Collision (38 page)

“I understand.”

“Does all of this make it appear like I am?”

He looked down at her and smiled. “No. Take a deep breath. All’s going to be fine.”

She inhaled.

The elevator door finally opened. She stepped out and looked up and down the long corridor. There were only two doors on the entire floor, and they were at opposite ends of the hallway.

“Fred is on that end,” Andrew said, pointing to our left, “and you, Daphne, are down here on the other end.”

“Fred and Daphne?”

“Those are our code names while we’re here,” I said. “The hotel staff only knows you by that name. So if anyone asked if Kei Sallee was staying at the hotel, they would only have record of you being on the other floor.”

“Brilliant. But who are Fred and Daphne really?”

“They’re characters from
Scooby Doo
.”

“Scooby who?”

“It’s a television show. Daphne has red hair.”

“Oh. Another carrot top.”

We followed behind Andrew as he carried her bags to the door.

“I’ll give you my room number and my cell phone number,” he said. “You call me if you need anything. I’m a floor below you, and I can be here in less than a minute.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Thanks, Andrew. Just set her stuff down right inside the door.” I grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room. “This is the penthouse.”

“Okay.” She looked back and watched as Andrew left the two of us alone. “This place is enormous. We could fit twenty-five Ugandan clans in this room and still have room to move around.”

“Imagine being in a room like this all the time and all alone.”

“I’d rather not.”

“We’ve got the entire floor to ourselves. Nobody else can even get access to it, and there are no cameras in the hallway. We can come and go as much as we want, and nobody will know the difference. Oh, and did you see that hallway out there? Plenty of room for yard ball. Course, we’ll have to change the name to hall ball.”

She walked around in awe. “It’s the most beautiful room I’ve ever seen. I cannot believe you’ve orchestrated all of this.”

“I guess it’s what guys do when they’re in love. They orchestrate things.”

She turned back to look at me. “I haven’t seen a smile on your face as large as the one you’re wearing now since you were holding Innocent the first time. You’re genuinely pleased that I’m here, aren’t you?”

“I’m the happiest guy on the planet right now.”

“Because I’m here?”

I laughed. “All because you’re here.”

I placed my hands on her shoulders and then let them trail down her arms until I gripped my hands in hers. “You look freaked out. Are you okay?”

“I-I’m a little freaked out. I think I’m just overwhelmed with all of it: the trip, the orchestrating, the room, the large man on the lift. I blurted that we weren’t nobbing. I mean, how ridiculous is that?”

I laughed. “Yeah, that part was pretty funny. I don’t think he knew how to respond.”

“I’m acting completely batty right now. This is very much outside what I’m accustomed to.”

“Anything I can do to help?”

“Just tell me I’m not making a mistake. I’ll choose to believe you, honestly, I will.”

“You’re not making a mistake.” I dropped her hands and cupped her face in my hands. “I promise you, Kei. We’re no mistake.”

She took a deep breath and slowly let it out. “Aces.”

“Okay.” I rested my forehead on hers. “Come on. I want to show you something.”

“Uh…”

“Something completely innocent.”

“All right then.”

I grabbed her hand and led her down the hallway and around a corner.

“Tada!”

There sat a pool table in front of a large window that overlooked the Tuscan village below.

“You’re kidding?”

“Nope. Just like Asheville; except with a view.” I grabbed two sticks and handed one out to her. “Want to play?”

“As long as you keep your stick to yourself.”

“Aw, she pulls out the ol’ stick joke.” I laughed. “That’s my girl.”

She leaned over the table to line up her shot, and as she did, I walked up next to her, leaned over, and kissed her on the back of the neck.

“And life returns to normal,” I announced, “just like I’d hoped.”

“Normal? Cabot, between my past and your present, there’s nothing about us that’s normal. It’ll be a blasted miracle if this coupling lasts a week.”

“Then it’s a good thing I believe in miracles. You can borrow my faith for a while if you need to.”

She struck the ball with the cue and watched the balls scatter around the table.

“Nice shot.”

“Thank you.”

I walked around the table, looking for a shot of my own. “What do you think?”

She left her stick perched against the side of the pool table and walked up beside me.

“Do you think I have a shot?” I asked.

“Sure.”

“Which one? The red?”

She removed the stick from my hand and laid it on the table.

“Wait. It’s my move,” I protested.

“I’m about to ask you a question, and I need you to be one hundred percent honest with me.”

“Okay,” I said cautiously.

“You once lectured me about what a true snog should be.”

“I did.”

“Has the time that’s passed or the revelation about my past changed the way you see me or change how you want to…oh, what am I saying?”

I tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. “Not in the least. Trust me. I’m having to work very hard at keeping myself from being all over you right now.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Well, don’t try too hard. I mean, it has been twenty-five days. I’d rather like my toes to tingle again.”

“I made your toes tingle?”

“You made parts of my body tingle I didn’t even know existed.”

“Really? Well then let’s see if we can do that again.”

“I would appreciate that.”

I slid my arms around her, picked her up off the floor, turned, and set her on the pool table.

“I think I’m going to enjoy this.”

“Oh, I’m certain I will,” she whispered as I moved toward her.

