Page 50 of Loving You Always

“You got my size right.”

“I didn’t. Walsh did.”

Kerris nearly dropped the dress, though her jaw did drop.

“Walsh chose this for me?”

“Yes. He has planned everything down to the last detail, so don’t thank the messenger.” Trish reached for the phone that was ringing in her purse. “Yes, we’re already onboard. Hurry. We’ve got plenty to do in just a little time.”

Kerris was admiring the nude heels on the floor in front of the bed when two girls walked in, loaded down with cases of products—makeup, conditioner, shampoo, wax, hair dryers, and flat irons. Trisha showed them through to the marble-tiled bathroom just off the bedroom.

“Most of your work will be done in here.” Trisha gave both girls a smile and extended her hand, palm up. “As we discussed, I’ll take your phones now. You’ll get them back once you’re done.”

Kerris gave Trisha a puzzled look.

“Can’t be too careful.” Trisha slipped both phones into the pockets of her linen slacks. “The tabloids are always looking for any little morsel about Walsh’s private life. You can understand why this…situation requires discretion.”

Because Walsh lived a life people wanted to know about. In Hong Kong one day and back in his four-million-dollar New York apartment the next. Kerris wondered for a moment at her own audacity to think she could do this. That she might be able to occupy this world with him. Her? No money? No parents? A past littered with dirty details she never wanted anyone digging into. Just as she was about to flee the houseboat and hitchhike home if she had to, Dr. Stein’s guidance reminded her of all the mistakes this kind of thinking had led her to make the first time.

That nagging voice in her head telling her she wasn’t good enough? Telling her TJ had ruined her for someone like Walsh? Telling her she should settle for something less because she was damaged goods?

That voice lied.

And the truth was in the mirror two hours later, shining from her eyes. The truth was she loved Walsh. That girl staring back at her with the freshly washed shiny curls and the high-end dress and the new manicure and everything waxed and plucked and exfoliated? She was the case, but the jewel was inside of her. The man she loved, loved her back. Thought of her as a miracle. And would go out of his way to make their first date this special.

“Thank you, ladies,” Trisha said to the beauty battalion, as Kerris had come to think of them. “Great work. You’ll get your phones once you’re back on dry land.”

“So what’s next?” Kerris hoped it involved Walsh, because as much as she had enjoyed the beauty regimen and the pretty clothes, he was what she wanted.

“I’m leaving and Walsh will take it from here.” Trisha gave the room one last glance, all business, but her eyes went personal when they landed on Kerris. “You look beautiful.”

“Thanks.” Kerris ran her eyes down the dress and heels, then touched the hair spilling over her shoulders and down her back. She looked back to Trisha, whose hand was already on the doorknob. “Thanks for everything.”

“Enjoy tonight. Come on out when you’re ready.”

Kerris stood in the middle of the room for a few moments, absorbing all that had happened so far.

“Come out and go where?” Kerris asked the empty room.

She opened the door, and her attention was immediately drawn to a crystal-encrusted card on the floor in the dimly lit hallway, the first in a trail of cards telling her exactly where to go. The first card saidFOLLOW. Kerris saw a trail of glittering cards until the messageFOLLOW YOUR HEART TO MEled her up a shallow flight of steps and out onto the upper deck.

“Looking for me?”

Kerris turned in the direction of the voice she could pick out from a million others. Walsh stood by a small round table positioned near the boat rail. Tall, with his dark hair ruffled by the slight breeze rolling in with the setting sun, flawlessly tailored jacket molded to his broad shoulders, linen shirt left open at his tanned throat, hands in his pockets. A casual stance, but there was nothing casual about his eyes. They were ravenous, eating up every detail the beauty battalion had so painstakingly attended to.

He extended a hand to her.

“Come here, Kerris.”

The words were spoken so softly she barely heard them over the water lapping up against the houseboat, but they commanded her. Those three words reached into her chest and pulled her to him by the heart. She was in his grip. Surely he knew that, but something in his eyes seemed to wonder if she would come.

With every step she took toward him, a certainty, just a seed before, went deep and rooted itself inside of her. She was his and he was hers. He had known it before she did. He had tried to tell her, but her fear, her self-doubt, her own insecurities, had sabotaged their first chance at happiness. Every step she took toward him was redemption, a declaration. A promise. Maybe she did still have some issues to work through about her mother, about TJ, about Amalie, about how she had mishandled things with Cam. The residue of those things might always coat her perspective, even if just a little. But Walsh was her bright future, and for once, she would grab what she truly wanted with both hands.

She didn’t stop when she was close. She walked right past the hand he held extended and into his arms. She slid her hands up his shoulders, standing on her toes until she could hook her elbows behind his neck. He wrapped his arms around her, suspending her, and her toes left the ground. She pulled back just far enough to whisper in his ear.

“I’m sorry it took me so long.”

Chapter Sixteen

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