“It’s fine. I’m going that way.”
I hadn’t meant for the words to come out so cold and harsh, but I needed a fucking minute to process all of this. The only reason I’d slept with Annalise, that I’d allowed myself to open up even slightly, was because I knew I would be walking away. I knew I wouldn’t have to think about the way she made my entire body feel warm when she was around. Or how she made my heart feel like it might beat right out of my chest. Or how all I wanted to do was pull her into a private room and bury myself inside of her.
“Okay, if you’re sure,” she said softly.
Her voice sounded so uncertain, and I hated that I had made her feel that way.
We both remained silent as we walked out of the airport to the rental lot. Once there, I unlocked the car and put Annalise’s stuff in first and then mine. When I shut the trunk, I stilled. Annalise was staring at me.
“Are you angry because you ran into me again? I get why you’d feel that way if you thought what we shared in Chicago was…was…well…what it was. I swear to you, I didn’t know. I mean, how could I have known you lived in Texas?!”
I nodded. “I know you didn’t know, and no, I’m not angry at all. Just surprised.”
How in the hell could I tell her that I wasn’t prepared for her to be living in the same goddamn town as me? Working only a block away? It wasn’t like Boerne was still a super-small town, but there was no way we wouldn’t run into each other on occasion. There was absolutely no way I could pretend she wasn’t in the same town.
“It’s just, I had mentally prepared myself that this morning was the last time I was ever going to see you again, and now…”
“We run into each other at the airport,” she said with a nervous chuckle as we both got into the car.
I pulled out of the parking lot and around the twists and turns of the airport until I got out to the highway.
“Roger, if you’re worried I’m going to expect anything, I don’t. I’m not going to pretend that what happened between us in Chicago was just a fling. I mean…for me, it was more. But I don’t expect anything from you.”
Glancing at her, all I could do was laugh.
Her brows pulled in tightly and she glared at me. “Is something funny?”
I laughed harder, and that made her cross her arms over her chest, let out a disgusted sigh, and turn to look out the window. “Texas is pretty big,” she said. “I highly doubt we’ll see each other again, so you don’t have to worry about me asking for anything.”
I could hear the anger in her voice, and fuck if it wasn’t hot as hell. I needed to put myself in check, though. Annalise Michaels was unlike any other woman I had ever been with, and when I told her earlier that I wasn’t looking for a relationship, I hadn’t been lying.
What I didn’t admit was that when it came to her, I could see myself breaking that rule.
We drove in silence for nearly the entire thirty-five-minute trip. Annalise had started to text someone—her new boss, I assumed. Then her phone rang, and I noticed how her hands shook as she answered it.
Why in the hell was she so nervous? Was it me who made her nervous, or the new job? She had run one of the most prestigious hotels in New York City. She had this in the bag. The Montclair was a nice hotel, one of the nicest in Boerne, but it was on the small side. Very small side compared to what she was coming from.
“Hello? Yes, Mrs. Montclair, I’m excited as well. It looks like I’m about ten minutes from the hotel. Okay, yes. Of course. I’ll see you in a few minutes.”
She hit End and then looked out the window.
“Did you fly in for an interview?” I asked.
“No. We did it all on Zoom. This is the first time I’m seeing the town. It’s adorable. All these little stores.”
“It’s called the Hill Country Mile.”
She faced me. “Yes, I read that. Are you familiar with this area?”
I stopped at the light and put my signal on to turn left onto West Blanco Road. “Yes, I’m very familiar with Boerne.”
“Really?” she asked as I turned. The hotel was at the end of the road and sat just above the Cibolo Creek. I pulled into the circular drive of The Montclair, put the car in park, and turned to face her.
“Really. I grew up here.”
Her eyes widened in shock. Yeah, I was a bit freaked out by all of this, as well, so I knew how she felt.