by Jenny Hale
Hannah felt the total opposite. She was starving from only having the meager salad back at the restaurant, and she’d disrupted her normal sleep rhythms so long ago that now she was wired. “It looks like the downstairs bar is still open. I think I might see if I can grab a bite to eat, and then I’ll come up.” She felt grimy and needed to get in the shower and scrub the day’s awful events off her, but her hunger had won out. Their bags had been delivered to the room already, so as soon as she finished eating she’d shower, change into her clean pajamas, and sink into bed, drifting off to dreamland.
“I could do with some food, too,” Liam said.
Hannah liked the idea of having someone there to distract her from all her thoughts. Then she wouldn’t be tempted to think about everything that had happened at the airport. “Oh, good. We can grab a table together.”
Contemplation washed over him, and heat spread through her face. Only then did it occur to her that perhaps he hadn’t meant his comment as an invitation. A married man might not be up for late dinners with another woman, no matter what the situation was. Hannah inwardly scolded herself for not thinking it through. It was really late, and he probably just wanted to grab some food and take it to his room. She hadn’t meant anything by her suggestion but now it was awkward.
Oblivious to their moment of uneasiness, Georgia obstructed the elevator doors with her foot as they pinged to alert her that she’d held them open longer than acceptable. “We should exchange numbers in case we need to talk to each other,” Georgia suggested, already tapping on her phone screen, ignoring the pinging.
They all got out their phones and put in their contact numbers.
“I’ll probably be asleep when you get up to the room, so I’ll see y’all in the mornin’! When you come in, just say, “Hi, Jerry,” so he won’t bark. Bye!” Georgia said as the doors closed, leaving Liam and Hannah in the lobby.
With the tension of eating a meal with Liam when he might not have meant to spend it with Hannah settling in, they walked over to the hostess at the restaurant.
“We’re closing in ten minutes,” the woman said with an apologetic look. “But the rooftop bar is open until eleven. They have a kitchen too. And room service is open until 2 a.m.”
“We could do room service,” Hannah suggested, glad to be able to correct her blunder.
“No, it’s fine,” Liam said, to her surprise. Now he was probably trying to smooth things over, when really he just wanted to retreat into a dark room, eat, and pass out for the night. “We’ll go to the upstairs bar.”
She glanced over at the promotional sign in the lobby for the bar’s special Valentine’s month-long soirée. Hannah wasn’t at all dressed for the rooftop bar. The image on the sign dripped with glamor, and Hannah was still in the jeans, sweater, and wedge heels she’d chosen for the plane. She hadn’t combed her hair all day, and she was nearly certain she didn’t have any makeup remaining on her face.
Liam also seemed to be considering the trendy sign. “I’m up for skyline views and confused looks if you are,” he said. “I’m famished.”
With no other real options, Hannah shrugged. “If you say so,” she said, grinning.
That was twice now that, in the oddest of circumstances, he’d made her smile in the midst of her awful day. He was so quiet and mysterious—nothing like the boy she’d once known. She wondered who Liam McGuire really was in his regular life. Perhaps he’d share a bit about himself and his family over dinner. As she considered this, the question occurred to her: Who was she in her regular life? With so much of herself wrapped up in her work and in Miles, she wasn’t really sure of the answer anymore. Her milestone birthday was tomorrow, so she needed to figure it out sooner rather than later.
Six
“I have to say,” Hannah said, from across the candlelit table that stood against a wall of glass overlooking the Northern Virginia skyline, “I can’t believe I ended up driving home with someone I know. What are the odds?” She eyed the candle with its ring of beaded hearts and the sushi appetizer they’d decided on clumsily, when they realized it was part of the Valentine’s light menu package, the only offering at this late hour. It was all a bit awkward to share with someone else’s husband, sitting in that atmosphere.
Liam pinched a piece of sushi with his chopsticks from the plate for two. “It was odd running into each other, after all these years.”
“I know. We haven’t seen each other since you dated Morgan Pete, right?”
Liam nodded, contemplative.
“Morgan was devastated when you two broke up, you know,” Hannah told him with a wink, remembering the long talks she’d had with Morgan, trying to help her friend through the breakup with Liam while Morgan sobbed and swore she’d never find anyone as great as him again.
“I felt terrible,” he said. “It was a misunderstanding that got out of hand.”
“What misunderstanding?”
“Nothing. It’s not important now.”
“You can still tell me,” she urged, her curiosity piqued.
His lips were set in a pout as he clearly decided what to say. “I had my eye on someone else, and I just didn’t have the heart to tell Morgan…”
“Oh,” Hannah said. “Why didn’t you stop it earlier? You dated for about six months, if I remember correctly.”
He cleared his throat, his chopsticks hovering in his hand. “I kept hoping to see her friend again.”
“Her friend?” Realization dawned. “Nooo. Me?”
“Yep.”
They both shared a little laugh. She felt embarrassed to have pressed him on the issue, but there were so many years between them, and he’d said himself that it wasn’t important now. However, a tiny piece of her wondered what might have come of it had he said something.
