I swiped my key fob off the kitchen island as I passed it, Mia scrambling up from the floor behind me.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
“I’ll be right back.”
“That doesn’t answer my question.”
“I just have something I need to do real quick.”
“There’s ahurricaneoutside.”
“We have some time before the worst of it hits.”
“So, what? You’re going out for a little stroll in the rain? A drink at the local bar?”
“Worried about me now, darling fiancée?” I asked, swinging my key ring around my finger with a grin.
She scoffed. “Don’t flatter yourself.”
I remembered another time shewasworried about me. When I gave herreasonto worry.
That version of myself felt far away now. It had been so long since I’d felt that desperate, that lonely, that… numb.
But I knew he was still inside me. He always would be.
“You could always come with me.”
“To gooutin a hurricane? No, thanks. I’m not crazy.”
I chuckled. “Suit yourself.”
I only made it to the door before she let out a little huff of a groan behind me. “Wait! Wait a second, let me put shoes on.”
Five minutes later, we were out the door, Mia with her arms crossed and a massive hoodie on. She had the hood up and sunglasses to boot.
“You really think I’d put you in danger of the media or a fan frenzy right now?”
“Well? You won’t tell me where we’re going, so—”
Her words died when I stopped abruptly a few doors down from my own, knocking on the door of condo 2143. I slid my hands into my pockets, smirking as she blinked at the door first, and then at me, dumbfounded.
The door swung open before she had the chance to ask anything more.
“First a hurricane, the game canceled, and now a scoundrel showing up at my door?” The old man with his liver-spotted hands on the doorknob shook his head, scowling as if he were annoyed. But I knew him well enough to see right through it, especially when he opened the door wider for us to enter. “The good Lord must really be testing me today.”
“Nice to see you in such good spirits, old sport.”
He harrumphed at the nickname I gave him because he quotedThe Great Gatsbythe first time I met him, then he blinked, thin lips curling into an appreciative smile when Mia took her hood off.
“Well, now,” he mused, a hand at his stomach as he half-bowed. “If you aren’t the prettiest thing this old man has seen in decades.”
“Easy there,” I warned him when he reached out for Mia’s hand. “I don’t need you having a heart attack when the hospitals are all busy preparing for the storm.”
He scowled at me for only a second before his smile was back in place and aimed right at my fake fiancée.
“Mia, this is Otis Schwartz. Otis, Mia Conaway.”
“A true pleasure to make your acquaintance, Mia.Vous êtes charmante.”
