Chapter Four

Charlotte

Two call-outs at the last minute, on top of two sick people out already.

A wedding party taking up the majority of the top and bottom floors.

A rock band of some kind booked in corner rooms and another one of the suites that I was absolutely positive was going to get wrecked like the last band we’d had in town.

This was not how tonight should be. Not with everything happening tomorrow.

In eight hours or so, I was due to meet the CEO of Bethel Hotels, Mr. Tom Bethel himself. His father had started the company, and under Tom, it had grown to one of the largest chains of three-star hotels in the Midwest. I’d been working for them for six years, all at this hotel, from working the desk and occasionally helping clean rooms to being the hotel manager. The boss, as they said.

I ran the place like a battleship and usually was on top of everything. But Murphy’s Law was coming in hot, and with such a big and important meeting tomorrow morning, tonight was an unmitigated disaster. Multiple ones. One right after the other.

Now that I had calmed most of it, my clerk had gone off to finish the latest emergency, a mother who lost her card getting snacks and locked herself out of her room with her two-year-old inside alone, leaving me alone in the back with a dishcloth over my eyes as I tried to get the thumping headache to go away. As soon as she came back, I was gone.

Unfortunately, she was taking forever, and I started to snooze. It was already past when I generally went to bed, by a couple hours at that, and with the exhaustion of the day, the stress of tomorrow, and the headache, I was dozing off. The bell ringing at the main desk was what woke me up, and I realized I’d been hearing it for a while, connecting it to some stream of consciousness dream I’d been having that involved fitted sheets and candy bars being major points of contention by the CEO in our interview.

I stood woozily, and shook the cobwebs off as I marched toward the open door.

Where the hell was Jessica?

Just before I got to the door, I saw a shadow on the ground. Someone was coming in. Whoever was trying to check in was being impatient, and it pissed me off. Still, I slapped on a big smile and took a deep breath before the tall, lanky figure appeared in my doorway, just steps from me.

Then I completely froze.

So did he.

We stood there for a long, long moment, staring at each other in confusion and shock. Finally, I was able to blurt something out.

“Jesse?”

“Holy shit.”

“Jesse? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Holy…. Holy shit. Charlotte? Charlotte, what the hell are you doing here?”

“I asked first,” I said, unable to stop the bubbling laugh of surprise from coming out. The smile that came with it triggered one of Jesse’s, and suddenly, my knees got weaker.

He looked incredible. Just stupidly incredible.

Tall and lean, I knew for a fact that he hid a series of stomach muscles under that raggedy T-shirt he wore. A bandana tied around his neck made him look like he’d just gotten done robbing a bank, and his torn jeans indicated that his style hadn’t changed much since he discovered eighties heavy metal. But those eyes… those deep blue eyes, they burned into me with a fondness and recognition that absolutely nailed me to the spot. Absentmindedly, I dropped my phone.

“You dropped your phone,” he said.

“I know.”

“Aren’t you going to… pick it… up?”

He was looking at me like I had lost my mind, which, to be fair, I felt like I had. What was he doing here? Why did he look so good? What the hell happened to the last eight years of growth and distance that I was so dumbfounded and overwhelmed by seeing him that I couldn’t even grip my damn phone?

“Yes,” I said. “In a minute.”

“O… kay,” he said. “Can I get a hug?”

Nodding, I took a half-step forward and hugged him awkwardly. It was the hug of two people who once were close but had been apart for a long time. There was a closeness to it, an intimacy that others wouldn’t have, and yet it was weird and disjointed, both of us pulling away early to not make it any weirder than it already was.

As I hugged him, I could smell the alcohol on his breath. Had he driven here like that? Did his life spiral and I didn’t know it?

“So, hug done, why are you here?” I asked.

“To stay in a room,” he laughed. “My band is already here. I’m supposed to have a room up on the top floor.”

“Wait, your band? The Hitmen ?”

He laughed again. “No, no, that band broke up a long time ago. Kev’s still here, though. Just me and him left.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Called The Jesse James Galloway Band ,” I said.

“Oh. Original,” I said, then felt my skin go beet red in embarrassment. “I mean, it’s not bad! It’s just… just… Wow. How long has it been?”

“Eight years,” he said immediately. He didn’t seem to mind me changing the subject rapidly but did grin a little, making it even harder for me to remain standing.

“Eight years, wow,” I said. “Excuse me.”

I bent over and picked up my phone, sticking it in the pocket of my black slacks and clearing my throat.

“Anyway, yeah, I just got in and caught the bar before it closed. Got a little drink in before checking in, since no one was at the desk.”

“Right, yeah, sorry about that,” I said. “My clerk went off to help another guest. I didn’t know she wasn’t back yet.”

“Are you the manager?”

I smiled proudly and yet felt insecure all at once. I was proud of how hard I’d worked to get to my position, and it was one where I held a considerable amount of respect and power—and it paid well. But Jesse was a freaking rock star. Because of course he was. It just fell flat in the face of him coming in looking like he did with all his swagger and casually mentioning he was staying on the top floor because he was such a big shot.

