Raindrops on Roses: Book One of the Favorite Things Trilogy (18 page)

Michael felt his chest concave. He sat there
in disbelief.

So this is it? This is how it ends?

No. It couldn't be. He
wouldn't
let
it
be. She had to give him a chance to explain. Didn't she at least
want to yell at him?

He made the U-turn and parked alongside the
road in the same place he'd sat the night before. She had given him
a tour of the house and he'd seen the security room. He wasn't sure
if that particular spot was on camera, but he knew the guards would
have to report that he was sitting out there, and for how long. So
he waited.

•~•

Michael went back every morning that
week—with the same results. He sat outside Emerald Leas for hours
each day, determined not to give up. The rest of his life was on
hold and he didn't care.

On Friday morning, as he drove up to the
guard booth, goatee stepped out shaking his baldhead before the
Stingray even came to a full stop. "Listen," he said, leaning into
Michael's window. "Let me give you some free advice, because you
have the right idea, but it's not costing you nothing."

"What do you mean?"

"You know how women are. Keep up the
persistence, but you gotta send her cards and flowers. You gotta go
talk to her friends. Just sitting out here every day, if you're not
doing all that...it won't work when she's overseas."

"She's
leaving?
" Michael asked quickly.
"Where to?"

Goatee began shaking his head as he
straightened up. Michael saw that his badge read: "Will."

"Sorry, I've talked to you too much already.
Not trying to lose my job. I can't tell you anything else."

But Will's resolve broke when he saw Michael
turn away, looking straight ahead, only to look back with actual
tears in his eyes.

"Look, man," said Will. "The most I can
promise is I'll give you a ring when she gets back in town, all
right?"

"Will.
Please
," he said. "Please just tell
me where Miss Bauer is going...and when she's leaving. I
swear
—I'll never say how
I found out. You won't lose your job."

Will stared at him for a moment, then took a
deep breath and shook his head. "She's going to France, all right?
But I won't tell you when. Just know that she should be gone within
a week."

To France?
Michael's heart sank.
Fuck.

She had told him about her mysterious aunt
and the apprenticeship, but she hadn't been ready to leave home so
soon after her grandmother's death. She still needed to feel close
to her.

And now it looks like it's
all your fault she's decided to take off for Europe before she was
ready
, he berated himself.
Jesus
.

If Michael hadn't already
been sitting, he was sure he would've keeled over. Picking up his
phone, he dialed her number. This time it rang out before going to
voicemail. "Cilla. Please don't do this. Give me a chance to
explain before you just cut me off like this. You don't know what
you're doing here. I can't eat and I can't sleep. We need to talk.
Please don't do this." He paused before whispering,
"
I'm in love with you
."

He ended the call and gave Will his number.
"Thanks, man," he said, before turning the car around and resuming
his spot outside the gate.

He had been sitting there with his face
turned toward the sunlight for about fifteen minutes when suddenly
his phone started ringing, startling him.

Yes!
he rejoiced.

It was her.

He nearly dropped the phone in his haste to
answer. "Hello?" The desperation in his voice blended with the
ocean waves he heard crashing loudly in the background.
"Cilla?"

"Don't you Cilla me," she said, her voice
harder than he was used to hearing it.

"Please tell me what happened. Give me
a—"

"Oh, I think I've given
you quite enough, Michael Frost," her voice broke on his name. "How
about you give
me
some truth? I'll know it when I hear it."

"
Anything
. Ask me anything. I
swear
I won't lie to
you."

Her questions ran
together. "Did you honestly think I'd never find out you already
have a girlfriend? All this talk about changing your phone number?
Buying a house? This was just a game for you, right? A conquest?
Are your mom and sister both alive and well down in Delray? Well,
you can go straight to hell, Michael! Damn you for playing games
with
my
life—I'm
not some goddamn plaything! Screw you for making a fool of me, and
damn you for taking advantage. This wasn't just bad timing—this was
just plain
bad!
"

"Priscilla, Amber and I
aren't together anymore," he said quickly, the words pouring out of
him, "I have no idea what you've been told, but I moved out of our
apartment and I've been staying at The Renaissance in Stuart. I'm
buying a house there to be closer to you. Please, please,
sweetheart, don't do this. I left her to be with you. I only want
to be with
you
.
And I would
never
lie about what happened to my family."

At first she said nothing. He knew she was
there only because he could still hear the sea; so close, he knew
she must be out on the pier.

With her going away to France at the
forefront of his mind, Michael wanted to prompt her, but he was
afraid to say another word. Scared that even one misplaced breath
could push her even further away.

"I don't know how to
believe
anything
you're saying right now," she said finally. "So this has to
be over. Please stop coming here. Please just forget we ever
met."

"No, Priscilla—I can't. I
can't do that. I love you, don't you understand? I'm not lying to
you now. I didn't think you needed to know about Amber and me once
I left her. Please know that I only want to make
you
the happiest person
on Earth." His voice cracked. "It's killing me to know that I've
caused you more pain. It's
killing
me. Please let me make it up to you.
Please
, give this a
chance."

"When you went to Arizona the other day,"
she said, "was she with you?"

"Yes."

"And when you told me you thought I was
right, that we should wait to start dating...?"

