Her last point of order before falling asleep had been to call the front desk and give them Grant’s description, asking that he be removed from the premises if he hadn’t left already.
But when she stared through the peephole, her body instantly felt lighter. Reese’s gorgeous face came into view through the fisheye lens the peephole created.
“You’re here,” Sydney said, the words rushing out of her in hushed surprise at the same time she threw open the door.
Reese was in her arms immediately, enveloping Sydney’s senses. She breathed in Reese’s scent, clean and floral, and all the anxiousness inside of her steadied.
“I’m only a few hours early.” Reese stepped out of the hug but held Sydney’s hand, which allowed Reese to pick up her weekend bag and usher them both inside. “I wanted to let you get some sleep. I know you have a big day today.”
“You trump sleep, every time,” Sydney said as she waited for Reese to put her bag down.
Reese looked like a dream in a soft, oversize button-down and a pair of tapered, navy-colored slacks. Sydney couldn’t get enough as she took her in. The way Reese’s full lips pillowed so delicately, pressed together. Even her worried brow made Sydney feel warm, knowing that it was concern abouthercausing the furrow.
“Are you okay?” Reese asked, taking Sydney in her arms. “I’m so, so sorry that Grant showed up here.”
Sydney’s stomach shifted uncomfortably at his name. “It’s not your fault. I was a little shocked, too, but it was a conversation that was long overdue, I guess.”
They’d gone over the high-level details on the phone. Sydney hadn’t wanted there to be any confusion or miscommunication as to why she’d entertained the conversation with him, and there was no world in which she wasn’t going to call Reese and tell her everything.
“He’s such an ass,” Reese said, which was a phrase Sydney had already heard at least a dozen times on the phone earlier tonight.
“I couldn’t agree more.” Sydney leaned forward and brushed a soft kiss across Reese’s lips. “But I don’t need to give any more of my energy to him, unless there’s anything you want to discuss.”
She shook the sleep from her mind when Reese stood up alittle straighter. Sydney immediately missed the softness from moments ago.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, leaning back so she could look Reese in the eye.
“I was thinking on the way here… about Grant showing up, now.”
“A last-ditch effort before he marries Brynn?” Sydney responded, her own words causing the uncomfortable churn that now bubbled up in her stomach whenever Grant was involved.
But if being forced to deal with him for the next fifty years was the cost of keeping Reese in her life, it was a price worth paying.
“I just wonder if Grant would have made the same decision, if the deal with Stan’s company hadn’t gotten pushed back. Maybe indefinitely shelved.”
Sydney considered the idea. Grant had been childish to a fault this summer, but he’d never once publicly commented that he didn’t want to go through with the wedding. “Have you talked to Stan any further?”
The week had been hellishly busy, so tonight had been the longest she and Reese had had to talk on the phone.
“We met twice this week. Once for lunch again, and once at his office in Boston,” Reese said, rolling her shoulders uncomfortably, though Sydney was well aware of those two meetings. Reese had texted her about them, even if they hadn’t fully debriefed on the details.
Still, Sydney didn’t understand her distress. She ran hands she hoped were soothing down Reese’s forearms, could feel the goose bumps pebbling on Reese’s skin. “That’s good, right? He’s serious about doing business with you. Expanding your footprint. And judging by how your dad and Grant have been running things, there may be some inventory coming on the market soon,” Sydney joked, even though it was very possibly the truth.
Truly, Sydney was thrilled for Reese. She’d seemed so alive the past few weeks, thinking about what an expansion could mean,running ideas by Sydney, and picking her brain endlessly on hotels.
What Sydney liked about them. What she disliked about them. What made her want to go back to a place again.
Sydney had laughed one night when, in their bedroom, Reese had stopped pacing at the foot of the bed before squaring Sydney with a look of pure decisiveness, a look that Sydney thought could command a stadium.
She’d been entirely turned on by how in control Reese seemed when she made a decision within a world where she excelled. Her excitement had been infectious.
“Privacy and predictability. That’s what you care about. I’m talking to a literal celebrity about their hotel experience.” And then, she’d lightly thwacked her palm on her forehead before adding, “I need to talk to Hallie about this. Maybe ask guests for some feedback.”
Sydney had watched Reese run over to the desk near the door and pick up her notebook, furiously scribbling in it before Sydney had lulled Reese into bed, notepad still in hand, so that they could at least cuddle while her girlfriend plotted her plans for world domination.
In the here and now, with Reese looking surprisingly forlorn during what should be a happy reunion, Sydney led her over to the bed. “What’s got you upset?”
“Iknowthis isn’t about me, but once I accept what a not-great guy my father is, he goes and does something else to blow his previous poor behavior out of the water.”
