Page 48 of The Seascape Between Us

I pulled back, but didn’t let go of his hand. “Why is it so quiet?”

He grinned at me like he knew the punchline for a joke he hadn’t told. “Come on.” He tugged me away from the dining room. “I want to show you something.”

I followed him through the opening that led to the rooms. “Where is everyone?”

“I made an executive decision,” he said, leading me up the stairs to the open walkway in front of the rooms. “The restaurant is closed until the opening.” I started to argue, but he cut me off. “I don’t want guests to see the hotel until we reopen, now that it’s done.”

My stomach swooped as I stopped abruptly. It left me a little light-headed. “What do you mean,done?”

He turned to face me but didn’t let go of my hand. “I don’t know how to be clearer. The work is finished. Finito. Fin.”

From the open walkway, I turned and looked down over the patio. The new outdoor furniture had been set up, ready for the opening. Mid-century inspired in blue and turquoise with splashes of yellow. It was bright and a little kitschy and everything I had ever wanted for the hotel. Yet, my chest ached, and I couldn’t shake off the feeling that I’d lost something important.

“It looks amazing.” My voice scraped, and my throat suddenly felt tight.

“But wait! There’s more,” Grey said in a fairly convincing game show announcer voice. He opened the room closest to us. “Ta-da!”

My breath caught in my throat. The furniture was in place, the linens on the beds, drapes hung. The cobalt blue stood outagainst the warm teak furniture, and there wasn’t a hint of beige to be found.

“It’s amazing.” I looked at Grey, who smiled at me, his eyes glassy. “It’s everything I ever wanted for this place. Thank you. I would never have been able to do this without you.”

“You would have.” He reached up and cupped the side of my face, tracing his thumb along the edge of my cheekbone.

He and I both knew that wasn’t true, but I didn’t argue. Instead, I leaned down and kissed him, putting everything I felt into it, all my gratitude and something more, something that swelled in my chest and stole my breath, something I was careful not to examine too closely.

When I finally pulled back, neither of us spoke for a long moment. Grey gripped my hips as if to stop me from backing away any farther than the few inches between us.

From the open walkway, the sun dipped toward the ocean, shimmering over the rippling water like liquid fire and turning the gauzy strips of cloud pastel pink and purple. The breeze off the water was warm and heavy with the salt smell of the ocean. It smelled of summer, of the time we were together years ago, and yet here we were older, different from who we’d been then yet somehow unchanged, as if past and present had overlapped seamlessly.

What now?The ugly little voice in my head asked. It was done. The hotel was ready to reopen, the grand event Grey planned less than two weeks away. And then what? I go back to living in the hotel, sleeping in my office in the high season, and Grey back to Portland? Maybe we’d hook up the next time he breezed into The Square, but I didn’t fool myself into believing it would happen often. Grey hated coming back here. Once he sold his father’s house, I doubted he’d ever come back if he didn’t have to. Finn managed the rest of Grey’s properties, and he’d probably take on the hotel too, once Grey left.

Thinking of my life before Grey bulldozed his way in, how empty it had been—work and going for a run with Brody, grabbing a beer at his bar if it was slow at the hotel—left me empty.

Grey spoke first. “There’s something else I want to show you. The best part.”

I pushed away the unhappy thoughts. I didn’t want to ruin the moment. After all, Grey had given me everything I’d ever wanted—well, almost everything.

“What else is there?” I thought maybe the roof, but that had been done for weeks.

“Just come on.” He laced his fingers with mine again and led me inside to the lobby and the chairs set up near the front doors. On the wall between them was a gallery wall of framed photos of the hotel over the years, and in the center, slightly larger than the others, was a photo of me, around nine or ten years old, standing between my mother and Ramona, the hotel behind us.

I couldn’t speak. Emotion tightened my throat, and my eyes stung.

“I found your box of photos when I cleaned out your room and brought your things to the house. I thought celebrating the Seascape’s history in The Square kind of went with the vintage vibe, and I wanted to surprise you. I hope that’s okay.”

My gaze dragged away from the pictures until I met Grey’s face. For the first time since I got back, he looked uncertain.

“It’s more than okay. It’s everything.” I kissed him again before turning my attention back to the photos on the wall.

I remembered those early days when my mother and I first lived here. The tense feeling of waiting and watching in case we had to run again. I remembered watching Ramona suspiciously while she worked around the hotel or when she and my mother would talk quietly in the off hours. She just grinned at me and ruffled my hair. I remembered holding my mother’s handand walking down the boardwalk to buy an ice cream cone on Thursday evenings when she got paid. I remembered sherbet sunsets over the sea and the smells of the ocean, sand baking under the hot sun and suntan lotion. I remembered riding bikes with Ryan and exploring the woods at the top of The Square. And I remembered falling in love with Grey in this hotel first, seventeen years ago, and all over again now.

I loved him. I loved Grey Mackenzie now as much as I ever had, maybe more. The funny thing was, I don’t think I’d ever stopped. The feeling had lain dormant, frozen inside me, now warmed back to life by Grey’s presence.

It would break me when he left, but I didn’t care anymore. It was worth it. Every second I had with him was worth it, and I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Chapter Twenty

Grey

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