Colin

 

I stepped off that stage and hoped Abby would stay put. I wanted a chance to look her in the eye and say it. I wanted a chance to wrap her up in my arms and whisper it in her ear. I wanted to whisk her back to my hotel room and lay with her one more night. One night with everything out on the table and neither of us fearing what other people might think.

But when I finally made my way over to her side of the stage, she was gone.

The media was all over me the moment I stepped off stage. People were asking me questions, drawing conclusions, wanting official quotes, and scurrying to change their stories. Rohan was wanting me to give an official quote to Hadley to run in an article of our own and Ted was trying to congratulate me on things. My investors were calling me incessantly, wondering how this was going to affect our bottom line and talking to me about how I should’ve informed them of my relationship with an employee first.

I told them if they really thought my love life was going to affect their money, then they were more than welcome to take it elsewhere.

I was desperate to find Abby. I wanted to take a picture of the two of us so we could have something out there in the press besides the one of us in the bar. I wanted to clear her name in the public eye and make it known that she was not just the woman I loved, but an incredibly intelligent and talented public relations representative. I broke through the crowd and rushed around backstage, looking into every closet and bathroom before heading to the media room.

But she was nowhere to be found.

At the very least, we needed to get together and walk through our morning. Most of us were catching the same plane to fly back to L.A., but she was flying back into Minnesota. I wanted to see her one last time. I wanted to figure out when her plane was leaving so I could take her out for breakfast. I rushed around, my eyes on the lookout for that beautiful head of brown hair and that glistening tan skin.

But after over an hour of searching for her, I still couldn’t find her.

“She’s gotta be in her room,” Ted said. “She can’t be anywhere else. Her flight isn’t until tomorrow.”

“If I have anything to do with it, her flight won’t be tomorrow, either,” I said.

“What does that mean?” Ted asked.

“I don’t know. I don’t know. I just—I need to find her. I need to talk to her.”

“Colin, what you did was so romantic,” Maggie said.

“Don’t bother the man right now,” Ted said.

“Stop talking to your secretary like that,” I said. “It’s embarrassing.”

“He’s fine. I shoot it right back,” Maggie said.

“Good for you,” I said mindlessly.

I ran out of the conference building and dashed across the road for the hotel. If I had anything to say about it, we weren’t parting ways tomorrow. My mind was flying at a thousand miles a second and I was trying to work out how I was going to convince her to agree. I wasn’t willing to go another two months without seeing her. Without hearing her wonderful laugh or enduring her morning attitudes before she had her coffee.

I raced up to her hotel room and knocked on her door, but there was silence behind it.

She couldn’t have checked out. Where the hell would she go? If she wanted an earlier flight out, she would’ve had to run it by our finance department first. In order for her to use her company card, she would’ve needed approval for something like this because it wasn’t an emergency.

But I flew down to the front desk to ask anyway.

“Mr. Murphy! How can we assist you?”

“Yes, um—Carla. Hello, Carla. How are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m wonderful. You seem a bit frazzled. Is something wrong with your room?”

“An employee of mine is missing,” I said. “Abby Thompson.”

“Ah, Miss Thompson. A lucky woman, if you ask me. Room 413, correct?”

“Yes, Carla. That’s right. Is she still here?” I asked.

“According to our system, no. She checked out about half an hour ago.”

“Shit.”

“Mr. Murphy, is something wrong?”

But before I could answer Carla’s question, I was already running for the elevator. I pulled my phone from my pocket and sent her a text message asking her where she was. I called her phone and couldn’t get an answer, and as the elevator doors opened I began to consider my options. I could check out and chase her down, but she had a thirty minute head start on me. If she was flying, I could catch her at the airport, but if she was renting a vehicle and driving I risked missing her before I could get there. I stepped into the elevator and groaned when I lost cell service, but the moment I stepped out I pulled up the main number of my finance department.

If I couldn’t track her down, maybe I could block her use of the company card until I could find her.

“Colin?”

The familiar voice graced my ears and I whipped my head up. There she was, with her long brown hair flowing down her back and her big doe eyes. She was standing at my hotel suite door with her bags in her hands, her crimson red coat draped over her shoulders.

She had packed, but she hadn’t left.

“Abby.”

I rushed down the hallway to her and wrapped my arms around her. She dropped her bags and held me close as my face found the crook of her neck. She smelled of lilacs and honey and felt like velvet against my skin. I breathed the scent of her in deep before I ruined the moment with my incessant questioning.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m heading back to Minnesota early,” she said.

“Why?” I asked, as I pulled away. “No one’s flight goes out until the morning. Just stay one last night.”

“I already checked out,” she said.

“You can stay with me.”

“Colin—”

“They already know, Abby. I fixed it,” I said.

“I can’t,” she said, whispering.

I cupped her face with my cheeks and brought my forehead to lean against hers.

“Why are you leaving so soon?” I asked.

“Because that’s just—how it has to be,” she said.

“No, it doesn’t. It doesn’t have to be that way. I told them, Abby. They know, and no one’s upset. No one’s mad. No one’s anything but happy for us.”

“Even Ted?” she asked.

I pulled back and lost myself in the deep brown pools of her eyes.

“Especially Ted,” I said.

“Colin,” she said.

“Before you say anything, just come inside,” I said.

“I’ve got a red eye flight scheduled to head back to Minnesota.”

“Then you don’t have to be at the airport for another. Abby, I’m not asking you to stay. I’m just asking you to come rest yourself until you have to leave.”

“You know what’ll happen if I step into that room, Colin.”

“And why is that such a bad thing?” I asked.

Her eyes were wide with fear and I had no idea how to abate the ebbing waves of disaster rolling around behind them.

“Just give me two hours. And if I can’t convince you to stay, then I’ll let you go,” I said.

My heart slammed against my chest as I watched her debate my words. She had been through so much in the past few hours, and I couldn’t blame her for wanting to run. I couldn’t blame her for wanting to get out of this place as fast as she could get out, but all I was asking for was two hours of her time. Two hours she would’ve been spending in an airport waiting room anyway.

I had something I wanted to ask her, and I needed the time to convince her that I was right.

I needed time to convince her to stay with me.

“Okay,” she said. “But only two hours. After that, I have to get to the airport.”

“In two hours if I can’t change your mind, I’ll escort you there myself,” I said.

I opened up my hotel suite door and ushered her in. I picked her bags up off the floor and slid them off to the side. The door closed behind me with a quiet thud as she shrugged her coat off, and I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She was a radiantly beautiful woman, with strong shoulders that sloped into an hourglass frame. Her clothes hugged all the right areas of her body while still leaving enough fabric in certain places to make her look professional.

She was a work of art to behold as she turned around and gave me a sad smile.

“I need to apologize,” she said.

“For what?” I asked.

She drew a deep breath through her nose before she started fidgeting with her hands.

“For not being as strong as you,” she said.

“Abby, you don’t—”

“Come sit next to me,” she said.

She sat down on the couch and patted the cushion, beckoning me to sit beside her. The Kansas sunlight was streaming through the windows of the balcony of my suite, highlighting the golden rays of hair she had scattered throughout her head. She looked like an angel, a halo of light surrounding her beautiful face as I walked over and sat next to her.

Then she took my hand and brought it to her lips, leaving an imprint of my favorite feature of her on the top of my skin.

“I’m sorry,” she said, whispering. “For almost leaving without saying goodbye.”