“Oh. Sorry, Cash but Abby is not available right now. I can’t tell you where she is or what she’s doing.” He seems to be having some fun with this and then yelps.
“Serves you right,” Sarah mutters angrily.
I hear a knock on the door, and I open it wearing my black tank top and green boxer shorts with my hair wrapped in a towel. “I’m sorry,” Sarah says, motioning to Max, who’s on the phone with Cash. It’s nice to see him interact with the guy that I like, but he’s getting a beating when I get off the phone.
“Here’s Abby. Nice talking to you too, man.” I punch him in the arm, and he mumbles, “These girls are nothing but a bowl full crazy.”
“Hi.” Is all I could say because I was paying attention to what Max was doing out of the corner of my eye. He was holding a damp washcloth that Sarah brought him.
“How bruised is Max?” Cash is amused with the shenanigans between Max, Sarah, and I. “Hello?”
“He’s a big boy; he can take a few punches from a couple of girls.”
“I’m safe and sound getting ready for bed. I’m completely exhausted but wanted to say goodnight and be the first one to wish you a Merry Christmas.”
“Merry Christmas to you too. Are you ready for tomorrow?”
“My staff is excellent and have been working hard to make sure we’re ready. I’m going to have to do something nice for them. I can’t close down.”
“Is Cash Hawthorne going soft?”
He tried to sound upset, but I could tell from his tone that he was attempting to hold in the laugh. “Don’t let that get around or I’m fucked.” I had to promise that his secret is safe with me. “Well, Abby, I hate to do this, but I need sleep. Merry Christmas, beautiful girl.”
“Merry Christmas, Cash.”
We hang up.
“I want to meet him,” I say matter-of-factly.
“Cash?” Sarah’s voice is loud with excitement.
I nod my head, looking at Max. He’s silent.
“I think you should meet him,” Max says with a smile on his face.
I stare at him waiting for a but to come out of his mouth. “Really?”
“Why not? You live in this bubble. You protect your heart more than I do. You’re afraid to love because of that douchebag, Gregg.”
“I just don’t think I’m worthy of love,” I whisper as tears roll down my cheeks.
“Everyone is worthy of love.” Sarah disagrees, looking towards Max. “You just have to let yourself believe it.”
“I think the day after tomorrow, I’ll tell him that I want to see if we can meet up. I hope he’s close.”
“If not, road trip! We can explore Florida. Isn’t that the reason we’re on this journey? To have fun, not sit in a hotel room.” Sarah puts her phone down and sits back on the bed.
“I love you guys!” I exclaim, the excitement I feel over possibly getting to meet Cash has me barely able to sit still.
Several hours later, I sit straight up in bed. “Oh, my God, what if he doesn’t want to meet me?”
Sarah also sits up, having being startled awake by my sudden movement. “He will. Get out of your head.” We cuddle like we used to do when we were children, whispering back and forth about how my first meeting with Cash will go. It isn’t long before we’re yawning and barely keeping our eyes open. I love this girl and would be lost with her.
CASH
The ringing phone wakes me. “Hello?”
“Mr. Hawthorne this is Tasha from the front desk. I hate to disturb you, but you told me to wake you when that package arrived. It just got here.”
I smile because I know all of my employees, but she likes to remind me who she is when she calls. “Thank you, Natasha. What time is it?”
“It is 7:30 a.m.”
I bolted out of bed. “WHAT?! I asked for a six a.m. wake -up call.”
“I know, but I came in at three a.m. and figured that you’d need some sleep since Mary said you finished up after midnight. I know you’ve been working hard with this Christmas dinner and the New Year’s Eve ball. It’s slow, and I’ve been able to handle things.”
“Are you sure?”
“I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t mind. My family isn’t doing anything until noon.” “Thank you for that. I’m going to hop in the shower, and I will be down.”
“Take your time, sir. I just have to leave by 10:30.”
