“Up and down? Just how far do you think you’d get?”
Hope filled her eyes. “Not far?”
“Damn right. Get in here so I can show you how much I missed you.”
Once in the room she found herself trapped between him and the door. And he was leaning on the door so there was no way she could open it. “I guess …”
He cut her short with a kiss and it surprised her in its softness. He pulled away slowly and rested his forehead against hers.
“You taste like stale alcohol,” she whispered.
He started to chuckle, slow at first, in the back of his throat, but when she started laughing too he lost all control and soon the two of them were leaned against the door trying to catch their breath. “I missed you.” He pulled all the way away. “Can I go have a shower? I got drunk last night and a shower might stop this ache in my head.”
“Go ahead. I’ll wait. Should I order you some breakfast.”
He grimaced.
“Bad idea?”
“Very bad. I’ll be quick.”
As soon as he was gone she picked up the phone and ordered a large stack of toast. By the time he had showered, shaved, and brushed his teeth it was waiting on the dresser for him. He stared at the toast and then at her.
She shrugged. “So I don’t listen very well. I’ll help you eat it.”
“It’s a deal, even without the bathrobes.”
“Listen, Tyler, I’m really sorry about yesterday.”
“It’s fine. I replayed the whole thing over in my mind and it sounded pretty bad.”
She finished her toast. “It’s funny that you went out and got drunk last night since that’s basically what I did.”
“We should have gotten drunk together. Might have been safer.”
“I was at a friend’s house, the one who paints, we were celebrating her success.”
“I was alone in the bar trying to convince that same busty blonde that while I might be willing to share a bottle of scotch with her, I was not willing to share my bed with her. She took a lot of convincing.”
“Did no one come rescue you?”
“The only other people I saw in the bar were her friends and they were too busy doing whatever it is the barely legal crowd does these days to care that their friend wouldn’t take a hint.”
“How did you get away?”
“I went to the bathroom. When I came out she was over giggling with a friend so I slipped out. I left her at least four glasses of scotch, too.” He shrugged. “If that was the cost of freedom, I got off cheap.”
“You could have just slept with her.”
“Nice try Megan, I’m not walking into that one.” He took her hand in his. “I know I said I wouldn’t do this, but I do love you, Megan.”
“Tyler, we don’t know each other very well yet.”
“Ask away,” he said without thinking.
“Fine, you work for a hotel, right?”
“A chain of hotels, but yes.”
“Doing what, exactly.”
He hesitated. “This and that.” He shrugged. “It’s corporate America; you do as you’re told.”
“Tyler, that’s not really an answer.”
He sighed. “Fine. Every woman I’ve ever dated found my stories and anecdotes about my job boring so I don’t like to talk about what I do.”
“My father worked for this hotel for decades and he ‘bored’ us every day with stories about his work.”
“Fine, let’s just say that I do boring things for a boring hotel and one day I will sit and bore you with all my boring stories.”
She laughed. “All right, point taken. Which hotel?”
“Oh. The Mathers Hotels and Resorts chain.”
“Wow, those are nice hotels.”
“Yeah, they’re pretty impressive. What about you? What do you do?”
“I work in television,” she said. “On a children’s show.”
“That must be interesting.”
She shrugged. “It’s not unlike corporate America. I do as I’m told. What was your worst date?”
“Oh, I had this one woman break up with me because I refused to take her shopping. She threw a huge fit in the middle of a classy restaurant. I still can’t go back there. What about you?”
“I am not talking about that.”
“You asked.”
Defeated she said, “Fine, let’s just say that some men are hounds and that I’ll never accept blind date suggestions from that friend again.”
“Are you all right?” Worry filled his eyes.
She laughed. “I’m fine. The taxi driver gets all the credit for that though. It’s the only time I got a free ride in a taxi.”
He shook his head. “Nothing fazes you, does it?”
She looked down at her lap. “Some things did. Part of why I blew up yesterday is because I’ve been hurt before, the kind of hurt that can haunt you for a while.”
“We’ve all been there, Megan.”
“No, Tyler. We haven’t all ‘been there’. Have you ever thought you were in love before? Like you think you love me?”
“I do love you.”
She glared.
“Fine. Yes, I thought I was in love once before.”
“Did you ever come home early from your vacation to find her naked in your apartment? Sounds sexy until you realize she’s entertaining her lover, in your apartment, while you’re on vacation. That’s what happened to me, Tyler. I thought I loved him and one day I come home to find him fucking some woman in MY apartment.”
