Chapter 23

Iwoke up on January first to an empty bed.

Weak, early morning sunlight peeked through the large picture window, but the sheets next to me were cold. The tuxedo Hugh had dropped casually on the floor the night before was gone. The suitcase he hadn't bothered unpacking the day before despite my anxious urging to "make himself at home" was also missing.

It took my brain a moment to jump to the shocking conclusion.

He's gone.

I looked around the room in disbelief. Sure enough, every trace of Hugh had been erased from my bedroom. Before I knew what I was doing, I was half-dressed in the first pair of sweats I found in my dresser. I yanked on a pair of socks and flew downstairs, ducking into the kitchen in vain hopes he would be standing there staring off into space over a cup of coffee.

The kitchen was spotless. Coffee-less.

Hugh-less.

Had he seriously left? Had he misunderstood my… my feelings from the night before? Had I…

I stopped and slapped myself on the forehead. I was an idiot. At no point last night did I take even a moment to make my feelings clear. Yes, I'd asked him to stay, but I hadn't clarified that I'd wanted him to stay for more than just the night.

Surely, he'd known that, right? How could he have misunderstood me after we had such an intimate connection last night? It had felt like… it had felt like making love. As cliché as that sounded, it had been different. More intense. More real.

At least… for me, it had.

I scrambled into a pair of snow boots by the back door and took off across the snowy lawn in search of my mother. She would know what to do. Meanwhile, my fingers flew over my phone screen.

First, I texted Hugh.

Oscar

Where are you??

Then, I texted Lesya.

Oscar

Do you have a way of tracking Hugh?

When thirty seconds had passed with no response from either of them, I texted Rafa.

Oscar

Have you heard from Hugh?

Thankfully, my mother and several of my siblings were already in the barn when I got there, helping with setup for the breakfast thing.

Mom saw me first and greeted me with a huge smile, a stack of napkins in her hand. "Good morning, sweetheart. How are you?—?"

Panic made me grab her by the shoulders, and the napkins went flying. The stabbing feeling in my chest from the previous evening was back, now multiplied a thousandfold. "Mom! He's gone. Hugh's gone. I need… I need help finding him. Do you…" I looked around frantically, making sure he wasn't in here grabbing breakfast. "Do you know if he's still here? I mean, here on the property, or…?"

Her forehead crinkled in concern, and her mouth opened and closed like a fish, but I could already tell she didn't have any answers. I didn't wait for her to respond. I took my phone out again and called Lesya. It went to voicemail.

"Lesya, I know it's a holiday, but you need to get the plane back to Vermont," I barked. "I'm going to need to return to the city as fast as possible. Also, please find out if Hugh booked any travel. Do we have a private investigator on retainer? If not, find me one who can… I don't know… access travel databases or something. Jesus, I have no idea what I'm doing here. Call me, okay? ASAP. I… I want my renaissance, damn it."

When I hung up, I noticed two of my sisters staring at me like I was possessed. Thankfully, neither took the opportunity to crack a joke.

"It snowed a bunch last night," Marigold offered. "I doubt Hugh could have made it very far this early. Hell, the sun's barely up."

Jasmine rubbed her eyes through a yawn. "Maybe he's working on a surprise for you. Something sweet. Like a gesture of?—"

I grabbed her elbow. "Yes. Yes. You're brilliant. A grand gesture! Hugh loves those in the movies. That's exactly what I need to do. If I make a grand gesture, Hugh will understand." I darted toward the door before coming to a sudden halt as a paralyzing new thought occurred to me. "Wait, shit. How do you do a grand gesture? Who can I hire for this?" I glared at each of my siblings in turn when none of them ponied up a single piece of advice or, better yet, a professional's contact information. "None of you would shut up when it came to matchmaking for me, but when I've found the love of my life and inadvertently lost him through my own stupidity and pigheadedness, you go silent? Come on! Surely one of you knows about grand gestures."

"Er…" Lily's wife, Mallory, stepped forward hesitantly. "You could do a message in skywriting?" she suggested.

I tried to picture it, but I wouldn't know what to say or where to tell them to fly the plane. "No. Not that. If he's headed back to the city, maybe I could…" I scrambled to think of something.

My mom approached slowly like I'd gone as feral as I felt. "Why don't you sit down, sweetheart. You're a little… overcome."

"Overcome? Overcome? Hugh thinks… he thinks I don't want him. He left because he thinks we were over. I need to find him. I need to explain. I need…" My voice broke. "Him."I realized belatedly if he'd felt even a fraction of this kind of rejection when he'd woken up alone on Cape Cod last summer, I was the biggest asshole the world had ever known. "I don't deserve him," I added in a whisper.

Mom pushed me into a chair, then sat next to me and took my hands in hers. Her smile was gentle and knowing. "You're in love."

I squinted at her in disbelief. "Yes. Isn't that obvious? But Mom, I can't sit and have a heart-to-heart right now. I need to find Hugh before it's too late. Oh, god," I groaned. "What if it's too late? What if Overton Investments is the only thing I'm ever good at? What if I spend my whole life working and never have anyone who makes me watch ridiculous reality television and talks nonstop about romance and makes me… makes me feel things?"

