Mario expels a breath. “I love you,” he says.
The rain has stopped, the wind has died down, the lightning and thunder have rolled past.
“What?” Lizbet says, though of course she heard him perfectly.
Mario faces her. “I love you,” he says. “I’m in love with you.” He starts laughing. “I honestly can’t believe it. I’m…what? Forty-six, almost forty-seven, and in all those years, I’ve told only three other women I loved them. One was Allie Taylor in sixth grade, and yes, that was real love, the purest kind, awkward and unrequited. One was my mother, of course. And the third was Fiona. I loved Fee, but that was different because, although I would have lain down in traffic for her, we weren’t romantically involved.”
Lizbet’s heart feels like an exploding star in her chest. She realizes it’s time for her to say it back, but she wants to hear more.
“How can you be so sure with me?” she says. “Explain yourself.”
“Working backward?” Mario says. “When you ended things a few weeks ago, I thought, Okay, she’s not ready, no problem. Things had gotten serious pretty quickly and I knew you were coming off this other relationship, so I told myself I understood. But I was hurt by it, which was a new feeling for me, or new since sixth grade when Allie Taylor went to the Valentine’s Day dance with Will Chandler instead of me.” He grins.
Lizbet touches his face. He loves her.
“Before that? I wouldn’t say it was love at first sight, but when I saw you in the parking lot that first day in those sexy heels telling JJ to leave you alone even though the dude was down on one knee proposing, I thought, That poor guy blew it but I’m not going to.”
“Stop,” Lizbet says, though she’s grinning.
“Before that…” Mario says.
“There was no ‘before that,’” Lizbet says. “That was the day we met.”
“Before that, Xavier told me that he’d hired a lioness named Elizabeth Keaton to manage the hotel. He said you used to run the Deck with your boyfriend but that you’d parted ways and you were looking for a fresh start.”
“Lioness?” Lizbet says.
“Direct quote. You don’t forget a description like that. I was so intrigued that I did some stalking. I saw the feature about you and JJ in Coastal Living, then I checked out the Deck’s website, and I developed a little crush on you.”
“You did not!”
“I did,” Mario says. “You reminded me of Allie Taylor.”
Lizbet swats him and he says, “I’m serious. She had blond hair like yours and pale blue eyes and that sweet-but-tough thing going that I haven’t encountered in any other woman until I met you. I always said I was going to find Allie Taylor someday and marry her.”
Lizbet is starting to feel a little jealous of Allie Taylor.
“But when I checked Facebook, I saw she was married with four kids at private schools in Manhattan and I also realized I was happy for her in that life. The magic was gone. But when I look at you…” Here, Mario traces his finger from Lizbet’s shoulder down her arm. “I feel like I’m twelve years old again and everything is shiny and new and colorful and full of wonder. And that’s how I know that I love you.”
“I love you too,” Lizbet says.
“There’s a reason why I’m telling you tonight,” Mario says, “even though I’ve been in love with you for most of the summer.”
“What’s the reason?” she says.
“Xavier was crazy about the bar, our numbers are good, and you said he was happy with the hotel.”
“He raved,” Lizbet says.
“So today it finally felt real,” Mario says. “It felt sustainable, like I can dig in here. I can stay here and do my thing with the bar and you can run the hotel, and in the off-season we can go wherever the spirit moves us. I still own a place in LA. It’s a bungalow with a little pool out back and an avocado tree.”
“An avocado tree?” Lizbet says. She kisses Mario and pulls the duvet onto the bed. All she wants is to go to sleep dreaming of swimming pools and movie stars, an avocado tree and some Craftsman furniture in Mario’s bungalow. Tomorrow, she will still have to charm Xavier, still have to make sure everything is beyond the beyond for him; a hotel experience isn’t made in one afternoon or even one night. Lizbet closes her eyes and Mario starts breathing deeply but Lizbet can’t settle. She’s in a happy bubble, insulated and safe, but isn’t there the teeniest tear, threatening to deflate it?