Page 8 of Take Me Back
His gaze lands on me immediately. Well, not me exactly, but the phone in my hand. My thumb is itching to take it out of airplane mode so I can check my work e-mails and messages.
They have it under control,I tell myself. My very capable team has been prepped for my ten-day vacation, and I know they can handle everything just as well as I would.
That knowledge doesn’t make it any easier to let go, though.
I talk myself out of turning on my phone and instead pull my purse out from under the seat and shove my phone inside.
Dane’s eyebrows go up, no doubt with shock.
Maybe if I can still surprise him, we’ve got a shot.
When the flight attendants open the door, a wave of heat and humidity sweeps into the plane.
Welcome to Belize.
It seems like as good a place as any for starting over. All of the important milestones of our relationship have happened in tropical locations, so I’ll take it as a good omen.
* * *
Two and a half years ago
Benjie was in love. Apparently the bartender he’d met for drinks wasthe one, and they’d spent every free moment together.
If it were any other trip, I’d be ready to strangle him, but secretly, I was thankful for the excuse to spend more time with Dane.
Dane.
He was so unlike any of the guys I’d met for drinks or a quick dinner since graduating from business school, and definitely not like any of the guys I dated in college.
He was all man. It wasn’t just the tattoos and muscles, it was the way he didn’t fill every lapse in the conversation with stories about himself and things that should impress me. For some reason, that impressed me even more.
Wind whipped off the water and flung my hair into my face as we walked down a chair-lined aisle out to a covered pier. You might think it would be awkward to walk down an aisle next to your vacation fling, but not so much with him.
The companionable silence between us broke when Dane turned away from the water to face me. “I have to leave in the morning.”
I heard the reluctance, but also the finality of it.
“What?” I searched his brown eyes like they were going to give me an explanation. “I thought you said—”
He shook his head. “I know what I said. But plans changed. I got called in to work.”
“That sucks.”
Dane lifted a hand to cup my cheek, and we faced each other in the same spot where a bride and groom would probably stand tonight and say their vows as the sun sank into the ocean. “I want to see you again, Kat. Tell me you want to see me too.”
I swallowed, surprised he wanted to take what I’d convinced myself was a fling beyond the confines of the vacation.
“Say yes,” he said. “Don’t make me kidnap you the next time I want to see you.”
Thoughts and ideas streaked through my brain like pinballs going wild in an arcade game. This was the worst time in the world for me to start a new relationship ...
Dane noticed my hesitation. “You’re driven. Ambitious. I am too. We only get one ride, Kat, and I think you’re meant to be part of mine. Say yes, and I promise you won’t regret it.”
We only get one ride.Those words could have been tattooed on my heart for how much I agreed with the concept.
Life is short. Take risks. There are no guarantees. You might not get another chance.
Those lessons were hammered home hard with my mom. One day you think everything is fine and the next, you’re handed a horrible death sentence.
