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  She was torn between going with her heart and listening to her head like she had done so many times over the years. Shit! She wished now Cash had never caught that Greyhound bus and come to Luxury for his vacation. He came here to change his life, but had inadvertently changed hers.

  Usually, she was motivated by the need to understand everything going on around her, but anytime Cash walked into the room she wanted to toss all common sense out the window and live like she had never lived before.

  Solving problems had never been a difficult situation for her, but Cash was a struggle for her. He was everything she didn’t need in her life at the moment, but was secretly dying to.

  How could this be possible?

  Rachelle considered herself hardworking, thorough, and good at following through on anything that was placed in front of her. Never once had she thought about giving in to a whim and being adventurous about anything….ever!

  Action seeker wouldn’t be the two words any of her friends or family would use to describe her if anyone brought up the name Rachelle Williams. She was more of a duty seeker kind of person, which wasn’t something bad in her opinion, but could she make Cash understand what she was feeling without insulting him in the process? He was an amazing guy and she wanted a relationship with him, but would it last?

  “If I could only get a sign to show me what to do,” Rachelle said. “It would make my decision so much easier.”

  “How about this as a sign?” Cash asked. Coming around her, he stood at the side of the table and looked down at her.

  “What are you doing here? I thought you were upstairs talking to your brother?” she asked him.

  “I was, but I finished everything I needed to up there, so I came down here to see you. We need to finish our conversation.” He sat down in the empty chair in front of her and slid a piece of yellow paper across the table towards her.

  “What is this?’ she asked, glancing down at the folded sheet of paper then back up into his eyes.

  “It’s my address and phone number in California,” he answered. “I could tell after our talk earlier you still didn’t believe I was telling you the truth about changing my career path.

  “So, while I was upstairs, I called and gave my boss my resignation. I told him that I no longer wanted to host The Gossip or do any kind those kinds of those shows again for the network. I’m going back to being a freelance writer and reporter.”

  She stared wordlessly across at him, her heart pounding. “Cash, I don’t think you need to do something this life altering because of me,” Rachelle said. “I don’t feel right about it.”

  He looked back at her with complete surprise on his face. “I didn’t quit my job entirely because of you, but for me as well. I don’t feel the passion for it like I did. I already know my paycheck is going to have a lot less zeroes, but I won’t miss it.

  “So, I’m going to leave,” he said, pointing to his packed bag. “I need to get things rolling back at home. Since I quit my job, I need to start lining up job interviews as soon as possible.”

  Cash was leaving?

  Rachelle glanced down at his black bag next to the table. Why hadn’t she spotted it there? She didn’t know what to tell him. Rachelle was at a loss for words. She didn’t want him to leave let.

  In the last few hours that he had been around, she liked how he made her feel. Why couldn’t he just stay for the rest of his trip, so they could figure out their crazy attraction together? She hadn’t told him that she wanted to give up on them. All she asked him for was time to get things straight.

  “Are you sure about this?” she asked. “I don’t mind if you stay here for a few more days. I mean, you were already in the room. If you decide to extend your visit, you can search for work online since you’re a freelancer. Can’t you work from pretty much anywhere?”

  Cash shook his head. “No, we should spend this time apart. We both need to figure out some things first before we can go move forward.”

  “You are serious about leaving, aren’t you?” she asked, surprised again by this unpredictable man.

  The tenderness in his expression made a part of her melt. “Yes, I’m serious about building something with you, too. I was one of those people who thought love at first sight was just a stupid saying men agreed with to get laid by a gorgeous woman, but when I met you I slowly started to believe.”

  He glanced down at his watch. “I better get outside because I called a cab to come and pick me up.”

  “Are you taking the bus again?” Rachelle asked, reaching for the paper Cash gave her. She slid it into the front pocket of her slacks.

  “Hell no,” he shouted then lowered his voice. “I’m having the cab drop me off at the airport, so I can catch a flight soon. I learned my lesson about taking a bus. I don’t want to run into the same problem.”

  “I’m going to…” her voice broke off in midsentence as reality set in that Cash was leaving and she might not ever see him again.

  Standing up, Cash came around the table and pulled her out of the chair into his arms. “Rachelle, I’m going to miss you, too,” he whispered, staring down into her eyes. “I want to stay so badly, but I can’t. We need this time apart. It will be good for both of us.”

  A cold knot formed in her stomach. She felt impaled by his steady gaze as her heart pounded against her ribs. Rachelle took a deep breath and tried to relax. She swallowed with difficulty and found her voice.

  “I promise to call you as soon as I figure things out. I swear I will.”

  “I don’t doubt you will, sweetheart,” he whispered then leaned down to kiss her. As their lips were about to touch, the sound of a car horn broke them apart, making Cash raise his head. “I better go.”

  Standing up to his full height, Cash turned around then picked up his bag. He looked over his shoulder and winked at her before walking towards the front door. He opened it and went out without another glance in her direction.

