Page 109 of Play Book

Luckily, I spot Canyon and hurry in his direction.

“Hey, baby.” He wraps one arm around my waist and pulls me close, lightly pressing his lips to mine. “I’ve missed you.”

“I’ve missed you too.”

Our eyes meet, and all the doubts suddenly melt away.

When he looks at me the way he is now, nothing else matters.

I can’t explain it, but no one’s ever looked at me the way he does.

With his soul in his eyes.

It makes my heart flutter against my ribcage.

Another reminder of why I was willing to give him a chance in the first place.

“You ready to get out of here?” he whispers.

“Very ready.”

We link hands, say goodbye to our friends, and head out a back door that takes us to the street where I have a car waiting.

“This is great,” he says, once we’re inside.

He loosens his tie and leans back.

“You look tired,” I say, stroking my hand down his chest. “We can get a good night’s sleep and won’t have to rush in the morning. I don’t have to be anywhere until two.”

“That sounds amazing. I’m looking forward to some alone time where we can just be together. I’ve missed my girl.”

His girl.

Those words are music to my ears.

Backstage before the start of the show is chaos.

Makeup artists, hairdressers, stylists, Alexa herself, and of course, a plethora of models.

I’m in my element, happy to sit in a chair while someone fusses with my hair and someone else dabs gloss on my lips.

This is the part I’ll miss.

Most of it is boring, but the excitement just before a show is palpable.

And Canyon is here.

He’s never seen me work.

Not like this.

It’s not Paris Fashion Week or anything, but it’s Alexa Humboldt, and she doesn’t half-ass anything. If she’s putting on a show, she’s making it a huge production. The press is here, and one of my marketing people “leaked” word that I was retiring, so now there’s a buzz both about me and about the show. That’s done by design, of course, because I don’t have anything to hide and there’s always strategy for things like this.

I’ll probably get requests to do interviews, maybe even some more modeling work because, you know, it makes perfect sense to try to convince someone who’s decided to retire not to retire.

I don’t mind.

If someone wants to pay me a lot of money to delay retirement, I’ll do it and be perfectly up front about the reason why. Anyone who says money doesn’t talk obviously isn’t listening.

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