Waiting for noon to roll around was excruciating. I had been up for hours and it was still only eleven, one hour until I could finally meet Justin.
The previous evening went down relatively well. I had to force myself to eat once the waiter brought our food to the table, because I was way too consumed with post-kiss feelings to have anything resembling an appetite.
Ashley didn’t stop trying to lure Justin into her web all night. She wasn’t even deterred one bit by the fact that Justin had admitted to kissing another girl. Thankfully, he kept skillfully turning the attention away from questions about his love life.
After dinner, we parted ways again. The guys went to hit up a karaoke bar, and us girls went for cocktails at some fancy bar.
Once I got home and went to bed, I hardly slept because I couldn’t get Justin out of my thoughts. I still couldn’t believe he had kissed me. He had even posted that apology video online for the entire world to see. Every time I watched it, a bunch of butterflies did cartwheels in my stomach. Seriously, it was like an Olympic match in there.
Now I tried to stay busy with work, hoping that would make the time go faster. With the wedding only days away, another deposit had hit my bank account and I’d made an appointment at the bank to talk about a loan. That patch of land would finally be mine. So many exciting things were happening all at once that I constantly felt queasy. I didn’t mind, though. After all, it was a good kind of queasy, not the I-ate-a-questionable-seafood-platter kind. Everything was coming together for me and I couldn’t be more thrilled about several of my dreams becoming reality.
Diane walked into the lobby, heading straight to the reception desk. She’d come to do another inspection round – as she liked to call it – of the property now that the tables and chairs for the wedding dinner had been delivered.
“Everything okay?” I asked, flashing her my brightest smile.
“It looks good out there. We will have to go over the table setting again, though. Asher’s Uncle Peter can’t be sitting next to Aunt Vivian anymore.”
I scribbled the info down on a Post-it. “I hope nothing bad happened?”
“If by bad you mean that Peter refused to buy a puppy and Viv reacted by kicking him to the curb, then yes,” she said.
“Wow, okay. I’ll make sure they won’t share a table.”
Throwing your husband out because of a puppy disagreement seemed like an awfully weird thing to do, but I didn’t want to get into a discussion with Diane. After all, the shenanigans her family got up to were none of my business.
“Also, Layla told me one of her friends had requested to sit next to that Miller boy. There’s nothing I can say about it – Layla is the bride after all – but I don’t understand why anyone would make such a request. The poor girl must’ve been inhaling paint fumes.”
I nodded. “Is this girl called Ashley by any chance?”
“That’s right. She can have him, though.”
Diane had only just finished speaking when Justin appeared at the top of the stairs. It was almost as if she’d summoned him by talking badly about him.
My hands started to shake as I wrote down the info. “I’ll see what I can do,” I told Diane, even though I didn’t want to. But like Diane had stated earlier, it was Layla’s wedding and she was the one who got to decide who sat next to whom.
Justin came to a standstill right behind Diane. Behind her back, he was miming the words she’d just uttered, making me snort.
Diane turned around and shook her head. “Speak of the devil.”
Justin held his hands up, a smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. “I’m not looking for any trouble. Honestly, I don’t know what I’ve ever done to you.”
Diane’s brows shot up. “May I remind you that you’ve dragged my Asher into questionable situations more than once? If and when you grow up, we can talk again.”
Then she turned back to me. Her mouth transformed into a hard line. “I can count on you to make these changes?”
I tapped my pen on the block of Post-its. “Absolutely. It’s all noted and will be taken care of.”
“Good. See you soon, Addy.” She walked toward the door, but as she grabbed the knob, she turned around. “Thank you for doing such a good job. I know it’s been a stressful undertaking, but you’ve handled everything in a professional manner. Well, apart from that duck escaping, and having Justin around, but nobody is perfect.”
As soon as the door shut behind her, Justin burst out laughing. “Why does a compliment from her sound like she’s reprimanding you at the same time?”
“Beats me,” I said, smiling at Justin like a certifiable fool.
“Are you free to go now?” he asked. “I know I’m early, but I couldn’t wait.”
I closed the computer’s browser and logged off. “I am. Carter will arrive any minute. What did you have in mind?”
“Lunch? Somewhere quiet where we won’t be disturbed.”
“Sounds good. I have to be back in two hours, but everyone’s got to eat, right?”
I grabbed my purse and joined Justin at the other side of the reception desk. We left the inn together. I had thought we’d go straight for his car, but instead he beckoned me to follow him on foot.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked.
“One of your favorite places in Old Pine Cove,” he said.
“The bakery?”
He laughed. His hair fell in front of his eyes and I had to resist the urge to swipe it to the side.
“There,” he said, motioning to the field in the distance. “You did want to buy this land, didn’t you?”
“I do,” I said.
He whistled out a breath. “Good. For a moment, I thought I’d made a mistake there.”