  Rachelle stood, still watching as Cash loaded his bag into the cab and then got inside. Seconds later, it drove away with him in the backseat. Tears slowly found their way down her cheeks. Brushing her tears away with the back of her hands, she spun around, heading for the front desk.

  She couldn’t be breaking down when her sisters showed up. They had already been on her case about Cash, so Sasha, Akisha and Genise should all be happy there was nothing for them to still be worried about. Cash was gone and she wasn’t even sure last night with him really happened. It already seemed like it had been a dream.

  ****

  A half-hour after Cash left for the airport, Rachelle glanced over the dinner menu the cook had left for her approval for next week when her sisters came rushing through the door. They made a beeline for her at the front desk.

  “Rachelle, we need to talk and we aren’t leaving until you hear us out,” Sasha said, coming up to her. “Akisha might have met Cash and gotten fooled by him, but Genise and I aren’t going to be so easily won over by his charm. Now, where is he? Get him to come down here, so we can get all of our concerns out in the open.”

  Placing the ink pen down on the notepad, she raised her eyes to look directly at her younger siblings. They came all the way here to protect her from the unknown and she should be touched, but a part of her was pissed off.

  Why did they think she was too stupid to make her own decisions, as old as she was? Wasn’t she the one who helped take care of them when she was only eight years old?

  Now, they were all grown up and thought she wasn’t capable of seeing what was right in front of her face? She might have lost the perfect man for her because of their meddling in her personal life.

  “There isn’t any need for me to call Cash down here,” she answered. “We can have this conversation without him.”

  “Why not?” Sasha demanded. “Is he afraid to face all of us? We aren’t going anywhere until he comes downstairs.”

  “Well, you will be waiting a very long time because it isn’t going to hap
pen.”

  “All right, if it isn’t going to happen tell us why,” Genise chimed in. “Did he see us coming and run the other way out of fear facing all of the William sisters together?”

  She heard the heavy dose of sarcasm in her sister’s voice and bit down on her bottom lip to keep from snapping back at her. Her annoyance increased when she realized none of her sisters would want her in their business like this. They would tell her they were grown and she should allow them to make any kind of mistakes they wanted, so leave them alone.

  Taking a deep, relaxing breath, she blew it out and got her emotions back under control. She didn’t want to be mad at her sisters because in their own minds they were doing something good for her, but their constant questions about Cash hadn’t helped her situation with him and ended up sending him away from her.

  Of course, he had given her his personal information, but she wasn’t sure if she could do that or not. She wasn’t used to making the first move with it came to men.

  “None of you can see Cash because he isn’t here,” she replied, wanting to get this conversation over with as quick as possible. “He left thirty minutes ago and went back to California.”

  “What? He’s gone?” Sasha asked, surprised. “I thought he was here on vacation. I don’t understand what is going on.”

  Rachelle didn’t want to go into detail about the reasons Cash left so suddenly, but if she didn’t her sisters wouldn’t leave her alone, and she was ready to go home. “Cash needed to take a trip to clear his head. He had a lot of things going on with his job and he was trying to decide if he should stay or quit. Once he made his decision he packed his bag and went back to California.”

  “No, I don’t believe you. What are you hiding from us?” Akisha asked. “I saw how Cash was looking at you last night. He had genuine feelings for you, no matter how fast they might have happened. They were there, I felt them when I was in the room with the two of you. What are you leaving out?”

  “Look, I can’t go into this now. I need to finish up a few more things before guests start arriving for the conferences. We still have a few rooms to get ready and I don’t want anything to be done at the very last minute,” she said, walking around the desk.

  “You are hiding something,” Genise said. “We know you too well, Rachelle. Cash left for another reason and I’m beginning to think it had nothing to do with Akisha’s visit last night, Sasha or myself. Tell us what it is.”

  “Genise, I don’t know what you are talking about.” Confidently, she rejected the idea as absurd and kept walking towards the tables set up across the room.

  “Just tell us what is really going on here,” Sasha’s voice said behind her. “How could you go from wanting to have sex with Cash last night then him packing his bag and leaving this morning?”

  “If you want to know, I’ll tell you.” Rachelle spun around and placed both of her hands on her hips as she confronted her sisters standing behind her. “Cash left because I couldn’t accept his job. I didn’t like the way he made his money and he tried to reason with me, but I wasn’t having it. So, he made a rash decision and quit his job, then left to deal with the fallout from it.”

  “Why couldn’t you handle how he made his money?” Sasha asked, taking a step closer to her. “Was he a criminal or drug dealer? It must have been something pretty bad for you to push him away after battling us to further the connection you shared with him.”

  “No, he isn’t a drug dealer, Sasha,” she sighed. “You watch way too many of those crime shows on television. They are messing with your mind. Cash is the host of a show called The Gossip. It deals….”

  “—With telling fans the in-depth daily coming and goings of their favorite celebrities,” Akisha finished for her. “Wait a minute. I think I know who he is now. I thought Cash looked familiar. I remember seeing his face for a few seconds while flipping through the channels. I might have seen the show, but with so many on I get them mixed up sometimes. Also, he looks different in person than on television which threw me a little. But, why would you care about it so much? His job doesn’t have anything to do with you at all, it doesn’t make any sense.”

