When I woke up, the weight of Autumn’s head rested against my chest, and I was convinced for a moment that this was all a dream. There was no way I could have come all this way on a whim in the hope of reconnecting with this woman, and even if I had, there was no way she would have taken me back like that.

But I looked down and saw her head against my chest, her face nuzzled into my skin, and I grinned. This was real. I leaned down and smelled her hair, closing my eyes and letting the scent of it wash over me. Real as day. Real as anything.

I didn’t want to wake her up, so I was happy to lie there and come to wakefulness slowly, letting the reality of the situation wash over me. It was real, and it was happening. I was with her again, and the two of us were happy.

I wrapped my arms around her and felt that swell of love for her once more. I knew it was love. It had been so long since I’d felt that way about anyone that some part of me had been afraid before that I was wrong and that I was going to blurt out something I didn’t really mean. I knew now, though. I wanted to tell her, but I was worried it would scare her off, given everything else that had already happened so far. The last couple of weeks had been a lot to take in, and I didn’t want to overwhelm her with anything too intense when things were going so sweetly between us.

Suddenly, a knock on the door rang throughout the room, and my head snapped up. That had to be Zoe, Autumn’s friend who had brought her out here. I had a feeling she was going to be less than impressed if she found me sleeping in Autumn’s bed.

Autumn’s eyes flickered open, and Zoe knocked again. Autumn sat up in bed, yawning, and ran her hands through her hair.

“Stay here,” she told me. “I’ll be back in a second.”

“Okay,” I agreed, and I grinned as she went to the door, grabbing the robe from where we had dumped it the night before. She pulled it open, and I ducked beneath the covers so I wouldn’t be visible to anyone standing out there.

“Morning,” Zoe greeted her. “You don’t usually sleep in this late. Everything okay?”

“Everything’s great,” Autumn assured her. “Did you have a good night?”

“Yeah, I really did,” Zoe confessed excitedly. “I went to the bar and met this guy. I really like him. He’s taking me out today. You can come with us if you want?”

“No, no, I don’t want to cramp your style,” Autumn replied, and I could hear the relief in her voice. “You go out and have a good time. I’m going to relax in here for the day and maybe go to the pool.”

“All right, well, keep in touch,” Zoe told her firmly. “And don’t spend too much time lying in bed thinking about Holden. You’re here to get your mind off him.”

“Of course,” Autumn agreed, and I heard the door click shut and lifted my head from beneath the covers.

“So you’re not going to spend too much time in bed with me?” I cocked an eyebrow, and she giggled and slipped beneath the covers.

“Hush. I don’t want her to hear you,” she scolded me, snuggling up against my body. “I just want to enjoy it being the two of us for a while.”

“I feel like a teenager,” I said, wrapping my arms around her again. “Sneaking into bedrooms I shouldn’t be in.”

“Oh, come on, you’re a grown-ass adult,” she threw back at me. “I think you’re allowed to hang out in bedrooms these days.”

“Let me have my fun,” I protested teasingly, and she laid her head back and let out a satisfied sigh. I knew how she felt. I couldn’t have asked for this to go any better, and it felt so perfect to have her here next to me. Everything on the outside world could wait for a while as time seemed to slow down to make room for us.

“We should do something while I’m here,” I suggested. “It would be a shame to have both of us in this place and spend the whole time in the hotel room.”

“Oh, would it, now?” she teased, cocking an eyebrow.

“Come on, get dressed.” I lifted myself out of bed. “We could go for a walk down the main street. Trust me, there’s always something cool going on there.”

We shared a shower, got dressed, and then headed out for something to eat. There was a quaint little diner not far from the hotel, and since we had missed breakfast service, we happily stuffed out faces with some delicious junk before we hit the town.

“So what happened with your ex?” she asked me, furrowing her brow as she took a sip of her coffee. “You said you met up with her?”

“Yeah, I did.” I sighed. “I don’t really know what I expected. But she just got dumped by this guy who was taking care of her for the last few years, and I guess she’s looking for some money to get by while she tries to get back on her feet. Or find the next unsuspecting victim to pay for her entire life.”

“Did you offer her money?”

“Said she could have as much as she wanted, pretty much.” I shrugged. “But as soon as I told her I didn’t want her near Hunter, she got difficult again. Really difficult. I think she saw me turning her down as taking her power away, and she hates that.”

