"Itisthe most important thing on the planet," he said automatically.
"Yes, well, now other people think so too. Which brings me to the good news." She leaned forward, her expression shifting to something more serious. "I've been in discussions with the creator of the video about an ongoing partnership with SPECA. She's flying out from Los Angeles."
Alex's heart stuttered. "She's coming here?"
"Tomorrow morning. Ten o'clock." Patricia studied him with an intensity that made him want to squirm. "I get the sense there's more to this story than you're telling me."
"It's complicated."
"Isn't it always?" She waved a dismissive hand. "Whatever happened between you two, I don't want it interfering with the best publicity opportunity this organization has ever had. This meeting is important, Alex. Understood?"
"Understood."
"Good." Patricia's voice softened slightly. "And Alex? In all the years I've known you, I've never seen you react to anything the way you reacted when I said her name. Whatever that means—figure itout."
Alex left her office in a daze.
Tomorrow. Lily would be here tomorrow.
He had less than twenty-four hours to figure out what the hell to say.
Sleep was a joke.
Alex spent the night cycling through every possible version of the conversation he might have with Lily. Apologies. Explanations. Declarations that ranged from poetic to pathetic and back again.
Nothing sounded right.
I'm sorry I was too scared to ask you to stay.
True, but insufficient.
I love you, and I should have said it before you left.
Also true, but she might not believe him. Why would she? He'd had countless chances and wasted every single one.
I know I don't deserve another chance, but?—
No. That sounded like groveling. But maybe grovelingwas appropriate? Maybe groveling was theminimumafter what he'd put her through?
At 5 AM, he gave up on rest entirely and went for a run along the Charles River. The familiar rhythm of feet on pavement usually helped him think, but today his thoughts were a hurricane that no amount of cardiovascular exercise could calm.
She raised over $400,000 for your cause. She made you sound like a hero. She did everything you were too scared to do.
And you couldn't even tell her you loved her.
Alex stopped running, hands on his knees, breathing hard.
Love.
There it was. The word he'd been avoiding for weeks. The truth he'd buried under logic and self-protection and fear.
He loved Lily St. John.
Loved her humor and her resilience and her stubborn refusal to let him wallow in his own misery. Loved the way she challenged him, pushed him, made him want to be better than the closed-off man he'd become.
Loved her in a way that terrified him because it mattered so much.
The question was, what was he going to do about it?
