“Well.” I cleared my throat and cupped my hand around my drink. “That was . . .” I didn’t have any words. Kind ones, anyway.
“Unremarkable?”
I knitted my eyebrows together. “Excuse me?” I never claimed to be the world’s best kisser, but if I were the worst, no one ever had the guts to tell me to my face.
“Come on. That was like kissing my sister.”
I pressed my hand to my chest as I bellowed in laughter. “Okay, okay. I agree. Kissing you does not go down in history as the best moment of my life.”
“I’m glad we agree. How about, instead of heading back to my room, we have another drink?”
“I think that sounds great.” We each ordered another drink and raised our glasses to each other. “To friends.”
Chapter Thirteen
Relief. That’s how I felt when I slid into the cab and we started the drive to the Hampton Inn. Asher and I hadn’t had a lot of time to talk because we’d been busy packing, and that was okay with me. I still felt sick over our last night on the ship, and nothing made me happier than being on land.
Trapped was the only way to explain how I felt when I saw Asher and Helena together the night before. When I saw them, my heart broke and the pain squeezed me so tightly all I wanted to do was forget I saw it. I considered jumping off the ship to escape, but I knew I couldn’t swim all the way to shore.
Though even while on land, I felt as if I were drowning.
We both remained quiet during the drive to the hotel. The cab driver glanced back at us multiple times in the rearview mirror, his face covered with discomfort. The tension between Asher and me could be felt miles away. Every time he tried to talk to me, I only responded with a shrug or a nod. I wasn’t in the mood to chat. I wanted to get to the hotel, try my best to get a restful sleep, and head back to Wisconsin in the morning. Back to my normal life where I’d have to find a way to maintain a friendship with a man I pretty much knew I was in love with and had rejected me.
We checked in to our rooms. I hoped we’d be on separate floors, but because luck was cruel to me, our rooms ended up right across from each other.
“Let me help you with your bags.” Asher reached down to take my suitcase before we headed to our rooms.
“It’s okay. I’ve got it.” I swooped in without even giving him an opportunity to touch my bag. He sighed as he walked to the elevator with me. The ride proved uncomfortably long even though we only went up a few floors. We reached our rooms, and Asher said, “Maybe I’ll see you later?”
“Sure. Maybe.” I shrugged as I tapped my keycard and the door unlatched. I opened the door and walked in. When I shut it behind me, I dropped my bags on the floor, fell to the ground, and slumped over.
How did this happen? How did I go from being heartbroken over Tim to realizing I loved Asher?
Loved Asher.
I unsuccessfully tried to blink away the tear that fell as I replayed the kiss on the crew deck. His soft lips, the way our hearts beat against each other, the sparkle in his eyes that held such passion behind them.
The way he wiped our kiss away like a speck of dirt on his shirt. I deserved an explanation from him. No, I demanded one.
I stood up, smoothed out my clothes, and wiped the tear from my face. I could do this. I sucked in a breath and exhaled it as I turned the door handle and stepped into the hall. You’ve got this, Isla. Just say what you have to say.
I knocked on his door with a strong fist. “Asher. Open the door. I want to talk to you.” I waited for a moment, and when he didn’t answer, I knocked again, harder this time. “Asher! Please open the door.”
Behind the door I heard him scattering toward me. The door swung open. “Sorry. I was in the bathroom. What’s the matter?” He cocked his head to the side. “Were you crying?”
“Why did you kiss me?” I blurted out the words and stood in front of him, waiting for a response.
“What?”
I didn’t know if he really didn’t hear me or if he was buying time. I shoved my way into his room. “On the crew deck. Why did you kiss me? If you didn’t intend to start anything with me, why did you even kiss me? Was this some ploy to confuse the hell out of me?” I felt like a bird crashing into a window.
“Isla, where is this coming from?” He slowly closed the door behind him. “I thought we talked about this.”