“I am,” I said. “I can check you in.”

“Sure, sure, yeah,” he said. “Are you… are you working overnight, or—?”

“No,” I said, “I’m still not a night owl like you. I’m just covering for someone who had to call in. I actually should have left about twenty minutes ago.”

“Ah, perfect,” he said, and when I cocked my eyebrow at him, he grinned. “I was just thinking maybe you and I could catch up when you got off. Maybe grab a bite to eat. Is there an all-night diner around here somewhere?”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Not near here. We’re in the business section of town. Everything here shuts down at nine, if not earlier. Except us, obviously. And a few restaurants, but by now, they’re closed.”

“Damn,” he said.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say that was you asking me on a date,” I said.

It was kind of testy the way I said it, and at first, I felt bad about it, then I decided that I didn’t. He deserved a little testiness. The last time I’d seen him, he broke my heart. While we were dancing around all that, he was reverting right back to being his charming, flirtatious self. I wasn’t going to let him do that without reminding him that we’d tried that already.

And why it hadn’t worked.

“What if I was?” he asked.

“Heh,” I said, settling behind the computer as he went around the desk and stood in front of me. “Wouldn’t your wife be upset about that?”

“Wife?” he asked, then held up his hand. No ring on the ring finger. One on the pinky, and another on his other hand’s index finger. But none on the ring finger. “No wife.”

“Girlfriend then?” I asked.

“Nope,” he said. “Single, as usual.”

I nodded knowingly. That tracked. Jesse was known for keeping his options open… and his bed full.

“Well, me too,” I muttered.

Why did I say that? Was I trying to flirt with him or not?

At war with my own mind, I typed in his name, messing it up several times because I was so flustered and having to retype it. At least he couldn’t see the screen, and it just looked like I was very busily typing away.

“Well, if you’re single and I’m single, then no one can say anything to us just hanging out for a bit. What do you say?”

“I…” I began. Then I looked up into those deep blue eyes and made a decision.

For eight years, I had been trying to get over this boy. For eight years, I’d had to wake up and take cold showers to forget dreams I had about nights with him. For eight years, I had wondered what life would have been like, even for one day, if we had just gone to that hotel room that night instead of him performing. If he had just skipped out, and we had run off together. What would that night have been like?

Maybe I could find out.

“You know,” I said, “I could probably hang out for a bit. I have to be up early for a thing here, but I can catch up for a bit. Where do you want to go?”

“Hmm, I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t really know Tulsa. Anywhere you like?”

“Not around here,” I said. “The kitchen here is still open with some late-night stuff. We could order a couple sandwiches and find a place to sit and chat.”

He smiled again, but this time, a familiar flicker of danger was behind those eyes. Danger for me, that was. Because Jesse was never not in control.

“How about you just bring them up to my room?” he said. “I heard it’s a suite, and pretty big. Probably couches and stuff, so we can be comfortable.”

I gulped, probably louder than I wanted, and looked down at the screen. Indeed, he was in one of the massive suites on the top floor. It had been booked at a major discount, at the last second when someone from the wedding party canceled. Whoever had booked this for him got extremely lucky.

But he was right. That room would have tons of space to sit and relax while we ate. It also had a huge floor-to-ceiling window overlooking Tulsa, and a mini-bar that put some actual bars to shame.

It also had a massive king-sized bed, too.

“Sure,” I said, feeling my heart thumping in my chest and trying desperately not to let on how red I knew my face was getting. “Here’s your key card. Head on up, and I’ll be there in about twenty minutes.”

“Sounds good,” he said. “Good to see you, Charlotte.” He looked down at my nametag and cocked an eyebrow. “April?”

“My middle name,” I said, feeling light-headed. “It’s what I go by here.”

“Funny, I go by Jesse James,” he said. “And you go by April. It’s almost like we’re different people. Almost.”

He looked me up and down in an appraising way and swaggered off to the elevators. Meanwhile, I gripped the sides of the computer like I was going to hit the deck.

Jessica came back a few moments later, just missing Jesse, and I clocked out. Swinging by the kitchen, I asked the chef if he had any pre-made sandwiches that he was going to put out in the tiny store tomorrow morning, and he pointed me to the fridge. I grabbed a couple of them, marked them down on the sheet so they could be charged to me, and went to the bar.

Grabbing the bottle from under the register that I allowed to be kept for staff to do shots after work, I took a picture of the label so I could replace it in the morning. Then I headed to the elevator, my nerves jangling as it rose to the top floor.

I had a skeleton key on my keychain, and as I walked up to his door, I took a deep breath. I knocked, gripping the key card tightly.

“Come on in,” his voice said in the distance, punctuated by the sound of a palm resting over guitar strings to silence them.

I pressed the key card to the door and turned the knob. When it opened, I saw Jesse on a chair in the living area of the massive suite. He was shirtless, the guitar resting on his knee, and his cowboy boots just off to the side of his chair.

My fingers were already unbuttoning my shirt before I took my first step.