Page 42 of What Happened Last Night

“Book me the whole thing,” I said. “All of the rooms for at least a few days. I’ll pay whatever it costs.” Until one minute ago, I’d had no plans to leave town and stay in a B and B. I hated the idea of other people coming and going outside my bedroom, sharing the kitchen and the bathrooms. If I had the place to myself, I could at least relax.

Getting out of town would be a good idea. A change of scenery would jolt some long-term sense into me. Maybe the fresh air would help me think straight. Otherwise I’d brood at home in front of my gaming console for a week.

I could take a walk. Take up birdwatching. Maybe even hike?

Okay, that was going a bit far. But I could think about hiking.

Luna crossed her arms. Her expression was flat, maybe a little hurt. I didn’t know why that would be. “You want to book an entire B and B and stay there alone?”

“I told you, I don’t like people in my living space.” One of the benefits of having money was that you got to be eccentric when you felt like it. “It’ll be like a one-man retreat, which is my favorite kind. If you can’t manage it, that’s fine. Maybe I’ll go visit my parents instead.”

“I can manage it,” she said, too quickly, too confidently. “I’ll do it today and send you the details when it’s done.”

I let out a breath. “Thank you, Luna.”

She looked away. “No problem.”

This was good, I told myself. This was fine. We’d gotten carried away, and it couldn’t happen again. We’d take a week apart, and if I missed her for every minute of that week, if I wished I was in that closet again—well, I’d man up and make the best of it. The other option was to mistreat a woman I respected and make her believe she was worth less than she was.

An hour later, I had a reservation at the McQueen Inn in my inbox.

Before the week was out, my life had gone to hell.

NINETEEN

Luna

I wasn’t supposed to be here. In my car, in this driveway far from home. I wasn’t supposed to be holding the wheel in a white-knuckled grip, even though the engine was off. I wasn’t supposed to be furious, panicking, and fighting back tears.

Lightning flashed overhead, making me flinch. The rain was so thick I couldn’t see. The dark was like a wall, without a light to break it. I glanced at the clock on my phone, sitting on the driver’s seat. It was one thirty in the morning.

Thunder cracked, and I jumped. The wind blew rain in furious sheets against the windows. The storm had appeared out of nowhere an hour ago, when it was too late for me to turn back and go home. There was nowhere to pull over, and I’d slowed to a crawl and limped the last stretch to my destination, cursing my stupidity and praying the storm would pass. It didn’t.

Eventually I’d arrived, but instead of getting out of the car, I sat here in the dark. My nerves were shot from the drive. I was hungry, thirsty, and needed to pee. I should get out of the car and make the quick dash up the drive to the front door. I should get this over with once and for all. I had nowhere else to go now, not at this hour and in this weather. I couldn’t chicken out.

I gulped a breath as the gusting wind blew a spray of hail over my car, sounding like stones. What the hell was this storm, anyway? It was crazy. It felt like the end of the world. It was the kind of weather you waited out, cozy in your bed under a blanket if you were smart. Which I wasn’t.

What were you thinking, Luna? Have you lost your mind?

I pressed my fingers to my eyes. I couldn’t go in. I had to go in.

I’d lasted three days without Will, on my so-called vacation. I’d done my best to relax. Then I’d found myself crying while I did laundry, the tears rolling down my face and off my chin. I hadn’t even been thinking about Will specifically, hadn’t been thinking anything at all—and suddenly I was crying.

He’d kissed me, and he’d sent me a unicorn, and then he’d backtracked so hard he’d left town for a week.

I knew he was just a stupid man acting stupid. I knew he was doing a shitty job of communicating and making me pay the price for it. I knew I was overreacting, but the fact that I was overreacting was the biggest problem of all. No matter what had happened between us, this was my job, Will was my boss, and crying into my laundry was crazy.

What Will had done was on him, but how I reacted was on me. I hadn’t called him on it or told him how angry I was. Instead, I’d made his stupid reservation and let him go off for a quiet week without a care in the world. Because why should Will Hale have to think about anyone else, ever? He got to kiss his assistant, then bail when it got awkward. Lucky him.

Before I’d thought it all the way through, I was in my car and headed out of Portland. For the first hour of the drive, I was buoyed by righteous anger. We would have this out, I decided. Face to face. If he fired me, so be it. I’d hate leaving my job, but I wasn’t so sure I could work for Will if we were going to zigzag back and forth over the line we shouldn’t cross, making me insane.

I’d had second thoughts in the second hour, especially when I realized what time it was. Who interrupted their boss’s vacation in the middle of the night? Crazy people, that was who. I could skip past the McQueen Inn when I got to Bend and go to my parents’ instead.

But my parents would have questions. More accurately, I’d be grilled harder than a suspected serial killer. I had never done anything like this before—my brothers were the perpetual screwups, the ones who made bad decisions, then wondered what had gone wrong. Not me. I was the smart one, the steady one. If I showed up on my parents’ doorstep in the middle of the night with tear-reddened eyes, they’d pull me apart with their concern, and I couldn’t take that right now.

Besides, going to my parents’ wouldn’t solve the problem with Will. It would only put it off.

Then the storm had started, and I’d added mortal fear into my mix of crazy. I’d parked in front of the McQueen Inn, then waited, ostensibly to gather myself. I was still gathering myself fifteen minutes later as the storm raged on.

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