heard a lot about you.” He nodded as he took Cricket’s hand and raised it to his lips. “I want to know all of Cricket’s friends.”
“That’s nice.” She stood up. “I’m meeting Arnold tonight, so I have to run. It was good to meet you, Elias. Cricket, I’ll call you?”
“Yes. Catching up with you is always fun.”
She walked out then, and as soon as her heels clicked out of earshot, Cricket turned to him. “What on earth possessed you to do that?”
“I don’t like the way she speaks to you.”
“I can handle myself, you know.”
“I know.”
“You kissed me.” She tilted her head and studied him.
“I did, and then you kissed me.”
She had soft, plump lips. They were perfect for kissing. He could have just sat down beside her, held her hand and pretended like he was her boyfriend, but he’d kissed her. He had to kiss her. It seemed like the right thing to do in that moment. It might have been one of those impulsive moments that his boss was so fond of pointing out. There had been no thinking involved. His mouth just moved toward hers.
“Do you like tacos?” she asked.
He blinked at her for a moment, confused by the change in topic. “Yeah.”
“What about frozen custard?”
“The soft-serve kind?”
“Of course.”
“Yes.”
“Let me wine and dine you,” she said with a grin. “Or maybe I should say convenient food and converse with you.”
“You are so weird,” he said again, shaking his head. “I would love to have tacos and custard with you.”
Hideaway Island was one of those small coastal islands that felt a little bit like paradise wrapped up in a warm blanket. Cricket had spent her childhood in Miami and her early adulthood in the New York area. But she had spent all her summers there on the island. It was how she recharged her always draining batteries, and tonight she felt full of electricity.
There was a beautiful man strolling down the beach beside her. His feet bare, his pants rolled up, his eyes taking in the scenery around them. She didn’t blame him. Hideaway Island had to be one of the most beautiful places on earth. Especially at twilight, when the sky was purple and orange and the breeze kicked up and the air smelled like ocean and sweetness and something magical that she couldn’t identify.
They had stopped at the food trucks lined up in front of the boardwalk and dined on a bench before they embarked on their stroll. She felt at ease with Elias when she shouldn’t. He was a stranger. A stranger whom she had met in a bar! He could be some kind of con artist or murderer. She had already witnessed how smoothly he lied to Giselle about being her boyfriend and a surgeon at one of the best hospitals in the country, but despite all of that, despite all the rational thoughts that were always firing in her head, she liked him. She liked talking to him, being in his large presence. There was something safe about him.
There was also the fact that he’d kissed her tonight. She had been kissed before, but his had been the sweetest, because it had been so unexpected. She didn’t have time to worry about her breath, or what he was thinking or how she looked. She had just let herself be kissed. And she had kissed him back. Tingles, warmth and sparks all felt like trite ways to describe how she had felt when he was kissing her, but there didn’t seem to be other words for it. All she knew for sure was that she wanted to feel that sensation again, and it was going to have to be tonight.
Before her rational thoughts returned and she talked herself out of having more fun.
“Do you live on the island, or are you here just visiting?” she asked him.
“Visiting. I have family here. You and I met tonight because I needed to escape them.”
“Not a wife and kids, I hope.”
“Yeah, Serena is pregnant, too. I can’t take all her complaining and the kids running around the house like a bunch of wild animals.”
Cricket stopped in her tracks and looked up at him.
Elias took out his phone and snapped a picture of her.
“What the hell!”
“I had to get a picture of your face. It was priceless. You’re gullible.”
“You’re a great liar. Let me see the picture.”
“No.” He slipped his phone back into his pocket. “You might delete it.”
“Is it that bad?”
“No. It’s cute.” He wrapped his arm around her as they continued to walk. It was nice. His body was so large and hard, and for once in her life she felt petite and protected and liked for who she was. “No kids, wife or girlfriend. I’m single. My sister is a newlywed, and there is nothing worse in the world than being stuck hanging out with two people who are in love.”
“I could think of a couple worse things.”
Elias sighed. “I really like my sister’s husband. He’s exactly who I would have picked for her.”
“But?”
“We’re twins. We went to the same college. We lived next door to each other until she sold her town house. She used to call me every day. We were close.”
“You’re not anymore?”
“We are, but it’s different. Her husband comes first, which he should. But I kind of miss being the first person she tells all her stupid crap to. It used to annoy the hell out of me when she called me just to chat, but it was a part of my day. Now it feels like something is missing.”
She smoothed her hand down his back, and he looked down at her with a sheepish grin.
“If you ever tell anyone I said that, I might be forced to kill you.”
“Got it. Men break out in hives whenever they think someone might know they have a feeling.”
“I’m a manly man,” he said, deepening his already-deep voice. “I snapped my wrist and went in to work the next day with duct tape wrapped around it.”
“You didn’t.”
“No. It hurt like hell. I’m pretty sure I started crying and passed out.”
She laughed. “I don’t believe that, either.”
“I just remember my brother cursing and saying something about our mother flying to the States to kill him.”
“Your
