Moving at lightning speed in our bedroom, I dried my wet chest, pulled on a T-shirt, jeans, socks and boots, grabbed my wallet and headed downstairs.
“Alfie where do you think you’re going?”
All the conversations we’d had since I’d met her off her plane swirled around in my head, fueling my temper and goading me into the actions I took because of these. Not to mention how royally pissed I was at her selfish reaction to my taking a break. If it had been the other way around, I’d have been stoked for her.
As the weather forecast had informed us that there was a tropical storm brewing to the north of the Bahamas, I left my helicopter on the pad, grabbed some keys, and boarded our small, emergency speed boat which was tethered to our private dock.
Do I really want to leave her like this?
Deciding nothing short of a miracle could recover my mood, I cast the boat rope off its cleat and started the engine. Without a backward glance, I opened the throttle and headed back toward the Port of Miami.
When I thought about it, Lily hadn’t come to visit me in over seven months. And I wondered why it had become a one-sided effort to keep our love and marriage alive. After that thought came to mind my resentment grew with every yard of progress back toward the mainland.
CHAPTER 10
LILY
Somehow the echo from the heavy front door closing downstairs had a ring of finality to it. That sound only fueled the fury inside me. However, panic replaced my anger the instant I heard the speedboat engine roar to life.
Instant regret about my reaction to Alfie’s news tightened my chest. A heavy, dull ache settled in there once remorseful tears of frustration streaked down my cheeks. I began to sob from the sense of loss of seeing Alfie speed away from our home because he had never left in anger before.
Trauma of the other times Alfie had left me in the past came flooding back. They’d been due to work commitments or because he couldn’t face telling me he’d needed to leave. This time felt very different, and his furious departure stirred up insecurities I’d thought I had long since dealt with.
Back in college, I’d been left constantly wondering how it would all end between us. Then there was a time when I drew a line and tried to move forward without him. That was until fate gave us a second chance that we’d grabbed with both hands.
Since then, Alfie had always been devoted and fiercely protective of me—until perhaps the past eighteen months or so.
Life had been busier and more stressful than ever for both of us. And despite that, I’d thought any time we’d managed to grab together was even more precious than before.
Now, Alfie’s reaction forced me to take a long hard look at how our relationship had been during those brief visits we’d had. I had noticed a change in Alfie’s demeanor. Mostly that he had been generally less patient during that period I’d mentioned before. However, again, I had put the shortness in temper down to the stressful lives we led, long-distance between us, and tiredness.
In public, Alfie still behaved in his usual possessive, alpha-like way, but during our time alone, he’d been more grumpy and generally less contented with life.
I sat at our sitting room window for more than an hour. By then I was all cried out and willing the small lights of our speed boat to appear in the distance signaling Alfie’s return.
I was more than ready to admit I’d reacted like a spoiled brat, to apologize and agree that he deserved some needed time off. I think my initial anger stemmed from his lack of communication and figured if he had spoken to me beforehand, we might have been able to plan something ahead of time when we could both have a break together.
Tonight should have been special after five weeks away, but the way we’d argued and Alfie’s reaction to that had forced me to accept that we were drifting apart.
Desperation gripped me at that thought and I was determined not to let that happen, so I grabbed my cell phone, and I apologized by text.
Me: I’m sorry. I hate that we fought. I’d been so excited and looking forward to seeing you. Please come home.
I considered calling the guy we used who ran a water taxi business out of South Beach to take me ashore, but I didn’t feel confident to go into Miami alone at night without my security detail.
Plus, I had no clue where Alfie had gone. So when he hadn’t responded and hadn’t come home after another hour, I called our friends Elle and Drew to see if Alfie was there.
“Yay, Lily, you’re home!” Elle gushed in her cheerful, familiar London accent.
“Uh, yeah,” I mumbled, taken aback by her enthusiasm. “Alfie isn’t with you guys, is he?”
“Alfie? Wasn’t he picking you up today?” she asked, sounding alarmed.
I sighed. “Yeah, he did. But…” I paused when my chest tightened again but I forced myself to say it. “We had a silly fight.”
“Jeez, really? He was so excited about you coming home when we spoke to him last night. What did you fight about?”
“He went to see Gary’s sister, you know… the one he had history with? The one that hates me?”
