He sets the brown box on the table, and I watch as he unties the purple ribbon around the box. The ribbons fall to the sides when he takes the top off. The sound of the white tissue paper crumpling echoes in the now silent room. When he hisses, I look over and see that it’s a giant purple heart. The letter on the top is my name in block letters. It looks like he did it with a ruler.
You have my heart. Now I’m going to have yours.
“Fucking hell.” I hear Brian hiss out and then run for his phone. I pick up the note, and the hair on the back of my neck flies up. “Don’t touch anything else,” he tells me, and my wonderful day has now been taken away from me. “Yeah, it’s me. She just got another one,” he says and then picks up the purple heart. “It’s a heart-shaped amethyst stone.” I sit in the chair and just look at the heart. “No idea. I chased him to the lobby, and then he sprinted to a waiting white van. He got in, and they peeled away. There were no tags.” I see him looking at me and listen before he asks me, “What was he wearing?”
“He was wearing jeans and a green hat, and his hands were dirty. He had black Converse on,” I tell him softly, my mind now flying back to remember everything about him. The way his eyes twinkled like he was on something, the way his lips twitched, and he almost chuckled when he finally handed me the box.
“Did you get that?” He talks to the person on the phone. “I want to pull the video from the cameras around the hotel. If he walked in here, it has to be somewhere.” He puts the heart back in the box and covers it. “Call me when you have something.” He throws his phone and comes to squat down in front of me. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I say softly.
“Are you okay?” he asks me, grabbing one of my hands and bringing it to his mouth to kiss it. Something that I would have gone crazy over yesterday.
“I thought that it was over,” I tell him. “We’ve been on the road for three weeks. I thought it was over, and he had moved on.”
“Baby,” he says softly, his hand cradling my face, “I’m so sorry.”
“I woke up happy,” I finally say, the tears running down my face. “I woke up actually happy. I was in your arms, I had just had the best kiss of my life, and I was happy to have that. Not a kiss for the big screen or the red carpet just to be in the papers. It was for me.” I put my hands to my chest. “It was mine, and he took it away from me.”
“There will be more kisses, baby,” he says, leaning in and kissing my lips softly, “this afternoon, tonight, tomorrow.”
I look down, staring at his hand on my leg. “There better be.” I lean in a touch and kiss him because I can. “It’s not like I haven’t had stalkers before, but they never went to this much trouble.”
“Well, let’s hope he gets tired,” he says with a smile, and my stomach decides it’s time to make a loud rumbling noise. “Well, then, I guess I better get my girl fed.”
I laugh and then see him pick up the box and move it to the coffee table. “I am going to ship that back to the office and see what they get from it.”
I’m already getting my plate and grabbing a waffle, then I look at him.
“Do you think he fucked with the food?” I ask him, and he stops filling up his plate.
“Go get dressed,” he says to me in a gruff way, then grabs his phone and puts it to his ear. “Rachel, we are going to plan B.” I watch him on the phone. “He got to her door, so he can get to her food. I want everything set up.” He stops talking and listens to what or whoever is on the phone. “Perfect. Send me the address.”
“Who was that?” I ask him, and he looks at me.
“Rachel,” he says, and I swallow the news. “She’s one of the guys.” He follows it up. “She got us another location, and only me, you, and Cori will know it.”
“Is that really necessary?” I ask, and he glares at me. “Okay, I know he came to the door, but do you think he will come again?”
“I have no idea, but I’m not going to sit here and wait,” he says, and his phone beeps. “Perfect. We have a car that will be downstairs in fifteen and an address. You need to take one bag, so …”
I stare at him. “Well, what are we doing?” I look over at the luggage cart overflowing with bags. I make a mental note to have Cori send back half of them. I haven’t even touched a couple.
“Making out,” he says, and I look back up at him, “a lot.”
I try not to smile, but I lose the battle. “Then I’m ready,” I tell him and then look down at my crazy loose sweats and big shirt. Maybe I should dress up a bit, so I grab my bag and go into the bathroom. I put on my fitted gray sweats and white T-shirt, tying the hem in a knot on the side. My hair is all over the place since I didn’t dry it after and he spent the night with his hands in said hair. I pin it to the top of my head and then walk out. “Okay, now I’m ready.”
I look over at him, and he has his bag next to him. When he gets up, I see he’s dressed now. He is wearing fitted dark blue pants and a gray long-sleeved sweater pulled up to the elbows. His eyes fly up, and he spots me. “Is there anything that you don’t look beautiful in?” he mumbles. I smile, the butterflies all forming in my stomach. I’m a grown-ass woman, and I’ve been called beautiful my whole life, but from him, it’s just that much better. His phone beeps. “Okay, the car is downstairs. I texted Cori about what was going on. I am going to have someone pick her up and bring her to us.”
I nod at him and then walk out of the hotel room with him. He holds my hand the whole time until we step next to the black Range Rover waiting for him at the curb. He opens the front passenger door for me, and after I step in, I watch him walk around the car, open the back door, and throw our bags into the back. He gets in the driver’s seat and sets the address on his phone, and I watch the tall building fade as we make our way to the secret house. We pull up to a gate, and he enters a code, and the gates open. We make our way down the gravel driveway, and I see the vast green lawn and the house in the back. “Where are we?” I look at the two-story white house with black shutters. Columns line the front, holding up the second-floor balcony.
Brian pulls up to the side of the house where there are two garage doors. I get out of the car and wait for him as he gets our bags from the back of the SUV. He walks over to one of the garage doors and flips open a cover over a keypad. He enters the four numbers, and the door starts to open, showing us that it’s empty. I follow Brian who walks to the three wooden steps leading to a brown door. He opens it, and we step into what is the kitchen and family room. I look up to see the wooden beams on all the ceilings. The whole kitchen is an oak color. The L-shaped light beige counter with stools has six trays on it.
“Good, the food arrived,” Brian says, walking to the green couch and putting our bags on them. The whole room has so many colors it doesn’t make sense, but then when you look back and forth, it looks really cozy. I walk over to the counter, and when he takes off the covers, I see they have a feast for more than two.
“How many people are you expecting?” I ask him, and he shakes his head but then my phone rings from my bag. I walk over to it and see that Tommy’s trying to FaceTime me. “It’s Tommy.” I look at Brian, and he nods, so I press connect. The little round circle goes around and around while connecting, and then Tommy’s face fills the screen.