Authors: S.C. Stephens
Deciding that they could at least tell her if he’d settled the room bill or not, Jessie walked up to the cozy pair. The man instantly snapped to attention, giving Jessie a glorious smile. The tired woman took a little longer to shift into professional mode.
“Good morning, Miss,” the man said. “Are you checking out?” He eyed her bags and skis, appraising what needs she might have of him.
Jessie had no idea what her needs were…other than information. “I was hoping you could tell me when a guest checked out last night.”
The man frowned at her in the most polite way a person could frown. “I’m sorry, Ma’am, but that information is confidential. Company policy.” He gave her an apologetic smile. The woman beside him discretely ran her eyes down his body.
Jessie sighed in annoyance. “Well, it was my cousin and…there was a…problem and he had to leave suddenly…and…” Jessie had no idea what to tell him that could possibly circumvent the lodge’s privacy policy. Frustrated tears sprang to her eyes, and she knew she was seconds away from a meltdown.
The woman perked up, raising an eyebrow. “That was your cousin?” She eyed Jessie appraisingly, like she didn’t see the resemblance, but then she shrugged. “You don’t have to worry about the room, if that’s your concern. He settled the bill when he turned in his key. You can use the space until checkout at eleven, just hand in your key before you go.” She gave Jessie a wide smile, like she was sure that information had just solved all her problems.
Jessie leaned toward the woman as much as she could. “You were here last night when he left?”
As if to emphasize how long ago that was, the woman yawned as she nodded. “Yeah, he said he had an emergency and needed to leave, but he wanted to make sure you could stay. I called him a cab.”
Jessie’s eyes widened. “A cab? To Denver? When?” She couldn’t even comprehend how much that had cost him. Had he really needed away from her so badly?
The woman tilted her head, thinking. “It was just after my break so maybe…1:30?”
Jessie looked away as her tears came dangerously close to falling. Outside, the front door was being lit by the warm rays of the early morning sun. The entire glass masterpiece gleamed orange. It reminded Jessie of the firelight last night. It also reminded Jessie that Kai had had plenty of time to get home and start making arrangements…to leave.
The man beside the woman scoffed and Jessie returned her attention to him. “There’s no way a cab drove him home,” he said to his coworker.
Jessie scrunched her brows. “What do you mean?”
Throwing on his professional face, he looked over at Jessie. “Denver is too far. Unless he was carrying a thick stash of cash, no cab driver would have driven him that distance.” He shrugged. “They’d lose too many other fares if they did. The buses around here only drive within the county, so the cab probably took him to the shuttle pickup in Frisco. That goes to downtown Denver daily.”
Jessie smiled. Maybe he was maybe still there then. “Do you have a schedule of the pickup times?” Nodding, the man rummaged through his papers until he found one. Eager for some sort of information on her cousin’s whereabouts, Jessie snatched it from him. Relief hit her when she saw that the earliest departure time to Denver was 6:30am, with an arrival time a little after 8:00am. If he truly hadn’t been able to catch a cab home last night, then he’d only just left a little while ago. She hated that he’d spent the night in a grimy transfer station, but she loved the fact that he wasn’t on his way to an airport right now.
Jessie returned the brochure to the man, thanked them both for their help, then gathered her things so she could go wake up her friends. As she walked away, she heard the woman seductively murmur, “I didn’t know about that shuttle.” Then she heard him reply in a low voice, “These are the things you have to know working here.” By the flirty tone, Jessie reconsidered how oblivious he was to the fact that his coworker wanted him. They probably didn’t have the obstacles in their lives like she and Kai had; she hoped they went for it.
When Jessie got to Harmony and April’s room, she started pounding on the door. She was painfully aware that it was really early in the morning, and annoyed guests around her were going to call the front desk and complain about the noise, but Jessie had an abundance of nervous energy rushing through her and she couldn’t calm down enough to causally knock. She had to get to Kai—fast. She couldn’t let him leave town like this.
As she pounded on the door, she heard muffled cursing and what sounded like someone falling to the ground. Muttered oaths to kick someone’s ass filtered through the door, and Jessie suddenly remembered that her friends had been out late last night, flirting with boys. They might even have company in the room with them, and that might complicate things. But it didn’t matter. If the boys were there, they’d have to get up and get out. Jessie needed her friends.
