in a wave.
She blinked. Hard. He was still there. She’d never seen him in anything but a suit before. Certainly never seen him smile like that. David Pearson actually looked a little nervous. But that was impossible. In fact, this was nuts. What could he possibly be doing here?
“Mia?”
She blinked again, felt the heat of someone close behind her. A hand touched her shoulder, and she slowly turned.
“Mia, right?” It was red-swim-trunks guy.
She stared blankly at him, her mind still on David.
“It’s Jeff.”
“Jeff. Right. Of course.” She looked into his familiar blue eyes and forced a smile.
He gave her a lopsided grin, ducked and zeroed in for a kiss on the mouth.
She turned her head just in time. The wet sloppy smooch landed on her cheek. His beer-saturated breath nearly knocked her over.
“Sorry,” he mumbled, taking a second to right himself. “I wasn’t sure you’d show up. I couldn’t believe it when I read your post on Facebook. That was wild.”
Mortified that David had seen what had happened, she leaned back, trying to put some distance between her and Jeff, who took the hint and sat on the stool beside her, fortunately not too close and blocking her view of David.
“When did you get here?” she asked, scrambling to concentrate.
“Yesterday morning. Me and two of my buddies. We got too much sun yesterday and spent more time than we should have at the bar today.” He smiled sheepishly. “You just get in?”
“A couple of hours ago. My friends are still unpacking.”
The bartender came for Jeff’s order, and she was relieved when he asked for a soft drink. Though she was disappointed that mentioning her friends hadn’t prompted him to volunteer whether his two buddies were the ones Lindsey and Shelby were expecting. She glanced at his friends and pretty much figured it out on her own. They didn’t look the least bit familiar, and boy, were they not the right type.
Her gaze went back to Jeff and she found his bloodshot eyes fixed intently on her. “You look the same,” he said, sounding relieved. “Your hair is shorter.”
“Yours, too.”
“Yeah.” He self-consciously rubbed the back of his neck. “Good ol’ corporate America.”
“Jeff.”
His friends hollered from across the bar, and when he turned to acknowledge them, she shot a look toward David. His seat was vacant, his glass half-empty. Her gaze shifted in time to catch a glimpse of his back as he left the bar.
“Look, we’ve rented surfboards,” Jeff said, signaling for his check. “You wanna come?”
“Maybe another day.”
“How about dinner?” Jeff lightly touched her hand and gave her the boyishly charming smile that had gotten to her six years ago. “You have plans yet?”
Her wistful gaze drifted helplessly toward the stool where David had been sitting only seconds ago. What was he doing here? It made no sense. Whatever the reason, it couldn’t have anything to do with her. He probably hadn’t given her a moment’s thought since she’d left. As soon as it was announced that she’d given her notice, nearly everyone had tried to talk her into staying with the firm. But not David. He hadn’t said a single damn word. This was simply a coincidence. A bizarre crazy coincidence. “No,” she said finally. “No, I don’t have plans.”
“I’ll make reservations someplace nice, and call your room when I get back. Okay?”
“Sure. I’m looking forward to it.” She didn’t even mind when he kissed her cheek.
DAVID HOPED HE WASN’T hanging around the lobby like an idiot for nothing. He checked his watch, then for the second time in five minutes, looked at his BlackBerry for messages, while mentally cursing his own stupidity. For God’s sake, he knew why she was here. He’d overheard the ladies talking in the break room about Mia and her friends’ plan to organize a reunion or some such thing relating to their senior year spring break.
Frankly it had sounded odd to him, not at all like something Mia would be involved in. He thought back to his own spring break, the last one before going to law school, and smiled. He and three friends had gone to Barbados for the week, where there had been a lot of women, too much drinking and not a shred of common sense among them. Twice they’d had to buy their way out of sticky situations with the local authorities.
Though nothing to be proud of, he wouldn’t have traded that wonderful, reckless carefree week for anything. Everyone needed that rite of passage. A few months later, he’d been firmly embedded in law school, studying his ass off, and doing the Pearson name proud. He hadn’t veered off course since, and he certainly wouldn’t pull an adolescent stunt like trying to recreate the week.
Hard to believe Mia was part of this at all. She was a damn fine lawyer, a sensible, focused woman. He admired that about her, and so much more. She was poised and sexy and had the most incredible green eyes that had the damning effect of turning his insides to butter. Which made him twice the fool for having followed her here.
No one at the firm knew he was here, except his father and uncle, and neither had said a word about him taking off in search of Mia. In fact, they had breathed a sigh of relief that he was on the case. Only David had known that he wasn’t in Hawaii to gain a client, no matter how desperately the company needed the influx of cash. He had come to see Mia for himself.
In the short time since she’d given her notice, too many of his thoughts had been regrets. He’d hidden his feelings for her for so long, he’d almost convinced himself that she didn’t fill him with want. He’d cursed the fact that she worked for his firm, which made her off-limits. Now, when his opportunity was finally here, when there would be no negative repercussions if he asked her out, he couldn’t. Not if he wanted to save a lot of jobs.
He didn’t even know if it mattered. She might have no interest in him. He was boring, serious, a drill sergeant. He’d heard the nicknames too often when his employees had thought they were alone. David had no reason to think Mia would want to see him now.
But he needed to know. Once and for all. If she laughed in his face, it would be a good thing. He’d be able to stop thinking about her, fantasizing about that beautiful body. That quick wit. What might have been. Sure it would hurt, but not forever.
He needed to know before he asked her to come back to the firm. Before it became a moot point. Again.
He checked his watch. If she didn’t show up within the next three minutes, it meant she was still hanging out at the bar with her new friend, and David would be wise to think about taking the next flight back to New York.
AS SOON AS JEFF LEFT, Mia drained her drink, and headed through the lobby toward the elevators. The first thing she was going to do was find out if David was registered at the hotel. If not, she’d call Suzie, an admin assistant who’d started with Pearson and Stern about the same time as Mia, and find out what the woman knew about why David was here. She was older and married with two children, and unlike most of the associates