Hannah remembered how kind he’d been at the bonfire where she and Morgan had met him that night, offering her a beach towel to put around her shoulders once the sun had gone down. While Morgan and Liam had chatted the night away, he would smile when he caught Hannah’s eye…
“You didn’t talk to me. You talked to Morgan instead.”
“You made me nervous,” he told her.
Hannah took a sip of her drink, thinking back to those carefree days.
“So the guy at the airport…” Liam said, switching gears. “Was he your boyfriend for… very long?” His words were careful, coming off his lips softly as if he didn’t want to hurt her with his question, their common ground settling between them.
“‘Was’ is definitely the key word there,” Hannah said, shaking her head and taking a long swig from the rim of her cocktail glass, ignoring the swarming fear which felt like she’d just realized she’d left her handbag in a taxi. “Miles and I dated for two years. We were supposed to do something together for my birthday. That’s why I booked the trip…”
Liam’s head tilted in response. “When’s your birthday?”
“Tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
She nodded.
Liam looked around, helpless, for a second. “I wish I’d have known. I would’ve grabbed another Valentine’s heart of chocolate at the airport at the very least… Last piece of sushi?” He scooted the appetizer plate toward her. “That’s the best I’ve got.”
Hannah laughed. “You know, as a kid, my mother would always bake heart-shaped cookies with pink roses made of icing that we could eat the entire week leading up to my birthday. And when I was really young, I believed that all the Valentine’s candy I saw in the stores this month was really an early gesture to celebrate my upcoming birthday. Mom never told me otherwise.”
“Is your mother staying in Franklin with you?” He motioned again for her to have the last piece of sushi.
Hannah nodded, picking it up and popping it into her mouth. She swallowed. “She and my dad are. They retired in Florida, but they just flew back to help with my gran. My mom called to give me the news when I was on my way to surprise Miles.” She took another drink of her coc
ktail—some sort of pink concoction with rum and triple sec that the waitress had convinced her to buy, since it was part of the light menu package and the hotel only made them in February every year. The alcohol had relaxed her, causing her to open up a little more than she had in the car. “I’m really worried about Gran,” she admitted. “Mama sounded panicked when I spoke to her, and she’s never like that. She’s always as cool as a cucumber.”
“I’m sorry to hear about your grandmother,” he said.
“I can’t lose her,” she said, working to keep the line that formed between her eyes when she cried from creasing.
Liam seemed visibly affected by her comment, as though something she’d said had bothered him. But the look was gone before she could make sense of it. Whatever it was, he obviously didn’t want to share it with her.
“I keep trying to tell myself there’s no sense in getting upset until I know the facts,” she continued, trying to talk herself into the idea that everything would be okay. “But Gran sounded so frail when I spoke to her.”
They fell into a moment of quiet; both of them sipping their drinks, Hannah’s mind still going a hundred miles an hour.
“It’s interesting that Miles was on your flight,” she said, her thoughts coming out again. “It’s like all the events lined up, and the universe knew where I really needed to go.”
Liam watched her thoughtfully. “So maybe the universe made sure that Georgia and I were on that flight to get you back home.”
She liked the idea that the universe would send people to keep her safe. “It’s strange how things that seem so random end up being just what we need, isn’t it?”
It appeared as though her comment sparked something within him. “Yes,” he said, tipping up his bottle of beer and taking a drink. He leaned back in his chair, his shoulders more relaxed than they’d been previously, the beer bottle dangling from his fingers.
His phone rang, disturbing the moment. He grabbed it from his pocket and looked down at the screen. “I’m so sorry to do this,” he said, getting up and setting his beer on the table, “but do you mind if I grab this call quickly?”
“Not at all,” Hannah replied.
He put the phone to his ear and walked away, leaving her alone at their table. She watched people mingle around the bar, remembering a time when she and Miles used to stay out late like that. She only realized now how long it had been since they’d done anything fun together.
It was getting late, and the kitchen was closing soon. While she loved having dinner in this gorgeous hotel with the skyline view of the city below, they needed to get to bed if they were going to make an early start in the morning. She flagged down the waitress to ask for their bill, even though she was still starving.
The waitress set the leather folder with the check on the table and Hannah slipped her credit card inside.
While she waited for Liam to return, she decided to check in with her mother again and let her know that it would be well into the afternoon when she got into town. But it was already so late that she didn’t get a response when she sent the text. Hannah placed her phone in her lap and sipped her cocktail.
“Sorry,” Liam said, returning to their table. He slid his phone into his back pocket and took a seat.
“Everything okay?” she asked.
“I suppose so,” he said, as he settled into the chair and picked up his beer. “My mother is dealing with a touch of airport madness as well; her flight’s been delayed and it’s overbooked. If she gives up her seat, the airline is offering accommodation and a free flight. She’d taken a few days to unwind on the coast, and she just told me she’s going to stay at the beach another day or two.” There was something different in his face that Hannah couldn’t pinpoint. As if he were wrestling with something.
“Well, at least you can take your time getting there,” she said, trying to find a silver lining.
“True, except her house is locked and my key is in my checked baggage…”
“Oh no.”
