“Years,” Knox said firmly, his expression hard.
Those walls were definitely being erected.
“You love him,” she said, a hint of accusation in her tone.
He didn’t answer, simply held her stare.
“It’s complicated,” I offered, not wanting her to push him too far. The last thing I needed was for Knox to retreat within himself.
His following words shocked the shit out of me.
“I love him,” he confirmed.
Emily swallowed, and the first hint of vulnerability flashed in her gaze.
Meanwhile, I swallowed past the lump that had formed in my throat, processing what he said. Never had we admitted that truth aloud. Hell, I wasn’t sure I’d ever even admitted it aloud to myself.
“And you love him?” Emily asked me.
“Aye.” It was the most I could get out of my dry, scratchy throat.
Emily’s eyes darted to Knox’s face. “You obviously haven’t told him as much.”
He didn’t respond.
“You should,” she said, her smile returning. “People like to hear those things.”
Knox set his cup down and grabbed her, pulling her flush against him. “Do they?”
“Yep.”
My cell phone chimed, interrupting the moment.
“Meeting,” I told them, remembering that I had a conference call. While it was only 4:00 a.m. here, it was seven in New York, and my day tended to start early. “If you’ll excuse me.”
Three hours later, I was in my office on the hotel’s main floor.
After walking away from a very important conversation with Knox and Emily, I’d given myself over to work for a while. I’d taken the first call of the day while I relocated down here. The second call had been a video conference and had taken far longer than it should have, and I’d told them as much. My time was valuable, but they seemed to forget that. The third call had lasted all of five minutes, my patience having run completely dry thanks to the prior one.
Now that those were out of the way, I had a couple of hours to get some things taken care of here. I needed to chat with the management team to find out where they were with the check-off lists. Since the hotel was scheduled to open on New Year’s Eve, we were running out of time to get everything ready. As of the last time I’d checked, the hotel was close to fully booked for the inaugural night, and I was determined to have our guests enjoy their stay with little to no complications.
But first things first.
I headed for Knox’s office but detoured almost immediately when the receptionist informed me he’d gone down to the VIP check-in to get an update on his recent change requests. He was adamant that the high rollers and VIPs be given the treatment they deserved, and he’d made significant changes over the past year to ensure that happened.
I found him hovering over a woman’s shoulder as they both stared at a computer monitor. She was explaining the process at length while he grunted every so often.
I watched him for a moment. I found it amusing that he seemed oblivious to the woman’s overt glances and coy smiles. She was clearly trying to get his attention. If he noticed at all—which was debatable with a man like Knox who had a one-track mind when it came to business—he wasn’t reciprocating her advances.
When he finally looked over, I lifted my chin in acknowledgment.
“Did you need something?” he asked, fully absorbed in work.
“Where’s Miss Campbell?”
“Taking a tour of the Delta June’s showroom.”
“That’s all I needed.”
