Page 6 of Unburied

Those gorgeous eyes searched his, and her lips opened several times before she rasped out the words. “I’m only here for tonight.”

“Shame.” He brushed his thumb along her cheekbone. “Up to you, beautiful.”

She seemed to know exactly what he was asking because her eyes dropped to his lap before meeting his again. Her teeth sank into her bottom lip as she studied him. Without a word, she pulled away and slipped from the booth.

His heart hit the floor and disappointment engulfed him. He’d pushed her too far, too fast, and now she was running away. He opened his mouth to speak, but she turned back to him and leaned into the booth. Propping one hand on the table and the other on the back of the booth, she caged him in. She dropped a kiss on his cheek, her lips skimming his two-day scruff before her breath hit his ear. “Two-oh-eight.”

With that she was gone. His gaze dropped to the table, and he saw the key card she’d left behind, tucked partially beneath the rim of his plate. A slow smile spread across his face as he picked it up and turned it over in his hands. Abandoning his meal, he tossed several bills on the table to cover the tab, then headed for the bank of elevators in the lobby.

As soon as the doors closed, he adjusted his hard-on. Tonight may have started out boring, but it was definitely looking up.

CHAPTER

THREE

Vivi pulled open the door of the small law office and paused in the vestibule. An older woman smiled at her from behind the glass partition of the small law office, and she slid one side open to pass Vivi a clipboard. “Sign in here, please.”

Vivi scribbled her name on the line, then returned it to her.

“Mr. Grant should be out in just a moment.” She closed the window, and Vivi took a seat in one of the vinyl chairs lining the wall.

True to her word, the heavy oak door to Vivi's left swung inward a moment later, revealing Harrison Grant. “Virginia.” A warm smile wreathed his face as he greeted her. “So good to see you.”

“Hey.” Vivi stood and moved toward him. “How are you?”

“I’m wonderful, thank you.” He smiled and gestured toward the hallway. “Come on back.”

Though Harrison was somewhere in his mid-sixties, he was handsome and fit. His hair had grayed, but it gave him a distinguished look, and just seeing him again set Vivi at ease. Harrison was Ellen’s lawyer, but he’d also been a close friend to her over the years. Vivi had always kind of wondered why they never dated, but she assumed Ellen hadn’t been able to move on after her husband passed away. It wasn’t her place to ask, and Ellen wasn’t one to speak of romantic matters.

“So tell me, how have things been?”

“Stressful,” Vivi admitted.

“I heard about the fire.” He threw a sympathetic look her way as he paused next to a doorway. “I’m sorry about that, Virginia.”

Outside of Ellen, Harrison was the only other person who called her by her full name. Why then had she told the man from the hotel? Her cheeks heated at the memory of that past weekend. Though she’d told him her name, he’d never offered his. She guessed it was better that way. He was probably passing through, and she’d practically told him the same.

Even if he were from around here, what were the odds of them ever seeing each other again? Pretty slim, considering she knew nothing about him. She didn’t know what he did for a living or where he lived. A tiny pang ricocheted through her heart. It didn’t matter anyway. It was over, and he was gone for good. No matter how much she wished otherwise.

He steered her into a large conference room on the left, and she forced herself to focus on the here and now. “Have a seat anywhere you like. Elijah should be here in just a moment.”

“Oh.” Vivi tucked her purse on the ground at her feet and turned to look at Harrison. “I had no idea he was coming today.”

Harrison pulled a soft cloth from his breast pocket, then slipped off his glasses, polishing them as he spoke. “Ellen wanted me to cover a few things, and it was easier to have both of you come in.”

Vivi bit her lip. “Do you think I did the right thing? Letting her go to the assisted living center?”

Harrison replaced his glasses on the bridge of his nose and sent a soft smile her way. “It was what she wanted. That’s actually part of what I planned to cover today. She knew her health would eventually fail, and she wanted to plan for every contingency. Unfortunately, it happened much sooner than any of us expected.”

The knowledge mollified Vivi only the tiniest bit. Knowing that Ellen had made the decision while still lucid lifted some of the weight of guilt off her conscience, but that tiny niggle in the center of her chest was still there—the one that said she should have tried harder to get Ellen to stay at home. It was where she was most comfortable. She’d spent nearly forty years of her life there; now she was being uprooted, waking every day in an unfamiliar place, surrounded by unfamiliar people.

She knew they would take good care of her, and there was money to cover the cost of the care. But that wasn’t what bothered her. She felt like she was somehow letting Ellen down. Vivi had moved back from college to be with her so she would have someone there if she needed anything. At the time, of course, she hadn’t been aware that things had gotten as bad as they had.

The phone in the conference room rang, and Harrison lifted the receiver to his ear. “Yes?” There was a pause, then—“Send him back.”

A minute later, Ellen’s son, Elijah, walked into the room. His eyes widened a bit when he saw Vivi sitting at the table. “Vivi.”

“Hey.” Vivi rose from her seat and offered a hug. Almost two decades older than her, Elijah had been out of the house long before she moved in with Ellen. She didn’t know him well, but he’d always been nice enough to her when their paths had crossed.