Present Day
Palm Springs, California
Mission Day Three
It had been a really nice day.
Before going back to the hotel, on a whim because really, they weren’t in a hurry, Emily and Mick had taken a walk downtown where they’d stumbled across the art museum, from which they didn’t emerge until well after noon.
They had lunch before going to the pool and taking that post-pool shower, which had been as lovely as she’d imagined.
They’d then crawled, clean and cool, into that insanely comfortable hotel bed where Emily had fallen sound asleep.
She woke up now to find Mick sitting up in bed beside her, quietly reading. Ooh, he was almosthalfway through the book she’d finished yesterday. He was just about to get to thereallyfunny part.
Emily didn’t move—at least she didn’t think she did—but itwaspossible he’d heard her stomach growling, because he glanced over at her and smiled. “Welcome back, oh hungry one.”
She laughed. Busted. “What time is it?” She’d been enjoying this unplugged day so much, her phone was still locked in the little safe in the closet. She might never take it out again.
“Around four-thirty,” Mick told her.
“Oh,” she said, sitting up, pulling the sheet with her. “Shit. You wanted to pick up your car. Is there still time...?”
“Already done,” he said with a smile. “I guess I didn’t wake you when I got dressed and left the room.”
Got dressed, wrote a note—which was still on the bedside table where he’d left it for her, a quirky little drawing of the dancing man emoji included—got the car, came back, climbed back into bed, and read many, many chapters of that book. Emily laughed as she flopped back against the pillows. “Wow, I was unconscious. Guess I found a cure for my insomnia.”
“We can run tomorrow, too, if you want.”
She smiled up at him. “Run, then shower? I think it was the combo, although if I had to pick just one, I’d go with the really,reallygreat sex.”
Mick laughed a little as he closed his book. “Hey, you know I’m always all in.” He leaned down to kiss her, which was delicious except...
“Oh shit,” she said again, “We have an early reservation at that Italian place you wanted to try?—”
“We can cancel,” he said easily. “Go tomorrow, if you’drather just stay in tonight. Room service on the balcony works just fine for me, too.”
Maybe it was the way he smiled as he said that. Or maybe it was the memory of his words from the other night,you’re my most favorite thing,or maybe it was just the right time and the right place after months of taking things excruciatingly slowly that made her heart just... explode.
“Or... now that we’ve got your car back, we could take a road-trip up to Las Vegas and get married,” Emily said.
Mick laughed his surprise.
“I’m serious,” she said, her heart suddenly in her throat. “Marry me, Mick.”
As he gazed into her eyes, she saw his realization dawn. Realization that shewasdead serious, along with a jumbled mix of emotion. Love, yes, but also something that looked like fear or maybe it was pain or... heartbreak?
Oh God, was he going to sayno?
But, “Em,” he said, which wasn’t ano, but wasn’t exactly ayes, either.
She tried to explain. “This should’ve been, like,theshittiest week I’ve had in years, but it’s been the opposite. The fact that you’re here with me, instead of running away or hiding because I’m too much with my dead mother and my crazy aunt?—”
“No,” he tried to argue.
But she cut him off. “IknowI’m too much because everyone else always runs. But not you. My life issomuch better with you in it. I just... I want that forever. And I thought maybe... you might... want that, too...?”
“I do,” Mick whispered. “I really do.” There was that unspokenbutclearly written in his eyes though.
