She bolted upright. She’d come up at ten. “You’re only getting here now?”
Enough light came through the window that she saw Gray cringe.
“It took much longer than I anticipated to get everything straightened out. Work won’t interfere anymore this weekend. Promise.” He pushed the hair that had escaped her braid behind her ear. “Are you ready to go?”
“Now? Shouldn’t we wait until later this morning? You look tired.”
Gray pulled the covers back. “I can’t wait to give you my present any longer. After that, we’ll go to the airport. My plane is waiting for us.”
He pointed to the single suitcase. “Is that it for luggage?”
Kiera nodded.
“You get dressed, and I’ll carry it downstairs.”
Outside, a full moon filled the sky as Gray drove along empty streets. They were headed toward Providence. Not much remained open at that time of the morning even in the city. Although, just because they were headed that way didn’t mean her gift was there. They had to come this way to reach the airport as well.
“How about one little clue?” She’d asked for hints before when all her guesses were wrong, but he kept refusing.
“You’ll see soon enough.” He used his turn signal and exited the highway.
The familiar downtown streets passed by until Gray turned into the parking lot beneath The Hillcrest, downtown Providence’s most expensive apartment building.
“Why are we at Trent’s place?”
“Don’t worry, we’re not here to see him.”
Then who were they there to see? Gray gave up none of his secrets, and she’d run out of guesses days ago.
Gray led her into the lobby and past the security guards. Unlike on their previous visit, they walked toward the main elevators rather than the private one that accessed only Trent’s penthouse.
She watched the numbers light up as the elevator carried them up. When the tenth floor lit up, it stopped, and the doors opened into a large foyer with two doors.
“Isn’t it late to be visiting anyone?”
“I never said we were here to visit anyone.” He put an arm around her as they walked toward the door with a large purple bow on it.
“Happy birthday, love.” He deposited a key in her hand.
Confused, Kiera unlocked the door. If this were a normal time of day, she would’ve expected a loud chorus of Surprise! but not at this hour. What was waiting for her on the other side anyway? She turned the handle. The door opened, revealing a dark apartment.
“Go on in.” Gray gave her a gentle push then followed her inside and switched on the lights. The entire apartment looked spotless, but empty.
“Okay, I’m confused. What are we doing in someone’s empty apartment?” She stayed put in the center of a large room and looked around.
“It’s not someone’s. It’s ours. I bought it a few weeks ago, but waited on furniture so you can pick out what you like.”
Wow. “You want me to move in with you? What about work? Your office is in New York.”
“Not anymore. I can handle my international projects from anywhere. Right after I bought this, I arranged to get my office transferred to the Sherbrooke office here in Providence.”
She had tossed around a lot of possible birthday presents. Never in a million years would she have guessed this as his big surprise.
“When we get back from Anguilla, we can start furniture shopping.”
Kiera pivoted, taking in the apartment. Although not as big as Trent’s penthouse, which occupied the top two floors, the place was several times larger than her apartment.
“You don’t like it?”