by Aly Martinez
Me: Hey, I should probably confess now that I’m really bad with locked doors. I just realized the settlement emails were sent today. If you ever feel the need to knock, I’m here.
Bowen: I don’t give a shit about doors, locked or not. If you need something, I’ll rip it off the damn hinges. Are you okay?
I smiled down at my phone. That was a little…aggressive but also super sweet.
Me: I’m fine. Aaron’s struggling a little tonight. I wanted to make sure you were good before I disappeared to hang out with him.
Bowen: Don’t worry about me. I spent my evening with a beautiful woman who is utterly intoxicating. It’s going to take far more than a settlement email to get me down. Take care of your friend, and call me if you need anything.
My chest warmed. It was good to see Bowen put the same energy into being charming as he had into being cranky.
Still grinning, I refilled Aaron’s glass and made one for myself before once again joining him on the couch.
“I hope you made it stiff,” he said dryly, taking the drink from my hand.
“Double cucumber. I even picked out a slice of lemon just for you.”
“Oh, goodie.” His voice was full of contempt. “Open yours and let’s see how many orphaned kids you’ll be able to put through college.”
I hated every part of this, but the sooner it was over, the better.
For all of us.
I opened the email and clicked on the link. It took a few minutes for me to verify my identity, but as soon as I hit enter, both of our jaws dropped.
Two-point-nine million dollars.
“Oh my God,” I breathed.
He let out a groan. “It’s still not enough.”
He was right, but the damage had been done. This money would make a difference in the lives of a lot of people. Including my own.
Unfortunately, the future was the only thing I could change.
Bowen
Eight months before the plane crash…
The shriek of my phone ringing on full volume startled me awake. A week of exhaustion clung to my mind, and it took several beats before razor-sharp reality rained down over me, slicing me to the core. I had no concept of what time it was. After yet another long night of fruitlessly searching the city, I’d only lain down for a minute. But the sun, which had been tucked behind the horizon, now poured in through my bedroom windows.
“Hello,” I rasped, scrubbing a hand over my face.
“They found her,” Tyson said, his voice barely above a whisper.
That was all I’d needed to kick-start my heart again. A tsunami of adrenaline flooded my system. “Is she okay?”
“She’s…alive.”
Sally. Oh, God, Sally.
An avalanche of relief crashed down over me.
It had been five days since she’d disappeared.
Five agonizing days of losing my mind and assuming the worst.
Five whole damn days since I’d been able to breathe without it feeling like my lungs were full of broken glass.
“You gotta give me more than that, Ty.” I stabbed my feet into a pair of running shoes and headed toward the front door.
“She was brought in by ambulance. Her vitals are good, but they found her in her car, down by the trails on Grove Hill. The EMT gave her Narcan, but—”
I froze mid-step. “Wait. What the fuck are you talking about?”
He blew out a hard breath. “Did you know she was an addict?”
I shook my head, nothing making sense. “That’s impossible.”
“I would have said that too, but you haven’t seen her. She’s covered in track marks. If she wasn’t using regularly before she disappeared, that’s all she’s done since.”
“There’s no fucking way. I would have known. I would’ve noticed something.”
“Would you? You’ve been together for, what, a month now?”
“I would have fucking known!” I boomed, my voice echoing around my living room as I marched into it.
No, we hadn’t been together long. It was the same bullshit her friends and family had given me over the last few days while I’d flipped the city on end trying to find her. But I fucking knew her in ways no one else ever would. We were two halves of the same whole, and I didn’t need to spend a Goddamn decade with her to know it. She was my forever; the rest would come later.
“There must be another explanation,” I told my brother. “I’ve searched Grove Hill every day this week. If she was there this morning, then where the hell has she been for the last five days?” I slapped a hand down on the counter as I rounded it on the way to the door, grabbing my keys. “What hospital are you at?”
