by Alexis Daria
“We’re in a seaplane flying over a river in Alaska, and I’m a little worried my producers are trying to kill me.”
Next to her, Jordy covered his mouth to stifle a laugh. He gestured for her to keep going.
“I’ve been on three planes so far, each one smaller than the last.” She gave an exaggerated shrug and a grimace that wasn’t faked. “What’s next, a hot air balloon?”
Jordy smacked his forehead like he should have thought of that. She resisted the urge to flip him the bird.
The pilot cut in. “We’re beginning our descent.”
The plane dipped. Gina spun to face the window again, her pulse racing as the water zoomed closer. Were they going to make a water landing? They had to be. Despite climbing aboard at a marina, she hadn’t allowed herself to imagine the landing. With every second, the glistening surface of the inlet raced closer, but Gina kept her eyes open. She could do this. She was strong.
And if she died, at least she’d see it coming.
The pontoons hit the water, skimming along and kicking up a wave under the wings. Her stomach bounced, but she’d braced herself for a rougher landing. As the plane pulled alongside a small floating dock made of barrels, Gina pried her fingernails out of the seat cushion. She focused on getting her breathing under control while they disembarked, climbed into a waiting skiff, and motored to shore. The air carried the scent of salt and wet soil, along with a crisp freshness she could taste on the back of her tongue.
Fresh air. What a novelty.
Once they were ashore, Gina and her crew gathered on a pebbly beach that led right into the water from a clearing. Ahead stood a line of trees the seaplane pilot had called Sitka spruce, the national tree of Alaska. Behind her, the water. Nothing else, aside from the seaplane, the skiff, and a second camera crew she didn’t recognize. No stores. No houses. No cars. Just trees, water, and dirt. And sky. Lots and lots of sky.
Too much nature. Not enough civilization. Was it possible to feel claustrophobic in a big empty space?
Gina hunched into her big coat. “Where are we?”
Jordy didn’t look away from the tablet he shared with the other crew’s production assistant. “Alaska.”
“I know that, but . . .” Searching the unfamiliar crew’s clothing for logos revealed nothing. Gina pulled out her phone. No service. Of course not. Why would there be service in the middle-of-fucking-nowhere?
Better not to think about how far away they were from the rest of the world. Except now it was all she could think about. What if there was an emergency?
Eyeing the trees warily, she inched toward the boat. Growing up in New York City had given her a healthy distrust of forests. Forests had animals and serial killers hiding behind every tree. Didn’t these people watch movies?
Before she could stop herself, her nerves slipped out of her mouth. “You know I’m from the Bronx, right? I don’t do nature. I’ve never even been camping.”
Damn it. Gina bit her tongue as one of the cameras swung her way. It was the perfect sound bite and would without a doubt be aired during the premiere. This was exactly what they’d hoped for—bring the city girl out to the wilderness, film her freaking out, then toss her at her partner before she could get her bearings. The producers would do everything they could to throw her off-balance in the name of good TV.
Gina took a deep breath, then another. The air chilled her lungs. It was colder here than it had been in Juneau, but so fresh, she couldn’t stop swallowing it in deep, cold pulls. It helped focus her, but also made her giddy.
“You all right?” For the first time, Jordy looked concerned instead of gleeful.
“I’m fine.” Just having an existential crisis over the complete and utter remoteness of their location. No big deal. She shoved her hands in her coat pockets and balled them into fists. “Let’s go meet him.”
The crew checked her mic, touched up her hair and makeup. After she fed a few more lines to the camera about how excited she was to meet her partner, they started the trek through the trees.
“Don’t break an ankle,” Jordy warned.
Gina pressed her lips together and didn’t reply. If she’d known where they were going, she would have worn different boots. The soles of her shiny black boots were better suited to sidewalks than wet docks or dirt trails. They were currently caked in mud and sand, which crunched under her feet with every step.
Jordy was right, though. It would suck to get injured right before the new season started. With her eyes on the trail, curiosity about the man she was about to meet consumed her thoughts. What kind of a celebrity would he be? Would he be able to dance? And more importantly, was he popular enough to get lots of votes?
On Gina’s first season, she’d been paired with a young singer who’d started his music career on YouTube. While he’d been a great dancer—if a little too energetic—with a vocal fan base, he didn’t have the recognition factor needed to win over The Dance Off’s older audience. They’d only made it halfway through the season. Nostalgia could help, too, but Gina’s partnership with an aging actor from a popular action movie franchise ended after three episodes due to his arthritis.
