“I get that, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
He kisses my forehead before dropping his against it. He takes a deep breath. “Tanya, my sunflower, you changed my life in one short week. Even though we’re saying our goodbyes today, it isn’t the end. Remember that.”
“I will.”
After my murmured words, Spade kisses me one last time. His lips and beard feel so familiar. I want to feel them against my skin again and again.
“See you later, sunflower,” he says after the kiss that ended too soon and turns around. I can see his shoulders slumped as he walks away from me.
“Spade!” I shout his name over the other passengers, catching his attention. He stops but doesn’t turn around.
Running to him, I hug him from behind, his entire body relaxing in my embrace.
“I just wanted to feel you again,” I admit.
We stand there, me hugging him, until I need to go. Spade is the first one to speak. “Turning to walk away just a moment ago was one of the hardest things I have done. I can’t do it again today, so can you return to the security line and not look back?”
His words hurt for a second, but I know he means them in the best way possible. I nod against his back and let go of him before it’s my turn to walk away.
Every step breaks my heart more, but I remind myself this isn’t the end. We’ll have more time together, even if it’s unclear when. One day, I’ll be in his arms again.
When I catch my connecting flight to Knoxville from Charlotte, having said goodbye to the man I fell in love with in a matter of days only hours before, I realize it wasn’t the beach that was my safe place.
It was him all along.
Edmund Spade.
The man who changed my life in just a week.
16
SPADE
After I dropped Tanya off two weeks ago, I started driving to my next destination. But it didn’t take me long to turn back and get to the airport. I knew I would miss seeing her, but I wasn’t feeling like continuing my road trip alone. I returned the rental, booked a flight, and flew back to New York that evening.
Today is my third day back at work since my break. And every single moment, I keep thinking about her. How she caught my attention from the first moment we met, how her laugh wrapped around me, and how we fit together so damn perfectly.
Our nightly video calls aren’t enough. I want—no, Ineed—her next to me. It’s hard to admit that I can’t be with the woman I need in my life, as our lives are in two states, over 600 miles between us. Tanya promised we would be together one day, but I’m an impatient man madly in love with a woman who stole his heart. The waiting game is slowly killing me.
That’s another thing that makes me sad—we never said I love you face to face. On more than one of our calls, I’ve almost blurted those three words, but I want to say it when I see her beautiful face in real life, not on the screen. But that needs to wait as she has been busy training the new waitress at the restaurant, and I have my calendar booked for weeks.
As I’m planning another tattoo for one of my regular hockey player clients who has an appointment tomorrow morning, there’s a knock on my workspace door.
“Come in. It’s open.”
Rogue, my British colleague, pops his head in. “Soph needs your help with some bookkeeping in the front.”
“I’ll be there in a second.”
“She said she’s leaving in thirty, so you better get your arse moving before then.”
“Yeah, yeah, it’ll take me a minute to finish this.”
Rogue leaves me alone, and I finish the adjustment I was doing and look at the drawing. It still needs some more work, but for now, my focus is on helping Soph with whatever issue she has.
I hear a familiar female voice as I walk to the shop’s front room.
It can’t be. Imustbe imagining things.
