Although her timing had been terrible, it wasn’t her fault. Besides, I’d waited this long to tell him. It wasn’t like anything was going to happen in the next few minutes while I spoke to Leah that would change anything.
Bart and I werethis closeto getting back together. All I had to do now was assure my friend that we were safe, and then I could get back to being with him. For good, this time.
CHAPTER41
BART
For fuck’s sake.Just as I’d finally been about to tell her how I felt about her, her fucking phone had rung.Of all the shit timing…
As I watched her walking away, I wondered if this was the universe’s way of telling me not to do it.Nah, that’s ridiculous. All this means is that I have to wait a little bit longer to tell her.
Considering how long I’d waited already, another few minutes wasn’t such a big deal. Settling down on one of the loungers outside, I sipped my champagne and looked out over the aquamarine water and the soft sunlight reflecting off it.
This place was really fucking perfect. I was suddenly glad I’d waited until now to tell her. Although there had been other times when it had felt almost right, I couldn’t have asked for a better location.
If this was my place, I’d never have left it, but I was relieved Maddox had, since it gave us the opportunity to be here alone. Over the last couple of days, I’d noticed the way she looked at me had changed. I still couldn’t know for sure until we talked about it, but I was all but convinced she was in love with me again, too.
I laughed to myself, letting my head drop back against the chair after taking another sip of champagne. Everything was finally coming together, and though I’d still been afraid of losing her even earlier today, now that we were here and the time had come to tell her, I was more confident than ever before that we’d be together from here on out.
The call took a lot longer than I’d thought it would. I waited for her to come back, but she didn’t. Eventually, I had to wonder if there was something serious going on back home. The thought made me frown, but I decided to give it a few more minutes.
When she still hadn’t come back, I turned to look into the house but couldn’t see her. A few more minutes later, I started getting worried. All she’d been planning on doing was telling Leah that we’d come back safely from scuba diving.No way that can take this long.
Getting up, I left my champagne on the table outside and then went to look for her to make sure she was okay. As I walked down the short hallway to the bedrooms, I heard her voice coming from inside one of the guest rooms.
When I’d come in looking for her, I hadn’t meant to eavesdrop on her conversation, but I heard her even as I walked. “You should hear this song, Leah. It’s so great. Bart thinks so too.”
I smiled.Of course, she’s just telling her friend about the fucking song. There’s nothing wrong.
Unable to resist hearing if she’d say something about me now that she’d brought me up, I stood still for a moment instead of going back outside. “Obviously I played it for him. I needed to know if it was as good as I thought it was.”
Damn. I thought it was because you were trying to tell me something with it, but okay. “He loved it, and since I’ll have the money to record it now as soon as we get back home, I want to hit the ground running.”
I frowned. A couple of hours ago, she’d seemed disappointed in the prospect that we might be leaving Hawaii early, but now it sounded like she couldn’t wait to get back to the city. In fact, it didn’t just sound like—she came right out and said it.
“I can’t wait to get started. This is the one I’ve been waiting for. It’s perfect as a debut, although it will set the bar really high.” She paused, probably listening to Leah. “Yeah, I know, but I’m up for the challenge. I’d rather start strong than risk never being able to release it if a weaker song fails. This money won’t last forever, and I doubt there’s another stroke of luck like this in my future.”
Knots formed in my stomach. She laughed at something Leah said. “You were definitely right when you said it’d be worth it if I came, even if things were awkward. I mean, luckily they weren’t, but it would still have been worth it. Plus, I’d never have gotten to do all the things we’ve done if I hadn’t risked it. You were also right about skydiving, by the way. I know I’ve already told you this, but I’ll say it again. As soon as I can afford to go by myself, I’m doing it again.”
What happened to doing it together again?
“I’m also treating you to a scuba diving course as soon as I can. It’s so great. You’ll love it. We can be buddies.”
My stomach sank.Good to know that you’re already looking for another diving buddy.
“I know we’re already buddies, idiot. Scuba diving works on a buddy system, so that no one ever goes down alone. You’ve always got one other person with you for safety, and that person is called your buddy.”
She chuckled. “Bart was a great buddy. We had a lot of fun together, but it’d be great to go with you, too. As long as I get to keep diving, I’ll turn the whole world onto it if I have to.”
So much for it being something we’re going to keep doing together.I was starting to wonder if I’d been imagining things after all. Eavesdropping was never a great idea. I knew I had no context to the conversation and I hadn’t heard what had been said before, but the things she was saying right now didn’t make it look good for us. It didn’t seem like anything we’d done had been special to her at all.
“No, we’re not going diving again,” she was saying. “Our time here is almost over. There was a minute earlier when I thought we were heading back today instead of staying for the whole time, and I was disappointed, but it also would’ve meant I could get started on recording.”
“I’ve been working,” she objected laughingly at whatever Leah had said. “I know how important it is not to lose focus, and I haven’t. You can relax. I’ve already made a list of things I need to get done in order to hit the ground running.”
“Uh huh,” she murmured. “Sure there will be enough money for the advertising. Good advertising, too. The first step will be finding a recording studio, though. Do you mind looking into that for me? I know you have some preferences, but I’d be happy with anyplace with decent equipment.”
She sighed. “Yes, I know how expensive it is, but that’s why I did all this, right? Like you said that day, I needed this for my career, and now I’ve done it. If you send me some names of the places you’ve liked where you’ve worked recently, I’ll make the booking myself. I just haven’t even really let myself look into it for years because I couldn’t afford it and it was just too depressing to look at places I couldn’t even afford to walk through the doors of.”