Samiah gathered the collection of blue Post-its outlining the procedure for data integration for the Android version of her app—one of the last steps before beta testing—and placed them in order on her kitchen island. She’d glimpsed only the tiniest pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel, but when she considered how long she’d been on this journey, it felt as if achieving her dream of building Just Friends was finally within her reach.
Her decision to use one of the many vacation days she’d accumulated was the best thing she could have done. Apart from a quick visit to Denise’s early this morning to welcome Baby Aislinn home, Samiah had sequestered herself in her condo and disconnected herself from all social media.
She’d made a concerted effort to expunge thoughts of everything but her app from her mind. It had worked for the most part.
If only her brain would refrain from its constant, annoying attempts to continue the conversation in the lobby downstairs last night, that would be great. But her brain was having none of that. It insisted on asking questions she didn’t have the mental bandwidth to properly examine right now.
What if she’d allowed Daniel to continue with his explanation last night? Would he have revealed that he’d been under duress and had no choice but to lie to her? Would he have apologized?
Does it even matter?
“You know it does,” Samiah acknowledged.
After giving herself a few hours to wrestle with her thoughts, she’d finally reached a place where she could accept that things were possibly not as they seemed. Until she granted Daniel the opportunity to explain his actions, she would never get answers to the questions that plagued her. Maybe she would give him that chance the next time she saw him.
If she ever saw him again.
A sharp ache pierced her chest at the possibility that his shocked, wounded expression just before she left him in the lobby might be the last image she saw of him. He couldn’t disappear forever, could he? In this day and age of zero privacy, she would eventually be able to track him down. But not until she was ready.
Just as Samiah returned to the sticky notes lined along her kitchen island, her phone chimed with a text. She’d set it to Do Not Disturb, which meant only texts from the few people saved to her favorites list could get through.
It was from Taylor.
Emergency! Need you at botanical gardens at Zilker Park.
What’s wrong? Are you hurt? Samiah texted back.
Just get here. Please. came Taylor’s reply.
“What in the world…”
What kind of emergency could she have gotten herself into at the botanical gardens of all places?
Samiah’s stomach pitched as she recalled a conversation she’d had with Taylor a couple of weeks ago. She’d suggested that the serenity of the rose garden would be the perfect spot for Taylor to hold a tai chi class. Had she gone there and hurt herself doing tai chi?
“Shit,” Samiah said.
She changed out of her shorts and into a pair of jeans, but didn’t bother to change out of her ratty Rice University T-shirt. If Taylor was spread out on the ground with a sprained back, she wouldn’t care about Samiah’s clothes.
She grabbed her keys and locked the door behind her, pulling up London’s number as she made her way to the elevator. She pressed her name, but ended the call before it could ring. Taylor would have tried contacting London first, especially if she was hurt. London must be in surgery.
Samiah rushed to the parking garage and got into her car, thankful she was only a few minutes from the park. It was just after three p.m., so traffic on Barton Springs Road should still be relatively light. She considered dialing 911 but thought better of it. She wasn’t sure what type of emergency situation she was facing.
She turned into the entrance and wound her way up the drive, paying the two-dollar entrance fee and ducking into the first parking space. There were only three other cars parked. That’s probably why Taylor had contacted her; there was no one around to hear her yelling for help.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Samiah mumbled as she walked past the welcome center.
I’m here, she texted. Where are you?
Japanese Gardens. Look for the Post-its.
Samiah stopped short.
Post-its?
She stared at the message for a heartbeat before swiping her finger across the touchscreen and calling Taylor’s number.
She answered on the first ring.
“Go to the first post at the start of the trail, just behind the welcome center. Follow the Post-its,” Taylor said. Then she hung up.
What in the hell was going on? If Taylor had pulled her away from her app for some kind of game, she just might have to fight her in the middle of this damn park.
Okay, so that was a lie. Taylor was in much better shape than her. Samiah knew her friend would kick her ass if they went head to head. Still, she would cuss her out over this.
She walked up to the first post. It contained a small plaque with an arrow pointing to the Isamu Taniguchi Japanese Garden. There was a yellow Post-it Note just below the plaque.
I tried to explain.
Samiah immediately recognized that handwriting, and her heart began to thump harder within her chest. She walked another few yards until she came to the next Post-it stuck to the stone gate at the entrance of the Japanese gardens.
I never meant to lie.
She continued walking, snatching another sticky note from the smooth trunk of a slender tree that stood just to the left of the trail and then from another tree on her right.
If I could do it all again.
I would do things differently.