“No, that has never happened to me, but …”
“No, Tyler. You have to understand. For a moment yesterday I thought you were just like him, and you’re not. I’m not ready to love you yet; I can’t, not with this sort of thing messing me up. But I’ll admit that I care and that I’m not looking forward to this vacation ending.”
He kissed her hand. “The toast is all gone.”
“So?”
“Let me show you how much I missed you.”
He carried her to the bed and showered her with kisses, making her laugh. Since she was laughing anyways he tickled her ribs until she slapped his hands and tried to roll away. He laughed too and pinned her hands above her head. While she couldn’t stop him anymore he couldn’t exactly tickle her either, so he went back to kissing her until she forgot to laugh and just relaxed into the pleasure of him.
Playfully they undressed each other, giggling when she fumbled with buttons or when it took him three tries to unhook her bra. Of course he stopped first and said, “What a beautiful bra you’re wearing.”
She had laughed and tried to slap him again.
With their clothes scattered across the bed and in a mix-matched heap on the floor he pulled away, catching her wrist and pulling her along with him. “It’s too hot in here.”
“You haven’t been running the air conditioner.”
“It made the headache worse. Come on.”
She laughed and held back. “Where are we going?”
“The shower.”
She followed him eagerly into the bathroom and into the shower. They ran their hands over slick skin and she took him in hand until he was hard and eager. He lifted her carefully and she wrapped her arms and legs around him, leaning her head on his shoulder and letting him take her.
When they were both satisfied they washed up and returned to the bed to hold each other.
“What are we going to do with our last few days together?” he called from the bathroom.
Her cellphone, which had been blessed silent for the better part of two weeks, chose that moment to ring. She glanced at the call display and swore. “Hold on, I have to take this. Hello?”
“Megan, where the hell are you?”
She cringed. Her director had a voice that was wonderful on set, you could always hear the stage directions, but he never toned it down. “I’m on vacation, remember?”
“Didn’t you get Bernie’s emails?”
“I read them
before I left, they looked pretty standard. Why?”
“You idiot! Bernie emailed you a week ago with the reshoot schedule. We were set to start TODAY! But we can’t very well reshoot the scenes for Miss Maizy Daisy’s weekly TV show without Miss Maizy Daisy, can we?”
Tyler stepped out of the bathroom to see Megan’s face had gone deathly pale. “What is it?” he whispered.
“Look,” she said into the phone. “I’ll be there, just don’t panic. Yes I understand how important this is. Yes. Look, I’m on my way right now.” She hung up and grabbed her purse. “I’m sorry, Tyler. This is an emergency. It’s … look, I just have to go.”
Bewildered he didn’t even think to grab her and steal one last kiss. “Call me!” he shouted as she disappeared out the door. He ran his fingers through his hair. “Now what?”
***
Tyler sat in his hotel room for the rest of his stay, with the exception of a quick run to the used book store to restock. When he wasn’t reading he was staring at the phone, willing it to ring. It didn’t.
He woke up on the very last morning of his vacation and ordered a large breakfast which he hovered over until he honestly couldn’t eat any more. Then he took his time packing and was just doing up the last zipper when there was a knock at the door.
His heart leapt. Megan.
The woman at the door was not Megan. She gave him a tired look. “Are you finished? I need to turn the room over for the next guest.”
Tyler nodded. “Yeah, I’m finished. The room’s all yours.”
Dragging his bags downstairs he stopped at the desk where a man about his age was slouched in the chair. At the sight of Tyler he plastered a smile on his face. “Are you ready to check out sir?”
“Yes, I guess I am.” He handed over his keycard. “Look, I’ve seen you at the desk before so you must have seen me come and go with a young woman.”
“Megan? Yeah, I saw you two.” He finished on the computer and turned to wait for the printer.
“Oh good, you know her. She left in a rush, an emergency, she hasn’t had a chance to call me and, well, I’d like to call her.”
He shrugged. “She doesn’t live in Kingsbridge. I don’t have a cell number for her.”
“Her dad used to work here, didn’t he? If I could have their number, just to make sure she’s all right? Or even the last name so I can find them myself.”
He frowned and scribbled a number on a scrap of paper. “This is the number her old man left us, for emergencies. He may be retired but he knows more about this hotel than a lot of us combined.”
“Thank-you.”
“Before you go, a word of caution. You’re not the first guest Megan’s been involved with. This is kind of her thing. We don’t question it because of her dad. I don’t know what kind of reception you’ll get if you call the house.”
“It was different for us.”
He gave Tyler a ‘yeah sure’ smile and nodded. “Well, I hope you enjoyed your stay with us, and enjoyed our small town hospitality. Have a nice day.”
