Page 85 of Unless It's You
Letting me go to panic about the bed-and-breakfast situation. When we got to the accommodations in Skye last night, I realized I’d never tried to update the reservation I’d originally made for the second night.
I should’ve gotten two rooms to begin with, even if Ethan and I were already sleeping together at the time I booked. I let my professionalism slip at the worst time.
I asked the nice, older Scottish lady at the front desk—er, her kitchen table—if there was space for tonight, but she said she’s booked solid. No availability. It’s a small, quaint B&B, and the crew plus me filled up the handful of rooms last night. I did some quick searches online and we’re basically in the middle of nowhere, so there’s not a lot of convenient options.
Ethan and I are stuck in one room tonight.Shit.
I don’t know how he’ll react when I explain to him there’s just one bed. One bed followed by a hike and a confession of my love to someone who’s already decided we can never be together.
Am I really going to do that? Like, tell him I love him?
I blame the stupid bucket list. I blame his gorgeous brown eyes. His painful kindness when he finally stopped glaring at me. His beard. All of it. And especiallymy great-aunt.
However it turns out, I’m so glad I met up with him in Newcastle yesterday. No one should have to do that alone.
There’s a ringing in my ears, and I wonder about the magic of this place. Of Skye. I was reading about mystical fairy pools somewhere on the island. One day, I need to come back and visit them. Seeing Izzy’s beaming face and hearing the news about the scholarship contest? That’s pretty magical, too. My throat is tight, and I can hardly swallow. Ethan’s why she’s here.
As if he senses me thinking about him, Ethan looks right at me.
Damn. He looks like something straight out of a dark romance. He’s wearing a different hoodie from the one in Newcastle yesterday, this one blue with the logo of his old rugby team on the front instead of England Rugby. There are dark circles underneath his eyes that I can see from here, but it takes nothing away from his feral, tortured good looks.
How could I ever have overlooked him? Chosen Ben? Regardless of what Gemma had told me, how the fuck had I not found him after that night and made him talk to me?
Ethan’s not smiling at me with his mouth, but his eyes are intent and locked on mine. I want to throw my arms around his neck and press my body against his. Ask how he is. Touch his face. Tell him I want to be there for him, even if his mother wasn’t. I want his hands wrapped around my waist, finding the skin, pulling me closer. His lips on mine. His rough beard scratching me.
I slide my phone into my back pocket. Even though it’s July, the biting Scottish island wind whooshes around the rocky mountains and lifts my hair.
The problem of just one room hangs over me like a thick gray cloud about to dump its contents on the earth. Just one bed. Disaster. But... surely, he’ll talk to me when we have to share a room?
“Didyou pay for tonight’s room, or is it on hold on your credit card?” Ethan slams his driver’s side door shut and heads around to the back of his rental car in the parking lot of the B&B.
The crew was finishing packing up and the bus with the kids had left the mountain, so Ethan gave me a ride from the shoot site back here.
We drove in complete silence, and he didn’t look at me, not once.
But now he is.
“So, here’s the thing.” I bite my bottom lip and wait for him by the trunk.Here we go.
“What?” Ethan’s voice is gruff as he reaches for the back door handle and pulls out his bag, pausing for a second. Then he slams the door shut.
His rough demeanor, his attitude... it’s a protective measure, I know. I’m just glad he agreed to climb the Old Man of Storr tomorrow. He’s too good a guy to back out on something he said he’d do.
“When I went to book your room yesterday, they were sold out.”
“What?” He takes a step toward me and then freezes as my words sink in. “Sold out?”
“Yeah.” I cringe. “I... I’d booked one room for us, as soon as the shoot was scheduled...” I trail off. “That was before last weekend. But...”
Ethan’s staring at me, eyes wide, begging me not to say what I’m about to.
“You can stay with me. In my room.”
His jaw tightens. “Are there two beds?”
“No. Just one bed. A big one, though.”
“I’ll talk to the crew. Maybe one of them has two beds.”
