What a mess.
I had no idea how he was going to react to this news.
Will he be happy? Angry? Resentful?
What if he thinks I tried to trap him?
My stomach lurched.
What if he doesn’t want me anymore?
I stared at the clock on my nightstand and knew I couldn’t put off leaving any longer. I couldn’t afford to lose my job now.
I threw the rest of my crap into my bag and zipped it up hastily. I took one last look around before I headed downstairs to get on my bike.
Penny will know what to do.
“Everything I’ve never done, I want to do it with you.”
- William Chapman
28. Colt
The six-hour flight had been excruciatingly long. Every hour that passed had me freaking out about not speaking to Lexie, she called me every morning when she woke up and today would have been the first time I hadn’t been able to answer.
Lexie had no idea I was coming, so I had no valid reason to explain my disappearance from cell phone service. When I got the chance to call her back, I was probably going to have to blame being busy at work for being the reason I couldn’t talk.
I hated lying to her. It went against every instinct I had. I was an honest guy, especially with the people I loved, and Lexie was no exception, but Quinn and El had managed to convince me that I should keep this from her. They’d spouted some rubbish about it being a romantic gesture. Apparently, the element of surprise was key in romantic gestures.
I wasn’t so sure, but they’d ganged up on me when I was weak.
Majority rules.
It had only been two days of concealing the truth and I already wasn’t coping.
Setting foot outside the terminal in the sweltering heat, I wasn’t so sure it was such a great plan after all. I would have killed to have Lexie here waiting for me. I could imagine the way she’d run to me, jump into my arms and kiss me senseless.
But she wasn’t here.
I glanced around, not a single clue who or what exactly it was that I was meant to be looking for.
Getting hold of Lexie’s friends on the ship had been a bit of a process, but I’d got there in the end. I’d first had to go to Q and El, they’d then contacted Brooke and Stacey, both of whom had been no help, but we struck it lucky with Jemma. Her and her husband Connor had honeymooned on the cruise ship that Lex sang on, and Jemma had made friends with a woman named Penny, who was apparently very close with Lexie.
I’d called Penny myself and she’d been more than excited to help me with pulling off this surprise. She’d even had her own surprise for me, and everything felt like it was finally falling perfectly into place.
I switched my phone on and saw that I had not only one or two, but numerous missed calls from Lexie.
My heart sped up slightly. I was expecting her to have called, just not this many times.
Is something wrong?
There was a text too.
“I tried to call, but I couldn’t get you. If you get this message soon, call me back, otherwise I’ll call you after the show tonight, okay? I miss you.”
I miss you too.
I love you.
I wasn’t going to call her back now, the message was from an hour ago and I didn’t want to interrupt her if she was getting ready to go to work.
I still didn’t know exactly how this was going to play out just yet, but either way I knew I’d be seeing her soon.
A tooting horn pulled me from my thoughts. I looked around to see a beat-up old red hatchback that must have been at least three hundred years old, pulled over, the blinker flashing.
A wild-looking woman with bright blue hair popped up out of the door.
“Colt?” she called out to me.
Penny?
“That’s me,” I confirmed.
“Well c’mon now, we’ll be late.” She double tapped the roof of the car before getting back in.
I chuckled to myself, I had not been expecting a sixty-something-year-old woman with hair the color of the sky, but here she was. I grabbed my bag and jogged over to her car. I didn’t want to be late. Late for what, I wasn’t really sure, but there was only one way to find out.
***
“This is incredible.” I glanced around the space before me. I’d never had the opportunity to set foot on a cruise ship before and it was blowing my mind. I hadn’t expected it to be so big and spacious.
I could see why Lex was so in love with her life on the sea.
“You like it?” Penny asked.
She’d picked me up and driven us straight over to the port, where we were about to depart – I hadn’t realized we were cutting such a fine line, but Penny had promised that the ship wouldn’t be going anywhere without her.
I was still pinching myself that this quirky woman was the cruise director. She was in charge of all onboard hospitality, entertainment and social events. She was essentially Lexie’s boss, and she was about to become mine too.
“I love it.”
“So you’ll take the job?” She pressed, her voice full of hope.
“I’ll take the job,” I confirmed with a smile.
She thought I was helping her out by taking it on such short notice, but really it was the other way around.
“Thank heavens.” She pulled me in for a hug. She was so welcoming and warm; it wasn’t hard to see why Lexie was so fond of her.
“Do you think she’s here yet?” I asked her, not needing to specify who I was referring to.
She glanced at her wrist watch. “She usually gets on at the very last minute, so I’d imagine not quite yet, but she’ll be here very soon.”
I felt a goofy smile spread across my face. I was dying to see my girl. I couldn’t wait to see the look on her face when she realized I’d come here for her.
“But for right now, we’ve got things to do, lover boy, I need you to meet the bar staff, get you up to speed on protocol...” She looked back and forth between me and the clipboard in her hands. “Oh there’s just so much to do. We’ll leave the sleeping arrangements until later, if that’s okay with you, I’m assuming you’ll be sharing my favorite singer’s room, but we can’t have her spotting your bags now, can we?”
