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I didn’t know why I’d gone there in the first place. It was such a bad idea.

But once Jules had shared the news with me that Layla was here in Landing again, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Ineededto see her.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t considered what to say orhow things should go down between us. I simply responded to that pull I felt to seek her out.

And now I couldn’t stop thinking about how awful it had been. There was a part of me that might have been hoping there would have been some kind of closure, but that was nowhere to be found.

When all I could feel was the overwhelming sense of longing for her and I had no clue what was going through her mind, it frustrated me.

In a way, I guess I was grateful for that. The anger and bitterness were better than begging and pleading.

I’d walked through the front entrance of the hotel and made a beeline for the elevator. Minutes later, I walked into my suite and went through the motions—get undressed, get showered, order some room service.

Once I was standing under the spray of the shower, feeling the warm water run over my body, my thoughts drifted to Layla again.

God, she was still just as beautiful as I remembered.

Layla still had that waterfall of rich, dark chocolate brown hair, and it looked shinier, softer, and thicker than it had years ago. It might not have been any different, other than being slightly longer now. It could have simply been all the time I had spent away from her that was messing with my mind.

I wanted nothing more than to run my fingers through those gorgeous locks, doing it while staring into those amber eyes that held me captive on more than one occasion. People often talked about the Westwood familyand our signature blue eyes, but there was nothing more beautiful than that deep golden hue of Layla’s.

Her mouth was just as inviting, her lips as perfect as ever.

And her body was still petite and feminine.

No matter how much I hated it, she could bring me to my knees.

Just when I thought I’d figured out how to live my life without her in it, just when I’d made peace with the idea of living a solitary life, she was back. All the work I’d done had been flushed down the drain.

Was this ever going to get better?

Would I always feel this way?

I was frustrated with myself for still being so worked up about our interaction today, but the reality was that I shouldn’t have expected anything less.

It had been eight years, and this woman still had a hold on my heart.

It was no wonder I couldn’t think straight mere hours after seeing her again.

13

LAYLA

“It’s beenquiet without you here.”

A hint of a smile played on my lips. It was comforting to hear a friendly voice, even if I knew the words weren’t entirely true. I was the more reserved one of the two of us, so it wasn’t me who was bringing the excitement anywhere. “Oh, it’s so good to hear from you, Frankie.”

Something that had been wound tight at the center of my chest over the last few days had released just a touch.

Frankie was my closest—and only—friend and roommate. We lived together and had formed a friendship almost immediately. She worked at a bridal shop in the city, and I could admit I allowed my thoughts to linger to the engagement I’d passed up whenever she talked to me about brides that came in looking for their wedding gowns.

Though we didn’t work together, we occasionally took lunch breaks together. And when we weren’t atwork, we spent time with one another. We’d had plenty of nights when one of us would need to vent, and we’d have a girls’ night in. Of course, being the city, it was virtually impossible not to have some nights out together, too.

I’d called Frankie when I was on my way from New York to Pennsylvania the day I’d gotten the call about my mom. I wanted her to know where I was, so she wouldn’t worry unnecessarily. Apparently, Frankie was no longer interested in waiting for me to reach out to her.

“I would have called sooner, Layla, but after I got your text the day you left about needing to be gone for a few weeks, I figured you’d need a couple of days to sort things out,” she said. “How’s your mom doing?”

“I appreciate you being patient with me, Frankie. There’s been a lot to deal with since I got back here.” I ignored the vision of Liam that flashed into my mind almost immediately. No matter how many things I had on my plate, my encounter with Liam was the one thing that seemed to be taking up the most space in my head. “My mom is doing a little bit better. She has more energy now than she did when I first arrived, and she’d just come out of surgery.”