Page 78 of Break Out

“Nothing. I came to see you. I feel like we haven’t seen each other all night.”

Aubrey giggles. “I saw you a little while ago during dinner. We sat at the same table.”

Brielle waves her hands around before turning to me. “When are you going to tell my sister that you’re in love with her?”

I nearly choke on my whiskey. How does she know? This is not how I thought this was going to go down.

“Oh, come on.” She pats me on the arm. “Being in love isn’t all that bad. Look at me and Devon.”

“Bri,” Aubrey hisses, shaking her head at her sister.

“Come on. That’s enough.” Devon mouths sorry to us before taking Brielle by the hand and leading her away. Before I can say anything to Aubrey, the emcee announces that Clara and Chet are cutting the cake.

Thirty minutes later, I’m pushing my empty cake plate away from me.

“I’m exhausted,” Aubrey says, leaning back in her chair.

“Me too. At least our flight isn’t until the afternoon,” I say, thankful that we have a late checkout and can sleep in. “Want to go back to the room?”

Aubrey nods, stifling a yawn.

I get to my feet and help her up so we can say good night to everyone. Finally, we’re on the elevator, heading up to our suite.

“I had fun tonight,” Aubrey mumbles, leaning against me. “I had fun on the whole trip. Thank you for coming with me, Brod. Making things bearable.”

“No problem,” I murmur as we get off the elevator. “Come on, let’s get ready for bed.”

Ten minutes later, she’s lying on my chest, my arm wrapped around her. I lean down and kiss her on the forehead. She mumbles something that I don’t quite catch, but before I can ask her to repeat it, her breathing slows down, and she’s asleep. I lie awake for a while listening to her even breath, unable to sleep.

I’m not ready for this trip to end. At least she’s staying with me this week. Hopefully, when we get back to Orlando, we can have a conversation about us.

I can tell her I’m in love with her.

That I want to have a future with her. I hope she feels the same way.

Chapter thirty-one

Aubrey

Groaning, I roll over as Brody’s alarm blares. I nudge him, and he finally reaches over and turns it off. “What time is it?” I ask, rubbing a hand down my face.

“Nine,” he says, his voice laced with sleep.

“I thought we were going to sleep in,” I say as I sit up, stretching my arms over my head.

“This is sleeping in,” Brody mumbles as he gets to his feet and heads into the bathroom.

I reach for my phone to see if I have any text messages. I don’t. Not that I was expecting any. Although I’d kind of hoped I’d hear something from my mother. Or have a message from Arthur saying he’d heard from her. But no such luck.

I open my email, and my breath catches in my throat when I see an unread one with the subject line Urgent: Start Date Update. Why are they emailing me on a Sunday?

I click on the message and read it. They’re asking me to start in a month instead of October. The outgoing director has decided to retire earlier because his wife has some health issues. I type a quick response saying that I should be able to start when they want me to.

“You okay?” I glance up to find Brody studying me from the other side of the bed. “Something with your mom? Your sister?”

I shake my head. “They want me to start next month.”

“Well, that’s good. Right?” Brody asks.