She didn’t give me time to get a word in.
“Just put your things in the back room over there.” She pointed behind the bar. “We’ve got a manager’s meeting in five, so you can meet the team there, after that we’ll get you a uniform and access passes for tomorrow...”
I wasn’t sure if she was still talking to me, or if she was making a mental list for herself.
“I’m assuming you want the same schedule as Lexie?” she asked.
“Huh?” I’d let my thoughts wander.
“You only want to work the cruises that Lexie works, right?”
“Oh, yeah, sorry, that would be great, thank you, Penny.”
“It’s my pleasure.” She smiled warmly. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I have quite the soft spot for that girl of yours, and I want nothing more than happiness for her. And if it’s not too forward of me to say, you seem like the kind of man who would make her very happy.”
I refrained from puffing my chest out like a proud peacock.
“I hope I’ll make her happy for a very long time,” I told her sincerely.”
“Well good.” She beamed. “Now let’s get going.”
I chucked my stuff into the back room as she’d instructed and followed after her.
My phone rang from my pocket as we headed into the manager’s meeting and I had no choice but to ignore it.
I grimaced as I thought about Lexie’s calls going unanswered, I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that she needed me. She’d told me she would call after her show, and I knew for a fact that she hadn’t performed yet.
Maybe it’s not even her calling.
“Don’t worry, pet, she’ll be here soon enough.” Penny winked at me, pulling me from my thoughts.<
br />
29. Lexie
“Lily, do you know where Penny is?” I popped my head into my neighbor’s room. Lily was a jazz pianist in one of the fine-dining restaurants.
“Manager’s meeting,” she replied as she smacked her freshly painted bright red lips together, staring at her own reflection.
“Still?” I quizzed. The manager’s meeting was usually well and truly done by four.
“You didn’t hear?” she asked, looking at me through her mirror. “She got a new manager for the Alchemy bar. She’ll be showing him the ropes.”
Shit.
I only had two hours until I had to sing, and there was no way I’d get hold of her with a new manager to prep.
“Oh... that’s good.”
“I heard from Kim that he’s a total babe.” She swooned.
“Hmmm,” I murmured, not in the least bit interested in the new piece of eye candy the ship had to offer.
“Is everything okay, Lex?” she asked, noticing my less than enthusiastic response.
I shot her a fake smile. “Yeah, everything is great.”
***
I smoothed my black dress over my hips. I knew it was all in my head, but it just didn’t seem to fit the same anymore. It was like my hips were already widening to make allowances for the baby in my belly.
I’m losing my mind.
I glanced around the restaurant; tonight I was performing a solo cabaret act. Something I did often, but this time I was nervous. I didn’t feel like myself anymore. It was as though I’d left a part of myself back on that small V.I.P. in my boyfriends club.
Back with him.
“Two minutes, Lexie girl,” Todd, one of the older lighting guys called to me.
I nodded and my stomach churned.
Not now, little baby, not now.
It was only a thirty-minute set.
Thirty minutes and then I can try and call Colt again.
I still hadn’t planned out what the hell I would say, but I knew I couldn’t keep this from him any longer. I’d known only a few hours, and I was dying to not be alone with this life-changing news anymore.
I need him.
Just how much I needed him hit me so hard in that moment that I had to sit down to stop my head from spinning.
Breathe... just breathe.
“You’re up, sweetheart,” Todd called to me.
I nodded again and got shakily to my feet.
I can do this.
“True love has a habit of coming back.”
- Author unknown
30. Colt
She was near. I could feel it. Excitement coursed through my veins at the prospect of seeing her again, holding her in my arms and breathing in the smell that was one hundred percent Lexie Chase.
I was also nervous. There was this nagging thought in the back of my mind that maybe she wouldn’t be happy about me being here. I’d literally shown up in her life, unannounced and uninvited, and if she turned me down... if she wasn’t ready for this, it was going to kill me.
I meant what I’d told Mitch – Lexie was the one for me.
I glanced around at the bar – my new job. It was nothing like the club back home, but it was cool. The staff seemed nice and everyone had welcomed me with open arms. Right now, I was just learning the ropes and in the back of my mind, making a list of improvements that would help this place tick over a little better. Penny had informed me that it wasn’t performing as well as expected, and because of that, they’d had trouble keeping managers for more than a few months at a time.
Speak of the devil.
Penny smiled brightly at me as she approached the bar. “Take a break,” she suggested.
“Me?” I looked around to check she was speaking to me. “I’ve only been here an hour or two.”
She winked at me. “I know, but a certain petite little brunette is on the stage.”
My eyes shot up from the bench I was wiping down. “Where?” I demanded softly.
Her tinkling laugh surrounded me. “Just a few doors away, c’mon, I’ll show you.”
I didn’t need telling twice. I dropped the cloth and gave Mikey, the guy helping me get settled, a nod; he gave me a nod and a smirk back – everyone in this place knew about me and Lex already.