She reached the entryway of the Ten Wa Jin Teahouse. The stone-and-bamboo structure stood as the centerpiece of the serene gardens, the view of the Austin skyline from its rear window one of the best in the city. London and Taylor stood side by side just inside the tiny building.
London handed her one note:
I’m sorry.
Taylor handed her another:
Please forgive me.
“You?” Samiah said, after taking the Post-it from her. She turned to London. “And you?”
“Before you start, let me explain my role in this little exercise that could get us all arrested for vandalism,” London said.
Taylor rolled her eyes. “I told you a few sticky notes do not count as vandalism—”
“Zip it,” London said, making a cutting motion across her neck. She returned her attention to Samiah. “You should know me well enough by now to know that I was ready to kick Mr. Cute Dimples over there to the curb on your behalf.”
Samiah looked to where London pointed. That’s when she noticed Daniel standing in the far corner of the teahouse. Her pulse quickened at the sight of him.
“But then I listened to what he had to say,” London continued. “And, well, I’m out here in the wilderness putting damn sticky notes on trees and shit. That should tell you something.”
Taylor gestured between herself and London. “Samesies.” She lifted her palms in the air. “I understand why you banished him to the doghouse, and if that’s where you want him to stay, just say the word. But…”
“But what?” Samiah asked, folding her arms over her chest.
“But maybe you should listen to his side of things. Really listen,” London said. “Never has the saying ‘stuck between a rock and a hard place’ described a situation so well. He didn’t have a choice.”
“He did have a choice,” Samiah said. “He could have told me the truth.”
“Yes, I could have,” Daniel said. He took a step forward. “I should have.” He took another. And another. He walked toward them, his hands in his pockets. He stopped a few feet away. “Can I please have those twenty minutes, Samiah? That’s all I’m asking for.”
“Give him the twenty minutes,” London said.
“Yes, give him the twenty minutes. We’ll be right over there.” Taylor nudged her chin toward a bench a few steps away.
“No, we won’t. We’ll go look at the roses or the koi pond or something. But we will be close,” London stressed.
“Thanks, ladies,” Daniel said. “I appreciate your help.”
London arched a brow. “You better not make me regret this, Dimples.” She pointed two fingers at her eyes and then at Daniel’s, as if to say I’m watching you. “Remember what I told you.” Then she and Taylor left, taking the trail Samiah had just descended.
Once they were alone, Samiah turned to face him and gave him three slow claps.
“I’m not sure what you said to get those two to agree to help you, but you deserve applause.”
“Desperate measures,” he said.
She nodded, and then walked over to the rear of the teahouse and sat on its stone ledge. She crossed her legs and folded her hands on her knee.
“You asked for twenty minutes,” she said. “So start explaining.”
* * *
Daniel wiped his sweating palms on the sides of his jeans, the lump in his throat increasing by several degrees. He walked over to where Samiah sat and gestured to the empty space next to her.
“Can I?”
She scooted over a few inches. More inches than necessary.
He settled in next to her and leaned forward, propping his elbows on his thighs and clamping his hands together. “By now you know that I wasn’t your regular Trendsetters hire,” he started.
“Understatement, but go on,” she said. She held a hand up. “No, actually, instead of going through this long, drawn-out explanation, why don’t I just ask you some questions about what I don’t understand? I don’t want this to take up too much of your time. I’m sure you have other things you need to take care of before you leave.”
“We can take as much time as necessary, Samiah. I was supposed to fly back this morning, but I canceled my flight.”
“Why?”
“Why?” he repeated. “Because I couldn’t go back without at least trying to explain things to you. This is the reason I’m here.”
Her forehead furrowed. “Wait a minute. You mean you flew all the way from DC just for this? Just to talk to me?”
“I couldn’t do it over the phone,” Daniel said. He took another deep breath. “We don’t have to go through it all step-by-step if you’re not up for it. You’ve probably learned the basics over this past week, that I’m a government agent who came to Austin as part of a joint mission to break up a money-laundering ring.”
“That’s pretty much all I need to know,” she said.
“No.” He shook his head. “What you need to know—what I need you to know—is that it wasn’t all a lie. It wasn’t some calculated plan that I formulated from the very beginning.” He gestured between them. “This—me and you, our relationship—it was never supposed to happen.”
She crossed her arms over her chest again.
“So why did it? Why didn’t you pull away? You could have politely put the brakes on this thing between us when you realized it was getting out of hand.”