“Do not come up here. Do you understand me? I could lose my license for calling you. Besides, the cops won’t let you see her. They still have to question her, and I’ll be honest, it wouldn’t surprise me if they placed her under arrest, either.”
“Arrest? She’s been missing for almost a week. Those sons of bitches wouldn’t even help us look for her, but now they’re going to arrest her? For what?”
“She was found with heroin, Bowen. Heroin. Depending on the officer, he might brush it under the rug, but he could just as easily take her in. I’m sure the cops will notify her family. Wait to hear from them before you come up here. I’m not even supposed to be in the ER today. A buddy did me a solid when he heard they brought her here. I’d really rather not thank him by getting him fired.”
I gritted my teeth, not slowing as I stomped outside. “Look, I don’t know your friend, and this call never happened. But you have to tell me where she is. I’ve spent too long in absolute hell, terrified something happened to her. I don’t give a fuck what the cops say. They can arrest me too for all I care. But I have to see her, Tyson. So either you tell me what hospital or I drive to every fucking emergency room in the city until I find her.”
“Jesus,” he hissed. “Can you give me, like, five minutes to think before you dive off the deep end here?”
“Tyson,” I warned as I reached my truck.
“Chill. She’s safe, okay? You barging in here like a madman won’t help anyone. Not even her.”
He was wrong. Seeing her was the only thing that could help me. I’d been drowning in what-ifs. Mainly because we couldn’t actually convince anyone she was missing in the first place.
It had taken two days of begging to even get the police to acknowledge her disappearance. When they’d shown up to search her place, there was no sign of anything amiss. Her suitcase was nowhere to be found, but it explained why a few of her drawers had been emptied. Her car was gone. Purse and cell phone too. But in my gut, I knew that something wasn’t right. She wouldn’t have left without telling me. Without saying goodbye.
However, once it was discovered that she’d left a message at her office explaining how she was taking the rest of the week off, law enforcement had written us off altogether. According to them, a woman who had obviously decided to go on vacation hardly constituted a missing person.
I’d never stopped looking though.
I’d just never expected to find her like that. Fucking hell. Heroin?
It didn’t matter. My love for her was not conditional. I wasn’t a praying man, but I’d done my fair share of it on my knees that week, and her being okay was the answer to every single one of them.
“I’m not asking again, Tyson. What. Hospital?”
He let out a low groan. “Grady. But just…give me a minute.”
“I don’t have a minute!” I yelled, but it did me no good. He’d already hung up.
I tore out of my driveway like a man on the verge of destruction, and in a lot of ways, it was exactly who I was.
Tyson spent the majority of his time at Grady, but it wasn’t unheard of for him to be at one of the other area hospitals. Grady was the biggest though, so I figured it was safest to start there.
Much like my life, traffic was a nightmare. Even without the slow-down, it was going to take me well over
half an hour to get there, but I didn’t get more than a few miles from my house before my phone started ringing again, my brother’s name showing on the screen.
Lifting it to my ear, I answered with, “I swear to God, if you don’t give me—”
“Bowen?” she cried, her voice weak but still the most beautiful sound I’d ever heard.
“Sally,” I breathed, barely able to speak around the emotion lodged in my throat. “Are you okay?”
“I don’t know what’s happening,” she rushed out. “You have to believe me. I didn’t do this. He…he drugged me.”
My head snapped back as I steered to the shoulder of the road, hell-bent on getting to her but not trusting myself behind the wheel anymore. “Who?”
“I don’t know.” A sob tore from her throat.
“Shhhh. It’s okay. Just breathe.” I wasn’t following my own advice. My lungs burned like a wildfire was raging inside them as I asked, “Are you saying someone took you?”
“Yes! The last thing I remember is going for a run at Grove Hill, and after that, it’s all blurry. He kept me in a dark room, and it was so damn cold. There was another girl too, and she cried the whole time. I think she might have been hurt, but…I don’t know.” She took a shuddering breath. “It’s all flashes. I have no idea how to sort them out.”
