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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.”