“Looks like more hotels for me.”
The waitress returned with the receipt for their drinks and appetizers, and Hannah took her card back and slipped it into her wallet.
“You paid?” he asked.
“It was getting so late that I figured we should get a move on.”
“I’d have gotten it, though. It’s your birthday. Well, almost.”
“It was only an appetizer and two drinks.”
“Let me get you dinner then,” Liam said. “I know you’ve got to be hungry still—we barely ate anything. I’ll have it sent to your room for you.”
“You don’t have to do that,” she said. “It’s really fine.”
“I won’t take no for an answer. Let’s go back to our rooms and then you can text me what you want.”
“Okay,” Hannah relented. She wished they still had their meals to get through, so she could avoid going back to the quiet room where she’d sit and think about her uncertain future. “So what business were you doing in Chicago exactly? You said something about a property?” she asked, making conversation, as she finished her drink.
“There’s a building my company is buying there. It takes up nearly a city block. It’s the largest investment we’ll have made since my wife’s brother and I started the company, and it’s going to use all the inheritance from my dad. It’ll be worth it though, because the revenue that will stream in will be above anything we’ve done before.”
“Sounds exciting,” Hannah said. “You seem very sure.”
“I’m absolutely sure. This is an incredible investment.” But then he gazed out at the skyline for a moment, clearly considering something. “My mother, on the other hand, isn’t so supportive of me using my money for that.”
“Why not?” Hannah asked.
“She thinks I should invest in something personal, like a piece of land where I can retire. But I tried to tell her that if we get this building, the revenue we earn from it will definitely allow me to retire…”
“I sort of know where she’s coming from,” Hannah said, causing him to stop. He sharpened his attention on her, meeting her gaze. “I’ve been working really hard for the last decade, and I’ve got nothing to show for it. Maybe she just wants you to cut straight to the good stuff and avoid any potential pitfalls, to ensure you have somewhere you can make memories.”
He sat quietly, thoughtful. Then he said, “Yeah, but a piece of land won’t create any more memories than this acquisition will, right?”
“You’re right,” she said, accepting his point. “Making a life for ourselves doesn’t have anything to do with the possessions we have, that’s for sure. It’s the people we surround ourselves with.”
He held her gaze. “Exactly.”
“Ever since seeing Miles at the airport, I’ve been wrestling with myself,” she admitted.
“How so?”
“I’m glad that I followed my dreams so there would never be a what-if in my life, but lately I’d give it all away to have a family to come home to. You’re so lucky.”
Suddenly, he looked like she’d thrown water in his face. But then it slid away, and he looked down at the table. “I’m not that lucky,” he said with a sad smile. “I’m no longer married… Single dad.”
“Oh,” she said, surprised. “I’m sorry.” She had to admit that she was relieved.
He shook his head. “No need to be sorry. Life throws curveballs sometimes, and every now and again we don’t duck fast enough.”
“I hear you,” she agreed.
They settled into a quiet silence, both of them immersed in their own contemplations. She’d never shared her feelings like that with Miles, but with Liam, she felt like she could open up so easily.
Hannah turned toward the skyline, changing course. “In all the madness today, could you ever have imagined you’d be here, looking down on this beautiful, snow-covered city?”
Liam’s expression lifted and he seemed to like her perspective. He held up h
is beer to toast. “To surprises,” he said, clinking his bottle against her nearly empty glass.
“To surprises,” she said.
Then, something occurred to him, and he twisted his watch around and looked up at Hannah. “I’ll be right back,” he said, standing up suddenly and placing his cloth napkin on the table. He strode off into the crowd by the bar.
Hannah tried to turn to see if she could find him in all the people. She made out what she thought was his sleeve as he spoke to the bartender, handing the man his credit card. She twisted around and faced her empty plate, the chaos of the whole day settling upon her again.
As she looked out at the tiny office lights in the high-rises on the skyline, all she could think about were all the people whose lives were unfolding just like hers had: a swarm of worker bees with their deadlines and schedules. It made her realize how empty her world had become.
Liam returned holding a brown paper take-out box tied with twine, and something in his fist. “I know it’s late, but…” He scooted the sushi plate out of the way and sat down, placing the box in the center of the table.
“What is that?” she asked.
He opened it, revealing a large piece of triple-layer vanilla cake with creamy icing and dark chocolate curls lying on its side. Liam opened his fist to divulge a single candle and a pack of matches. “Just a few minutes till midnight,” he said. “Your birthday.”
Hannah stared at the box of dessert, speechless. She looked into his green eyes. “Thank you,” she said, her words heartfelt.
“It was the least I could do. Will you make a wish?” he asked, putting the candle in the cake, and lighting it.
She inwardly searched for the right words to construct her wish, and she knew instantly that, even though she had lots of things she could wish for herself, the wish should be for Gran to be well. But when she worded her wish in her mind, she wished for more than that—she wished for the memories yet to be made and for a life that would give her more time with her grandmother, Hannah’s years in New York closing in on her.
She blew out the flame. “What an unexpected and wonderful surprise,” she said.