.
