Page 92 of Between Never and Forever

ChapterTwenty-Nine

KEELANI

I wokeup the next morning to the smell of lilacs. They were everywhere. On the dresser in my bedroom, overflowing. Down the hallway on the side tables. In the freaking chandeliers. He’d put them everywhere. On the counters in the kitchen. Even in my bathroom next to the tub.

And he’d left Olive’s, Pink’s, Dimitri’s, and Ethan’s flowers, like they were allowed.

The note on the counter was telling.

Their flowers can stay only because they don’t pose a risk, Kee.

I stared up at the security cameras and then a text from him came through.

Dex: Don’t cry. They’re just flowers, Kee. Get ready. We’re going to breakfast.

Me: You’re watching me.

Dex: You said I could.

Me: In the heat of the moment.

Dex: I can’t really look away. You’ll have to get used to it.

Dex: Anyway, come down to the Sapphire. I ordered you scrambled eggs and a cinnamon roll.

Me: What if that isn’t what I wanted?

Dex: You always want it. Get your ass down here. We need to talk before we start going out in public.

I narrowed my eyes, and now that I knew exactly where cameras were planted, I flicked each of them off as I got dressed and got a tiny thrill from every one of them. Instead of worrying if someone was spying on me, the concern was replaced with exhilaration.

It might have been twisted. It might have been unhealthy. Yet, I couldn’t stop smiling even as I threw on some cutoff jean shorts and a college shirt that readWisconsinacross the chest.

I now only worried a bit about what I said to my father on the phone, but Dex already knew I wasn’t talking to my mom. So, the conversation made sense still.

“Mom doing okay?”

“Good, baby. I think she’s just a bit tired.”

“Tell her I love her.” I wanted to tell her how much I missed her. She might have smiled when I told her about the flowers Dex got me. About the lilacs everywhere. She had always loved them as much as me.

When I walked into the restaurant, no one seemed to bat an eye at my attire. I was getting used to feeling at home in the hotel where most everyone was trying to avoid being approached and noticed for their celebrity status. So far, no reports of me that I knew of had gone out. Olive was very good at scanning all the pages for me.

I only got one comment about my outfit, and it was from him as soon as he saw me and stood from the table to pull my chair out for me. “You’re giving me a complex wearing other college shirts,” he murmured before he kissed my neck from behind and scooted my chair in.

“You don’t need to get up and pull my seat out for me, Dex. No one cares here and—”

“I’ll always stand when you enter a room, heartbreaker. You were the woman of my dreams for years and then the woman of my nightmares. Either way, you deserve respect for that.”

How could I argue?

He rounded the table and sat down to open the laptop he’d placed on the table as I took him in. His suit was gray today, which somehow made his hair a darker brown. And he’d combed the waves back so they were tame enough that I wanted to run my hands through them and mess them up.

“Do you always wear suits to work?”

He pulled at his gold cufflinks as he looked me up and down. “As opposed to college shirts?”

We were still on this? “I told you why I had them. You want me to wear your college that bad? Get me a sweatshirt then.” It was ridiculous how jealous the man could be about nothing.