“You kissed me. Then you ran off and spent the evening with Helena like nothing even happened between us. You said the kiss was a mistake. Why did you even do it then, huh? Why?”
“Slow down.” Asher moved his hands up and down to tell me to relax.
“Explain yourself.” I crossed my arms and took a motherly stance.
“What is there to explain?” He put his hands on his forehead and rubbed his temples. “I wanted to kiss you, so I did. Then I freaked out for a minute. You and me, Isla. I imagined it for so long, and it scared me. I wanted to give you space after you and Tim broke up, and I was too afraid to even try to pursue you. It never felt like the right time. And you mean so much to me.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. Asher Boyd was pouring his heart out to me, and I didn’t know how to react. “You mean a lot to me, too, Asher. Do you regret kissing me?”
“No, I don’t. I could never be sorry about that. But I didn’t think you wanted it. So I left. I sang a song with Helena, and I realized I didn’t want to be there with her. I wanted to be with you. When I left to find you, I planned on telling you all of this. That’s when I saw you at the bar kissing Jack. Right after you kissed me.”
My mouth dropped open as I thought of him standing in the bar watching Jack and me kiss. “Had you stuck around long enough you would have seen that nothing happened between us.”
“It sure didn’t look that way.”
“Well, it’s true. Yes, we kissed, and that’s it. There’s no attraction between us. At all.”
“No?”
“No. But what about Helena? You and she certainly had your share of a good time.”
“We hung out a few times, that’s it.”
“What about that first night? When she was in our room?”
“She wasn’t in our room, Isla!” Asher never yelled at me before, and when he did this time, I had to believe him.
“Who was I hearing then? Explain that woman’s voice.”
“You heard me video chatting with Charlotte, planning your birthday surprise. She was giggling. Not Helena.”
Charlotte? No, I knew Charlotte’s voice, her laugh. I refused to believe that all this time I had misunderstood. I witnessed Asher with Helena. The chemistry between them couldn’t be denied. “No. That’s not what happened.”
“Yes, it is. I think I’d remember bringing someone back to our room. Why does it matter to you so much about Helena anyway?”
“Because I love you, dummy. That’s why.” I covered my mouth. Had I actually said that out loud to him? Stupid Isla. Now he’d do what every man in my life did—turn around and leave. I released my hand from my mouth as I realized something. So what. I couldn’t run from my feelings. This could very well ruin our friendship, but if that was the case, so be it.
“Isla.” He took my hands in his and softened his eyes.
My heart almost stopped. This was where everything between us became awkward. He’d tell me that we couldn’t be together. We’d never have a chance. I closed my eyes as he said it.
“I’ve loved you for the past nine years. I fell in love with you over a scone and coffee at the campus cafe when you shared your dreams with me.”
I opened my eyes. “You what?”
“Yes. Have you even been listening to anything I’ve been saying? I chased all those women away because they weren’t you. It’s always been you, Isla, and it always will be.”
We didn’t need any more words between us. Our lips crashed into each other, our hands moving up and down each other’s backs. I gripped the bottom of his shirt and pulled it over his head before ta
king my shirt off too. He unlatched my bra, and I allowed it to slide off me as he buried his head in my breasts. This was really happening. We found our way to the bed, and he laid me down ever so gently and made love to me just the same.
Chapter Fourteen
As we stepped outside the front entrance of Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport, Asher held my hand tightly. After a busy night in Asher’s room, where we committed ourselves to each other three times, I still didn’t want to let him go. The only time I went back to my room was to change and retrieve my bags before we left for the airport.
The air bit my skin, the fifty degrees a sharp difference from the eighty degrees we’d just experienced for the past eight days. I missed the warm weather but was oh so glad to be home, even happier that Asher stood beside me.
Charlotte offered to pick us up, and I wasn’t too surprised she was late. Being on time for her meant being twenty to thirty minutes late for everyone else. “She’s not here. Shocker.” I poked Asher’s side.
