But if I wasn’t going to wallow, I couldn’t just sit here.
I didn’t stay with the group for dessert. I told Babs I had a headache—not a total lie—but didn’t go right back to my room.
Instead, I wandered outside toward the overlook.
Honestly, Tay must’ve still felt guilty about the whole Mesa Verde hiccup, even though it hadn’t even been her fault. But from what I’d learned, scoring last-minute rooms at this hotel was nothing short of miraculous.
Tay had completely outdone herself.
I leaned against the railing, letting the wind do that thing with my hair that made me feel like the heroine of my own book. A little dramatic, but I thought this would make a great place to do some soul-searching and mind cleansing.
The sun was beginning to sink, smearing the sky and the canyon below it with reds and golds and a kind of impossible pink that made my chest hurt.
I just stood there, not crying, not feeling sorry for myself.
Really. I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself.
I was just…
Being.
And then?—
Two warm arms wrapped around my waist from behind, and I knew…even before I felt his lips brushing below my ear.
Noah.
THIS REALLY DOESN’T HAPPEN TO ME…
I relaxed into his hold for just a few seconds before turning my head, catching a glimpse of him over my shoulder.
He looked sunburned and windblown, but he was here.
Almost like I’d conjured him out of my deepest wishes.
A wish come true.
I twisted fully now so I could face him, still not entirely convinced he was actually standing in front of me. He took a small step back, as if needing the same full view of me.
His Henley was streaked with dust, his hair shooting out in every direction, and his whiskers just as thick as they’d been the first day I saw him on the plane.
But it was those stormy blue-gray eyes that convinced me this was real.
“I thought—” I’d never see you again. “You were supposed to be—” far away, in the depths of the canyon. “What…?”
Noah smiled a little, and even though he could have laughed at my startled fumbling, he didn’t.
“Did you really think I’d leave you alone to check off the rest of the bucket list without me?”
I did.
I had.
“But how…?” Even I knew you couldn’t just pop out of the canyon whenever you wanted to. Not even someone as fit and daring as Noah.
“My mom…” He shook his head, closing his eyes for a moment. “She means well, but sometimes, she has no idea what I really want.”
But I would have thought that he’d enjoy something more exciting than the WonderWorld Tours plan. If he wanted to come back anyway, then—did that mean that what he wanted was…
