Page 39 of Seeking Stars
Her grin faltered. He would have asked about it, but she continued the conversation.
"I'll handle the editing situation. Don't worry about it. Let's do what'll make you happy."
"Okay." He pressed pause on his desire to ask, to push, to learn why it affected her to learn he enjoyed flirting with her. To have her confirm that she was aware of the attraction building between them, and question why she didn't like it. "Then tomorrow, we're going somewhere else."
And maybe, with a new place and more time, he'd find a way to test the line where they could acknowledge how they felt, and take their sweet time to choose if they ever wanted to do something about it.
***
Ana helped Liam pack the car the next day, saying quick goodbyes to the cabin.
"Are you going to tell me where we're going?" she asked, setting the camera on the dashboard once more. "Again, I have coordinates only."
He started the car and began driving. "I'd've hoped you'd trust me a bit by now."
"Maybe I do. Maybe I'd still rather know, you know?"
"But you do know. It just doesn't have an address, either."
"How do you even find these places?"
"There's a secret society of fancy California hideaway cabins I'm a part of."
She laughed. "That can't possibly be true but, if it is, you have enough money to be eccentric like that, I'm sure."
Two hours full of banter later, they stopped at a grocery store to stock up. Liam wore his hat and with it plus his beard, he decided to risk it and join her for shopping.
When someone stared at them for too long in the produce section, he pretended to shrink behind her. He grabbed the back of her Foreigner shirt, scrunching it in his hands as he used her like a shield.
She laughed and twisted at the waist to hiss in his direction. "You know you're too big to do that, right? You're calling more attention to yourself."
He straightened and relaxed his hands on her shirt, and the fabric loosened around her again. He placed the tips on his fingers on her waist, as if unsure of it, and whispered into her ear. "It's just too much fun to see you squirm."
An involuntary shiver ran down her spine. She prayed he didn't notice. "If we're accosted by fans, I'll hold you responsible for it."
"There are like five other shoppers here. We'll deal." He took his hands away and took a step back.
She didn't like it, but at least she could breathe better.
Two hours later they were surrounded by forest, and Liam drove them through a narrow road.
"The thing is," Ana said, in the middle of a story, "I'm not fluent in Spanish. I understand it, but I can't speak it. So the first time Ely's parents offered me some tintico, I was extremely confused. Did I get it right? But I was too young for wine… and I couldn't even ask! They wanted me to practice Spanish. Turns out that while tintois a word for red wine in a lot of Latin American countries, it means black coffee in Colombia."
"So there you are, right after lunch with your parents and Ely's family…"
"And her parents are offering me red wine. Or so I thought."
He laughed. "And your parents didn't say anything? They knew about tinto versus coffee, right?"
"Yeah, they knew, because Ely's parents had pulled the same trick on them years before. But of course they didn't say anything. They wanted to laugh at my expense, too."
He chuckled and shook his head at the same time. "I think I'm not going to ask a lot aboutthatright now."
"That's probably wise…"
Liam turned into a gravel side road, following the GPS indications on the car's screen. After ten minutes, they reached a closed wooden gate; Liam got out of the car and opened it. Driving into the property, Ana studied the minimalist-looking cabin in front of them: clean wooden lines and one large glass wall, where the floor of the cabin extended to a deck and the roof to a partially covered terraza. A decent-sized swimming pool glittered on the side, trees all around them.
"A great find. Mo's gonna get a bonus," Liam said, bringing the car to a stop.