“What are you going to do? Do you think she’s going to back off now that you’ve told her it’s not going to happen?” Autumn asked. She was trying to keep her voice casual, but I could tell she was heavily invested in my answer.

“I honestly don’t know.” I shook my head. “I haven’t heard from her since then, and she hasn’t come by the house or anything like that, so I guess maybe she’s dropped it.”

“Well, that’s good—”

“Or she’s going to come back and take me to court to try and get custody of Hunter,” I finished up. Her face dropped.

“Do you think that’s likely to happen?” She pulled a face. “You really think she’d go that far?”

“I have no idea. I haven’t seen her in such a long time, and it’s hard to know what she might actually do to get one over on me.”

“Shit.” Autumn leaned back and shook her head. “She sounds like a nightmare.”

“Yeah, she’s not great,” I agreed, the understatement of the year. “And it’s just so transparent as to why she’s doing all of this. I think that’s the hardest part. If she had come to me and asked for money, I could have dealt with that, but she got so up in arms about Hunter not having a mother.”

“But she’s the one who left him,” Autumn pointed out, and I held my hands up.

“Trust me, Autumn, I know,” I agreed. “But she still might want to make a point out of this. She does that sometimes, or at least she did back when we were dating.”

“Jesus,” Autumn muttered. “You really think she’ll take you to court over it?”

“She might,” I replied, and I noticed the way her face dropped when I said that. “But it’s going to be okay. I have this under control. Besides, I don’t want to bring down our trip with this shit. She’s all the way back in Portland. We don’t have to concern ourselves with her right now.”

“I guess you’re right,” she agreed, and her face cleared and brightened. “So what do you want to do today?”

“Well, when we’re done here,” I dusted my fingers off on my napkin and scrunched it up and placed it on to the empty plate in front of me, “I thought we could go to this cocktail bar not far from here. It does really good, cheap drinks, and they have cheesy old arcade games there as well.”

“Like father, like son.” She cocked her head at me, smiling. “Now I know where Hunter gets his love of games from.”

“Well, maybe when he’s old enough, I’ll take him to this place.” I laughed. “But I don’t think it’s exactly family-friendly.”

“Even better.” She raised her eyebrows. “Let’s get going. It sounds perfect.”

We spent the rest of the day together, and she seemed to be having a good time. Maybe Vegas was more suited to her than she thought. She kept in touch with Zoe throughout the day, half to make sure she was doing all right with her new man and half to make sure we weren’t going to run into her at any of the spots we ended up. When she was on a call to her friend, I checked the tickets for shows that were on that evening, and I grinned when I saw there was an internationally renowned circus troupe in town. Sure, it was a little cheesy, a little tacky, but I wanted to indulge all of that with her. I wanted to blow off some steam and take on some of the sillier stuff this town had to offer. Things had been so serious lately, I felt as though we both deserved some pure fun.

“Hey.” She greeted me with a kiss when she returned, picking up her drink and taking a sip. “Zoe’s doing great. I’m pretty sure she’s going to get shotgun-married to that guy.”

“Well, as long as she doesn’t do it tonight,” I said, and she raised her eyebrows expectantly.

“And why might that be?”

“I just booked tickets for us.” I held out my phone so she could get a look at the site.

“Oh my God!” she exclaimed. “I’ve never seen them before, but I’ve always wanted to. Is it tonight?”

“Sure is.” I nodded, and she tossed her arms around me and gave me a cosmopolitan-flavored kiss.

“This is going to be perfect.” She beamed at me. She was a little tipsy—I was too—but she was happy, and that was all I cared about.

“Yeah, it is,” I agreed, slipping my arms around her waist, not caring one little bit who was looking or how mushy we looked together. I was a great big pile of mush when I was around her, and there was no point in hiding it.

“Thank you so much for coming here.” She kissed my cheek. “This place is so much fun when you’re here.”

“Same goes for you.” I grinned. And it was true. The last time I’d been down here, I had enjoyed myself, but it was nothing compared to this. I was never going to forget this trip with Autumn because it was the start of something—the start of us once and for all.

“I think I have another game to win.” She pointed to the cheap old basketball machine that was sitting next to the wall. She had already beaten me a couple of times, and I was convincing myself that I was just being nice and letting her take the victories.

“All right, bring it on.” I rolled up my sleeves and followed her over there, unable to keep the grin off my face. Yeah, I was never going to forget this trip. No matter what happened.