In Between the Earth and Sky

by Heidi Hutchinson

  “A unicorn, now seriously, hold still. I’m almost done.”

  ***

  Lydia

  She paused brushing her teeth as she caught sight of Remington exiting the shower.

  Unfortunately, he’d tied a towel around his waist before doing so.

  Wait. No.

  Fortunately, not unfortunately.

  Shit.

  She was so entirely screwed.

  How does the hot guy get hotter? How did she let herself fall so completely and inexplicably in love with a man so much like her?

  Too much like her.

  He caught her look in the reflection and raised a pointed eyebrow as he turned his back so they could both see her handy work.

  An artist, she was not.

  The laugh bubbled out of her and she choked on the toothpaste. She leaned into the sink and spit.

  “You have never been more attractive,” she deadpanned.

  He rolled his eyes, a sideways smile trying to come out.

  She rinsed her mouth and wiped it off with a towel. A lipstick she hadn’t meant to pack rolled out of her toiletries bag. She almost laughed.

  It was her “Sweet Transvestite” lipstick.

  Every year, on Brenda’s birthday, she made sure to show up—no matter where she was living at the time—to sing the Tim Curry version of “Sweet Transvestite” from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

  Geez.

  There was so much about her life and her choices that would never make sense to people who didn’t already love her.

  Oh well.

  She grabbed the lipstick and uncapped it. Then she scrawled I Love You on the mirror.

  Because she was Lydia Larkin.

  And it’s what she did.

  Chapter 18

  Lips and Hands

  Remington

  “I’m gonna walk the parameter.” Lydia didn’t even look back, she just waved a hand over her shoulder and strutted off into the great wide open.

  His jacket looked good on her.

  “She’s one of the founders?” asked Jason, his friend and Marine brother.

  “From what I have understood this far, the brains behind this entire thing,” Remington confirmed.

  “It’s always the crazy ones that’ll surprise you,” Jason agreed.

  This was better.

  No offices or boardrooms. No putting on a person he wasn’t to talk about things he knew backwards and forwards.

  Open air, undeveloped land, sunshine, wind, good people with good ideas.

  Merrick had sent a text to Lydia, who had relayed the message to Remington, who had called Jason from the hotel. They’d decided to meet on the acreage where Jason had already begun moving equipment to set up the outbuildings.

  So he and Lydia had eaten breakfast, traded the Nissan in for a Harley, and driven out to the middle of nowhere.

  The best teams, the ones that thrive and grow, are effortless in the work they can accomplish. They communicate, they have the same goals, they understand each other’s strengths.

  Remington taught companies how to build teams like that. He thought he had a team like that of his own.

  But this…

  This was different.

  “Merrick sent you the pitch?” Remington asked.

  “Yep.” Jason crossed his arms over his chest. “Everything looks good. I already signed the agreement and sent it back. We’re setting up a launch team in two weeks.”

  Remington raised his eyebrows, his shock unconcealed. “That’s fast,” he stated the obvious.

  Jason was unaffected. “Not really. I’ve already done the asking around bit and consulted lawyers and experts. Merrick Jones is the guy. There’s no one else I’d want to be associated with. I was already planning on calling him up to start the ball rolling when I found out you were on the board.” He shot him a grin. “I called you first.”

  Remington took that in along with a fresh breath. Good. All good. His heart thundered in his chest for a moment as reality took front and center.

  They had the botany division, which was thriving. The jealousy laced through the emails from NASA only made him giddy. And now they were going to break ground in clean energy.

  They’d be self-sustainable.

  Unstoppable.

  His gaze landed on Lydia in the distance.

  Maybe she’d been right. Maybe he’d never felt at home anywhere because he wasn’t home. Perhaps space would be a more comfortable destination.

  And with everything they’d been accomplishing lately, that possibility was closer than ever.

  ***

  “Rem?” she asked, tracing the letters of the tattoo on his chest with a finger, her head on his chest, her hair tangled in his fingers.

  “Hm?”

  “Why doesn’t anyone know about your work with Keith and his group?”

  He’d been running his fingers through her hair and he paused. “I don’t know. I guess I didn’t tell anyone.”

  “No one knows?” she asked.

  “Nope. Just you and Brenda.” He hugged her close and rolled her over, so he could look into her face. “Why do you ask?”

  She touched his jaw and ran her finger down to his chin. “You’re the most beautiful man I have ever known,” she whispered. A small tear slipped out the corner of her eye and down her temple.

  He didn’t know how to respond to such a declaration. So, he did the only thing he could think to do.

  He kissed her. Long, slow, and deep. As she surrendered to his lips and hands and heat, their kiss turned to something else.

  And he found himself lost in way he hoped he’d never be found again.

  ***

  Lydia

  “It’s perfect. But you already knew that.” Lydia switched her phone to the other ear so she could brush her hair out on the other side.

