Free Carrying Hope by Sennah Tate

giving her an out.
    “No! I’d love to go! Are you really sure you want me to?”
    In an instant I went from defeated to on top of the Moon.
    “Yes. Of course I’m sure. Otherwise I’d be stuck alone in a hotel room by myself.”
    She looked at me, her mahogany eyes the size of saucers at the implication she thought my words held.
    “Not like that. We’ll have separate bedrooms in the suite. I would never try to take advantage of you, Marcie.” I couldn’t shake the feeling that she looked almost disappointed at that. Maybe she hadn’t made so many assumptions about me.
    “Well, it’s already nearly five o’clock on the east coast, so I’ll make our dinner reservations for around nine?”
    She nodded mutely. I wondered what was going through that pretty head of hers. She looked conflicted, as if she wanted to say something but was afraid to.
    “What is it, Marcie?” I prodded.
    “Well… it’s just that…” she fidgeted with the edge of her tank top, struggling to make eye contact with me.
    “Whatever it is, I promise I will take care of it.”
    She nibbled on her lip in that delectable way that I was beginning to adore.
    “I don’t have anything to wear.”
    Without hesitation, I whipped my wallet out and handed her my black card.
    “Buy anything you want.”
    “No, I couldn’t do that…”
    “Okay, give your sizes to Clara and she’ll have the concierge get you something suitable.”
    “Bryce… I don’t want your money. As much as I appreciate your generosity, it just doesn’t feel right.”
    It was my turn to be unsure of what to say. I wasn’t used to this feeling. No one was able to catch me off-guard. No one was able to make me speechless. Marcie had done so on multiple occasions now.
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable,” I didn’t know how to tell her that my money didn’t mean anything without sounding pretentious.
    Her hand rested on my arm. Heat surged through me at her gentle touch.
    “It’s okay. It’s just a lot.” She was close to me now. So close. If I moved an inch forward I could press her soft body against mine. I could feel her breath caress the edge of my collar. Her lips parted and I wanted desperately to kiss her senseless.
    I couldn’t though. I didn’t want her to feel like she had to sleep with me to have a place to stay. I took a step back, her hand fell from my arm and I felt its absence immediately. The place where it laid was now cold and emptiness seeped through me.
    “How about we just order room service, then?”
    A bright smile lit up her face.
    “That sounds perfect!”
    “Oh, good. We’ll leave in an hour.”
     

Chapter 11
    I still couldn’t believe it. Yesterday, I was a waitress in a dirty diner and today I was sitting on a private jet. Yes, me. Marcie Gallagher, on a private jet. The whole thing was so ridiculous that if it hadn’t happened to me, I never would have believed it.
    I’d never been on an airplane before. Hell, I’d never been out of the state before and here I was flying across the country.
    Bryce purposefully avoided my subtle prodding into his wealth. I wasn’t looking to take advantage of him or scheming to try and part him from his money, I just wanted to know what I was dealing with. Did he have a high-society family that would point fingers at me and call me an opportunist? With the way he threw money around, he could be royalty for all I knew.
    My eyes stayed glued to the window the entire trip. There was something magical about seeing the world in miniature. Viewing the clouds from above filled me with this unexplainable feeling of contentment. Everything was so tiny; a million lives, houses, heart breaks and triumphs were miles below me. It made my problems seem less important.
    Bryce was busy with paperwork and hadn’t said anything to me since we’d arrived at the airstrip. I was starting to realize that he oscillated between hot and cold faster than a snowstorm in the Sahara. I