What I might have claimed was an ideal future just the day before suddenly seemed so cold and bleak. I remembered Chuckie saying he wanted to be just like me, and I wanted to warn him to?—

Chuckie. Yes!

I jumped to my feet. "I have a guy who does indoor fireworks," I told my family, who were back to watching me like a tiger in the zoo. "That's grand, right? I mean, what's grander than fireworks? I could make it a… a gala. A grand gesture gala. Hugh loves a party. So what if?—"

I was pacing again, frantically trying to think of what kind of event I could plan that would convince Hugh I was serious this time, that I truly wanted him for real. Not temporarily. How could I convince him I was worth the risk?

Jasmine stepped forward. "I-I could paint something… like a scene of the two of you? Would that help?"

"Yes! Great idea." Hyacinth stepped around from behind one of the bars, handing a mug of coffee to her new husband. "And I could bring some of my best dance students to your gala. We could do a flash mob thing."

Birch stepped up and squeezed my shoulder. "I could arrange for media coverage. Maybe get Hugh's HEA account some exposure… associate it with a story of real-life love?—"

Rosette walked up and put a crumpled-up handful of flowers from one of the leftover wedding bouquets in my lap. "You can give him these flowers."

I let out a laugh that sounded unhinged before giving my niece a hug. "Thank you, baby. These are perfect."

Sage's voice rang out from the doorway behind me. "Or you could just talk to him like a normal person. Tell him how you feel. How do you feel, exactly?"

He was teasing like the annoying sibling he was, clearly not understanding the severity of the situation. "I love him, you asshole!" I snapped, turning to face him. "I love Hugh more than anything, more than anyone. More than Frank. More than my company or my career. And I swear to god, if you make one joke about…" As Sage stepped further into the room, I saw Hugh standing dumbfounded behind him. "Oh."

Hugh walked forward slowly, his surprise turning into a knowing look, one I couldn't quite decipher.

"Hi," I said stupidly, then in a rush, "Oh, thank god you're here. I… I needed to tell you…" I paused and tried again. "To say…" Another deep breath. "For you to know…"

"Oh damn. Baby, is your brother broken?" Dirk whispered.

"You could try to help," Hyacinth hissed… unhelpfully.

"You can do it, Oscar!" Dirk cheered. "I believe in you."

I ran a hand over my face. Fuckers, all of them. I would cheerfully boot them all off the planet… if I didn't love them so damn much. And really, wasn't that what it came down to? The perfect words didn't matter. Hugh needed the facts.

"Hugh Linzee," I blurted. "You're it for me. My happily ever after. My future. The One. M-my renaissance. The guy who made me see that soul mates weren't just for greeting cards." I stared into Hugh's luminous brown eyes and swallowed hard. "I'm sorry it took me so long to realize it, but I know it now. I see it so clearly. Please believe me. I…"

Hugh tilted his head and studied me before looking suddenly befuddled. "I'm sorry, have we met?"

I stared at him for a long moment before looking around at my family, but none of them seemed to know what was happening either. Had he experienced a head injury sometime in the night? Did I need to call for a paramedic? "Uh… yes? Quite a few times…"

Hugh pursed his lips as if considering me. "No, I don't think so. But you seem very sweet. Charming. Good-looking. And your pickup lines are ten out of ten for sincerity, which is extremely important to me." He tapped his lips thoughtfully. "I might be willing to date you."

I blinked uncertainly. "Oh-kay?"

He took a step toward me, then another.

"As it happens, I'm just getting out of a… relationship of sorts, myself. Expired at midnight." He shrugged as if to say what can you do? "The guy I was dating—Oscar Overton, have you heard of him?—was famous for this silly little superstition. You see… legend has it that if you break up with Oscar Overton, the next person you date will be your soul mate, your happy ever after."

I let out a shuddering breath. The closer he came, the more clear the teasing light in his eyes became, and the faster my heart raced. Was he saying…? Did he mean…?

I forced myself to speak. "The legend is pretty powerful," I admitted in a croak. "It's been proven time and time again."

Hugh nodded, closing the distance between us. Then, he held out his hand to shake. "I'm Hugh Linzee. If the next man I meet is going to be my soul mate, I've decided I want it to be you."

I stared at his hand in disbelief. Could it really be that easy? I felt my face begin to tingle. "I love you. Please don't leave." My words were half-croaked as emotion clogged my throat.

"Never," he said softly but firmly. "You're my happily ever after, Oscar Overton. And you know how much I've always wanted my very own HEA."

I grabbed his hand and yanked him in until his chest crashed into mine. My arms wrapped tightly around him as I kissed him with relief and desperation.

"I love you," I said again and again against his lips.

"I love you too," Hugh said with a smile. He nuzzled his face into my neck, his arms just as tight around me as mine were around him. "And you were worth the wait."