***
Rein lived in the same apartment she grew up in. I knocked on the front door and waited half a minute before she answered, and when I saw her, I had to pick my jaw up off the ground and gather my thoughts.
She looked absolutely stunning.
Her black and red hair was pinned back in an elegant bun, exposing her neck, collar bones, and bare shoulders. The little black dress that hugged her body had my head reeling as she plucked a floor-length red coat from the hook behind her door and slipped her arms into it.
“You look amazing,” I finally managed to say.
Rein smiled, flashing her white teeth at me between her red painted lips. I wondered dimly if she had borrowed the shade from Gracie.
“Thanks. So do you.” She tied the sash of the red jacket around her waist and then wrapped a black scarf around her exposed throat. “Ready to go?”
“Hell yes,” I said, and I offered her my elbow. She took it, and I led her down the steps to the path that cut across the front of her property. I opened the passenger door of my rental truck for her and helped her up.
When I got in the truck, all I could think about was how eager I was to get to our destination so Rein would take her coat off again. I’d only had a small window to see her—to really see her—and I needed more.
“So where are we going?” Rein asked as she looked out her window while I drove.
“It’s a surprise,” I said coyly.
She snorted in a most un-ladylike way. I had forgotten she used to do that, and the sound made me smile. “Come on, Brayden. Out with it. There are only three places in Valdez you could possibly take me to.”
“You want a hint?” I asked, glancing over at her.
She looked back at me and bit her full red bottom lip. “Yes.”
“All right. It’s none of the three places you’re thinking.”
“That’s not a hint!”
I chuckled as we turned off her street and headed north into town. “Sure it is.”
Rein crossed her arms and slumped lower in her seat. “If we’re going to the harbor, I’m going to make you take me home. I do not want to socialize with the fishermen down there.”
“It’s not the harbor,” I said, unable to stop smiling.
“Good.”
Ten minutes later, I was turning off the ignition of the truck, and we were parked outside the grocery store. Rein looked out her window then turned incredulously to me. “The deli in the grocer? Really?”
“Nope. Do you really think I would do that? Come on now.”
“I don’t know what you would do, Brayden,” she said, her tone darkening when she said my name. “Because I don’t know you anymore.”
I ignored the comment and got out of the truck. I helped her out and offered her my elbow again. She didn’t accept it and marched up onto the sidewalk where she waited for me with her arms wrapped around herself and her teeth chattering.
“I can’t believe I got dressed up for this,” she muttered. “I feel like a Class A idiot.”
“Well, you look like a Class A lady.”
“Shut up.” She scowled, swatting at me as I joined her on the sidewalk.
I knew laughing at her wouldn’t help my position, but I couldn’t help it. She looked too damn cute when she was angry, and she always had. Her lips were pouted and her brow was furrowed as I put my hand on her upper back and guided her to the art gallery door.
“Come on, grumpy, this way,” I said, pushing the door open and holding it for her.
She peered up at me as she slipped inside. She was confused, which was better than angry.
“Upstairs,” I said, and she started climbing. I wished she would take her coat off now so I could see the swing of her hips and her ass as she walked above me. I reprimanded myself for being such an ass.
Rein walked quickly down the hall toward her gallery, which was where she must have assumed I was taking her.
But I stopped at one of the office doors on the opposite side of the hall and cleared my throat.
She turned back to me and arched an eyebrow. “Are you coming, or what?”
“I’m waiting for you,” I said, gesturing at the door to my right. “This is the place.”
She looked imploringly up at the ceiling before marching back toward me. “Really? This is just another loft. A smaller one but a loft nonetheless.”
“I know what it is,” I said, and I pushed the door open.
Rein looked through the doorway and gasped.
I had spent the entire afternoon readying the place for a dinner for two. I knew it might have been overkill—correction, it was overkill—but I desperately wanted the privacy. Valdez was a small place, and if the two of us were seen at a table together, I knew it was only a matter of time before people joined us and started asking questions.
So, I had paid a couple teenagers to clean the loft, and then I brought my mother’s kitchen table and two chairs in the back of the pickup truck. I had set it up all while Rein had been working in her gallery, and I’d given the trio of teenage boys twenty dollars each to pack everything up for us after we were done. I would swing by and pick it all up in the morning.
The loft was empty, save for the table setting, which was lit with a few candles and accompanied by a bottle of wine and two glasses from my mother’s cupboard. It was simple, that was for sure, but hopefully, it was enough.
Rein stepped in and looked back at me. “This is surprisingly nice.”
“I just wanted somewhere we could talk without half the town trying to join us.”
“Smart,” she mumbled as her fingers worked mindlessly at the sash of her coat. She took it off and left it on the floor. Then she turned in a circle and paused when she was facing me. “I don’t mean to be rude, but where’s the food?”
“On its way,” I said, going to the table and pulling out a chair for her.
She sat and I took the chair across from her. Then I poured us each a glass of wine and slid hers toward her. “Thanks for agreeing to come. I know you didn’t want to. And you had good reason to say no.”
She sipped her wine and stared at me over the rim. When she set it back down, a smile played in the corners of her lips. “I couldn’t say no after making you rearrange the gallery for no reason.”
I shrugged. “I deserved that whether I got dinner out of it or not.”
“True,” she said.
There was a knock on the door.
“Come in,” I called.
The door swung open, and in came Emmett with two paper bags of takeout. He grinned at Rein, who burst out laughing as he set the bags down. “One bacon cheeseburger for you,” he said, opening one bag and placing everything in front of me. “And a chicken burger for the lady with extra pickles, just as she likes.” Emmett gave a little bow like a true professional waiter. “Enjoy the evening.”
Then he departed, leaving me and Rein in the solitude I desired.
“I won’t lie,” Rein said after removing her burger from its foil wrapper. “I’m impressed. You pulled out all the stops.”
“I tried.”
Rein dabbed at her lips with her napkin and looked at me seriously. “I have to ask. Why are you back in Valdez? I didn’t think I’d ever see you again, and if I ever did, I sure as hell didn’t think it would be here.”
I should have expected the question a lot sooner than now, but it still threw me off. I hadn’t talked to anyone but Drew about my mother’s cancer. But Rein deserved to know.
“My mom is sick,” I said. “Really sick.”
Rein froze with a fry halfway to her mouth.
I looked down at my hands. “I had no idea she even had cancer. She never told me. She said she didn’t want to bother me or pull me away from Florida. And now, I can’t help but hate how much time I missed with her. Bella barely knows her. I just left her behind and became so consumed with work that she became a second thought. Now she’s dying.”
“Brayden,” Rein said slowly. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright. It’s out of anyone’s hands now. But I’ll be here until…” I couldn’t finish the sentence, so I didn’t try. “I’ll be here awhile longer, hopefully.”
“I hope so too,” Rein said. Then she reached out and grabbed my hand. Her touch was warm and terribly familiar. “You realize no one in town knows about this, right?”
I met her eye. “I was sure the word would have gotten around.”
“No, I’d have found out by now if it had. I won’t say anything to anyone.”
“Thank you.”
I kind of wished my mother’s illness hadn’t come up because it put a bit of a damper on the rest of our meal. Rein worked to keep the conversation flowing, and I was grateful for it because it helped chase away the guilt that had settled in my chest at finally saying out loud that I had left my mother behind. Rein reserved no judgements and simply accepted it for what it was.
She still knew me better than I knew myself, despite what she had said earlier in the evening when we arrived at the gallery.
After dinner and after the wine, I was disappointed to have to drive her home.