Apparently there were no secrets on this cruise ship.
I followed Penny out of the bar and down to a restaurant/lounge area. The sound of Lexie’s sweet voice filled my ears and soothed my soul simultaneously. Hearing her voice was like coming home. I paused outside the door and took a deep breath.
Penny nudged my arm and raised her eyebrows at me. “Aren’t you coming in? We’re just in time for her last song.”
Is this how I wanted to surprise her?
I had a feeling that if I walked in there right now, she’d abandon her set to come to me, and that wasn’t right. A voice like Lexie’s needed to be heard.
I shook my head slowly as I listened to her singing ‘All I Want’ by Kodaline. Her voice was more haunting than I could remember and she sounded on the verge of breaking down.
Penny must have sensed it too. She gave me a small smile and disappeared around the corner to watch.
I still hadn’t laid eyes on her, but I couldn’t make myself move. All I could do was listen.
Her voice turned husky and my heart pounded in my chest.
My sweet Lexie.
She was singing from the heart.
A shiver passed over me, leaving a path of goosebumps in its wake.
She sounded so hurt, so alone. Her voice was connecting with every part of me, mirroring the way I felt from being without her.
The crowd inside the room erupted into applause as the song came to an end.
“Thank you,” she replied quietly. “I’ve got time for one last song.”
I wasn’t sure how much more of this I could take. My heart was breaking for her. Even though I was here now, the guilt at letting her be apart from me was threatening to swallow me whole – she obviously wasn’t coping quite the way I thought she was.
The backing track, or maybe it was a live band, I couldn’t tell from my hidden spot, started and I recognized the tune as ‘What now’ by Rihanna. I tried desperately to swallow the lump in my throat – Lexie was hurting, big time.
She sounds like an angel.
Her voice glided effortlessly through the verse.
Nothing, I mean nothing would ever compare to hearing the woman I loved, singing like this. This was by no means the first time I’d heard her voice, but in a way it felt like it was, there was so much emotion in her voice, she was feeling the words deep inside her soul – and so was I.
Her voice clogged with tears on the last note and I rounded the corner.
My girl needs me.
I glanced around the room, searching for her, finally spotting her at the far corner of the room; she was being ushered off the stage by Penny, her back to me.
Lexie... my little song bird.
Penny whipped her head around, obviously looking for me. She gestured her head towards the bar and I took it to mean that I should go back to work. She winked and I knew she had a plan.
I just had to hope that she knew what she was doing.
31. Lexie
Thank god for Penny.
She’d bustled me off that stage in her arms before the crowd had realized my tears were more than just for show. She must have seen it in my eyes that I was on the verge of a meltdown, and we both knew that once I started; there would be no stopping me.
“Deep breaths, honey, deep breaths,” she coached me. She pressed down on my shoulders until I was seated in a chair in the staff-only area out back.
I sucked in a couple of shallow breaths.
“Can you tell me what’s wrong? Or what you need?”
“Colt,” I panted out. “I just need to talk to Colt.”
“What’s happened, sweetie, talk to me,” Penny demanded in that soft, soothing way she had.
I took another breath, deep
er this time, and tried to focus on Penny, she’d crouched down in front of me so we were at eye level.
I can talk to her, she’ll help.
“I’m pregnant,” I answered quietly, and for some reason I sounded ashamed. “I couldn’t get Colt on the phone... he doesn’t know.”
Penny’s eyes lit up like a proud grandmother. “That’s fantastic news.” She lightly squeezed my shoulders. “Are you okay? I take it from the look on your face that it wasn’t planned?”
I shook my head. “We only had a week together, Pen, what if it was just a holiday fling for him?” I bit down on my lip to try and stop myself from crying.
“Has he done or said anything to make you think that?” she asked, gently coaxing me to see that I was overreacting. Penny was always the voice of reason on this ship.
“No.” I shook my head again. “He’s sweet and caring and he tells me he misses me.”
She raised her eyebrows at me.
“But he has a whole life back there, and none of it involves me. And he seemed to be really excited about what he’s had going on these past few days, and I can’t help but feel like he’s moving on without me,” I rambled.
“You really love him, don’t you?” she asked softly.
I looked up from where I’d been fiddling with the hem of my dress. “More than I thought was possible,” I answered sincerely.
“You know what, Lexie girl, I bet this will all work out, you’ll see.”
“How do you know?”
“I just know.” She tapped the end of my nose. “Now come on, I need a wine.”
I looked at her expectantly, waiting for the penny to drop.
“Oh crap, well, I’ll have a wine; you’ll have to settle for a juice.”
I giggled and dabbed at my eyes. “I might just head back to my room.”
“Nonsense,” she argued, pulling me to my feet. “One drink, honey, and I’ll let you go. Trust me; it’ll be good for you.”
I sighed and let her pull me up, it was useless arguing with this woman, there was a reason she was so good at her job – she always got what she wanted.
Love like Yours Series (Box Set #1-4) Page 83