I’d known it. I’d fucking known she hadn’t taken off for a few days the way the police had insisted. But this was one thing I’d never wanted to be right about.
My chest filled with flames and every fevered muscle in my body screamed with visceral rage. I cracked my neck and flexed my hand open and shut on the steering wheel, desperately trying to keep my tone gentle. “Did you tell the police? They should be out searching for this motherfucker.”
“I’ve tried, but they won’t listen to me. They keep asking for details and I don’t have any. I don’t know who he was or what he looked like. I don’t know where he took me or how he got me there. I just know it happened. I’m pretty sure they think I’m making it up too, but I swear on my life I’m telling the truth!” She was on the edge of hysterics, and with her next words, she took me right over the cliff with her. “What if they won’t listen? What if he comes back for me? I don’t even know why he let me go.”
“No!” I said entirely too sharply. I bit the inside of my mouth so hard that it drew blood and then lowered my voice. “That’s not going to happen, babe. You’re safe now. Everything’s going to be okay.” It was a bald-faced lie. Nothing would ever be the same again. But I would never, never stop trying to make it the truth. “I’m on my way. We’ll figure everything out, I swear.”
“I love you,” she choked out.
“I know, Sally. I love you too.”
Remi
“Technically, yes, it’s a three-bedroom. But the bonus room can easily be converted into a fourth if you need more space.”
The young couple looked at each other, so much love in their eyes that cartoon hearts might as well have been floating over their heads.
“I think this is the one,” the woman told her husband.
“Yeah?”
She nodded eagerly, her brown hair brushing her shoulders.
Looking back at me, he said, “Okay, then. We’ll have our agent draw up an offer.”
“Great. I look forward to it.” I smiled.
He smiled too. His wife giggled and buried her face in his chest.
They were cute. I really hoped their offer came in higher than the other four sitting in my email, but I said none of that.
With his arm around her shoulders, he was already on his phone as they trotted down the front steps.
Ah, young love.
Sighing, I turned around and scanned the empty space. It had been a busy open house, but things had finally slowed down. I had another two hours before I was supposed to meet Bowen for our date, but I needed to tidy up, put away the snacks I’d brought, and then head back to my office so I could go through the offers first.
“Knock, knock,” a familiar baritone said.
I spun to the door, a smile already spreading across my face. “Hey…” More words were supposed to follow that one, but that was before Bowen Michaels walked in wearing a fitted black V-neck T-shirt that hugged his defined chest and a pair of jeans that hung low on his tapered hips.
He was gorgeous in a suit.
He was sexy in a button-down and slacks.
He was downright edible in a white button-down with the sleeves rolled up.
But casual, easy-breezy Bowen no doubt left a trail of gaping, flush-faced women in his wake. I was nothing but his latest victim.
Though I might have had it worse than most since he was holding a stunning Swiss cheese plant that had to be at least half as tall as he was.
Like icing on the sex cake, the side of his mouth hiked. “You busy?”
Instinctively, I smoothed the top of my hair. “Not anymore. What are you doing here?”
He looked at the green tree, which was in a rich-amber pot propped on his hip. “I wanted to bring you flowers for our date, but I’m still recovering from the embarrassment of giving you the world’s smallest cactus.”
Touching my fingers to my lips, I stifled a laugh. “Don’t hate on Quincy.”
“No hate, but I definitely learned that bigger is better when it comes to buying you foliage.”
“Just so you know, ‘bigger is better’ applies to practically everything when it comes to women.”
He shook his head, his smile stretching wide. “I also learned that Sharon at Peachtree Plants might be a hundred and six, but she has no shame in pinching a man’s rear end if she finds it aesthetically pleasing and the mood strikes her. I was in no way prepared for plant people, Remi.”
All the hands in the world wouldn’t have been enough to stifle my laughter that time. “Well, she isn’t wrong. You do have a particularly aesthetically pleasing backside. I may have checked it out a time or two myself.”
