by Anna Cruise
“Not a chance in hell,” he said, chuckling. He took a step closer to me and I drew a quick breath and he reached for my hand. “I was thinking of something else.”
“Oh?”
He led me toward an empty bench just across from the ticketing counter. A woman pushing a stroller barreled by, smiling and apologizing as she cut in front of us. She passed and he nudged me on to the bench.
“Why are we sitting?”
“I wanna ask you something,” he said. He shifted his backpack off and set it down by his feet, next to the duffel bag.
“Okay.”
“Did you have a good time?”
I blinked. “What? With you? Of course.” I grinned. “You showed me a very good time.”
He shook his head and smiled. “Not what I meant, but good to know.” He tried again. “I meant, did you have a good time helping. Going down to Mexico.”
“Oh.” I crossed my legs. “Yeah. I did. I told you that already.”
I did have a good time. I'd initially gone for all the wrong reasons. Even I knew that. But I'd found the right reasons while I was there. And I was glad I'd gone, glad my mistaken reasons had turned into good results. Not just for me, but for the kids I'd met while I was there. I wasn't dumb enough to think that I personally had changed their lives. I hadn't and neither had the books I'd handed out. If it hadn't been me there, Stuart and Brynn would have done it. But I hoped that the kids had seen all of us there as a testament to a number. That there was more than just Stuart who cared. There were others who would take the time to come and help. Even if, like me, they'd started out with the wrong intentions.
“You did a good job,” he told me.
I folded my hands in my lap. “Well, all I had to do was give out books. Don't exactly need a college degree for that.”
“Not what I meant and you know it.” He propped his foot on his knee and turned so he was facing me. “The kids liked you.”
“Eh.” I waved my hand dismissively.
“Stop,” he said. “You were nice.”
“Shocking, I know. That I can be nice.”
“Hey.” His voice sharpened a little and I looked at him. “You don't have to pretend with me.”
I frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“I don't need the bitchy, I-don't-need-anyone act. I've seen it already. And I've seen what else you can be like.”
“So I'm Jekyll and Hyde?” I widened my eyes. “Sybil? I had no idea.”
“Stop.” It was his turn to frown. “Why is it so hard for you to admit that you're a good person? That there's more to you than that tough exterior you show off?”
His words were like knives. I swallowed and looked away. I liked the me I'd cultivated. Not all the time but, most days, I was comfortable in my own skin. Happy with the choices I'd made. Because I was in control. I was deciding who I was and what I wanted. No one else.
“Annika.” He said my name softly and I turned back to look at him. His eyes were warm, his expression tender. “It's okay to be you. The real you.”
I felt the tears and I blinked a couple more times. I hated that he could get to me. “Great,” I said, pasting a too-bright smile on my face. “I'm a good person. Poor kids like me. Awesome.”
He let out a frustrated sigh.
I stood up. “Look, I need to go. And you need to get to your flight.” I re-hooked my purse over my shoulder and smoothed my white shorts.
“Here.”
He thrust something at me.
The envelope he'd been holding.
I stared at it. “What the hell is that?”
“What do you think it is?”
“I...” I swallowed. “I don't know.”
He stood up. “Take it.”
My hand trembled as I reached for it. I opened the flap. My breath hitched when I saw the contents. A ticket.
“What is this?” I whispered.
“Look,” he said, running his hand through his hair. “I like you. I like the girl I met that first night at the airport. You were hot and sexy and hell on wheels.” He smiled and shook his head. “But, guess what? I liked the girl you were in Mexico even more.”
I pressed my lips together and said nothing.
He reaches his hand out and tipped my chin so I was looking at him. “I like you,” he repeated. “Not sex with you. Not what you can do to me or for me. I like you.”
I knew he was waiting for me to say something but I couldn't. For once in my life, I was completely speechless.
“And I know we just met.” He smiled again. “I know that I still have a ton to find out about you. And vice versa. And we might not like everything we find. I don't have any illusions about that. But that girl I saw in Mexico? I wanna see more of her.”
“What if that girl stayed in Mexico?”
“Nope,” he said, shaking his head. “I know exactly where she is.”
“Oh?”
“Yep.” He dropped his hand from my chin and put it on my waist. He pulled me toward him. “She's right here.”
He kissed me, a soft, feather-light kiss. There was nothing hot or sexual about it. It was warm and tender and filled with the sweet promise of something. Something special.
I dragged my lips away from his. “So you just want me to drop everything and come to Mexico with you?”
“No.” His mouth moved to my cheek. “Brazil.”
“Brazil?”
He nodded. “Three weeks from now. Think you can clear your schedule?”
I thought about what I'd planned for the summer. The parties, the beach time, the bar hopping. I wasn't gonna lie. All of those things absolutely still held appeal.
But Stuart was offering something different. Something new. Something I'd gotten a taste of over the last couple of days.
And I didn't think I wanted to say no to that.
“Schedule?” I wrinkled my nose. “What schedule?”
“So that's a yes?” he asked hopefully. “You'll come.”
I touched my nose to his. “I'll come.” And then, with a wicked grin, “And don't worry. When I see you in three weeks, I'm gonna make you come, too.”
He threw back his head and laughed. “Damn right you are.” His lips captured mine but this time, he deepened the kiss, his tongue thrusting into my mouth, and I tightened my hold on him. For all of the right reasons.
After a moment, he pulled away. “I don't want to,” he said, sighing. “But I need to go.”
“I know.”
“I don't like goodbyes.”
“I don't usually do them,” I told him.
He nodded. “So let's not say it.”
“Okay.”
He reached for my hand, squeezing it gently. “You'll text me? Stay in touch over the next few weeks?”
“Yes.”
“Okay.” He stooped and reached for his bags. “Alright, I'm just gonna go. Get this over with.” He leaned close and kissed me swiftly. “I'll see you soon.”
Before I could say a word, he walked away, his backpack slung over his shoulder, his duffel bag gripped in his hand.
I turned around, back toward the exit. I wasn't going to watch him leave. I was looking straight ahead. Not just at the door in front of me but at the future, too.
I wasn't stupid.
I was still me.
Sexy and selfish, a little too bitchy for my own good.
Callous and conceited.
But there was another part of me, too, a part of me I'd just discovered.
It was tiny. A seed in the jungle of Annika-ness.
But it was a start. A start to some small part of me that I wanted to see grow.
I smiled to myself as I walked through the doors and back out into the San Diego sunshine.
I was going to let that part of me grow. Feed it a little bit, both now and in three weeks time, when I was back with Stuart Woodcock.
Because I was Annika Sellers.
And I always got what I wanted.
THE END
AUTHOR'S NOTE
If this is your first read from me, I want to say thank you. Thank you for taking a chance on a new-to-you author. I hope you enjoyed Annika's story and I hope you'll check out some of my other titles.
If this is your second or seventh or somewhere-in-between Anna Cruise book, I want to say wow-wow-wow thank you! It means the world to me that you've added my stories to your library.
I'm hard at work on my next books – a sequel to MAVERICK(finally!!), a sequel to SET IN STONE and a brand new series! I can't wait to share them with you.
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