I hang up with her to get ready. Today is going to be the best day; I’m finally meeting Abby. I’m like a teenage boy before prom. My nerves are fried, and my hand is shaking as I button up my red dress shirt. I decide on jeans as I want to be comfortable but professional since I still have to work. It’s about eight a.m. when I make my way to the front desk.
“Good morning, Mr. Hawthorne. Here’s your package.”
“Thanks again, Natasha. How are things here?”
“It’s been quiet.” I thank her for letting me sleep and staying longer.
I walk into the kitchen to see how things are going and get some coffee. I look around, and my first instinct is to look for my mom. It hits me then that she isn’t there. I inhale the scent of Christmas dinner, and I’m instantly taken back to the day my parents died.
“Uncle Cash is here! Uncle Cash is here!” My nieces and nephews are jumping on the front porch as I get out of my car.
I live in West Palm Beach, Florida and work at a law firm. I went to law school right out of high school. Once I passed the bar, I decided to take night classes for a business degree. My grandfather always wanted us to know about business, but I wanted to follow my passion.
“Hey, knuckleheads! Did you think that I would miss our Christmas Eve plans with my favorite short people? Give me hugs and then help me with all these presents.” I call out laughing as they come running towards me. We walk into the house together, and I put the gifts under the tree before looking for Sally and Matt. Since they’d had Leah, we’d been coming to Sally’s house to make it easier for them. They’re doing construction on their house and have temporarily moved in with my parents.
I find my sister in the kitchen peeling potatoes. Sneaking up behind her, I snatch one from her bowl. “Hey!” She swats my hand away and spins around to see me standing there. “When did you get here?”
“Oh, you didn’t hear your hyenas outside screaming my name?”
She laughs. “I can see them doing that. They’ve missed you.” She pulls me in for a hug. I’ve missed her.
Matt walks in. “Cash, how are you? When did you get into town?”
“Last night.” I wiggle my eyebrows at Matt and Sally, causing them to shake their heads at me. They know I’m a man-whore. I have one night stands down to an art. There’s no emotions, no hang ups, and especially no love. Love is for suckers. “Where’s Mom and Dad? I don’t see their car in the driveway.”
“Miriam came to town and Mom didn’t want to be doing presents in front of her,” Sally tells me in annoyance. “I told her she didn’t have to do that, but you know Mom.”
“Matthew your children are running amuck in the living room.”
“My fault, Miriam. I mentioned that Santa was coming soon. I can go tell them to settle down.” I move towards the living room, but Miriam stops me.
“I gave them chocolate too!” Miriam informs me in a whisper so Sally and Matt wouldn’t be in on the secret.
“You’re trouble, Miriam, and I like it.” She blushes and heads back to play with the kids.
I grab a bottle of water and start heading down the hall to the living room. There’s a knock on the door, and I tug it open in one motion. Two uniformed police officers are standing on the porch. “Can I help you?” My voice is calm, but my insides are a ball of nerves.
“Is this the Hawthorne residence?”
“Yes. I’m Cash Hawthorne. Is there a problem?”
The two officers share a glance between each other. Sanchez is the name on the badge pinned to the shirt of the taller male officer. “Do you have a Tahoe r
egistered in your name?”
“Yes I do, but I gave it to my parents when I downgraded to a sports car. Can you please tell me what the fuck is going on?” My fists are balled at the side of my legs.
“There was an accident on Interstate 75. A tractor trailer versus a car.” I blink back tears that are starting to form and try to remain calm to listen. “From what we gather from the witnesses, there was a vehicle off on the shoulder, the driver of the truck wasn’t paying attention to what he was doing, looked up and swerved to miss the car on the shoulder. When he did that, he went straight into the Tahoe owned by you. It flipped numerous times before coming to a stop. Some witnesses tried to reach the SUV to help, but it exploded before they made it there. There were no survivors.”
“How do you know it’s my car?” My voice is barely a whisper as tears flow down my face.
“We recovered the license plate and discovered the SUV to be registered in your name and this address. Mr. Hawthorne, who would have been driving the car? There were two people in the vehicle.”