Despite entering her fifth season, Gina didn’t have the fan following some of the other pro dancers did. Kevin Ray had been on the show since season one, and The Dance Off was now approaching season fourteen. Kevin had won four times. With his easy charm and incredible choreography skills, people voted for Kevin no matter who his celebrity partner was.
It made Gina want to pull her hair out. Kevin had reached the finals in season thirteen with a teenage makeup artist from Instagram, while Gina and her partner—a popular football player who’d shown marked improvement—had been cut in the semi-finals.
At least she wasn’t the newbie anymore—that spot went to Joel Clarke, a Jamaican dancer who’d joined the cast a month ago.
Since it couldn’t hurt, she sent up another prayer that her new partner would be up to the challenge. If he had even a modicum of dance skill and audience appeal, she’d do whatever it took to reach the finals and get a shot at The Dance Off’s gaudy golden trophy.
The trail ended in a large clearing with a two-story house made from planks of yellow lumber. A smaller house of dark, weathered wood sat to one side, and a hut made of . . . branches, maybe . . . sat on the other. A treehouse painted with a camouflage pattern perched in one of the tall trees.
Gina stared, taking it all in. What . . . the . . . fu . . .
This was . . . well, she didn’t know what this was exactly, but there was no way the collection of makeshift homes was the training camp of a winter Olympian.
As her plans for an Olympics-themed first dance turned to dust, anger kindled in the ashes.
Damn her producers. They could have warned her. When Jordy said they were going to Alaska, she’d dressed for a meeting at a ski lodge or an ice rink, or at least somewhere indoors. And they’d told her to do full hair and makeup. She was going to look ridiculous wearing false eyelashes at a meeting on a rough Alaskan homestead.
Bye-bye, trophy.
“Reaction, Gina,” Jordy said.
There was no way she could say how disappointed she was. Instead, Gina took a deep breath, and was assaulted by a medley of rich, earthy scents she couldn’t even begin to classify. Somehow, the natural aroma soothed her, and she found her voice.
“Wow.” It was the first word that popped into her mind. “This is like . . . stepping into another time. I mean, look at these structures. And is that a treehouse?”
There. They could splice her words with shots of the buildings, if they chose. It was the best she could do under the circumstances.
A loud, rhythmic thudding came from behind the biggest house. Gina didn’t bother to ask what it was, as the other crew’s producer was now guiding her toward the noise.
Years of stage training kicked in, washing away her irritation. It had no place here. She grinned at the camera, infusing her voice with excitement. “I hear someth
ing over there. I think it’s him.”
As she turned the corner around the back porch and got her first look at her new partner, her pulse pounded in her throat and stole her breath. She blinked and spoke without thinking. “Is he . . . is he mine?”
Mine. She hadn’t meant to say that, didn’t want to examine the mixed emotions the word sparked.
“Yes,” Jordy said. “That’s your partner.”
Hot damn.
The bare-chested man chopping wood behind the main house was six-five if he was an inch, covered in rippling, bulging muscles and smooth, tanned skin. Obliques and delts flexed and released with each swing, highlighting his pure strength and perfect form. The rustic axe acted as an extension of his beautiful body and hit its mark every time.
He was the kind of man who’d look remarkable doing any activity, but he fit here, as if he’d sprung from the earth fully formed—and conjured by Gina’s wildest fantasies—for the express purpose of chopping wood.
She wanted to lick him just to make sure he was real.
Jordy gestured her forward to confront the magnificent wood-splitting specimen. The camera crew surrounding him fanned out. Gina’s heart rate had yet to return to normal, and she seemed to have swallowed her own tongue, but she obligingly took a step.
A twig snapped under her boot.
The small crack stopped the man at the top of his swing. His head whipped around in her direction. As he straightened, the hand holding the axe fell to his side, and he scooped back his long hair with the other. Their gazes met, the bright blue of his eyes visible across the clearing.
Chest heaving, he swung the axe into the wood stump, leaving it embedded and quivering.
If Gina wasn’t careful, she’d start quivering, too.
A blondish-brown beard covered the lower half of his face, amplifying his intense masculinity to a thrilling degree and making him look wild, unpredictable, and . . . delicious. The defined muscles of his torso made her mouth water. She swallowed hard.
Work. Cameras. Job.
Ignoring her thudding heart and warm cheeks, Gina marched toward him. Around them, camera operators shifted to capture every nuance of their first meeting—every word, every reaction, every sign of nerves.
