We made our way through the hotel grounds until we came to an enclosed patio, and Elias pointed at a semi-hidden bench by a hedge of jasmine. When we sat, I could feel Elias’s body heat even from a couple of inches away. I glanced down, trying to focus on anything other than how close we were. When I looked at his feet, I noticed he’d taken off his work boots and was wearing black Birkens. His toes were thick on the top and very long, and he had a mole below his big toe that looked like a small coffee bean.

He noticed I was looking his toes, then curled them in, smiling self-consciously. “They’re very strange-looking. Too big.”

“I was looking at your coffee bean,” I said, pointing at his foot.

He laughed and wiggled them again. “You’re not the first one to notice.” He kept looking at me for another moment and surprised me with a question. “Are you sure you’re all right?” he asked, obviously picking up on my gloomy mood.

“It’s weird, but even though I’m missing my dad more since I got here than I have in years, it feels different. Better,” I said, and it sounded like a question. “Like it’s a wound I’ve been keeping covered and clean, but what it needed to heal was air and sun.” I shook my head at my rambling. “That makes no sense.”

His face turned serious. “You make sense to me.”

I frowned at how he phrased that and wondered if something had been lost in translation. But the way his kind, dark brown eyes were set on my face made me dismiss the thought. He moved a little closer, and his curls were almost brushing my cheek. I wished I could tip my face up to him, wanting to feel his touch on my bare skin with an urgency that startled me.

He spoke into the quiet night. “Just because something isn’t festering does not mean it’s healed.”

I nodded, then turned my face away again when he looked at me like he wanted to ask more questions. Before he could I stood, doing my best to shake off the intensity of the last few minutes. “I think I’m going to turn in. See you in the morning.”

He dipped his head and stood in silence, pointing in the opposite direction of my room. “I’m over there.”

We parted ways then, but as I walked up the pathway, I could feel the weight of Elias’s stare all the way to my door.

Chapter 4