“Yes,” I whisper. “My parents, Kennedy and Nora Hawthorne. Are you sure there were no survivors? “My voice shook.
“I’m very sorry, sir, but no one survived this accident.” The female officer starts speaking to me and as it begins to register. They’re telling me that my parents are dead. That I’ll never see them again. I will never hear my mom laugh or listen to my dad tell me about sports or how much he loved his family. It all comes crashing down on me at once, and I fall to my knees, letting out a bellow of pain. Leah is the first to come running, and then Matt is standing there. He explains who he is, and the officers proceed to tell him why they are here. Sally appears in the doorway she’s next to me in a heartbeat. I just kept mumbling mom and dad over and over again. Seeing me in this state and the officers at the door must have been enough for her to understand what’s going on. We sit there crying with our arms wrapped around each other. Even Miriam had tears in her eyes. She sent the children into the living room to play with a promise that their father would be in talk to them. Sally whispered in my ear over and over again. “It will be okay. We will get through this. We have to be strong; it’s what they would have wanted.” I can’t pretend to process this or even understand it. Gone, just gone. Life as I know it will never be the same.
“I miss her too.” I’m blinking back tears as I’m brought out of my memory by Shawn’s mother, Joan, my mom’s best friend.
“Hi, Miss Joan.” I lean down to kiss her cheek and she pushes me away because I over exaggerated her shortness. “I was just remembering that day. I expect to see my dad coming into the dining room wearing that stupid Santa tie and ugly sweater that we got him for Christmas that one year.” I laugh at the thought of him in that silly get up.
“Oh your mother hated that shirt. She tried to get rid of that thing. Your parents would be so proud of the two of you. You took your family’s little hotel and look at what you have done with it.”
“I couldn’t have done it without this family. How’s it going in here?”
“It’s busy but we are getting through to it.”
“I’m going to grab some breakfast and head to my office before taking over the front desk.”
“Go ahead, sweetheart.
“Merry Christmas, fucker!” I walk into his office and sit down in his chair.
“Get out of here, I don’t have time for this bullshit.” Shawn is looking pretty rough.
“No pussy for you last night?”
“Fuck off.”
“Language!” Joan yells at us and we grin. She’s always been on us about our language and the way we treat the women in our lives.
“Have you introduced yourself yet?” Shawn was working on getting the schedule ready for today so he knew who was going to be where.
“At breakfast. I have a surprise for her.”
He raises an eyebrow, and then his face lights up. He turns his back to me, crosses his arms, and starts moving his hands up and down. “Oh Cash! Oh Cash!” He’s using his girly voice and moaning. “Oh Abby! Oh Abby!” He then fakes an orgasm.
“Why are we friends again?” I ask him as I start walking out of his office.
“Life without me would be boring and no one else would have us.” He replies. I’m in the kitchen getting food when he comes out to stand next to me.
“Go get her, tiger!” He yells and started to growl.
“Fuck you!” I yell back at him, followed by Joan calling out, “Language!” The whole kitchen just laughs.
“Hey, asshat, where’s your man card?” I flip him off before walking out of the kitchen. I set the package down on my desk and start to sit down to eat my breakfast.
I start wrapping the gift, taking bites of my food in between. I need to give it to Tasha before she leaves so I can meet Abby. I’m getting excited just thinking about it. I can’t believe it’s been a year and a half in the making. I finish eating and pull out the package from the bag it was delivered in. I did feel bad about having my lawyer deliver it but he was on his way out of town so it isn’t like the two-minute stop was a problem. I pull out the box that holds the piece of jewelry that I’m going to give Abby. I open it and smile through the tears that are on the verge of shedding. It’s the necklace that my dad gave my mom on their first date. They met through friends and had hung out together a few times, but the date was the first time that they’d be alone. He often told me that he knew from the moment sassed him that she was the one. He said it was something about her laughter that went straight to his heart. I take the necklace out and let it dangle from my fingers. It was my favorite necklace that my mom wore, it was a blue agate pendant with a silver chain. It isn’t flashy but perfect for Abby.
