I just didn’t know how that was going to work.
When we finally broke apart I felt tears pricking at my eyes and lowered my gaze, not wanting him to see them.
“Hey,” he whispered, tilting my chin up with his finger. “It will work itself out.”
“Will it?” I challenged with a watery laugh.
“Yes,” he assured me. “I am very rich and you are very smart. Together, we can do anything.”
“That sounds very convincing,” I told him. “But I have to go to the airport now. And later I will get on a plane to America and then time will pass, and you’ll vaguely recall the girl that crashed on your couch this one time.”
“That is not going to happen,” he said firmly. “Yes, I will take you to the airport, because I understand you need to be with your family for Christmas. But this is not the end of our story, Hannah. It is only the beginning.”
God, how I wanted to believe that. And I believed that he believed it. But I also believed that it wouldn’t be enough.
Wanting didn’t make things happen.
Chapter Ten
~Hez~
“Call me when you land,” I insisted, pressing my card into Hannah’s hand as we stood outside the airport together.
“Well, I don’t have a phone,” she reminded me. I pulled mine out of my pocket and handed it to her, but she just laughed and pushed it back at me. “I can’t call you if I have your phone.”
Right.
“Okay, well the moment you get your phone replaced, call me. I will come see you as soon as I am able,” I promised her.
She nodded as she blew out a sigh. “I have to go.”
“I know.” I reached out and pulled her into my arms, hugging her tightly.
I desperately wanted to kiss her again, but I was afraid that if I did, I wouldn’t be able to let her go. So instead I forced myself to release her and leaned forward to press my lips against her forehead.
“Have a safe flight,” I whispered, my voice too hoarse to manage much volume.
“I don’t have much control over that,” she teased. “But I’ll do my best.”
We both hesitated a moment, but then she gave me one last, sad smile, and turned, heading inside and leaving me alone on the sidewalk.
Neither of us had actually said goodbye, and I clung to that as I rode back to the house. Because it wasn’t goodbye. It was just a temporary separation. We would be together again.
We may have only had a few days together, but they’d been the best days of my life. And I knew without a doubt that before too long, we’d be spending every single day for the rest of our lives together. So there was no need for goodbyes anyway.
****
“I can’t believe you let her go,” Simon said, pouring a healthy measure of whiskey into a rocks glass before sliding it over to me.
“What was I going to do?” I asked, glaring at my brother as I lifted the glass to my lips and took a long swallow.
“Stop her,” he replied, as if the answer should have been obvious.
“She wanted to go,” I reminded him.
“No, shehadto go,” he corrected me. “There is a difference.”
He was right, there was a difference. And I knew she had to go. But that didn’t mean I had to like it.