“Right? She’ll probably show up tomorrow morning instead. Do you want to text her?”
I started to dig for my phone in my purse when a car pulled up to the curb. A woman—Charlotte—hopped out, flailing her hands in the air. “I’m here! And I’m in a no loading zone so get your butts in the—Wait! Are you two holding hands? Oh my gosh, you’re holding hands! Are you guys, like, together now?”
She raced around the car to hug us. I didn’t even give her an answer, but I supposed our hand-holding made it quite obvious.
“I’m so happy for you two.” She slapped Asher on the shoulder. “It took you long enough!”
“Hey!” He massaged where Charlotte hit him. “And what do you mean by it took me long enough?”
“Are you being serious right now? It’s always been so obvious how into each other you were.”
“Really?” I didn’t think so. I hadn’t thought about Asher in a romantic way until I saw him with Helena. But then again, we’d never been single at the same time before. Asher did make me laugh—and I realized that I only laughed when Tim hadn’t been around. He always had a way to make me smile, and maybe I had found him pretty attractive since I’d known him. Perhaps there was more to that than I thought.
“Yes, really. I’m glad Wayne came home and I couldn’t go. This had to happen. What a perfect birthday!”
It hadn’t started out that way, but it really did work out to be the best way to turn thirty.
“Okay, this security guard is giving me the stink eye. Get your crap in my trunk and jump in the car. I don’t want to get a ticket!”
I loved Charlotte so much and really missed her off-the-wall attitude. She opened her trunk, and we tossed our bags in. She slammed the trunk, narrowly missing my hand.
“Careful, lady!” I yelled at her. “I’d like to keep my hand. I need them in order to do my daily Vinyasas.”
“I’ll tell you what I didn’t miss over the past week—your damn yogi talk. I love going to class with you but give it a rest already.” She rolled her eyes and smiled at the same time.
We slid into the backseat as she hopped back into the driver’s seat. “No hanky-panky.” Charlotte wiggled her finger at us.
I wouldn’t do that to her. I loved Asher, but I wasn’t one to load on the PDA. Gravity forced us back when she put her foot on the pedal and sped away from the curb.
“I don’t know who gave you a license.” Asher held on to the headrest of the passenger seat for an added safety precaution.
“The Department of Motor Vehicles of the State of Wisconsin,” she answered in the sarcastic tone that only belonged to her. “So what’s the deal, are you two officially in love then? You can’t leave me in the dark here. I mean, it’s obvious you’re hooking up, but are you in love?”
With how giddy she acted, I would have thought she was the one in the new relationship. It seemed as though she’d wished this for us for a while, so maybe she was as happy as me. And I was pretty damn happy.
I could only smile. I wanted to shout to Charlotte how in love I was and cry tears of happiness, but I couldn’t. My heart was overwhelmed with emotion, and words escaped me.
Asher raised his hand to my cheek as he stared into my eyes. “Yes, we are,” he said as he ran his thumb across my cheek. “I’ve waited years for this, and I almost can’t believe it’s real.”
He kissed me for about the hundredth time since we admitted our feelings for each other, and every kiss felt like the first time. I reached my hand toward him and placed it behind his neck.
“Whoa! What did I say? No hanky-panky!” Charlotte called out from the front. I almost forgot she was there. So much for my no PDA rule. Maybe with Asher it would be different. I wanted to show my love for him to him. I didn’t care who knew because I wanted everyone to know.
“While I’m happy for you guys, I do need to ask something very serious.”
Charlotte had my attention. I hoped everything was okay. “What’s up?”
We made eye contact in the rearview mirror. “Now, where are my souvenirs because I know you brought me gifts.”
Ah, predictable Charlotte. Both Asher and I laughed at her, and all she could do was laugh too. She was right, we did have gifts for her. I didn’t want to think about that in that moment, though. We’d give her her souvenirs later. Right now I wanted to enjoy the ride home, my best friend driving and the love of my life beside me. Turning thirty turned out to be a thousand times better than I’d expected. The waters might have been rough for a bit there, but from here on out, I steered my own ship, and I had those I loved beside me.
