AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I drummed my fingertips on my knees.
I hadn’t had this reaction to a woman since I’d dated Amelia from Production, and the attraction for her had built over time. This response to Ella was instant, and that was startling enough.
Her knitting needles clicked every few seconds. The pink thing she was working on gradually grew and developed more patterns the longer the flight went.
She ignored every attempt I made at conversation. Ella would answer my questions and then keep her attention raptly on her knitting in her lap. Beside her, her cousin Adelie would smile at me as if in apology—and I knew she was purposely ignoring me.
It made me want to pester her.
Call me immature all you want—maybe I was. I was like a kid sitting behind her in class, and her braid was dangling there, begging me to pull it.
That did it.
Life was too short to be serious and silent. Beforethis flight ended, I was determined to get her attention. Before this flight ended, I would get her to smile at me.
I sank deeper into my seat and bounced my heels against the floor. I was never one to back down from a challenge.
“So, Ella,” I began.
Again.
Her eyes flashed warily at me. Her needles’ little clicking noises slowed.
I’d already tried asking her questions about herself. She’d responded with one- or two-word answers and hadn’t asked me anything in return.
Trying to figure out what to say, I decided to stay away from personal questions until she got more comfortable around me.
“Have you ever played truth or dare?”
Her forehead furrowed, and she lowered the miniature blanket in her lap. “Not since I was in junior high.”
I waited for her to ask me the same question. I should have known she wouldn’t.
“What about you, Adelie?”
Ella’s cousin, whose hair was the lightest color of blonde I’d ever seen, smiled. She was pretty, too, but a little too on the delicate side for my tastes.
While Adelie was tender and attentive, I sensed Ella was full of pep and grit.
Adelie was the rose—and Ella?
She was the thorn.
“No, I haven’t.”
I slapped my hands on my knees. “Then let’s play.”
“I’d rather not,” Ella said without looking at me. Her pink lips were pressed together as if in distaste.
“I won’t give you any crazy dares if that’s what you’re worried about,” I said.
That pink mouth twitched. She flicked her gaze at me and lowered her knitting again, giving me the most direct glance she had since we’d met on the runway more than an hour ago.
It made my heart high-five my ribs.
“I can’t make the same promise,” she said.
Yep. This girl was feisty.
