Liz slept fitfully that night. Although Dorian had prepared a comfortable bed for her in his guest room, her newly unearthed memories rose from their graves like zombies.
The horses.
Their old ranch-style house.
Even her mother. Smiling. Laughing. Alive.
Dorian had said he’d wake her if Bingham got in contact, but she didn’t see or hear from him until he came to her room the next morning.
“I come bearing gifts,” he called through the hollow-core door. “Well, actually breakfast.”
“Come in!” she called, pulling herself into a cross-legged position and lifting the comforter up to her armpits to hide the fact she wasn’t wearing a bra.
Dorian held two old-fashioned milkshake glasses with gleaming metal spoons jabbing out from the top. “Parfaits,” he explained. “Berries from the garden, and yogurt from the Red Apple.”
“Thanks,” she said, only realizing then how hungry she’d grown running from the thoughts that had haunted her all night.
Dorian hovered by her bed but didn’t sit. “We need to leave for the airport in about half an hour. I wanted to let you sleep as long as possible, but yeah. If you want a shower, better hop in now.”
Liz needed far more than half an hour to tame her frizzy red mane. She’d go without for the day. Besides, if she stunk, then all the better for keeping romance at bay while they dealt with far more important matters—like the very foundation of her life.
But what could be more important than love? a small voice from within asked, and she wondered if it were her mother’s—if that voice inside had always belonged to her mom, and she’d only just remembered now.
“I’ll just be in the living room,” Dorian said after taking a spoonful of his own parfait. “Come down when you’re ready to go.”
Liz watched him pad away, noticing for the first time how nice he looked from behind. Okay, so maybe she would take that shower after all.
When she at last appeared downstairs, Dorian stood waiting at the door, jangling his keys in hand.
“Sorry,” she mumbled. He had to know that all her extra primping and preening was for him—a fact which embarrassed her greatly.
“It’s okay,” he said with a knowing grin. “I’ll drive fast.”
Fortunately, they managed to make it to the airport just as the boarding for their flight had begun. She still didn’t know how he’d managed to afford their tickets, and the question rose again as the air hostess seated them in business class.
“Dorian,” she said, angered but also secretly grateful for the extra leg room. “How did you even afford this? And why business class when coach would have been perfectly fine?”
“Okay, you got me,” he admitted from his seat next to the aisle. He’d been insistent on her settling in by the window so she could see Charleston in all its glory when the plane descended. “I didn’t book this flight. Somebody else did.”
“Bingham?” Had he really held back this vital information from her? Did Bingham know they were coming for him?
“No, your dad.” He flashed her a wicked grin. “Or, actually, Vanessa.”
Liz had hardly thought of her evil stepmother in the last week, but she also couldn’t believe a woman who hated her so much would pull out all the stops to ensure her comfort like this.
“Dorian,” she warned with a scowl. “Please be honest with me.”
“Lying to you in the beginning was hard enough. It’s not something I want to do anymore. Ever.”
“Then what’s the deal with this flight?”
He shrugged and stretched his legs as far in front of him as they’d go—as if to say Yeah, I got help from the enemy, but look how comfy it is!
“I told you,” he said with a shrug now. “Vanessa booked it for us.”
“Okay, you’re going to need to explain that one.”
He laughed and let down his seat-back table in one fluid motion. Everything seemed to excite him as if he’d never been on a plane before. Perhaps he hadn’t. “I know. It surprised me, too. So I called Ben when we were both driving back to the city, and I told him about us trying to find Bingham.”
“Why would you do that? Didn’t it hurt him to know I’m searching for my real dad?”
Dorian frowned as if she’d said something to upset him. “First off, I don’t think real and biological mean the same thing—and I don’t think Ben sees it that way, either. Second, he said he understood and wanted to help, even if it was from a distance. That’s kind of what I was hedging my bets on when I asked for his number.”
“When did you—?”
“When you went to talk to Lauren and Shane in their bedroom.”
Her jaw dropped to her chest. She hadn’t realized Dorian was scheming in the other room as she was creating schemes of her own. What a pair they were turning out to be!
“Yeah, I’m a sneaky one, but you knew that already. What you don’t know is that your dad gave me a list of addresses and places to check out once we’re in Charleston. He basically gave us a full itinerary, so we’re not searching blind.” His chest puffed with pride at having approached their trip so intelligently. She’d give him a hard time if she weren’t so grateful for all he’d managed to do for them in such a short time.
One thing still didn’t make sense. Her father had come to the cabin alone. “And where does Vanessa factor into all of this?”
“Well, when Ben emailed the tickets over later, I could see they’d been paid for by her frequent flyer miles and that she had chosen to use more to upgrade us.”
At the wedding, her dad had said Vanessa liked her too well. Could that actually be true? Well, this was the first thing to suggest it, and Liz still had a hard time believing it. She shook her head at Dorian, insistent that it was her dad who had paid. That made sense. “Yeah, but he could have been using her account.”
Dorian popped his table back into the seat in front of him and turned toward her, his cheek resting against the chair. “Maybe. But isn’t it nice to believe the best in people sometimes?”
Who was this man? Every time she thought she’d figured him out, he’d go and say something like that. It seemed impossible that the Dorian Whitley she’d met at the wedding could be the same Dorian Whitley that brushed his fingers over the back of her hand now. That smiled at her and caused her to smile back. That made her heart soar higher than any plane ever could.
Moments later, the jet began to roll across the runway, and Liz checked her seatbelt to make sure it was firm across her lap. Once they were in the sky, Dorian unlatched his belt and turned to her again. He’d clearly been waiting for this moment.
“Our flight is going to be a long one,” he explained, squeezing her hand tight. She hadn’t even realized they’d still been holding onto each other. “So what can you tell me about yourself in, oh, ten hours?”
Ten hours getting to know Dorian better. Hearing his secrets now that he’d learned all of hers. It would go by in no time at all.