The End
Sneak Peek: I Thought it Was You
Kirsty McManus
Yeah, this was a mistake.
I should have trusted my gut, but I made the decision at two in the morning while I was feeling sorry for myself—and after almost a whole bottle of red wine. My gut hadn’t quite been working the way it was supposed to.
I had huge misgivings the next day—and I don’t mean the hangover. But by that point, I’d already paid.
I signed up to go on a cruise. On my own.
I mean, who does that, even when they’re sober? Admittedly, I will know one person on the ship, but that person is my brother Patrick—and while I knew he would have to work some of the time (he’s a croupier in the ship’s casino), he only told me later just how long his shifts were. As in, I would be lucky to see him for a total of seven hours for the whole week. And while the casino wouldn’t be open when in port, apparently he’d offered to cover a buddy’s shifts in housekeeping ages ago, and he couldn’t get out of it.
At least my initial impression of the boat wasn’t too bad. I’d never been up close and personal with a ship that big. The top deck loomed way overheard, taller than half the buildings in Brisbane where I’d just flown in from. And it certainly evoked a sense of excitement, with staff decked out in smart uniforms and handing everyone glasses of champagne as they boarded.
I collected my glass and tentatively headed up the gangplank. I took a sip of the fizzy liquid and forced my body to relax. I had to focus on all the positive aspects of this adventure. I was going to visit the Caribbean! I could technically just lie by the pool for seven days and read a book! And I could eat anything I wanted anytime!
But all those thoughts flew out the window when I entered the atrium, and the first thing that appeared in my vision was a bunch of sweaty twenty-one-year-olds playing an impromptu game of beer pong on a nearby table.
I was way out of my depth.
Being Australian, I always envied the kids in American movies, with their proms and their college sororities. We had a debutante ball, and a dance called a formal, but it was nowhere near the scale of what they did in the US. And we didn’t have anything like sororities or fraternities.
Now I was twenty-eight, and too old for things like beer pong, or living in shared dormitories.
A small ball flew in my direction and hit me square in the face. A
roar of laughter went up in the group. At first, I thought their amusement was aimed at me, until I realized everyone was looking at the guy, who obviously misjudged his target by a mile.
He came over to retrieve the missile. “Sorry,” he said, eyes twinkling. “You want to join us?”
“Uh, maybe later. Thanks.” I hurried off in search of my brother. He promised he would be around to greet me when I arrived.
Even though Patrick gave me clear instructions on how to get to the concierge desk—which he claimed was the easiest place to meet—I still didn’t see it immediately. There were too many people milling around, a lot of them already drunk and over-excited.
I finally found the desk and looked around. No one resembling my brother was in the immediate vicinity. There was a woman seated at the table, but she was busy talking to a man in a wheelchair and his friend.
I was just starting to get anxious when a voice spoke behind me.
“Hey, are you lost?”
I turned around and found myself face-to-face with a cheeky smile and dimpled cheeks. He reminded me of Cary Argos in The Good Wife, but without the over-the-top arrogance. (Apparently, the guy who played Cary was also Logan in Gilmore Girls, but I didn’t want to admit to anyone that I’d never actually watched Gilmore Girls. You got weird looks when you confessed something like that.)
“Oh, hey. Um, I was just looking for my brother. He said he’d meet me here. Do you work on the ship?”
He chuckled and looked down at his outfit, which consisted of an indigo t-shirt, a dark grey denim shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and black skinny jeans. “No. Do I look like I do?”
My cheeks heated up. “Sorry, no. I don’t know why I asked that. I’ve never been on one of these things, and I’m a little nervous.”
“I’ve been on a few. They can be a lot of fun. Are you part of the singles cruise?”
Circle in the Sand (Oceanic Dreams #3) Page 10