  “Akisha, you know how I feel about gossip. I don’t get involved with gossip of any kind, ever,” Rachelle reminded her little sister.

  “How can you not love knowing more about Roman Braxton? Isn’t he your favorite actor at the moment? I know you have seen all of his Battledome movies,” Sasha pointed out, ganging up on her with Akisha.

  “There is nothing wrong with watching a little juicy gossip show every now and again. It helps relieve the stress of the day. Now that I think about it, I’ve seen Cash’s show once and twice, it isn’t as bad as you think it is. If I’m not mistaken, he used to host a regular news program but it got cancelled and then I saw him on The Gossip several months later.”

  “Are you two seriously telling me that you don’t have a problem with Cash digging into people’s lives and making money off of it?”

  “No,” her sisters answered.

  “Akisha wishes her problems with Ethan were so easy to deal with,” Sasha told her. “She got a lecture from him this morning about staying out of his personal life because who he was dating wasn’t any of her business.”

  Instantly, all of her problems with Cash went out of the window. Rachelle knew how much Akisha was in love with Ethan and hearing those words from him had to hurt.

  “Akisha, why didn’t you tell me about this?” she asked. Coming up to her sister, she placed her hand on her shoulder. “What did you say to him?”

  “Don’t.” Her sister sighed, moving back away from her. “I don’t want to talk about Ethan. You are the one who needs our help. We shouldn’t have gotten involved with anything going on between you and Cash.

  “Sasha, Genise, and I believed the two of you were moving away too fast, but it wasn’t any of our business to give our opinions the way we did. It was for you to make your own decisions and deal with whatever happened afterwards.

  “This is just what I think, but I believe you shouldn’t let what Cash did for a living cloud your judgment about him. If you really like him, then find a way to make things work for the two of you. He might be worth it, but you will never know unless you give it a real try.

  “Look, I need to go and take care of some things, but if you need my help call me,” Akisha said. She turned around, went past Genise and Sasha, then walked through the lobby out the front entrance of Luxury.

  “Hmmm…We need to leave, too,” Sasha said, grabbing Genise by the arm. “However, I want to tell you something before I leave.”

  “What is it now?” Rachelle sighed, wishing she hadn’t told her sisters anything. She loved them dearly but sometimes getting advice from all of them at once was a little much.

  Dealing with her sisters was taxing her, because they were driving her more crazy than usual with their back and forth. She only wanted them to make up their minds about Cash and stick with it. She wouldn’t figure out anything if they kept tossing their cards on the table for her to sort through.

  “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have forced Genise and Akisha into agreeing with my doubts about Cash. You’ve done an outstanding job dealing with problems over the years without our help. You will get a handle on this with Cash, but I do agree with Akisha. Don’t force him out of your life over something so small.”

  “Genise, do you want to add anything before you go?” she asked. “I know you have your own opinion, there hasn’t been a time in your life that you haven’t.”

  “No, I’m good and will stand behind anything you decide to do. You’re my big sister and I love you so much. I only want you to be happy.”

  Jerking her arm away from Sasha, Genise came up to her and kissed on the cheek, followed by a hug. “Don’t think too hard and the answers will come to you,” she whispered in her ear. Stepping back, Genise spun around and followed Sasha out of the hotel.

  Rachelle eased her hand inside the pocket of her
skirt and pulled out the slip of paper Cash gave her before he left. She opened it and her eyes scanned over his bold handwriting. He had left this information with her in hopes that she would come to him. She wanted to be with him more than anything, but it was hard to change her personality that had been a part of her for most of her life.

  She was torn, and at the moment she didn’t see any way to resolve the problem soon. She needed to be alone with her thoughts for a little longer before she made any decisions about Cash because she wanted to make the right one.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Half, California…

  “How much longer are you going to keep lying to yourself?”

  Cash glanced away from the article he was typing on his laptop. He stared at his younger brother, who was standing in the middle of his study. He hadn’t been doing much since quitting his job at the network, but he didn’t think he had been lying to himself about anything. So, why was his brother calling him a liar? He believed they were starting to rebuild their broken relationship since he had come back home.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked.

  “You’re acting like you aren’t hurt Rachelle didn’t get in touch with you after you quit your job. I know you had been rolling the idea around in your head for a while. But you believed it might make her call you and she hasn’t. Why are you pretending you haven’t been thinking about her?”

  “I haven’t been lying to myself,” he denied, pushing his chair back from the table. “I just don’t want to get caught back up into something that meant more to me than it did her. I guess the chemistry I felt was one-sided. I need to move on like she has and just think of it as a fond memory.”

  “Rachelle was wrong for not at least calling and telling you she wasn’t interested in a relationship with you. I know long distance commitments can be hard for some people, but the way you told me she acted towards you, I was beginning to think the two of you might have something,” his brother said.