My breakup with Robin devastated me. We spent lots of time in this office talking about it. He told me that’d find true love but I needed to be open to it. At nineteen years old, my heart was broken and I no longer cared about finding love. I told him that love doesn’t exist. He just rubbed the back of his neck, “Then what do your mother and I have?”
“You’re different. It isn’t like that nowadays. It’s all about who has the bigger dick, bigger wallet and what can you do for that person.”
“Son, don’t be so jaded. You just need to weed out those women, and when you’re truly ready for it, you’ll know. Being in love is an amazing feeling.”
I shook my head at him and in that moment, my heart becoming closed off to love. I began to plow through women without establishing any connection. Abby coming into my life took me by surprise, and she opened my heart to feelings I thought I’d long let go of. I picked up the picture, my parents on our last vacation to Las Vegas. “Mom. Dad. I wish you could have been here to meet the love of my life. I want what you had, with Abby. Merry Christmas.” The void is always there, and I need my parents to help guide me and not screw things up.
I head out of my office and to the front desk. I scan the dining room area and see a couple of the people that were with Abby yesterday when I saw her for the first time. I notice a blonde girl sit down with two of the guys and guess that she’s Sarah. As far as I know, she’s the only other female on this trip.
“Do you see that blonde with the red t-shirt at the table with those two guys?” I point to Sarah and Natasha nods. “Good. There’s going to be a brunette joining them. I need you to give this to her.” I hold out the necklace. “Her name is Abby. Just give it to her and then walk away. She doesn’t need to know it’s from me.”
“Why don’t you just give it to her?”
“Um, I don’t know actually.”
She laughs. “Is this the girl you’re always texting?”
“How do you know about that?” I snap.
“I overheard Sally and Jenny talking. I’m sorry for bringing it up.” She turns her eyes to the floor in embarrassment. I soften my tone.
“It’s okay. I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just a touchy subject with Sally right now.” I hear Abby’s lau
gh and duck down.
“Is that her, the one laughing?” Natasha whispers to me.
I nod and put my head in my hands.
“She’s gone.”
I stand up and look around. “I have all this nervous energy, not being able to breathe when I talk to her on the phone, constantly checking for messages from her, sweaty palms, all of it. I’ve never felt like this before and it’s scaring me shitless.”
“Welcome to love, my friend. It sucks, but it’s the best feeling in the world. She’s beautiful.”
“She is, isn’t she? What do I say to her? Ugh, I’m such a pussy.” I groan with frustration.
“Mr. Hawthorne.”
I hold up my hand. “Please call me Cash. I just blurted out something personal to you.”
“Cash, you just walk up to her and say hi. If she makes you too nervous, just pretend that you two are on the phone and not face to face. There’s a saying that I tell my older brother and younger sister, ‘suck it up buttercup.’” she giggles as she heads to answer the ringing phone.
ABBY
The dining room of the hotel is a modern room with round tables with beautiful centerpieces of green, red, and white ribbons with a candle in the glass mason jars. The room felt like home. “You okay, squirt?” I nod at Max ignoring the butterflies in my stomach at the thought of meeting Cash. Just as I take a bite of my food, someone calls out my name.
“I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’m looking for Abby Stephens.”
I look up and see it’s the front desk girl that I saw earlier. “I’m Abby,” I answer her with a shy smile.
“This is for you. It was at the front desk with your name on it. Merry Christmas, everyone.” She turns and walks away. I look around the table and smile.
“I thought we were doing presents later,” I say, looking into the bag.
“No that isn’t from us. I don’t know who that’s from.” Rob replies, trying to peer into the bag. I brush him off. “Well open the damn thing. I want to know who it’s from.”
I notice that Sarah and Max are looking at something behind me. I move to turn to see what has their attention when Sarah tells me to open the bag instead.
Love Me Like You Do (Love Me Book 1) Page 10
