Hot Summer Fling

by Parker, Ali

  Chapter 34

  Valerie

  Seattle was everything I remembered it to be and so much more, but it felt strangely empty without Fulton by side. Although I was getting used to that feeling since everything had felt a little empty, a little dull, and a little off for the past month.

  It was like Fulton had exposed me to a kaleidoscope of new, bright colors that made things look the way they were always supposed to, and then ripped them away when he left. Okay, so he wasn’t the one who left. I was, but he had left me no choice but to do it.

  Thirty-four days ago, I’d said my piece on that sidewalk and then I’d turned around and walked away from him. It was the hardest thing I’d ever had to do, but it had felt at the time like my self-esteem, dreams, hopes, and self-worth were lying in tatters by his feet, and I couldn’t stand to look at it all lying there.

  The days following our breakup were a bit of a blur to me. All I remembered feeling with painful certainty was that my heart was broken, and the pieces of it were being blown around by the light breeze that had ruffled Fulton’s dark, soft strands that day outside the museum.

  I hadn’t seen or heard from him since, which hurt me as much as it relieved me. The pathetic part of me that had been falling for him—because I’d realized in those dark, ice cream-and-bedridden days after the breakup that I had been falling for him—had longed for him to call.

  I might even have been tempted a time or two to call him, especially the night Olive and I had had a few too many cocktails. She’d wrestled my phone out of my hand and told me I would regret calling him in the morning. I hated that she was right.

  The same pathetic part of me was relieved he hadn’t called or come after me, because I wasn’t sure I would be able to resist him if he’d asked me to hear him out. I had meant it when I said that I didn’t want to hear his excuses, but my torn-up heart also demanded answers.

  The more time I’d had to think about it, the more I didn’t really believe that I was nothing more than a charity case to him. It hurt like hell to know that he had not only lied to me, but that he’d also taken something from me that felt like I could never get it back: my ability to make something of myself.

  Sometimes, in the middle of the dark, lonely nights, I wondered if that was really what he had done. It had felt that way, but there was a small sliver of me hidden deep inside who appreciated that he had cared enough to do something for me that I hadn’t been able to do for myself.

  I’d been searching for an in, and he’d given me one. I was pissed off with that sliver of myself for being appreciative, but it was there. The very fact that I was in Seattle, setting up for an event that I was coordinating at a gallery I never would have set foot inside if not for him, was all because he’d reached out to Adam.

  After everything that had happened, I’d considered quitting at the museum and proving to all the world that I could do it myself. My boss had eventually sat me down and talked some sense into me. He made some good points and had convinced me not to give up on myself.

  He’d even told me that Fulton had helped him too. Hearing him out had made me realize that everyone sometimes needed a leg up, just a little bit of help onto a horse that was already there and waiting for them.

  It had made my anger sizzle out a little, leaving in its place confusion and sadness. My certainty that I had done the right thing by breaking up with Fulton was showing cracks, and I was sad about no longer having him in my life. I just didn’t know what to do, so I compensated by throwing myself into my work.

  Fulton may have given me a leg up onto the horse, but I still needed to make it race and win. Adam was pleased with my progress and every day I was meeting more people who were good connections to have.

  Two weeks ago, Adam had told me that he needed me to go to Seattle. Our company was partnering with a small gallery that showcased art done by the local community. It was a nonprofit organization aimed at providing opportunities to people who may not otherwise have had them.

  I thought it was ironic that this was the first event I was running totally solo, considering my own recent feelings about being a charity case. Here were all these artists who were so excited about getting the opportunity provided to them by this gallery, and I was super excited about it too.

  Hypocrite, much? I nearly rolled my eyes at myself, but then I noticed one of the volunteers positioning a sculpture right in front of another piece. “Hey, Dave. Not there, can you move it three feet to the left?”

  The young man looked up at me, nodding as he did what I asked. All around me were the artists and gallery volunteers helping set up for the showcase that evening, also featuring art from none other than Mr. Halsey Skye himself.

  He’d donated several pieces and had agreed to attend the event to increase interest. I hadn’t met him yet, but I was looking forward to it.

  The irony of it all was almost too much for me, but I had a job to do. “Anna and Nina, could you make sure that all the programs are by the door and the artists’ name tags are correct and ready?”

  I waited until the two women nodded and went off before directing more volunteers to do what needed to be done. Taking control of the event was really making me feel like I was where I was supposed to be, sending spikes of enjoyment and fulfillment through me despite the situation with Fulton.

  The showcase went off without a hitch and was winding down when I spotted a blond guy with his long hair in a man bun on top of his head approaching me. My pulse hammered in my veins when I recognized him. “Mr. Skye. Thank you so much for attending the showcase and for your generous donations. The pieces were lovely. I’m Valerie Hayes from the museum in Tampa.”

  He grinned easily, his narrow shoulders going up and then down again. “This was a great showcase. I was honored to be invited. You did a hell of a good job for the community here. It’s nice to meet you, Valerie.”

