Page 31 of Happy After All

I click the form, and my heart nearly explodes through the front of my chest.

Nathan didn’t make a reservation after the fire, and I thought ... I thought maybe the fire had chased him away. I thought maybe when he told me I needed to stay away from him, what he really meant was he was going to stay away from me. Because for whatever reason, that attraction passing so openly between us the night we danced had made him angry.

It wasn’t just uncomfortable. It was like he wasmadabout it. I had, unavoidably, I feel, internalized that a little bit.

But there he is.

I scroll down and look at the dates, expecting to see summer.

December 2–26.

Tomorrow. He wants to come tomorrow. On my birthday. He wasjusthere. He only ever comes in the summer, the exact same dates: June 15–August 25. Every time.

He doesn’t randomly show up in December.

I had been convinced that he was ... that he wasn’t going to come again at all.

My hands are shaking as I respond to the request.

Yes, your room is available.

It takes effort not to sign my name. Because after all this, I’ve still never said it to him. He’s still never used it. I have no reason to suspect he even knows it.

There’s no real response. He just presses the confirmation button.

There is no calling it back. No stopping it. Nathan is coming tomorrow.

I go back to my manuscript, and I realize I’ve written another green-eyed hero. I don’t want his eyes to be blue, because Christopher’s eyes are blue. So now they’re brown. I do not make every hero Nathan.

I almost text Elise to tell her that, but I’m sure it will make me seem guilty.

I’mnot.

Nathan is checking in tomorrow, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

He stayed after the fire. For the whole month of August, just like he always does. He was more aloof than he had been that first summer. The only time I really interacted with him again was when I had to bring him takeout that got left in the lobby.

I’d had to fight not to make a dramatic show of keeping my distance as I handed it to him.

For his part, he acted as if nothing had happened between us.

Then he hadn’t made another reservation, and I had thought that was it.

Which was kind of great because it meant I could put my plaque up in the Hemingway Suite and he wouldn’t be any the wiser. It would be better for me to exploit his fame than to actually have to deal with his grumpy ass.

But his grumpy ass is coming for Christmas.

I sit there, frozen for a moment. Thinking through the implications of Nathan and Christopher converging on my life.

I nearly laugh. Because Christopher doesn’t know I’m here, and Nathan doesn’t care that I am.

I would prefer I weren’t, frankly.

I snort and type angrily for the rest of the afternoon. Thankfully, I have something to look forward to this evening.

The entire month of December is Christmas movies at the dive-in event, and tonight we’re having another community barbecue and enjoying the entertainment.

We continued with our open barbecues after the fire.

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