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The man lookedlike he wanted to kiss Gemma right there in the crowded coffee shop. Strangely, she had a curious feeling that they had in fact kissed before.
But that was impossible.
Gemma didn’t go around kissing men and then forgetting about it. Certainly not ones with soft pouty lips and big blue eyes. She woulddefinitelyremember doing that.
And did she remember it?
Flashes of familiarity nipped at her brain like parrotfish on coral. She knew this guy but didn’t remember him at the same time. And he obviously knew her—the look on his face almost matched the blind relief of homecoming that she expected to see on Patrick’s face in a matter of hours.
And that left her in a very odd position.
Despite their already humiliating coffee collision, she didn’t want to embarrass him by telling him he had the wrong girl. Nor did she want to embarrass herself by admitting she did not know who he was despite whatever previous meeting had him gazing at her like the promised land.
Gemma forced herself to feel the floor beneath her feetand shifted to reclaim her balance. She removed her arm from the man’s hand and politely laughed. “I’m sorry, but I can’t seem to remember—”
He all but lunged at her. “Yes!Yes you can, Gemma. I see it in your eyes.”
At the sound of her name, she stepped back. Their encounter had crossed from charming-meet-cute-misunderstanding to downright concerning in a snap.
“How do you know my name?”
“Because I know you. And you know me! I’m Jack.” He pressed his hand to his chest and reached for her with his other. His words came out in a rush. “We met last night at your friend’s birthday party. Well, technically it’s tonight, and technically it hasn’t happened for you yet, but we know each other, I swear.”
Gemma pulled from his grip and stepped farther away. She knew L.A. attracted some weirdos, but this guy was pushing it.
A desperate, startled look shot across his face. “Okay, I know that sounded absurd, but let me explain.” He stopped reaching for her and calmly held up his hands like she was a frightened animal about to bolt. “I’m sorry if I startled you, but weird things have been happening to you today, right? You’ve been remembering things? Feeling like they’ve happened before?”
The fact that he knew that made her want to run away at the same time it made her want to listen.
He recognized the willingness on her face; he had her ear at least, if only hesitantly. He slowly nodded. “It’s because ithashappened before.” He waved his hands between them like he was casting a spell over a cauldron. “This. Us.”
Gemma glanced around the room. The spectacle they had provided with the coffee fountain was already old news. But even with everyone having gone back to business and appearing to ignore them, she searched for knowing eyes, because she had obviously stumbled into some kind of hidden-camera prank, and someone was watching. It was the only explanation for this handsome stranger having plowed into her, called her by name, and then insisted that they knew each other. The fact that he knew about her otherwise strange morning was admittedly more difficult to explain. But she would not succumb and make a fool of herself. Even if she wanted to throw herself at him, grip his lovely forearms—had she seen that vintage wristwatch before?—and confess that he was completely right, she would not turn herself into a viral video for the sake of a joke.
She gathered herself and searched for a reason to end their confrontation. “Sorry. I have to call my brother,” she said when she realized she was holding her phone. How she had not dropped it in the collision, she wasn’t sure. And how it avoided a sticky, scalding latte bath was nothing short of a miracle.
She turned to step away, and he lunged at her again.
“No, you don’t, Gemma. Your brother doesn’t make it.”
She wheeled on him in horror.“What?!”
Visions of a fiery plane crash must have been written all over her face because he visibly backpedaled.
“Oh god, no! Not like that! Sorry. I mean he takes another flight and gets stuck in Atlanta, or Dallas, or Salt Lake City. One time in San Francisco and tries to rent a car to drive the rest of the way. I meant he never makes ithere, to L.A., anytime today. At least he never has before.”
The synapses in her brain had instantly fireddisasteras soon as he said Patrick didn’t make it. She was so quick to worry about her brother’s safety that she completely forgot to wonder how this stranger could have impossibly full knowledge of his travel plans.
She reeled for the third time in what felt like as many minutes.
“How do you know my brother is trying to fly here?”
Jack took a big breath as if in effort to calm them both. He held her gaze with his bright, pleading eyes. “Because I told you: this has happened before.”
She watched him with growing uncertainty at the same time she felt he was sure he knew what he was talking about. He spoke with enough conviction to mean either he was telling the truth or he was completely delusional. Despite herself, Gemma hoped for the former, even though it might make her delusional as well, because she didn’t want to think that this handsome man was trapped in some unfortunate prison of his own mind’s making.
“Please,” he said. “Let’s go sit down and I can explain.” He gestured to an empty table in the window.
