Finding Home

by Lina Langley

  “Nev, I was wondering….”

  Her words ended abruptly as her eyes took in my disheveled appearance and then shifted to the mess in my sitting room. “Is something wrong?” she asked and reached out to touch my arm.

  I shrugged her off and turned around, not caring if she followed or not. “Nope, just on vacation, you know how it is.”

  I picked the plates off the couch and deposited them on the table so she could sit.

  Instead, she stayed standing, looming over me when I plopped down.

  “This is not normal vacation behavior for…anyone.” She motioned to all the empty little bottles littered around the floor of the room. “You look like someone just told you your dog died.” I looked up at her and she put her hand up over her mouth to cover her gasp. “Oh my God, your dog didn’t just die, did it?”

  Chuckling, I shook my head. “No, I don’t have a dog and really, I’m fine,” I said.

  She sat next to me and studied my face for a moment. “No, you’re not. I can tell. You have that same look I get sometimes when I think my life’s a pile of shit.”

  “It’s nothing you can help me with,” I said, thinking it would be bad form for me to tell her I was hung up on her brother, who was obviously not interested in more than a quick fuck.

  “Why don’t you tell me and let me decide if it’s something I can help you with or not. You have no idea what sort of skill set I have.”

  She beamed at me and her friendly smile got through my defenses.

  “Fine, but you’re not going to like where this goes.” I had to warn her.

  “It has to do with Josh, right?” She hit the nail on the head. When I nodded she covered my hand with hers. “I figured maybe it was when I came looking for him here and you were alone. Did you two have a fight?”

  “No, not really. I actually haven’t talked to him today since he left before I woke up,” I admitted.

  “Yeah, he had a job interview. He’s always working, even when I beg him to just come have some fun with me.”

  It took me a minute to try to figure out the meaning to her words. Josh was working? “I thought you said he travels a lot and takes pictures.”

  “Well, yeah, he sort of has to since that’s his job,” Monica said, cocking her head to look at me. “Didn’t he tell you anything last night?”

  “Well, we didn’t really talk much.”

  She laughed and patted my hand. “Yeah, me and my brother are a lot alike, but I thought he’d at least tell you we met up here because he had a few opportunities business wise.”

  “I’m sorry,” I said, sighing. “You’ll have to excuse me. I thought Josh was just some lazy artist who traveled around sleeping with rich guys, so this is news to me.”

  I hoped that would make her tell me more about Josh and his work.

  “Oh, yeah, he comes off like that to people who don’t know him, but he’s actually pretty well known in certain circles for his photography. He’s here to interview with the owner of the resort because they want to update their website. Sometimes Josh has to take a few jobs that actually pay the bills.”

  I looked at her.

  She grinned at my shocked expression. “I probably didn’t help since the first impression I gave you was that Josh was lazy.”

  I wanted to scream “You think?” at her but I didn’t, instead I let it sink in that the man I’d seen Josh with earlier was probably the resort owner, and I’d gotten all pissy over nothing.

  “I saw him with someone today at the bar and I was a little…upset.”

  Monica’s eyes widened. “You like Josh!”

  I shook my head, but there was no denying it. She knew. She could see it on my face. “I just thought maybe we’d spend some time together while we were both here. It’s not like I was thinking love or anything.”

  “Oh, but you should. Josh is such a sweet guy and he needs someone in his life that could help ground him. I know he likes you, he was gushing about you this morning while he was getting ready to go out and I swear, hand to God, he was excited about seeing you again. He wanted to take you out somewhere and—”

  “Hold up here, are you sure you should be telling me all this?”

  It seemed like she should be bound by some sort of sibling confidentiality rule, not spilling all of her brother’s secrets so easily.

  “Someone needs to. Josh is the kind of guy who will let you walk all over him and then let you walk away without telling you he’d like to see you again. It’s why he has so many short relationships. I keep telling him he needs to put himself out there for more than just sex, but he’s afraid because his job keeps him moving around and most guys don’t want a part-time boyfriend.”

  I sat back as I thought about Josh and his life style. It would actually be a perfect match for me, since I worked nonstop, a part-time boyfriend would be great.

  But what if what Josh and I had was just physical? We hadn’t really even talked. “I doubt either of us is ready to take the next step. We hardly know each other.”

  “Well, most people hardly know each other when they start off, so I don’t see the harm in seeing where this could lead,” she said, taking my hand again. “I haven’t seen my brother this happy in a long time.”

  I thought about it for a second, then nodded. “Okay,” I said. “I’ll talk to him.”

  She squealed and hugged me just as a knock on my patio door alerted us to Josh’s presence.

  I motioned for him to come in since I’d left the slider unlocked.

  He did and raised his eyebrows at the two of us.

  “Did I miss something?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I’m leaving Tom and marrying Nev, you idiot,” Monica said as she pulled away from me and stood up. “I’m going to leave so you two can talk.”

  She winked at me and then twirled around to leave.

  Josh watched her go before looking at me. “We need to talk?” he asked.

  “She seems to think so.”

  “She’s nosy,” Josh sat on the couch.

  Nefore I could explain anything to him, he pulled me in for a kiss. “I’ve been waiting to do that all day,” he whispered when we separated.

  “Me too.”

  “So what do we need to talk about?” he asked, a worry line appeared on his forehead.

  “Nothing that can’t wait,” I pulled him into a kiss.

  When our lips met again, I knew the two of us were meant to be more than ships that passed in the night.

  EPILOGUE

  “Mr. Grant, Mr. Palmer is here to see you.” The intercom on my desk startled me out of my contemplation of the Jackson account, which had been giving me a headache for the past three hours.

  Pressing the button, I said, “Send him in.”

  I tried to hide the excitement in my voice, but I was sure my secretary sensed it, because the door opened seconds later.

  Standing, I practically ran into Josh’s arms. “It’s about time you got here,” I said into his neck after we’d kissed.

  “I’m an hour early!” Josh chuckled while crushing me to his chest.

  “I know but still, it’s been three weeks.”

  I didn’t like it when his work kept him away for extended periods of time, but I used those weeks to get enough work done so t I could take time off to spend with him.

  So far, it had worked for us and my boss even commented on how relaxed I seemed at work lately. I guess she’d been right about me needing that vacation after all.

  “I’m sorry, but now I have almost a month in the city so we can make up for lost time.”

  He grinned and I had to bite my tongue from telling him how gorgeous he was, because stroking his ego was never a good thing. He already had a big enough head.

  “Then you won’t mind waiting for me to finish up here. Then we can go home and start making up that time.”

  “Yeah, about that…I sort of brought some stuff with me.” Josh held up his phone to show me a picture of a rental moving van park
ed in front of my building.

  “You didn’t!” I’d been pushing for him to move in with me since he was hardly ever at his place now that we were together, but he’d stubbornly held on to his apartment until now.

  “I did. Now hurry up so we can go home.”

  I pulled him in for another kiss, my eyes getting misty.

  “Okay,” I said, pulling away from him. “Let’s.”

  He smiled at me and my heart leaped in my chest. Whether he knew it or not, he was my home.

  THE END

  Author’s Note

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