  “But having you on site to confirm it will help me sleep better tonight.”

  She snorted. Right. Like Merrick had ever needed her approval for anything.

  “How is… everything else?” he asked, trying to sound casual and failing.

  “Awesome,” she answered honestly.

  “It’s been a long time coming,” he agreed softly. “You’ve been an indoor cat for too long.”

  “Thanks for leaving the door open,” she teased.

  Merrick didn’t respond right away as Lydia finished brushing out her hair through her lipsticked words on the mirror. Remington hadn’t said anything to her about the message. He’d simply smirked and shook his head.

  “How do you like Austin?” Merrick asked.

  “I love it.”

  He cleared his throat like he was struggling to ask his next question.

  “I’m trying to set up a team to run things there with Jason. Would you like to be the point person on it?”

  “On setting up the team?” she asked with a frown.

  “No, Lydia. On leading things there in Austin. Relocating.”

  “Oh.”

  Oh.

  A new location. A new adventure. A new everything.

  Free again.

  He hadn’t just left the door open, the cage no longer existed.

  “Mom—” she began.

  “I’ll lie,” Merrick promised quietly.

  He’d keep up the ruse so mom wouldn’t worry and send her cousins to bring her home. He’d cover for her.

  She sat down on the edge of the unmade bed.

  “Oh.”

  The door to the room opened and Remington entered, carrying two to-go cups of coffee.

  Lydia’s heart stalled.

  Stopped.

  Sputtered.

  Flopped around uselessly in her chest.

  She loved him.

  Not a tiny love either. But the kind that breaks you open and makes you see God.

  Remington caught her gaze and sent her a questioning head tilt. She flashed a reassuring smile.

  “I’ll talk to you when I get back,” she said into the phone.
r />   Because Remington had been right, they had to go back.

  And she was going to have to think.

  About so many things.

  ***

  Remington

  The shower had just turned on when Lydia’s cell phone began ringing.

  Normally, Remington would ignore it. It wasn’t his phone, it wasn’t his business.

  But when it had stopped and started two more times, he finally glanced at the screen.

  Mom.

  Shit.

  From what Lydia had told him about her mom’s emotional stability, Lydia not answering might do more harm than good.

  Remington braced, gritting his teeth, and hit the answer button.

  “Lydia Larkin’s phone,” he answered.

  A short pause followed shortly by, “Who is this?”

  “This is Remington Rohan, a colleague of Lydia’s.”

  All true things.

  “Oh… this is her mother. May I speak with her?”

  Weird. The woman on the other end of the line sounded perfectly reasonable. Not emotionally compromised, not overbearing, not demanding.

  “She is currently indisposed. But I can take a message for her,” Remington offered.

  “That would be lovely. Just tell her that I called and would like her to call me back when she’s available.”

  “Not a problem.”

  “Remington Rohan…” the woman said quietly, as if thinking out loud. “Are you that young man who leads those seminars I see advertised on TV?”

  Remington chuckled. “Yes, that would be me.”

  “I’ve always wanted to go to one of those,” she said. “But haven’t been able to find the time.”

  “Ms. Larkin?” Remington asked, seizing that familiar feeling in his gut. “Can I ask you some things? About Lydia?”

  Silence.

  She cleared her throat softly. “What do you want to know?”

  Remington glanced at the closed bathroom door. This might be the very worst idea he’d ever had.

  Or it might be exactly what he needed to do.

  “I don’t want to talk about it over the phone if you don’t mind. Can we meet?”

  Chapter 19

  Cressida

  Lydia

  “I can honestly say, I am happy to have been wrong about you.”

  Remington squeezed her hand where it lay laced together with his across his belly as if to seal his words.

  “Which parts were you wrong about?” she asked.

  He adjusted the arm bent behind his head. “Oh, most of it. All of it. I thought you were an underachieving intern with a crush on her boss—hey!”

  She’d let go of his hand and pinched the skin of his stomach through his shirt. Remington seized her hand and held it close to his chest. He rotated his head to see her better, his half-smile lit by the stars above them.

  “What about you? Were you wrong about me?” he asked softly. The sincere vulnerability in his eyes made her heart thump harder.

  She bit down on her bottom lip as she considered how to answer.

  “Yeah.” But part of her wished she hadn’t been.

  “Do you regret me now?” he asked.

  “Never.”

  He held her gaze for a beat before turning back their blanket of stars.

  The trip home to L.A. hadn’t been discussed. They just packed up their things and started heading west again. It was their last night in the wild and they’d chosen to spend it sleeping under a desert sky.

  Tomorrow would bring the return of all the industry and responsibilities he’d previously fled.

  Because. They had to go back.

  No one could run forever.

  Life had rules and expectations. And no one’s life had more than Remington’s. People depended on him.

  “Do you think we’ll ever get there?” he asked, staring up at their blanket of stars.

