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CHAPTER 11
Jimmy
Iwalked up the steps to the boarding house two at a time. As I reached out to grab the door, I realized I was out of breath and my palms were sweaty. I did my best to try and get my body under control before I opened it.
If I’d had it my way, I would’ve been there an hour ago. But I figured that showin’ up sixty minutes early might not be the best move, so I’d waited. Forty-five minutes to be exact. I was still ten minutes early, but damn, I just couldn’t stay away.
Taking a deep breath, I pulled the door open. I expected to see Mrs. B at the reception desk, but she wasn’t there. As much as I loved Mrs. B, I couldn’t say that I was too disappointed. Taking the time to say hi to her would’ve meant a delay in seeing Bella. And I wasn’t sure I could wait a second longer.
Thankfully, I’d been to the boarding house a time or two, so I knew my way to room sixteen. I did my best not to speed walk down the hall and stopped in front of Bella’s door. I wiped my hands on my jeans, hoping to get some of the excess moisture off before I knocked.
When the door opened, I took a step back and every thought evaporated from my brain. Bella was wearing a flowy, off-the-shoulder shirt and jeans that hugged her curves in all the right places. Her hair was up, exposing the slender curve of her neck and a thin silver chain rested on her collar bone. She smelled fresh and floral, like a dewy spring morning. Her blue eyes fluttered up at me through a thick bed of dark lashes and my heart expanded.
It had only been twenty-four hours—just one day—since I’d seen her last, but somehow, she’d become even more beautiful.
I was trying to play it cool, not reveal how seeing her again affected me, when the corners of her mouth pulled up and she smiled widely.
That was it. One smile and I was a goner. Any hope I had of holding myself together flew right out the window. Her smile was the sort that inspired love songs. The kind men started wars over. It was a smile that could both cure heartbreak and cause it. It had temporarily caused me to forget how to intake oxygen.
It annihilated me.
“Is everything okay?” Worry clouded her crystal blue eyes as that brilliant, powerful smile disappeared.
“Sorry.” I started breathing again. “You just knocked the wind right out of me.”
Her brows furrowed in question.
“If you were goin’ for breathtaking, darlin’, you nailed it.”
For a moment she just looked at me as if trying to decipher what I’d said, but then she shook her head and stepped out into the hallway. By the time she closed the door and locked it, I’d pulled myself together enough to try and express what I was feeling.
She took one step and I reached for her wrist. “I’m serious. You look beautiful. Stunning.”
Her head tilted to the side as if she were really considering whether or not I was telling the truth. It made me wonder if there was a chance the woman standing in front of me had absolutely no idea how gorgeous she was.
Could that be possible? Was there actually a version of this reality where Bella could ever doubt her appeal, her beauty, her magnetism?
“Thanks.” She smiled, but this time it didn’t really reach her eyes. “You look really nice too.”
Part of me wanted to stay right there, in the hall, until I convinced her that she was, hands down, the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen, either in real life or on-screen. But I figured that this might be more of a show not tell sort of thing. I was determined that by the end of the night, she would know how beautiful she was. Or at the very least, how beautiful I knew she was.
“Did you have any tours today?” she asked as we stepped out into the mild summer night.
“I did. I took a couple out for a sunrise cruise, and then I had a corporate group this afternoon.”
“Do you like what you do? Being out on the water all the time?”
“I love it. I can’t imagine doing anything else. Did you want to go back out on the boat tonight?” I asked.
We hadn’t really discussed what we would be doing. I had several ideas. The boat hadn’t been one of them, but I was more than happy to take her out on a romantic moonlight trip.
“Actually, I was wondering if we could go to Abernathy Manor.”
I should’ve guessed. Abernathy Manor was one of the biggest tourist attractions on Firefly Island. It was a short walk from the boarding house, so I figured I’d leave my truck there.
“Let’s go.” I held out my arm in the direction we needed to head.
Bella smiled again, the smile that was lethal. This time, I remembered to breathe as we began walking side by side.
