“Are you sure he did it? No doubts?”
“Positive.”
“Then do it.”
He blinks back his obvious surprise.
“He stole ten million dollars from you, and like you said, chances are he’s stealing from his other clients. It seems like it would be immoral for you to not tell them.”
Tyler pulls me closer, his hands pressing against the small of my back. “Forget Avery. Are you excited about your event tonight?”
My smile is instant and spreads to his lips. “Stupid excited.”
“Are we going to stay up all night watching it before we get a replay of the shower?”
I grin. “We can, but it’s actually the most visible before the moon fully rises, so ten until midnight.”
“And we’ll be outside?”
I nod. “Astronomers will be inside the observatory, but we won’t all be able to fit, and with a meteor shower like Perseids, the best view is outside. Plus, as much as I love this, it’s far outside of my field of study, so this is just icing on the cake.” I glance at the sky. “Especially if it’s clear again tonight, we’ll have a great view.”
He brushes his lips against my temple.
“I’m hoping Cooper and Nessie still come. I hate when he’s mad at me.”
“He’s not mad at you. Trust me. He just needs some time to breathe and cool down.”
His words are meant to comfort me, but I know he’s wrong. Cooper was irate, and while I might be able to share some of that blame with the situation, it’s my omission that lit the match. Still, I want to believe Tyler’s assurance.
“Let’s get a car to take us to Ghirardelli Square,” he says, glancing at his watch. “We’ll grab some lunch and ice cream, and then we’ll need to head back so we can get ready for your big night.”
Disappointment has me looking to verify the time. I’d wanted to walk through the city and see at least a few more things on my list, but he’s right. We’re going to be borderline late as it is.
His lips graze my cheek and then my lips. “I’ll bring you back, I swear.”
“I just thought we had more time, but it’s okay, this morning was…” My cheeks flush as I recall the details of our time in the living room and then again in the shower. “Amazing. If that’s all I was able to take out of this city, I’d be content.”
He smiles fully now. “I’m still bringing you back the first chance we get.” His attention falls to his phone, and his brow furrows as his eyes cut to the sky and then back to his screen.
“Is everything okay?”
He shakes his head, reaching an arm behind his back.
“Avery?”
He doesn’t respond, his focus on whatever message he’s sending in reply. Several minutes pass, his attention still downcast as his thumbs dart across his screen.
“Should we return to the hotel?”
“No. It’s nothing.”
“Clearly, it’s something.”
Tyler sighs, but his shoulders don’t fall. If anything, they grow bigger. “I haven’t checked my phone all day. I knew shit would blow up because of firing Avery, and I just wanted one day to not worry about it or bother with trying to sort through shit. I wanted one day with you. This day. Your day.”
“We had Vegas,” I remind him.
He shakes his head. “I still had to work, and even that stupid fucking poker game was part of it.”
“You just said we have two weeks. We can stretch the trip out. We don’t have to check out tomorrow. Or we can add a couple of days and go see the Oregon coast or stay in Portland? Or just head back and hibernate at your place or my place or both?”
Slowly, he pulls in a breath, and then just as slowly, he nods. “You’re right. This is just the beginning.”
My stomach and chest warm at his words, my heart gallops, and I smile. “Exactly.”
We walk back down to the park to catch a Lyft that takes us through the city to Ghirardelli Square, where a long line of tourists stands.
“Come on,” he says, taking my hand.
“We can’t cut in line here. There’s no bouncer, and there are kids.”
Tyler flashes a devilish grin that dares me to question if he could, and I have little doubt that he would. “There’s a pub in the back that most tourists don’t know about, and they serve the same ice cream.”
We walk around the line and red-brick building to a second entrance, where a woman greets us with a piece of dark chocolate.
“Oh,” I say, tearing open the wrapper. “You should ask them if they have any white chocolate.”
His eyebrows go up with surprise.
“I know a lot about you. Two years’ worth of stuff and a few Google searches.” I shrug when his eyes light up with another admission. “There were a lot of rumors about who you were freshman year.”
He laughs. “I’ll bet.”
“Most were wrong,” I add, thinking about the multitude of articles that referred to him as a heartless playboy.
“I’ve made my fair share of mistakes,” he tells me as we join a shorter line to order.
“But they led you to Brighton and Cooper.”
“And you,” he adds, placing his hand on my hip. It’s possessive and strong and like everything about Tyler, addictive.
When we finish our lunch and ice cream, we wait for a car from the hotel to come and pick us up, and though I’m sad not to see more of this city that has been so amazing in the tiny fraction I’ve seen, I feel like a kid on Christmas Eve as we pull up to the hotel, excited for this night and to share it with Tyler.
“Mr.