With a heavy heart Tyler went to a quiet corner of the lobby and called the number. After three rings a woman said, “Hello, McCollum house, Deborah speaking.”
“Yes, hello,” he sat up a little straighter. “I’m looking for Megan, I was hoping you could help me.”
“I’m sorry, Megan doesn’t live here anymore.”
“I know,” he said quickly. “I’m a friend of hers. My name is Tyler, I’m not sure if she mentioned me.”
“Not by name,” the woman said. “What is it that you want?”
“She left in such a rush and hasn’t called me. I just want to know she’s all right and,” he paused to take a deep breath. “And I was hoping you could give me some way to get in touch with her.”
She sighed. “Tyler, as far as I know, she’s fine. She said it was an emergency at work and if she didn’t get back it would ruin everything. We haven’t spoken to her since either. Her work is very demanding at times.”
“Wow, I knew she was in television, but I didn’t realize she was so important. What exactly does she do?”
She hesitated. “Tyler, the last I heard from my daughter was that the two of you had been fighting.”
“We made up. Mrs. McCollum, I swear it.”
“I’m sorry, I can’t take your word for it. Until I hear otherwise from my daughter I cannot give out her personal contact information.”
“I understand that, but please, couldn’t I just give you my cell number? If she wants it …”
“I’m sorry. I can’t help you.”
The line went dead.
For a long time Tyler just sat and stared at his cellphone. Finally he dialed the number of Megan’s artist friend but got only voicemail. “Hi,” he said. “My name is Tyler. I know your friend Megan. Please, if you hear from her, can you give her my cell number?” He rattled off the digits, thanked the machine, and hung up. Ignoring the smug look on the desk clerk’s face he grabbed his bags and walked out of the hotel.
Chapter 6
Stephanie sat in the waiting area reading the latest issue of her favourite Hollywood gossip magazine while hundreds of people crisscrossed around her and the robotic, yet distinctly feminine voice rattled off boarding calls and landing announcements. Airports were one of her least favourite places, and flying one of her least favourite experiences, but when the boss said, ‘be there to pick me up’ she listened because more than she disliked airports she loved her job.
The plane was late, of course, and she’d read the magazine twice through before a familiar figure overshadowed her. “Anything interesting in that pile of garbage?”
“I missed you too.” She folded the magazine into her purse and smiled up at him. “How was your holiday?”
She had been expecting some form of ‘great’ so when he only shrugged and said, “Where are you parked?” she frowned.
“Is everything all right? Last time we talked on the phone you sounded so relaxed. I was sure you were having a great time.”
“Something came up, something personal; it’s not a big deal.” He grabbed his bag. “Lead on.”
Stephanie put on her biggest smile and started talking. “You sure picked a good two weeks to high tail it out of here. I mean, I don’t think those emergencies could have been diverted by anything, so it’s not like it’s your fault, but did you have to leave me to deal with them all by myself? The paintings went a long way to smoothing things over, by the way.”
“Speaking of paintings,” he said and drew the smaller canvas out of his carry-on.
She stopped mid-stride to study it ignoring the man behind her who swore at her and stormed around them. Tyler shook his head and nudged her forward again. “Tyler, it’s wonderful. Okay, it’s nowhere near as polished or professional as those larger pieces you bought, but it’s still beautiful.”
“Well, since I bought this one at a farmer’s market and the others at a gallery I wasn’t expecting the same level of talent. But I bought two more from the farmer’s market for my own apartment.”
“Your apartment is so cluttered you won’t have room for them.”
He made a non-committal noise in the back of his throat. “Which one did you choose for the office?”
“Wait and see.” They loaded the bags into the back of Stephanie’s sedan and climbed in. “I’ll drive, you talk,” she said.
“Talk about what?”
“You just got back from a two week vacation and you have nothing to talk about!? What did you do the whole time?”
He just stared out the window.
“Stop acting like a wounded school girl and talk.”
He sighed. “First day there I went down to the pool and there was this girl. I thought, ‘hey, wouldn’t it be nice to have a casual affair while on vacation?’ so I started talking to her to see if she was open to the idea.”
“Was she?”
“Yeah, big time. Only I got stupid and started falling in love with her. A
nd then I got even stupider and told her that I loved her.”
It was a good thing Stephanie had to stare at the road and not her boss because she couldn’t keep the grin from her face. “Did it scare her off?”
“It made her wary but she stuck around. We had a big fight the next day though.”
Pants on Fire Page 7