Despite her calm expression, this wasn’t Gina’s first day, and her mind whirled, connecting the dots as she approached her new partner.
Dot #1: The producers throwing her off her game with an unsettling seaplane ride.
Dot #2: Making sure she was perfectly groomed, with full hair and makeup.
Dot #3: Surprising her with half-naked wood-chopping and so many muscles, it bordered on rude.
Gina’s steps faltered as the truth hit her. Shit. She should have seen it right away, and would have if the first sight of him hadn’t short-circuited her thoughts.
This man would likely be the hottest guy in the cast, and Gina was young and single. It could only mean one thing.
They were being set up as this season’s showmance.
About the Author
ALEXIS DARIA writes stories about successful Latinx characters and their (occasionally messy) familias. Her debut novel, Take the Lead, was a RITA Award winner for Best First Book, and You Had Me at Hola, the first book in her Primas of Power series, is a national bestseller, Target Diverse Book Club Pick, and New York Times Editors’ Choice Pick. Alexis is a lifelong New Yorker who loves Broadway musicals and pizza.
Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
Praise for A Lot Like Adiós
“Alexis Daria’s A Lot Like Adiós is a charming, sexy spitfire of a novel! Between Mich and Gabe’s crackling dialogue and their palpable yearning, I fell hard and fast for this book, racing through its pages until I finally closed it with an overflowing heart and a deep, happy sigh. Romance readers, this is your new favorite book!”
—Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of People We Meet on Vacation
“A sexy and sweet tale that tells us home is more than a place—it’s where our heart lives.”
—Bolu Babalola, Sunday Times (London) bestselling author
“Second-chance romance perfection! I was under this book’s spell from start to finish, fanned myself several times (in the first hundred pages, no less), and fell completely in love with Mich and Gabe. A TBR must-have.”
—Tessa Bailey, New York Times bestselling author
“A Lot Like Adiós is the quintessential read-in-one-sitting book. You will not want to put down this fresh, sexy take on the childhood-friends-to-lovers trope. I adored every page!”
—Farrah Rochon, USA Today bestselling author of The Boyfriend Project
“A Lot Like Adiós is a thoroughly satisfying second-chance romance with the heat turned all the way up to MUY caliente. Gabe and Michelle’s journey back to one another is brimming with moments of scorching passion and deep yearning. A love letter to fanfiction, the old neighborhood, and that one person from your past you could never forget.”
—Adriana Herrera, USA Today bestselling author
“Scorchingly hot and irresistibly sweet, Alexis Daria’s friends-to-lovers tale is a sexy masterpiece that’ll make you wonder what your childhood best friend is up to these days. Michelle and Gabe’s chemistry sizzles right off the page.”
—Hannah Orenstein, author of Head Over Heels
“A Lot Like Adiós is a shining example of what a contemporary romance in the hands of a talented author can be: funny, sexy, inclusive, and real. I absolutely adored it!”
—Mia Sosa, USA Today bestselling author of The Worst Best Man
“Gabe and Michelle are my favorite hot nerds in the galaxy. This wildly sexy, emotional trip through their lives will tug at heartstrings—and elicit pants feelings—across the cosmos.”
—Andie J. Christopher, USA Today bestselling author
“With A Lot Like Adiós, Alexis Daria has crafted an on-brand romance filled with friendship, heart, and sexy situations that will singe your eyebrows. Her lovely Latinx story explores the pressures of family expectations on relationships before expertly delivering a satisfying and heady HEA. Michelle and Gabe are the two out-of-the-box romance characters readers want. A delight. A breath of fresh air. An absolute joy.”
—Diana Muñoz Stewart, award-winning and bestselling author of I Am Justice
Also by Alexis Daria
You Had Me at Hola
What the Hex (novella)
Take the Lead
Dance with Me
Dance All Night (novella)
Copyright
Excerpt from Take the Lead by Alexis Daria. Copyright © 2017 by Alexis Daria. Reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Press. All Rights Reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
A LOT LIKE ADIÓS. Copyright © 2021 by Alexis Daria. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Cover design by Elsie Lyons
Cover illustration by Bo Feng Lin
Hand lettering by Joel Holland
Title page illustration © adisetia/Shutterstock Inc.
Calendar illustration here © MCruzUA/Shutterstock, Inc.
Chat head icons © popicon; notkoo; Kuttly; oculo/Shutterstock, Inc.
FIRST EDITION
Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2021 ISBN: 978-0-06-295997-3
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-295996-6
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