Michael took a deep
breath. "Before I could tell Amber about us, she found out. She saw
a text you'd sent me. I tried to break up with her
that same morning
, but
she begged me not to leave. I was conflicted. I didn't know what
else to do."

"And if I'd never called you?"

"I don't know," he
replied. "All I know is I never stopped thinking about you. I was
over the moon when you called, nothing could've kept me away and
that's when I knew I had to break up with Amber once and for
all—and that's what I did, Priscilla. You
have
to believe me. If she's
contacted you and said she and I are still together, it's a lie and
I can prove it." He paused, glancing toward the guardhouse.
"Priscilla, won't you just let me come in now. Please? So we can
talk this out? I promise, no more lies. I will never,
ever
lie to you again. I
know it looks bad right now, but baby you
can
trust me."

"But this just proves that
I don't know you, Michael. I haven't been getting to know
the
real
you at
all. I've spent the last few days going over and over our time
together, and all that seems to matter right now is that the whole
time—you were going home to your girlfriend!"

"Priscilla, I'm so sorry.
I understand you can't trust me right now, but I'm still
begging
you to give me a
chance to prove that you can. I'll do my best to explain
everything
—how I was
feeling, and what was going on in my head—but please don't think I
was ever playing a game here. Our relationship could never be a
game to me."

"Michael, you're asking me
to take a huge risk," she said. "And I just don't think I can do it
right now. I feel like such a fool. You should've told me the truth
from the beginning. You should've told me you had a girlfriend the
first time we came out here on the pier. You shouldn't have lied.
Don't you know you can't start building a relationship on a lie
like
that?
"

Michael felt his pulse
hammering in his neck.
She's slipping
away
. "I swear to God I won't keep
anything from you
ever
again," he said in earnest. "Please just tell me what to do,
Cilla. What can I do to prove that I'm very much in love with you
and don't want to be with anyone else? My life can be an open book
from now on if that's what it takes, but just don't leave me like
this. I've fallen completely in love with
you
, Priscilla. And I can't imagine
my future without you in it now." He groaned, feeling tortured.
"You're in my blood—I won't lose you."

She went silent again for a while. The phone
grew hot at Michael's ear but he barely noticed.

"I'm standing out here," she said finally,
"looking at photos of you with her. A happy, smiling couple.
They're dated the weekend you were in Arizona."

Michael's eyes closed. Now
there was no doubt:
It
was
Amber who'd gotten to
her
.

"Cilla, listen to me. We can take it very,
very slowly—I won't rush you. I'll make this up to you—just don't
cut me off like this. I miss you so much. I need to hold you. This
entire week has been pure hell."

"Yeah," she said quietly, her voice
trembling with emotion. "Tell me about it."

He noticed her tone had lost its edge, and
he felt a glimmer of hope that she would give him the chance he was
begging for. "So will you let me come in?" he asked softly.
"Please? Priscilla, I'm not going away. I'm not leaving until we
fix this."

"I'm sorry," she replied, "but we're done.
Michael, this is all over."

"Cill—"

But the sea went silent. And she was
gone.

•~•

He called her back immediately but she had
turned the phone off again. Michael sat there feeling completely
gutted.

He couldn't lose her. No.
He
wouldn't
. What
they had been building together was special, and he knew he was
going to have to fight for it.

In a state of emotional agony, also unlike
anything he'd ever felt before, Michael made quick work of Googling
the Favorite Things hotel in France.

Hôtel Blue
Satin
.
In the
heart of Paris, near Arc de Triomphe
.

The site was in French, and was extensively
interactive, complete with suave music and charming sound
effects...but Michael was only interested in one thing.

46 Rue de Chaillogne, 75110, Paris,
France.

Getting out of the car, he walked across to
the guard booth. Will was kicked back in his seat, flipping through
a Maxim magazine. He looked up as Michael approached.

"Hey, so you're
absolutely
sure she's
going to France, right?"

Will nodded. "But I can't tell you when,
man, so don't ask me. Like I said, the best I can do is let you
know when she comes back; but she didn't say how long she'll be
gone, so it may be a while."

Nodding, Michael put out his hand. "Thanks
again, Will. You've been a big help."

The guard shook his hand and bowed with a
smile. "No problem. Now, go on, get outta here."

Oh, I'm getting out of
here all right
, Michael thought, as he
walked back to his Corvette, his heart pounding like a drum in his
chest.
Immediately
.

Once he was inside the
car, he picked up his phone.
It's not
over
, he texted.
I'm in love with you
.
You're in love with me
.
And it's not
over
.

•
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
•

D
oug had wasted no time in booking her flight when she told
him she had decided to come over to Paris after all. And maybe once
she was over there, she could figure out how to get her face up off
the ground.

The smiling images of Michael and that girl
were tattooed on Priscilla's brain, fueling her resolve to get
away. It was the only way she could think of to mend her now
utterly broken heart.

Well, you shouldn't be
surprised,
said the voice in her
head.
It's what you get for trying to
make
one
night
stand a lot longer than it should.

But how humiliating was this? She'd let him
into her life at the worst possible moment. And she had trusted
him.

I'll never forgive myself
for being such a fool,
she thought, as
she
coaxed Chewy into the carrier. He
still wasn't thrilled about leaving the bedroom, but his resistance
had lessened, thank goodness.