Page 32 of Love Over Time

I waved at him. My heart pounded hard, but I didn’t slow down. I couldn’t lose her again.

I walked into the hotel, flipped the deadbolt, and drew the curtains to keep pedestrians from looking in. My heartbeat settled down when I pushed the sheets dividing the lobby to the side and spotted Nikki at the bar. Good. At least she wasn’t upstairs packing.

“You’re giving up on us? Just like that?”

“There’s nous, Henry. There never was.” She faced me, her cheeks stained with tears.

A lump dropped into my stomach. I was losing her again. “You can’t listen to them. They can’t hurt you anymore. I won’t let them.” I stepped toward her. She stood and shoved the barstool between us.

I put my hands up in surrender. She’d given up so easily. Why? “Fine. This is how you want to play it? Be my guest. But remember this—just like last time,Ishowed up.” Heat rushed through my body. “You’re the one running away this time.” I headed for the stairs.

Her heel scraped the marble floor. “I’m not running away. I’m still here. I said I’d help you. That hasn’t changed.”

I gripped the banister and turned. Adrenaline hummed through me. “You’re running away from us. Would you be this quick to give up if I still had millions in my bank account? If we were having this conversation at the Cavalier Manor instead? That it?”

“You finally figured it out, Henry.” She strode toward me, wiping her cheek with the back of her hand. “What good is the Prince of Paradise without his money?”

“Don’t call me that.”

“Oh, you poor little rich boy,” she said.

That was what Francesca had said to me the day my uncle’s bodyguards brought me in after I tried to run away with Nikki. The day she’d told me they were sending me to a boarding school in Canada. The day I lost everything.

I grabbed her shoulders. “What happened to you?”

“This town happened to me.” She held my gaze. The anger I saw in her blue eyes cut me. Was the Hipolita I knew really gone?

“Leave. Stay. I don’t give a shit. Just stay out of my way. I don’t need your goddamn help.” I headed for the door. I couldn’t stand being in this place, this close to her.

I got in my truck and drove out of town, toward the 101. I had to get Nikki out of my mind, forget about what we almost had. There was no us. She had the right of it. There was no making up for lost time. How could we? The shadow Dad’s death cast over our lives would never go away.

Giving up wasn’t an option, though. I still had Mom, and she needed me. I turned onto the freeway. Phoenix was only an hour away. Today more than ever, I needed answers, and for once, I had a pretty good idea of where to begin.

By the time I reached the Hilton hotel in North Phoenix, my heart rate had slowed down to a normal beat. I had no idea what to expect or what I was looking for. Maybe I just wanted to know Mom was okay. If she had been here a few nights ago, someone would have noticed. She was hard to miss in that electric wheelchair of hers. Why would Jonathan take the time to bring Mom to her favorite place, as if they were lovers? It should be me taking care of Mom, not him.

I rubbed a hand along my jaw. I should’ve looked through more of Jonathan’s receipts. Found out if this was something they did often, which would mean he was treating her right. I drove through the resort, parked on the restaurant side, and headed straight for A Different Point of View.

The hostess wasn’t at her post, so I went straight to the bar area nestled along the wall in the darkest part of the restaurant. A glow of light shining on the liquor bottles made the place look like an oasis in the middle of the desert. The bartender had a good view of the dining room. Maybe he’d seen something. I sat on one of the barstools and ordered a draft beer—way better than the crap I had back at the hotel. An image of Nikki in a bathrobe, standing on the balcony drinking a beer, flashed in my mind. I took a pull from the glass, swallowed, and then took another before I let the glass fall hard on the counter.

“I see Nikki’s still leaving devastation wherever she goes,” a male voice boomed behind me.

I swiveled around and came face-to-face with her nonclient. The asshole who, for whatever reason, had driven to Paradise Creek to give Nikki a quarter of a million dollars. This was the last thing I needed right now.

“Dom Moretti.” He offered me his hand.

I squeezed it harder than I meant to. “Henry Cavalier.”

He chuckled and sat down, gesturing the bartender for another round. “We’re switching to whiskey.”

“Small world,” I said. What was he doing here of all places?

“Not really. Nikki sent me.” He must’ve read something in my eyes because he quickly clarified. “No. She didn’t send me here for you. I understand you’re looking for your mom? Tessa Cavalier.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I didn’t know she had calledyou.”

“I’m her lawyer.” He raised an eyebrow. “She calls when she needs things.”

My stomach rolled. Who was Nikki Swift? This asshole was some kind of crook lawyer, the one she called when she needed help. I hadn’t forgotten the way she ran into his arms the day he came to see her at the hotel. No wonder she was done with me. I couldn’t give her what Dom obviously could easily afford. The bartender set the shot glasses in front of us. I grabbed it, knocked it back, and gestured for him to pour me another one.

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