  “Thank you.” I felt my cheeks growing warm. I was having a bit of a fangirl moment, but I couldn’t help it. “You know, it was your art that inspired me to do this job. A friend of mine took me to see a mural you did, and I turned to him right there and then said ‘Fulton, this is what I want to do with my life.’ I’m sorry if that’s a bit weird to say to you, but I wanted to thank you.”

  “It’s not weird. I love hearing about my work inspiring others. If it didn’t, there wouldn’t be much of a reason to keep doing it.” His brow furrowed in surprise then. “Wait, when you mentioned a friend named Fulton, did you mean Fulton Yates? It’s not a very common name.”

  “Yeah.” My eyes widened. I hadn’t even realized I’d said his name out loud. He must’ve been taking up more mental real estate than I’d even realized. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to just drop his name like that.”

  Halsey grinned, his eyes warming. “No, don’t be sorry. Fulton’s a great guy. Any friend of his is a friend of mine. How’s he doing anyway? It’s been too long since I’ve spoken to him.”

  “You know him?” I probably shouldn’t have been surprised, but I was. “He didn’t mention that to me.”

  “He wouldn’t.” Halsey pulled his hands out of his pockets and waved them around animatedly as he talked. “The man doesn’t like to take credit for anything that he’s done. Mentioning to you that he knew me after you’d just told him my work had inspired you would have seemed too much like bragging to him. Although if you asked me, that’s one guy who really has reason to brag.”

  “What do you mean?” My heart was upping its game, slamming into my chest with each beat. “What would he have to brag about?”

  “He’s the one who discovered me.” His green eyes filled with fond warmth, softening at the corners. “He came into the shelter one day and saw my work. He insisted on meeting the artist before he left.”

  “What was he doing at the shelter?” I couldn’t imagine Fulton having a reason to walk into a homeless shelter, but I was also realizing that there were a lot more facets to the man that I thought I knew.

  Hal
sey laughed, his gaze becoming faraway. “He was walking past the shelter and overheard two of the guys talking about how cold it had been the night before. We didn’t have enough blankets and they were concerned about some of the women and kids who hadn’t gotten one the night before.”

  “And he just walked in?” Who the fuck was this guy?

  He nodded. “Walked in and wrote a check for some crazy amount of money. Told the guy who was running the shelter he was having some blankets delivered later, too, and then asked if he could use the bathroom.”

  “Wow.”

  “Yeah wow. When he came out, he asked to meet me. They called me, but I wasn’t really interested at first and I wasn’t planning on going back there that day, but he sat his ass down and waited me out. Everything I’ve done since … he’s helped me with. He’s even the guy who helps me with my finances. Set me up with a free account at one of his banks and allocates the money to charities and causes we identify together.”

  “Really?”

  He nodded again. “Absolutely. The guy does so much for people and no one even knows about it. A guy like that doesn’t come around much. He’s a once in a lifetime kind of person. You should be happy to know him. I know I am.”

  Someone called out Halsey’s name, and after the bomb he’d just dropped on me, he simply flashed me an apologetic smile before bounding off to meet them. As for me, I could only stand there staring after him, unable to forget a single word he’d said.

  Chapter 35

  Fulton

  Paperwork was going to be the death of me, I swore it. Someday soon, someone was going to be carving the words into a piece of granite. Here lies Fulton. Killed by the ton of paper he had to review.

  I lifted my hands to rub my tired eyes, then thumbed through the pack of stuff I still had to get through before the end of the day. Since I’d gotten back to Boston, I had been buried in a mountain of paperwork and it wasn’t letting up.

  I had realized a couple of weeks ago that it had always been this way, I had just gotten so used to it that I hadn’t really noticed it before. The mundanity of it wasn’t lost on me anymore, and I’d never felt more like a fish out of the water.

  This wasn’t where I belonged. I’d always known it, but I hadn’t planned on doing anything about it. Not until now, or more accurately, until Valerie.

  The raven-haired girl, who had become such an essential part of my life without me even realizing it was happening, had shown me what it looked like to want more for your life. She had taught me that living wasn’t the same as being alive, and I wanted to feel alive again.

  The wheels were in motion, but there was still a lot I had to do. On top of the work and the fuckup I had made of my personal life, there was also still the robbery lingering in the back of my mind.

  I thought I was on to something, but whenever I came close to fully grasping it, something would happen that would distract me from my search for the truth. More often than not lately, it was that even looking at the footage from the robbery made me think about Florida, which made me think about Valerie, which in turn filled my mind with memories of her and then work would be forgotten.

  On the other hand, lots of stuff was making me think about Valerie, because she was never far from my mind. Thinking about her was becoming something of an obsession, to such an extent that I’d considered going to see a therapist.

  According to Daniel, my trusty assistant and the only person close enough to me in Boston to have noticed something was up, my heart had been broken and I didn’t need therapy. He said all I needed was to get over it and to move on.

  There’s nothing better for getting over one than getting on top of the next one, he’d said. A shudder had traveled down my spine at the mere thought of moving on or getting on top of anyone but her. I didn’t want anyone else. I didn’t need anyone in my life, but I wanted her to be there.

