She’d lived her life being scared—scared to be loved and have that love ripped away, scared to put her faith in someone to have them disappoint her time and time again. She didn’t have enough courage to take a chance...
Your childhood is behind you, Adie...
How many times had she repeated those words to herself? But had she ever said them with any meaning? Her past, and her parents, were still dictating her actions today. She was still running instead of facing her problems. Her childhood was long over but she still let it influence her life. Her parents had been useless, neglectful and self-absorbed, but she didn’t have to follow in their footsteps. She could do better, be better...
If she drilled down to the core of her feelings, if she pushed away her many excuses, denials and rationalizations, she knew she was utterly in love with Hunt. And yes, maybe they wouldn’t last forever, maybe everything would fall apart in two or three months because that was what was destined to happen. But it wouldn’t be because she created drama or found a way to leave.
She was done with self-sabotaging.
She could only try.
Try, with everything she had, to be happy, to be happy with Hunt.
Trying was all she could do. And that started with getting back to New York...
Adie stood up, about to call for a ride, when a ubiquitous London cab pulled to a smooth stop beside her. The window came down and the driver, who looked remarkably like one of Santa’s elves leaned across the seat to give her a friendly grin. “Where to, luv?”
“Heathrow?”
“Sure thing.”
Adie climbed into the car and slammed the door shut. Dragging her phone out of her bag, she quickly jumped on the internet and saw that the next flight to New York left in a few hours. She booked her ticket and immediately got a message asking if she was interested in being upgraded—free of charge—to business class.
Uh, yes, please.
“You do know it’s Christmas Eve, right?” The driver asked her, looking at her in the rearview mirror. “The traffic is going to be hectic.”
Adie smiled at him and shook her head. “We’ll be fine. In a matter of ten minutes, I’ve found you, booked a ticket, got an upgrade and look, the traffic is flowing freely.”
“Well, huh. Guess the universe is looking out for you.”
Adie smiled. Yep, maybe it was.
It was after midnight on Christmas Eve and Hunt walked down 5th Avenue with his hands jammed into his coat pockets and scowled at a couple taking a selfie in front of an overly decorated Christmas window. The woman lowered her phone, kissed her boyfriend and held up her phone again to catch their smooch.
He and Adie hadn’t taken one photograph together. Hell, their relationship was over before either of them could think about keeping a memento of what they’d had.
And what was that? Hot sex over a few weeks...
Hunt tried to duck around a group of tourists standing in front of another window, but the crowd moved, forcing him to choose between staying where he was or stepping off the sidewalk into a puddle. Choosing to keep his feet dry, he looked over their heads into the window and immediately saw why it had captured the attention of the crowds.
It was a window within a window, posed mannequins looking at an old-fashioned winter wonderland scene, perfectly capturing Christmas. Even he, morose and sad and pissed, could appreciate the artistry in the window. The models were modern and stylish, sporting trendy clothing and accessories and the second window harked back to a simpler time, of tobogganing and snow, candy canes and enormous Christmas trees.
Adie would love the detail, the link between old and new.
Hunt turned away, wishing he could stop thinking about her, stop missing her. While only a day and a half had passed since she’d walked out, he could barely breathe because he missed her so much. He hadn’t slept much last night, dozing off somewhere close to dawn only to wake up and reach for her...
To find she wasn’t there. Hell of a thing to feel sucker punched as he opened his eyes, the air rushing from his lungs, feeling weak and shaky and so damn miserable.
Would he feel like this every morning for the rest of his life?
It’ll fade, Hunt told himself.It always does.This is just grief, you have to get through it, one day at a time. You’ve done it before, remember?
As Kate said, he was a survivor.
His shoulders hunched against the icy wind, Hunt recalled Kate’s words from his Christmas party a few nights ago.
“For Adie, love has been...elusive.”