AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Oh, who am I kidding?
I’m not immune to Jack Morgan’s compliments.
Far from it.
And… this effort I’m putting in, here in front of the mirror...? It’s for him.
My heart pitter-patters as I sort through shades of matte lipstick. I swipe on my Maybelline Cherry Red, blot the edges, and pucker my lips to see the effect.
Not bad.
Twenty minutes later, I’m all gussied up. I added silver earrings and a turquoise bracelet to my look and traded my flip-flops for a pair of ballet flats.
I grab my computer bag when I hear a knock at the bungalow door and tell myself one last time, It’s just a work meeting.
The sea breeze tickles my face and pulls at the ends of my hair. Jack sits across the table from me. We’re once again at the Tiki Grille, but this time on the far end of the outdoor seating area, closer to the pool.
Now that it’s 6:30 and the sun has set, underwater lights illuminate the clear, chlorinated water. More white lights run in little strings above our heads.
Two baskets of appetizers—a plate of fried squash blossoms and a shrimp cocktail — take up the middle of the small, round table. My laptop is out on the table, where a plate should be.
I ordered a white wine, thinking it might calm my nerves.
That was probably a mistake.
The few sips I’ve had already seem to be going to my head.
Jack leans back in his chair and studies me as he rubs his chin. He hasn’t touched his Corona. It’s sitting by his laptop, the lime sticking up out of the top of the bottle.
His eyes are stormy, not the clear, twinkling green of his more playful moods. He’s troubled.
By what, I don’t know.
Maybe his talk with Chad from Shopper Sharks didn’t go as well as he hoped.
Or maybe he feels the same tension between us that I feel. It's not easy being on this tightrope wire.
Here we are, supposedly hashing out a work task in the same outdoor seating area where we flirted for hours last night.
My fingertips dance across my keyboard. “Okay, I have their email sequence pulled up here.”
“We’re really gonna do work?”
“Urgent, Jack. The task is marked urgent.”
“You look really, really beautiful,” he says. “I probably shouldn’t say that, but I’m saying it. I wanted to say it back at your bungalow, but you rushed past me.”
I did rush past him—propelled by these freaking butterflies, which whir in my belly like an engine.
Secretly, I’m thrilled by what he’s saying right now. But I can’t let him know that. I keep my lips pinched in a line.
“I mean, wow,” he adds.
He’s wearing the usual Hawaiian shirt and khaki shorts. His hair is wild, and his features are a deeper bronze now that we’ve been on this island for two days.
“I don’t want any of your silver-tongue tactics,” I tell him.
“I’m not trying to persuade you to do anything right now,” he says. “No agenda.” He puts both hands up as if to prove his innocence. “Just trying to be a gentleman.”
