Chapter 109

I push open the door, eager for escape.

“What’s wrong?” Neil asks behind me.

I glance back in time to see Archer stand and whisper in his ear. Neil’s eyes go wide.

“Angela,” he corrects, far too late. “Will you marry me, Angela?”

Then, suddenly, everyone starts talking at once.

I dip out into the foyer and don’t look back again as the door closes behind me. Yet even out near the bar, everyone has turned to look at me, like they already heard everything Neil said. Is the sound wired out here?

I can’t tell. I can’t hear anything anymore except the pounding of my own heart and Mia’s screams. Though, oddly, now that we are out of that room, Mia seems to be calming.

But I don’t know what to do. I very well can’t go back into that room. People might not know who Chloe is, or maybe they do. Maybe they’ll all be looking for me in a moment.

It was an accident, I’m sure of it. Neil saw me standing and he said my name. That’s it. He certainly didn’t mean…

It was an accident. He wasn’t thinking about me at all when he said all those things.

I should leave right? That feels like the right choice. This is too much. I can’t face this right now.

I don’t want the pity, or the speculation, or whatever else I’m sure is about to head my way because of this slip. A slip Neil doesn’t mean.

I’m such an idiot.

I go to the front of the hotel and find the valet desk.

“Do you have your ticket?” the man behind the counter asks me.

“Ticket?” I don’t understand. I try to describe the make and model of Archer’s car instead.

The man looks at me blankly. “I’m not just going to hand you the keys to a car when you don’t have the ticket.”

“Please,” I say. I really need to get out of here. I’m starting to feel somewhat desperate. “It’s Archer Hayes’s car. I came with him.”

The valet looks at me for a beat, and then he starts laughing. “Okay, sure, honey. Does that ever work?”

“You aren’t listening. I’m telling you that I came here with him.”

“Yeah right. Then where is he, huh? Why isn’t he looking for his keys? Why send you?”

I’m getting nowhere. If I wasn’t holding Mia, I might start throwing punches. I’m that desperate to leave.

Maybe I’ll just walk. It can’t be that far, right?

Except the paparazzi are still outside the door. They didn’t notice me going in, but they might see me coming out. They might have questions I can’t answer. They might take pictures I’d rather them not have.

Behind me, the doors to the dining room are opening. People are beginning to spill out.

I can’t face them. I can’t face anyone.

So I turn from the valet desk. He’s still laughing at me.

I search for a bathroom. Maybe I can sneak away there. Yet before I get there, I find a long hallway. It’s probably employees only, but it’s not properly labeled. I can fake being lost if I’m found. Right now, I just want to hide.

The hallway is long and narrow. It turns a corner at the end. I turn that corner than skid to a stop. There are a couple there, wrapped in each other’s embrace.

A man’s hands are on the woman’s backside. Her skirt is hiked up so far, I can see the yellow thong she’s wearing. I try to divert my gaze. But looking up to their faces isn’t much better. She’s got a mop of blonde curls, but he is familiar.

I groan before I can stop myself.

The couple split apart. The woman looks behind me and gasps. Seeing her face, she’s older than I expected. Probably one of those wives who flirted with Beau earlier.

Beau himself just smirks at me now. He’s still palming the woman’s ass. “Something you needed, Nanny?”

I roll my eyes. I want to turn away, but this is still the best place to hide. That must have been why Beau picked it too.

“You know her?” the woman shouts, outraged, as she pushes against Beau’s chest.

He lets his hands drop. Any interest dims from his eyes. “So what if I do?”

“What is this?” she says. “Did you want us to be caught? Is this some kind of set up?”

Beau stares at her in cold indifference. I’ve come to know that look. It’s downright chilling seeing how fast he can click it on. It’s like a light switch with him: horny on one side, cold as ice on the other.

“You think I would give a fuck about you?” Beau asks. “Get the hell out of here and don’t come back.”

The woman sputters, clearly taken aback. She can’t take her anger out on him, so she swivels on me instead.

“How dare you fucking –”

“Watch your language in front of the baby,” Beau snaps.

The woman closes her mouth.

“Bitch,” she hisses at me as she storms past me. She rights her dress as she turns the corner.

Beau sighs dramatically. “Gods, what a waste. Did you see the ass on that one? She does hot yoga.”

I want to kick him in the shins for being so gross but I contain myself – marginally. “I’m so sorry to have ruined your hookup with some married lady.” I’m being sarcastic. He has to know that.

Still the bastard says, “Apology accepted.”

I groan. Mia giggles. At least she’s done crying. I drop my attention back to her and clean up any residual mess from her excessive crying.

“What happened?” Beau asks, one brow lifting.

“Mia started crying so we had to step out,” I say. That’s enough of the truth. He doesn’t need to know the rest.

“Fine, so now we know that Mia is crying,” Beau says. “So what happened to you?”

I blink and look at him again. He doesn’t look like he cares either way. He’s staring at me with that bored look he always gives me when he’s not actively teasing me. Beau’s allergic to feelings. He doesn’t actually care.

Still, I kind of want to answer.

No! I stop myself. I refuse to fall under the lying charms of yet another Hayes’s brother.

“I’m sure you’ll hear soon enough,” I say, which I realize too late is still an admission that something happened. Really, I should have played it cool.

“So you are hiding,” Beau says.

“I was trying to find the bathroom,” I lie.

He gives me a flat look.

I relent. “I may be hiding… a little.”

“Well, hide somewhere else. This is my spot.”

“Not anymore it isn’t. I scared away your… ‘date,’” I say. No way in hell am I leaving this spot now that I found it.

“I can easily get someone else.”

“Yeah, but you would have to leave to do it, which would give me priority of this spot. Squatters rights, and all that.”

Beau narrows his eyes. “I do not need to leave. All I have to do is text.”

He reaches into his suit jacket pocket and withdraws his phone. He smirks at me as he unlocks his phone.

I’m not challenging him. I know he can coax a girl back here easy as anything. I’m just kind of hoping he won’t.

He looks down at his phone screen.

Then he blinks.

And my blood goes cold.

Because he knows.