Blinking in the much-brighter hallway light, Harmony appeared in the crack of the door. Her hair was wild and messy, making the redhead look like she’d been electrocuted recently. Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she gazed at Jessie like she was sure she was hallucinating. “Jessie? What the…?” Letting her voice trail of, she threw the door wide open; she looked completely awake now as she studied Jessie’s face. “What’s wrong? What happened?”
That was when Jessie realized that the tears she’d been holding in had started gushing down her cheeks. She brushed them away in irritation. She couldn’t lose it right now; time was ticking away from her faster and faster. Jessie took a deep breath to steady her voice. “I’m sorry, I know it’s early, but I need a huge favor.” Before she even finished speaking, Harmony was nodding and motioning her inside.
April grunted on her bed and sat up on her elbows. At seeing Jessie, she glanced at the clock on the nightstand, then back to Harmony closing the door. “Jesus, Jessie? What the hell? Is there a fire or something?” Sitting up, she flicked her eyes around the room, like she was searching for the flames. Under normal circumstances, that might have made Jessie laugh, but not today. Nothing about today was normal.
Jessie set down her stuff and sat on the edge of Harmony’s bed. Harmony sat beside her and rubbed her back. Noting that there weren’t any visiting boys in the room, Jessie exhaled a shaky breath. “It’s Kai…he left last night.” Her eyes shifted over to Harmony. “I’m sorry, I know you really wanted to spend all afternoon here, but I need to go home…” Her voice trailed off, guilt stealing it.
Biting her lip, Harmony looked over at their skis by the door. Jessie knew what she was blindly asking her friend to do was hard for her. This was Harmony’s favorite thing, and this weekend was supposed to be about the three of them enjoying it together. Now Jessie was asking her to forfeit their last few hours here to go chase after a boy. Even to Jessie, it sounded unfair.
At hearing Jessie’s pronouncement, April sat up and scooted to the edge of the bed, closer to Jessie. “Kai? He left? Is he okay?” While she and Kai might not have worked out in the romantic sense, she liked him, and the concern apparent on her tired face was genuine.
Jessie felt another tear slide down her cheek as she shrugged. She really didn’t know if he was okay or not. The last she’d seen of him, he’d been staring after her, looking to be on the verge of the same epic breakdown she’d had. Jessie had to imagine that wherever he was right now, he was anything but okay. “I’m not sure. He left while I was sleeping.”
Harmony’s eyes slid back to Jessie. “He didn’t say why he was taking off? He didn’t wake you up and say goodbye?” Her brows narrowed as she tried to reason out why he would do that. “Did you guys have a fight or something?”
Jessie opened and closed her mouth a couple of times. She had no idea how to answer her. She couldn’t tell them what had happened. They’d be horrified. She couldn’t mention the note. They’d want to read it, and it was too…intense…for cousins. Feeling her cheeks heat as she thought about what to say, she suddenly remembered what the woman downstairs had said. “The person at the front desk told me he’d mentioned an emergency…or something.” She looked between her friends. “I just, I don’t know what that means, and I need…” Swallowing a knot in her throat, she murmured, “I really need to see him.”
Harmony nodded as she patted Jessie on the back. “Of course. We’ll go home, make sure he’s okay.” She looked over at April as she got off her bed and came over to sit on Jessie’s other side. Returning her eyes to Jessie, Harmony asked, “Can we eat first? Maybe do a run or two?”
Feeling even worse, Jessie shook her head. “I know I’m spoiling the weekend, but I’d really like to leave as soon as possible. He’s only a half hour or so ahead of us, and he has to get a taxi to his place from wherever the shuttle drops off at. We could get there at the same time…if we left now.” Her voice shaky, she looked between her friends. “I just really want to make sure he’s okay.” And that he wasn’t making arrangements for a flight back home.
Harmony gave her an encouraging smile. “Hey, it’s okay. He would have woken you up if it had been anything really serious. Maybe it was just a work thing?” She shrugged after her attempt to lighten Jessie’s worry, and if Jessie hadn’t known the truth about Kai’s dilemma, she might have been relieved by Harmon’s suggestion. As it was, she could only nod as Harmony got to work shoving things into her bag.
