12
Brook
The honeymoon phase always ends, but knowing that doesn’t make it any easier when it happens. I’m scared. I don’t know what’s going to happen now… -V
Even though I expected it,seeing our room empty this morning crippled me. I curled up in the unmade bed, burying my face in Dane’s pillow, and tried to convince myself he’d be back, that there was enough chemistry between us that he wouldn’t have left without at least saying goodbye. And not that stilted bullshit outside Bomber’s. In my mind, if Dane was leaving me, he’d kiss me passionately, holding on to me until the last possible second, whispering lies about how he wished it didn’t have to be this way. I’d beg him to stay, and he’d point out all the reasons that wasn’t possible.
My cell phone chimed in the other room, but I ignored it. James could man the desk himself for today’s checkouts because I wasn’t in any mood to deal with people. My chest physically ached every time I thought about Dane, which happened about every two seconds. There was no part of this inn that didn’t contain a memory of him. Hell, the entire town was tainted at this point.
I bolted upright when the door to the suite slammed open. So help me, if James thought he could barge in here and demand I get my ass to work when I rarely took a full day off, he could—
“Brook?”
I clenched my eyes tight at the pained inflection of my name crossing Dane’s lips. When I opened them, he stood at the door to the bedroom, duffel bag in hand, as though he couldn’t cross the threshold without permission.
“I… I thought you’d left.”
“I know, and I’m sorry. I thought about it, but I couldn’t do it,” he admitted. “The old me probably would have run away rather than facing everything that was thrown at me yesterday, but I don’t want to be that man anymore. It gets old, trying to figure out all the ways people can hurt me and dodging the blows before they come. But I didn’t know how to fight this.”
“Do you now?” I slid out of the bed, smoothing my work uniform.
Dane dropped the bag to the floor and held out his arms as I crossed the room. He held me close, whispering apologies into my hair. I wanted to tell him it was okay and that I understood, but it wasn’t, and I didn’t. Not really. I knew about his past but couldn’t imagine a life spent trying to stay one step ahead of the pain.
“I’m starting to, but I’m afraid it won’t work,” he told me. I led him into the kitchenette and started a pot of coffee, ignoring the memories of the mornings that coffee led to sex and me rushing to get downstairs. The days when we’d been unable to keep our hands to ourselves felt distant, and I wanted that to be our normal.
“Do you want to talk it through?” I asked as I poured each of us a mug of coffee and led Dane out to the balcony. There were already families setting up on the beach below, surfers enjoying the morning waves.
“Right now, the only thing I want to know is if I’ve fucked this all up or if there’s a way to fix how much I hurt you last night.” Rather than lying back in one of the chairs, Dane set his mug on the railing and peered out over the ocean. I stood next to him, mirroring his position. “I should have known better than to believe you were manipulating me, Brook. You’ve been nothing short of amazing since the day I got here. First as a friend and now, hopefully, as something more. But you need to realize I’m used to even those closest to me betraying me. It happened to my dad, which is why he’s been in prison for so long. And just like him, I’ve grown tired of fighting it.”
The little I knew about Dane’s dad’s case was from what I’d seen in the papers or overheard in conversations, but that had been years ago. The few times I’d considered asking Dane about it, I’d refrained, not wanting to push him into an uncomfortable conversation he’d undoubtedly had more times than he could count. While it was possible his dad was guilty of everything he’d been charged with, it seemed unlikely. Dane was a good man, but not the type of man I could picture defending someone he knew was guilty of a crime, especially one that hurt others.
“You were right last night when you said I needed to start believing there are people out there who are willing to help me,” he continued, still gazing into the distance. “It took putting some distance between myself and this place to understand how much the inn means to me. And maybe that’s nuts, because I’d never set foot in the place until a few weeks ago. But leaving here, feeling that ache in my chest when I walked away, proved that I don’t want to let James sell it. I don’t want to give up my rights to a place that my grandfather built so he’d have something to call his own.