  I’d told Daniel in no uncertain terms that I wasn’t interested, but he’d shot me a sympathetic look and told me that I’d get there. A month after our breakup and I still hadn’t so much as looked in the direction of another woman, so I wasn’t convinced that he was right.

  I kept myself busy with work and stayed at the office late into the night, until I was so exhausted that my brain had no choice but to shut down. I wouldn’t have been getting any sleep otherwise.

  What she’d said to me when she’d broken up with me haunted my waking hours and invaded my dreams. If I’d known that was how she was going to feel over my going to Adam, I’d never have done it.

  I’d never been so ashamed of anything as I was about what she thought of me, what I’d made her think of herself. I’d been tempted to call her so many times, desperate to explain myself to her.

  The only reason I hadn’t done it was because I didn’t want to rub salt in the wound. I was afraid that my calling her would make her question herself and as far as I knew, she was doing great work at the museum. I didn’t want to do anything that might mess with her momentum.

  Adam hadn’t been giving me updates or spying on her for me or anything, but I hadn’t been lying to her when I’d told her that I was subscribed to many mailing lists. One of which was the one belonging to Adam. Valerie was mentioned in all of their updates, and I devoured any news on her like I was a starving man and it was the only meal on offer.

  My phone started ringing, the sound muffled from the device being buried somewhere under the mountain of paper, but loud enough to startle me back to reality. I searched the stacks of paper where the ringing was coming from, finally locating my phone in the middle of a binder I’d been working on hours ago.

  My brows pulled together when I saw who was calling. “Halsey? Is everything okay? I haven’t heard from you in ages.”

  “Everything’s good, man. I know. That’s why I’m calling. Your name came up in a conversation I was having earlier, and I thought I should check in with you. How are you?”

  “I’m good. You?” I sat back in my chair, spinning it so I was facing the city instead of the paperwork. It was too depressing to look at any longer. “How did my name come up in a conversation you were having?”

  I heard horns blaring in the background and imagined my energetic, yet easygoing, friend loping around the streets of Seattle. It brought a rare smile to my face. I hadn’t had much to smile about this last month.

  “I was at a community showcase. It was organized by this chick named Valerie. She mentioned a guy named Fulton who had taken her to see my mural. I only know one Fulton, so we got to talking about you.”

  “You did?” My heart stuttered, skipped a couple of beats and then started beating so hard and so fast I was halfway convinced it was trying to make an escape. “What did she say?”

  This was the first news I was getting about Valerie since the day I’d watched her walk away, if I wasn’t counting the generic mail that was sent to every person subscribed to the museum’s mailing list. This was news from someone who’d actually spoken to her, apparently about me, today.

  Halsey chuckled. “She just mentioned your name and that you took her to see the mural. I’ve already told you. What were you expecting? A confession of love?”

  I wouldn’t have minded that. “No, of course not. I was just curious. I haven’t spoken to her for a while.”

  “Well, she’s doing great. The event she organized was awesome. Every artist I spoke to there had sold at least one piece at very fair prices. She was another good find, Fulton. Congratulations.”

  “No need to congratulate me, but I agree that she was a good find. I’m glad the event went so well. Tell me more about it.”

  I listened to every word Halsey said about the event with rapt attention, not only because I often supported community galleries just like the one he was describing, but also because Valerie had organized it and it made me feel closer to her to hear about her success.

  Maybe it would always feel this way, like I could only be close to her when I inevitably heard about her professional s
uccesses. A stab of pain hit me right in the center of my chest when I thought about never being close to her in any other way again.

  It was almost unimaginable to me that I was going to have to live with scraps of information about her life, but it had already been a month without a word from her. I had a feeling I was just going to have to get used it.

  Halsey and I talked for a couple of minutes before he had to go. We promised to stay in touch and then hung up just before there was a sharp knock at my office door. “Come on in.”

  The door opened smoothly, and I grinned when I saw who stepped through it. “Elliot, welcome to Boston. How was your trip?”

  “It was all good. Packing up the house was a bitch, but at least the family is pitching in with the unpacking. They all wanted me to thank you for keeping to your promise about bringing us to Boston.”

  “You can tell them that you’re all very welcome. We’re happy to have you here. Come on in, would you like a drink?”

  He nodded and let out a low whistle as he made his way into my office, walking right over to the windows. “So this is what the view looks like from the top. It’s quite something, Fulton.”

  I located a bottle of whiskey that I’d bought for this very occasion and filled two of the crystal glasses on my drinks cart. “I’m glad you like it, because it’s going to be yours soon.”

  He wheeled around to face me, accepting the drink with his eyebrows raised and disbelief in his eyes. “What?”

  “The spot that I’ve brought you here to fill is mine.” I lifted my drink to my lips, taking a long sip of the amber liquid. It burned in the best possible way on the way down. It was smooth and warming, instantly relaxing me for the first time in what felt like forever, or maybe that was just because Elliot was finally here. “I’m going to be grooming you to take over from me.”