“This is the spot,” I said. “If everything goes according to plan, I’ll have lots of animals here soon.”
“You are going to get an alpaca, right?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Maybe. Didn’t I tell you how expensive they are?”
“Well, never say never.”
“I know. But I need to spend my money wisely. We can’t all be millionaires like you,” I said with a wink.
He put an arm around my shoulders and kissed the top of my head. “Who says I’m only a millionaire?”
My eyes grew wide. “You’re a billionaire?”
He chuckled. “I’m just messing with you. Gosh, you can be fooled so easily.”
“I’m having second thoughts about this outing,” I said, making a fake angry face.
He grinned. “You so are not.”
We found ourselves a small clearing near the edge of the field, surrounded by tall grass. No one would be able to see us here.
Justin put a blanket down, then started to unload his backpack. He placed two plastic flutes on a wooden tray. Then he pulled out a Tupperware container filled with strawberries, a couple of sandwiches wrapped in foil, and two bars of chocolate.
“Where did you get that?” I asked. “I don’t recall Kermit the Frog lugging Tupperware around with him.”
He laughed as he popped the lid off. “Mom gave it to me. I know, not exactly what you want to hear when you’re on a date. But I did make the sandwiches myself. Extra mayonnaise and everything. I bet you Kermit the Frog himself couldn’t make them taste as delicious, even if he wanted to.”
“This is a real date?”
He cracked open a bottle of champagne and poured us both a glass. “I thought so, but we can call it anything you want to.”
“Don’t you think it’s weird how the scale tipped from hate to… not hating each other?” I asked. I almost said love, but it was way too soon to think about that.
He put his drink down and handed me a sandwich. “For you, maybe, but I’ve always liked you. I just assumed the feeling was far from mutual.”
We were both quiet while we munched on our sandwiches. Part of me wanted to put my arms around his waist and kiss him, but the other part of me was terrified. I wasn’t looking to get my heart broken again.
“What’s going on in that beautiful head of yours?” he asked, making the butterflies inside my stomach do somersaults again.
“I was trying to wrap my head around you and me. More specifically, our kiss yesterday.”
His face lit up. “That was an unforgettable moment. Maybe we should do it again, though, to jog my memory of just how perfect it was.”
He put his food down and I mirrored his move. My heart leapt into my throat as he wrapped his arms around my waist, exactly like I wanted to earlier.
I opened my mouth to speak, but his kiss ate my words before I could form them. His strong hands slid over the curve of my back. I let myself get lost in his kiss, savoring the magic of the moment with every fiber of my being.
He tasted like strawberries and champagne. I tugged on his hair and we came crashing down next to each other. Then I pulled away from his delicious lips. I didn’t want to, but I needed to be smart.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
I let my shoulders drop and a heavy sigh escaped from my mouth. “I’m thrilled about what’s going on between us.”
“But?”
“I’m scared about where this will lead. If I give too much of myself to you, I’ll be putting my heart on the line. I don’t know if I’m willing to do that. Shouldn’t we talk about all the ways getting involved with each other could hurt us?”
He leaned back on his elbows. “Or, we could talk about all the ways this would bring us joy and happiness.”
“I want nothing more than for us to work out, but you’re an actor, Justin. When would we ever see each other?”
He was silent for a moment. It didn’t feel good to bring that up, but one of us had to before we took this any further. Before we crashed and burned.
“Yes, it’s true that I love acting and sometimes I need to be in a certain place for an extended period of time. But that doesn’t mean I’m locked away somewhere. We can still talk to each other.” He turned sideways, his eyes nothing but honest. “I could go on a hiatus. There’s this new movie they want me to audition for, but there will be other movies. There’s only one you. I would hate to give up the chance to turn this into something more.”
My heart set off a box of fireworks, but at the same time, a feeling of dread crept inside. “What if we don’t work out and you’ve left your life behind for me? I can’t let you do that, Justin. You’ll start to resent me.”
He shook his head. “I won’t. I’ve been thinking about this even before I saw you again. It’s part of the reason I came back to Old Pine Cove in the first place. Of course, I wanted to be here for Asher’s wedding, but I also wanted some time to think about where to go next.”
His words hit me right in the heart. He wasn’t going anywhere soon, which meant that we would have time to work it out, to see where these feelings would lead us. And wow, did I wish they’d lead to him and me spending every minute together.
“You know, Addy,” he started, “we could stop overthinking everything and just enjoy each other’s company while we’re both here.”
I grinned. “You mean kiss each other until we don’t have any breath left?”
He pulled me toward him and smiled. “Yes, you sexy mind reader.”
“Well, I can’t say I’m opposed to that,” I said and let my mouth land on his.
As far as I was concerned, we could keep doing this forever and I’d never grow bored of it.