  “Someday.”

  “You really believe that?” he asked, his voice tight and earnest.

  One more thing she loved about him.

  He asked her questions. Instead of telling her all the things he already knew.

  And he left room for both of them to be wrong. Which was why it was so easy for her to say what she said next.

  “I believe we’re gonna make it. I just don’t know when.”

  Maybe he was asking about reaching for literal stars. Or maybe he was asking about metaphorical stars.

  Or maybe he was asking about the destination of their respective souls.

  Her answer would have been the same for each one.

  “It’s all happening,” he said towards the night sky.

  “Don’t forget this part,” she said. “No matter what happens. Wherever we end up. Don’t forget this.”

  He brought her hand up and kissed the back of it, holding it to his lips afterward.

  The world and her people would probably never make as much sense to her as this man.

  ***

  Lydia

  Again, living the charmed life that Remington did, he found a spot to park right in front of her apartment.

  In silence, they each gathered her possessions from the saddle bags and ascended the stairs. On the way past the third floor, Dweedle opened his door and peeked out. Satisfied that an actual tenant was in the stairwell, he closed the door again.

  Lydia nearly laughed out loud.

  The alternative would be to break into tears.

  Because in that exact moment, she realized how watched she was. Monitored, supervised, examined.

  There was no open road in front of her, no painted sky, no spontaneous mistakes to make.

  In her best effort to find a balance and hold onto her own freedom, she’d simply added decorations to her cage.

  She set her bag down on the floor of her studio, which a few days ago, seemed too big. Now, it was painfully small.

  “Are you okay?”

  Turning around to take in the height and strength of Remington, a small bit of peace returned.

  “I’m fine. Just disappointed to be back I suppose,” she attempted to deflect with a smile.

  He looked around her apartment, critical lines showing around his eyes. Did he see what she’d just seen? Or something else?

  “Are you heading home?” she asked when he hadn’t spoken in over a minute.

  His entire body twitched, as if startled out of his thoughts. “Uh, yeah. I need to check in with everyone and… get back to it. Revamp the schedule, talk to my producer, have a meeting with Mimi and Yvette.”

  “Cool.” She rolled her lips together and wiggled her fingers as they hung at her sides.

  “Will you be at the office on Monday?”

  Monday. Three days from now and his usual meeting day with Merrick.

  Guess it was back to business as usual.

  A small part of her died with the minor confirmation.

  “Of course,” she said, taking a slow breath and hoping he didn’t notice the tremble in her hands.

  His stare stayed heavy on her face and she wanted to look away. But she couldn’t. In his eyes was the last place she felt free.

  In two steps he crossed the room and kissed her.

  His tongue invaded her mouth and she let out a small whimper. One of his large hands cupped the side of her face, fingers reaching into her hair. His other hand was at the small of her back, pressing the two of them together. Hurried, intense, demanding. His facial hair scraped and chaffed against the skin around her mouth, but she didn’t care. With both hands she clung to his shirt, wanting to crawl up him and into his skin, into his heart.

  All the words she wanted to say but knew she couldn’t she poured into her response. And as if he could understand her, he responded with the same kind of passion and fervor.

  It was a kiss that wrapped up their week together.

  A kiss of celebration.

  A kiss goodbye.

  And with every hasty breath she took, her heart cried out over and over agai
n.

  I love you.

  I love you.

  I love you.

  ***

  Remington

  He checked his phone for the tenth time and felt a pinch in his gut at all the notifications.

  He had not missed his phone.

  Only back for a day and already everyone wanted his time and his presence. He thought he was ready to take on the messiness of the business he’d abandoned without notice. The truth was a little harder to handle.

  He didn’t have time to stop at the grocery store. He needed to get to the meeting with Mimi and Yvette and then get to the airport.

  So lost in his thoughts and what was happening next, he wasn’t looking where he was going and turned his cart into an aisle too quickly. His cart bumped into someone else’s with a crash.

  “Oh shit, I’m sorry,” he apologized swiftly.

  His gaze locked on familiar turquoise eyes and he froze.

  Every cell in his body came to a screeching halt. Like a car slamming on its brakes to keep from hitting a dog in the road.

  But it didn’t stop in time.

  And with the dog representing his heart, and the car representing reality, it was a gruesome outcome.

  “Remington.”

  He heard her. But he couldn’t respond. He was staring.

  Cressida Buchanan.

  His exception to absolutes.

  The one woman in the world he’d given everything. Even if she didn’t know it.

  Cressida, gorgeous, perfect…

  Pregnant.

  ***

  Remington

  He had wanted to wait until Monday.

  It seemed like a reasonable thing to expect of himself.

  But things had changed since that morning. And he wasn’t even sure when his mind had made the decision, but he found himself parking in the street in front of Lydia’s apartment.

  It was midnight.

  He got off the bike and sat down on the curb, his forearms on his knees.