C H A P T E R

31

Hours later, we were lying on the couch in the living room, her head on my chest. She’d fallen asleep, and I was flipping through channels on the television, although I wasn’t really watching it. I was thinking—thinking about how long it had taken to get to that point, thinking about how much time I’d spent wishing we’d be just like we were, completely alone, completely comfortable, and completely together.

“Did you know that I’ve never actually watched an entire television show?” she suddenly said.

“You’re kidding?”

“No. As a child, I wasn’t allowed. My father didn’t let my mother or me watch television. The boys could, but we couldn’t.”

“Didn’t you say you used to watch princess movies as a kid, or was that after all that?”

“No. It was during. Every so often, my father and brothers would all go off somewhere together. When they did, my mother would sneak and let me watch a princess movie.”

“Why only princess movies, do you think?”

“I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed, but most princesses live pretty miserable lives. It isn’t until the end of the movie that someone saves them and they get to go off and live happily ever after.”

“Is that right? I hadn’t thought about it.”

She pushed off my chest and sat up. The skin of her left cheek had a crease imbedded in it from a wrinkle in my shirt.

“Snow White was a princess, but both of her birth parents were dead and her evil stepmother, the queen, hated her. She was forced into servitude. Then the queen tried to have her killed, but Snow White escaped into the woods and lived there with the dwarfs and the animals. Cinderella—”

“Had an evil stepmother,” I said. “She was forced to do all the housework and was mistreated.”

“That’s right. Both of her birth parents were dead, and her only friends?”

“Animals.”

“How do you know all this?” she asked.

“Three sisters, remember?”

“Oh yes. Now, Aurora wasn’t a maid or mistreated necessarily, but she lived a very lonely life. She lived alone in the woods with no friends other than three fairies. Oh, and she had no parents. It was her aunt who looked after her.”

“What’s with all the orphans? I hadn’t ever realized that until now.”

“Makes a better story, I presume.”

“What about the mermaid one?”

“Ariel. No mother. She was a princess, but she didn’t like the life she was called to live. She wanted more for herself, but her father controlled her life and forbid her to explore any life that was different than what he had in mind for her.”

“But he did love her, and he ends up coming around in the end.”

“True. He was overly protective of her because he knew how evil the world outside his protection could be. And then there’s Belle, my personal favorite. Again, no mother. Belle wasn’t noble at all. There was nothing special about her. Her father was odd, and everyone around her thought she was batty. She lived a lonely life with only books and her imagination to keep her happy.”

“And your mother thought all this would encourage you how?”

She moved away from me, put her legs between mine, and rested her feet on my chest. Her head lay on the armrest on the opposite side of the couch.

“I was a girl born of noble birth, to some degree.”

“How?”

“My father was the heir to his family business. We can get more into that later.”

“Okay.”

“So, by name alone, I should have lived a life of fortune, so to speak.”

“But you had an evil parent.”

“Yes, I had an evil parent. I was forced into servitude. I maintained the house. My father expected it to be immaculate.”

“You were no more than seven years old.”

“I know.”

“If that’s the case, then how can Oliver have you clean their house? I’d never let you do that after everything you’ve been through.”

“I needed to raise money, and cleaning the house was a way to do it. Oliver actually refused at first, but he eventually gave in. Cleaning house doesn’t bother me.”

“Still…”

“Anyway, like some of the princesses, I was isolated from society.”

“Did you go to school?”

“No. No friends, no visitors. Only my poor imagination and my mother to keep me happy.”

“She loved you?”

“Very much.”

“Then why did she do what she did?”

“Other than losing her mind?”

“I guess.”

“I think she gave up on the fairytale ending. The night she fully realized what was happening, I believe she saw me as a girl who would always be the lowly servant, that I’d always be mistreated, I’d never escape. I was damaged, and no Prince Charming would want me.”

“So she made an escape for you, of sorts?”

“In her mind, I think so. She destroyed the evil in my father. She destroyed the two sons who she believed were being trained to act just like he did.”

“And why you?”

“She thought she’d save me the pain of having to live with the truth of what I’d experienced. At least that’s what she says anyway. You can’t really expect an answer that makes any sense. None of it makes sense.”

“You’ve talked to her about this since it happened?”

“Yes. I visit her every time I come to the States.”

“Is that’s where you disappeared to after I first saw you at the house?”

“Yes. It’s a day trip. You have to report to the prison early in the morning and wait your turn.”

“I can’t believe you still want to see her after everything she did.”

“She’s my mother. She was trying to protect me.”

“Kei, she tried to kill you.”

“I know. I didn’t say it was logical. It is what it is. All I can do is forgive her and move on the best way that I know how.”

“You’ve forgiven her?”

“Of course. Wouldn’t you?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“I’m not saying that I want her to be released from prison and I want to try to live a normal mother-daughter life. She’ll be living in a cell for the rest of her life. She has nothing, no future. The least I can do is offer her a little forgiveness and visit her once a year.”

“What about your parents, your new parents?”

“They aren’t legally my parents. My mother never signed over her parental rights, and my parents never fought it. They’re my guardians.”

“Then how did you end up with them?”