Page 57 of The Legend of Lovers Hollow

Morgan appears from the bathroom holding two glasses, and I take a minute to look around the room while he pours us each a drink.

“I see Archie put everything back where it should be,” I muse. “Did you get your clothes and your–”

He pulls his phone from his pocket and holds it up before setting it on the nightstand.

“You know, I’ve never really liked whiskey.”

“That just means you haven’t had a good one.” He hands me a glass, and I pull myself up and lean on one elbow.

I take a tentative sip and feel the smoky, fruity flavour slide over my tongue. “Oh, wow.” I blink.

“Exactly.” He climbs up onto the bed next to me and leans back against the headboard, stretching his long legs out and crossing his ankles comfortably. “A good single malt should be savoured, and this one is a twenty-five-year-old sherry oak.”

I rest the glass on my belly and lean back, sinking into the pillow. “I can’t believe Warren slept through all of that.”

“Yeah.” Morgan takes another slow sip. “He’s always been a hard sleeper. Once he’s down, he’s out for the count. Even an earthquake couldn’t wake him, and I’m not joking. He once slept through an earthquake at one of our hotels in the Virgin Islands.”

“I can believe it.” I huff out a laugh. “I’ve just seen him sleep through whatever that was downstairs, and in the end, it was his own snoring that woke him up.”

I turn my head to look at him and we burst out laughing. And we laugh, and laugh, and laugh. Deep belly laughs until tears are streaming down our faces and we’ve almost spilled the expensive whiskey on the bedding.

“Oh my god.” Morgan sucks in a breath and wipes his eyes. “Sometimes with this place, I feel like I’m on a rollercoaster I can’t get off.”

“I’d ask if that’s a bad thing, but I suppose it depends on whether or not you like rollercoasters.”

“Not really.”

I place my glass on the nightstand and roll towards him, propping my head on my hand. “This place is a lot. I know that. Just because I love it doesn’t mean it’s for everyone, but for what it’s worth, I’m so glad you’re here.”

“I wouldn’t exactly say I’m glad to be here.” He reaches for my free hand and turns it over, tracing my palm with his thumb. “But I’m glad to be here with you.”

For several drawn-out moments we sit in silence as he strokes my skin.

“What’s bothering you?” I ask softly. “You look like you’ve got the weight of the world on your shoulders.”

He sighs, letting his head fall back so he is staring up at the canopy of the bed. “It feels like it.”

“Then tell me,” I coax. “You know what they say. A problem shared is a problem two people have.”

He snorts out a laugh and then sighs again. “Warren and I talked about selling off the hotel business we inherited from my stepfather.”

“That’s… okay, wow. I was not expecting that.” I study his troubled but gorgeously grumpy face while he continues to absently draws patterns on my palm. “It’s a big decision.”

“Yeah, it is.” He nods and drops his gaze, staring contemplatively at the contents of his glass.

“How do you feel about that? Selling the business?”

“I have very mixed feelings. It’s complicated. I loved my stepfather, not the way I loved my father, but…” He shakes his head. “Royce was a good man. He never treated me any different than he treated Warren. As far as he was concerned, we were both his sons and everything was equal, from punishments to birthdays to college educations.”

“That’s good.” I squeeze his hand. “I’m glad.”

“He passed away so suddenly. A heart attack, there one minute and gone the next. He literally worked himself into an early grave. His dream was to own the biggest, most luxurious chain of hotels, and he did it. The Hamilton Hotel brand has an impeccable reputation and is worth billions. Ren and I have worked our asses off for the last ten years to make sure of it, make sure we preserved his legacy.”

“So what changed?”

“My perspective, I guess. The last ten years have been nonstop. Travel meetings, long days.” He blows out a frustrated breath. “I don’t know, maybe it’s being here. Maybe it’s thinking about death, or what comes after. We kind of have the answer to that, or part of it anyway. I’ve just been thinking, when my time comes and I look back and remember my life, what will I see? I don’t want to drop dead at fifty-five and realise all I did was work. It took meeting you to recognise that.”

My heart speeds up as he links his fingers with mine and raises my hand to his mouth. He plants a soft kiss on the back of my hand that I feel all the way down to my soul.