Bowen quirked his eyebrow and with slow, calculated steps closed the distance between us. “It can’t be that good. After all, you’ve managed to keep your hands to yourself.” He stopped so close I had to crane my head back to hold his gaze.
“What I lack in verbal restraint, I really make up for in grab-ass.”
He let out a low hum. “That’s unfortunate to hear.” And with that, he moved the massive plant from between us, dipped low, and placed a chaste but no less toe-curling kiss to my lips.
“You’re supposed to kiss me at the end of the date,” I challenged, hoping and affirming I’d get another.
“Well, I also brought you a three-foot tree instead of a bouquet. It’s safe to say I’m breaking all the rules tonight.”
I couldn’t wait for later, so I pushed up onto my toes and stole another kiss. “You warned me you were a rebel.”
His smile against my mouth was almost as good as the kiss itself, but somehow, I managed to break the connection.
Dropping back to my heels, I ran my fingers over the Swiss cheese’s leaves. “She’s beautiful, Bowen.”
“It looked half-dead like Margret, so I figured it must be nice.”
“Well, aren’t you a quick study. She’s a Monstera too. She and Margret are practically sisters.”
“I hope it’s okay I stopped by. Amber gave me the address. I didn’t want you to have to lug…” He paused, slanting his head in question, waiting for me to fill in the blank with the name of the newest member of my plant family.
“Meredith.”
“Right. I didn’t want you to have to lug Meredith around with us all night. I figured you could drop it—I mean, her—off at your office.”
I smiled. “You know you could have dropped her off at my office instead of driving all the way out here.”
“But then I wouldn’t have been able to see you or find out about your pervy obsession with my ass.”
I winked. “It sounds like we both won here.”
“Yeah,” he whispered, staring d
eep into my eyes. It was a far cry from the man who only a week earlier refused to make eye contact. But then again, nothing about Bowen was the same as when I’d met him.
I’d been attracted to him when I’d thought he was broody and stoic. But this guy, the one who made jokes and brought me plants… Well, he was better. So, so, so much better.
A voice came from the front door. “Is the open house still going?”
I peeked around Bowen and found an agent I’d worked with in the past standing beside another starry-eyed couple. “Yeah, absolutely,” I chirped. “Come on in.”
Bowen dipped his head. “I’ll let you get back to work.”
I took Meredith from his arms and gave her a spin to really check her out. “You did good, Bowen. Way better than flowers.”
He grinned. “Good. Now don’t ogle me in front of your potential buyers when I walk away.”
I shrugged. “Sorry. I make no promises.”
Chuckling, he gave my hip a squeeze. “See you at three?”
“I’ll be there.”
“I’m counting on it.” Turning on a toe, he walked away, nodding at the agent and the couple as he went.
And despite my attempts to always remain professional in front of clients, I made no secret of watching his ass the entire way.
I hurried through the last showing. They weren’t nearly as interested when they found out it only had two bathrooms, but it worked out just fine when I saw the offer in my email for five thousand dollars over asking from the young couple from earlier. The sellers were equally as stoked and accepted immediately.
When Meredith and I got back to Grey Realty, I found her a temporary spot in my office. Quincy Cactus had pride of place on my desk, but regardless of what Mark and Aaron had to say about it, Meredith was coming home with me.
After I’d uploaded the offer into the digital signature software and emailed it to my sellers, I closed my laptop and mentally shifted gears. I was going straight from my office to the date with Bowen, so I’d planned ahead, wearing a cute jade strapless dress with a cropped brown blazer for a daytime look. But I shed the jacket to showcase extra skin for the afternoon and evening. I didn’t have much time to freshen up, but I spent the little I did touching up my makeup and straightening my hair. Bowen had already seen me, but conversely, I’d also seen him, and there was no way I was resigning myself to be the troll at the dinner table.