April slung an arm around Jessie’s shoulders, and Jessie leaned into her, grateful. It was the first time in a long time that April had been anything other than snarky with her. “She’s right, you know. Kai would have told you if it were a family emergency.” She shrugged in an adorable way. “I mean, that would affect both of you, right? He’d want you to know.” She smiled like what she’d just said was a positive thing. Jessie wanted to cry again.
Seeing the despair on her face, April squeezed her tighter. “Hey, I’m sorry about throwing a fit over the rooms. Threatening to leave...giving you no other choice but to stay with him. That was kind of petty. I was just…hurt, I guess.” She leaned her head on Jessie’s shoulder while Jessie sniffled. “Harmony and I talked a lot last night, and she’s right…I was being bitchy about the whole thing.” Glancing up at Jessie, she gave her a small smile. “It’s not like I haven’t called you worse.” April winked at her and Jessie managed a small laugh.
With a sad sigh, Jessie thought of everything that had happened between her and April recently, and all of it was because Jessie had tried to place April between herself and Kai. Truly a bad idea. All she had done was added jealousy into the relationship with her cousin, and strained the relationship with her friend. And the worst part was, she couldn’t explain any of that to April. “I am so sorry I went off on you.” Blushing, she added, “I know it’s a poor excuse, but it really was more about him than you.”
April put her hand over Jessie’s and squeezed. “Yeah, the girl in his past that he can’t let go of. I know, he told me.” Jessie felt a tightness around her heart. That girl was her, but April didn’t know that. April’s face brightened as she sat up straighter on the bed. “Hey, maybe that’s it! Maybe it’s the girl? Maybe she realized what an idiot she was being, called him, and begged him to come back. Maybe he fled in the middle of the night to run to her.” She let out a romantic sigh and shook her head. “I bet by tonight, he’s on a plane back to Hawaii, where she’ll be waiting for him at the airport. Then they’ll kiss, an orchestra will play, and everyone will live happily ever after.”
Jessie closed her eyes. April had just unknowingly played out her greatest fantasy, but it wasn’t reality. No, in the real situation, Kai wasn’t running to Hawaii to get the girl, he was running to Hawaii to get
away
from the girl. Away from her. He could very well be on a plane by tonight, heading home…alone. No orchestra would be waiting for him and there would be no happily ever after with the woman he loved. Not in this fairy tale.
Harmony paused in packing her bag to smirk at April. “Well, aren’t you the closet romantic?” Grabbing a pair of pants, she chucked them at April. “Now pack up, I’m not doing it
for
you…again.” Harmony pursed her lips while April stuck out her tongue.
What felt like an eternity later, the girls were all piled in Harmony’s car, ready to leave their getaway spot. Harmony let out a sad sigh as she cast longing glances at the lodge in her rearview mirror. Jessie felt guilt resurface, but she just couldn’t sit around and try to have fun for a few hours while Kai slipped farther and farther away. She didn’t blame him for planning on leaving, for going back home. She just couldn’t stomach the thought of him leaving her without saying goodbye.
And besides, Jessie could make it up to Harmony with another trip in a couple of weekends. If there was one thing that was easy to do in Colorado, it was ski in the wintertime. Maybe she’d treat her friends to the best room in the lodge, as a way to thank them. That was, if she ever felt like doing anything fun again.
Sighing, as she hoped for the millionth time that they were gaining on him, Jessie felt April beside her pat her knee. “Hey, relax. I’m sure he’s fine.” Jessie gave her a half smile, not really in the mood to chitchat about Kai. April brightened as an idea struck her. Digging through her jacket, April pulled out her cell phone. “Did you try calling him?”
Jessie slowly nodded. “Yeah…it went straight to voice mail. Maybe the battery died?” Or maybe he shut the phone off? She didn’t mention that possibility though.
April tried him anyway, but she got the same result as Jessie. Jessie bit her lip to keep the tears at bay. She hated the idea that Kai might have intentionally shut the phone off—intentionally shut her out. That was a whole new level of torture. April frowned as she put her phone away. Then, with a small smile on her face, she said, “Want to hear about the guys from the bar last night? It might take your mind off things?”
Jessie smiled softly, and April bit her lip. “Mine was a tight end for Oregon State...and yeah, he had a very tight end.” She giggled while Harmony shook her head.
Jessie managed a tiny laugh. “Sure, tell me all about him.” Anything to stop worrying about Kai.