“How?” he asked. “How was I supposed to do that, Samiah?” Daniel stood and began to pace the length of the small teahouse. “Do you have any idea how hard I tried to fight what I felt for you? I knew better. Getting involved with someone while working undercover, that’s how you end a career.” He stopped in front of her, his chest aching with the need for her to understand. “But it didn’t matter. I fell so fucking hard for you that none of it mattered. I couldn’t stay away.”
“So you lied to me instead.” The tinge of hurt in her voice crushed him.
Daniel closed his eyes as shame seeped into his bones.
“Yes,” he said. He looked to her again, struggling to find a way to convey the breadth of his regret. “It was wrong to lie to you, and I’m sorry. I should have done things differently. I could have asked my supervisor to pull me from the case. But that meant I would have had to give you up, and I couldn’t make myself do that.
“I know how selfish that sounds. It was selfish. Fuck, my bringing you here is selfish. Enlisting your friends to help? Making you think something had happened to Taylor?” Daniel dropped his head back and blew out a deep breath. “Look, you don’t owe me anything. Not your understanding or forgiveness. Nothing. But I had to make sure you understood that what I felt for you wasn’t a lie. It was real. It remains real.”
Time stood still as he waited for her response, the air redolent with significance, the weight of the moment like a living thing.
Samiah stood and clasped her hands in front of her. After several more excruciating minutes, she said, “This past week has given me time to work things out in my head. And I’ve come to understand why you did what you did.”
His brow crinkled. “What do you mean?”
“I mean exactly what I just said. I understand why you were compelled to steal my access card. You had several choices you could have made. For one, you could have trusted me enough to tell me what you were really up to.”
He started to speak, but she stopped him, holding up her hand.
“But I also understand that you had another, much harder choice to make: You could use my card to access that database or allow a group of shitty criminals to get away with committing their shitty crimes. Honestly, when I think about it, it’s actually not a hard call to make. You did what had to be done.”
“But not at your expense,” he said. “You could have lost your job.” Daniel’s heart dropped. “Wait, did you lose your job? Did they fire you over this?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Barrington understood as well. He revoked my access to the secured databases, but in the most ironic twist in all of this, that turned out to be a godsend. I’ve gotten more work done on my app this week than I ever would have if I was still being pulled in eight hundred directions at work. I even took the day off to finish up the data integration testing.” She shoved her hands in her back pockets and hunched her shoulders in a shrug that seemed much too casual for such a momentous conversation. “It’s taken me a few days to arrive here, but after looking at the situation from your perspective, I’ve come to the conclusion that you truly had no other choice. You did what you had to do. I’m not going to hold that against you.”
“Samiah…” There was no way it would be this easy. She could not be this amazing? There had to be a catch.
“You know,” she continued, the corner of her mouth tilting up in a brief smile. “Even if it had cost me my job, I think I would have eventually gotten over it. I don’t mind being collateral damage if it means some really bad people get caught.”
“But it wasn’t my place to put you in the position of sacrificing a job that means so much to you.”
She shook her head again. “My job at Trendsetters doesn’t make me. I can always find a new one.” She shrugged again. “Or, I can work full-time on Just Friends. I’ve put myself in a position where I’m not dependent on any single job.”
She crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her head to the side.
“You have cleared up the one question that bothered me the most this week, so thanks for that.”
“What question?”
“I was unsure if you’d started out with the plan to steal my access card from the very beginning,” she said.
“No.” Daniel shook his head so emphatically he nearly hurt his neck. “Please believe me when I say I didn’t set out to use you or to hurt you.”
Her lips eased into a relaxed smile. “Then that’s all that matters.”
He was too afraid to hope, but he had to ask. “Samiah, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying that if you had given me just a little more time, I would have eventually called to tell you everything I just said. And you could have saved whatever ridiculous amount of money you spent on airfare.”
Relief crashed into him. God, he didn’t deserve this. He didn’t deserve her at all.
“It was worth every penny just to see you,” Daniel said.
She walked up to him and tugged on his shirt’s hem, pulling him closer. “You keep that up and you’re going to find yourself in an ill-advised relationship again, Daniel Collins.” She pulled back, her brow furrowing. “That is your real name, isn’t it?”
“Yes, that’s my real name,” he said. He leaned forward and rested his forehead on hers. “And there is nothing stopping us from being in a relationship anymore. We’re free and clear.”
“Are we?” She wrapped her arms around his neck.
“Yes.” He nodded. “Is it too soon to admit that I am completely in love with you, Samiah Brooks?”
“Hmm, I’m not sure,” she said. “I’ll have to wait until London and Taylor get back and ask them what the boyfriend project handbook says about that.”
He arched a brow. “The boyfriend project?”
“I’ll explain later. For now, just kiss me.”