“Would you mind giving me her room number?”
The girl frowned and looked to her left to what I was guessing was the manager. “Ahh . . . can you hold on for one second?”
With a grin, I motioned for her to do what she had to do. Walking over to the older gentleman, she said something that made him return with her.
“Excuse me, sir, do you mind if I ask if you are on the reservation with Ms. Atwood?”
Sliding my badge across the desk, my face turned serious. “Detective Bennett, and Ms. Atwood is being sought out for questioning. I got a tip she had checked in here. I’d like to make sure she doesn’t try to slip out another door.”
“Oh, I see.” The manager turned to the redhead. “Go ahead and let him know her room number.”
A part of me was pissed they were giving me the number just because I flashed a fucking badge. How did they know it was even real?
“We only had premium rooms left and she looked so sad; I felt bad for her. I only charged her for a regular room. She didn’t even have luggage with her.”
“No, she wouldn’t have.”
“Sixth floor, room six ten.”
With a quick nod, I turned and made my way to the elevator.
It was luck I was riding up with a hotel employee. With another showing of my badge, I had him knocking on Meagan’s door.
“Room service.”
The door opened as Meagan said, “I didn’t order room . . . service.”
I stepped around the corner and patted the guy on the back and handed him a twenty. “Thanks, dude.”
The poor son-of-a-bitch looked confused as hell as Meagan started to cry. I walked right into her room and shut the door behind me.
As I turned back to Meagan, I couldn’t help but notice how her eyes seemed to light up as she searched my face. “As God as my witness, I swear to you I will never walk away from you again, Meg.”
Dropping to my knees, I took a hold of her hips and pulled her to me as I buried my face in her stomach. In that moment I realized I not only loved her, but I loved our child I had only known about for an hour just as much. The feeling hit me so hard I had to fight to keep from crying.
“I love you so much. Both of you.”
Meagan
THE SECOND I saw Grayson standing at the door, I felt the wetness creep down my face again. If this was pregnancy, I was going to have to invest in Kleenex.
His face was buried in my stomach as he sucked in a shaky breath and said, “I love you. Both of you.”
One hand covered my mouth to contain my sobs as the other laced through his hair.
“Gray,” I whispered. “Damn you!”
His head shook slowly as he whispered, “I’m so sorry. I freaked. I’m so sorry.”
Grace had been right. A part of me knew that was what happened, but it still hurt like hell for him to walk away from me. I dropped down in front of him as he cupped my face with his hands and captured my lips to his.
“I’m so sorry,” he spoke softly.
“Gray, I need to know how you really feel because I’m just as scared as you.”
“Oh God, Meg. I swear to you, I will never leave you like that again. I love you and the idea of you carrying our child fills me with so much hope. You have to believe me.”
His eyes were filled with fear as he pleaded with me to believe him. My hand came up to the side of his face as I gave him a small smile. “I do believe you, but tell me that was your one freak-out moment and it won’t ever happen again cause I don’t think I could do this without you. Plus, do you have any idea what my father is going to do to us when he finds out?”