I nodded, sipping the cool liquid. “I don’t know how I’d do this without you.”
His eyes crinkled at the corners. “You won’t have to find out.”
Hours later, when the last guests finally trickled out, exhaustion hit me harder than a freight train. Gunnar must have noticed, because he was suddenly there, arm around my waist.
“Come on. Let’s get you home.”
I let him guide me to his luxury sedan, sinking into the leather seat. The drive passed in comfortable silence, Gunnar’s hand resting on my knee.
He turned toward my house, but with each mile, I stiffened more. Mom’s death was real now. Before, I’d been able to pretend she was just….away, but now, going home to the emptiness overwhelmed me. “I can’t,” I gasped suddenly. “I don’t want to go there.”
Gunnar studied me for a long moment. “Okay,” he said. “I have an idea. Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
He smiled, no doubt pleased with the speed of my response. A hint of mischief lit up his eyes. “All right. When we get there, go in. Pack a bag. Then we’re getting out of here.”
An hour later, we pulled up to a private airstrip where a sleek, midsize jet rumbled on the tarmac. I recognized it as Gunnar’s private plane—the one he’d used when he came to the retreat.
“Gunnar, what?—”
He cut me off with a gentle kiss on my lips, which tingled from the contact. It had been too long since we’d done more than snuggle. If Gunnar missed our connection as much as I had, we both needed some serious loving.
“You need to get away. Decompress. Let me take care of you for a while.”
Warmth chased away some of the gnawing emptiness that kept threatening to swallow me. “But what about the Gunnar the Goalie challenge this weekend?”
This new idea—developed by Tim, Veronica, and me, would be my biggest event so far and had created tons of buzz on social media. After all the memes of Gunnar as the goalie, seeming to block shots from all of hockey’s greatest players, we’d decided to put him to the test in real life. I was proud of the energy and fan connection we’d generated with the project, and I didn’t want to miss it.
“You won’t miss the challenge, and I have Noelle handling the last details since it’s under her department,” he assured me. “She heaped you with praise, by the way. Said there was very little for her to do.”
“Oh, well, that was nice of her. But I don’t really have the time off?—”
“You do. I know you read the handbook, so you’re aware that you get up to two weeks bereavement leave.”
I blinked at him, realizing Gunnar had an answer for all of my half-hearted objections. “Where are we going?”
“That’s a surprise.” He grinned, looking years younger, clearly pleased with himself and that I’d quit trying to argue my way out of his gift. “But I promise, it’s somewhere you can relax and heal.”
As we boarded the jet, my shoulders eased for the first time in days. I took a full, deep breath as the plush leather seat enveloped me. Gunnar sat next to me, his arm around my shoulders.
“Thank you,” I whispered, nestling into his side.
He kissed my temple. “Always, Rookie. Always.”
I smiled, enjoying his cologne and warmth.
The jet roared to life, carrying us away from the pain of the past week. As we soared into the sky, I felt the first stirrings of hope. Whatever came next, I wouldn’t face it alone.
Gunnar’s heartbeat thrummed under my ear, a reminder that love endures. Mom’s last words echoed in my mind: “Never alone.”
She was right. With Gunnar by my side, I wouldn’t be.
Chapter 28
Gunnar
Hours passed, and then the North Sea stretched before us, a vast expanse of steel gray water that seemed to meld with the horizon. I watched Zaila’s face as she absorbed the view through the floor-to-ceiling windows of my Swedish home. The tension in her shoulders, a constant companion since her mother’s passing, eased further as she breathed in the fresh, salty tang.