“Becausethatis something I understand. I hate knowing that he was so miserable for so long, but I’m proud of him for doing something that made him happy.” Dane stepped closer, sliding his hand into the back pocket of my shorts. “I wish I’d gotten to know him while he was still alive because I think my life would have been much different. I wouldn’t have been alone after Dad was arrested. I would have had someone helping me convince him to fight to prove he wasn’t capable of doing the shit he was convicted of. But most importantly, I think my grandfather would have taught me what it meant to go after the things that matter in life. Even though he couldn’t teach me that while he was alive, I’m going to do my best to live right by him from now on. I want to go after what makes my life good.”
“And what’s that?” I asked, leaning my head on his shoulder. I held my breath as I waited for him to answer.
“You, for one thing.” Dane turned to face me, holding on to my hip as he ran a hand through my frustration-mussed hair. “My life is so much richer for having you in it. And I want to see where this thing between us leads. I want to wake up next to you, knowing that we’re partners. And even though you say the inn is a job for you, I know it’s so much more than that. An employee wouldn’t put in the effort you do to make every guest feel as if they’re the most important person to walk through the doors. James might want to sell the inn, but I promise you, I’m not going to let that happen. I’m going to figure out a way to save it, because when I closed my eyes last night, I had the most amazing dreams of the two of us turning this intoourlegacy. Somethingwecould be proud of.”
“I want that too,” I whispered, fighting back tears. From everything Dane was saying, it certainly sounded like he had no plans to leave, but we needed to be clear. I wanted him more than I’d wanted anyone in the past, which was exactly why I couldn’t let myself fall any further without clarification. “Does that mean you’re staying in Sunset Beach?”
“As long as I possibly can,” he promised. “While you’re working today, I need to talk to James and see if we come to some sort of agreement about the inn. He’s adamant about selling, but I’m going to show him that stubborn is a trait shared by all Montgomerys. It took me twenty-six years to have any sort of connection to my roots, and I’m not going to let him dig those up. Then I need to call work and put in my notice so they can pay out my accrued time off.”
I tensed as it dawned on me that we were still living in our little fantasy world. Yes, I wanted Dane to move down here, but with the inn’s uncertain future thanks to James’s poor decisions, it wasn’t the soundest decision for him to walk away from a stable career and home. If he convinced James to keep the inn, there was no way of knowing if James would mismanage the place into the ground, which I feared he’d already begun by doing unnecessary renovations, thinking it’d draw in a higher offer from potential buyers. The man had the business sense of a teenager with their parents’ AmEx card without the risk of being grounded if he spent too much money. That was a huge gamble for Dane.
“If you’d forfeit the paid time off, maybe you could work a few more assignments and burn it off in between,” I suggested, trying to prove I wasn’t being entirely selfish by wanting him to move into the inn permanently so I wouldn’t have to miss him. “During the off-season, I can come up and stay with you for a while.”
This must be love, because there was no other logical explanation for me volunteering to spend time up north during the winter. Anything below forty degrees was enough to keep me bundled up in the house. But Dane would be there, and I was sure he’d have plenty of ways to warm up my frozen body.
“That’s not going to happen,” he insisted. “I’ve done a good job living within my means, so I don’t have to bust my ass, especially since I won’t have to pay rent or a mortgage. Either way, I’m walking away. One thing you may not know about me yet, but you’ll learn, is that once I put my mind to something, I don’t turn back. And being here is what I want. Being with you. Running the inn. Of course, you’re going to have to do most of that because the only thing I know about hotels is staying in them, but we’ll get through it.”
“And what if you and James don’t come to an agreement?”
“Then I’ll figure something out,” he said as if there would be a simple solution. He obviously underestimated his uncle’s problems. Before I could burst his bubble, Dane pulled me tight against his body and combed his fingers through my hair. “Brook, I’m not sure how this is all going to play out, but I need you to believe that it will. I’m trying really fucking hard here to convince myself the universe wouldn’t be so cruel as to dump all of this in my lap just to yank it out from under me. But there will be times I feel like it’s a lost cause, and I’m going to need you in my corner when that happens.”
“Always,” I promised him. Everyone who knew me teased me for being an eternal optimist, and now was the time to prove them all right.
