Page 21 of Had to Be You

Laura remained frozen in place in her parents’ kitchen as she listened to the man she’d thought she was going to spend forever with and raise a family with greeting the rest of her family.

She’d successfully avoided seeing him for the past decade, which, in a town the size of Destiny Springs, was a miracle in and of itself. Through sheer self-control and iron will, she’d managed not to stalk him on social media and had done her best to earmuff it whenever her family discussed him or his family.

But he was here now. At her parents’ house. For Sunday dinner.

Panic rose like high tide as her eyes darted to the back door. She could make a break for it, but her purse was in the front room.

"Hey."

Laura jumped when she realized Lori, her older sister, was standing next to her. She immediately clocked her sister’s meek expression and guilt-ridden body language.

"Why didn’t you tell me she invited him?" Laura rage-whispered.

"Because you wouldn’t have stayed. And I don’t think it’s a bad idea for you to see him again."

Laura could not believe the words coming out of her sister’s mouth. "What the actual fuck, Lori?"

"Laura!" Laura heard her mother’s voice over footsteps coming down the hall.

Her sister fixed the strap of Laura’s bra, tucking it under her tank top, a second before their mother and Laura’s ex entered the kitchen.

"There you are, Mija. Look who’s here!"

Mario stood behind Laura’s mom, and Laura braced herself for the chest pain she was sure to endure from the knife twisting in her heart at seeing him again. She waited one beat, then two, but nothing came. She didn’t feel anything. Maybe, just maybe, in the decade she’d spent away from him, she’d actually gotten over him. Or maybe she was just in shock.

Lori nudged her with her elbow and snapped Laura out of her momentary confusion.

"Hi." Laura smiled.

Her lack of any reaction wasn’t because her ex’s appearance had declined over the years. If anything, Mario had aged like a fine wine. He had a few grays in his trimmed beard, but it only made him more attractive somehow. Like George Clooney or Jeffrey Dean Morgan. Over the last decade, he’d filled out his six-foot-two frame, which had always been athletic but had grown into a more manly, sculpted muscle situation.

"Hi Laura, I hope it’s okay that..."

"Of course, it’s okay!" Her mother shouted. "You’re family."

He wasn’t. But she would not be correcting her mother. She did actually want to live to see her thirty-sixth birthday.

7

"You have arrived at your destination,"the GPS voice announced.

Knox had always considered himself a lucky man. Hell, maybe it ran in the Savage blood. His older brotherhadwon the lottery. What were the odds of that happening?

Still, as he pulled up to the address of his short-term rental, he felt like he’d been the one to draw the lucky numbers. The address was above Snow White’s Snack Shack, which he’d been told by Chrissy was owned by the beautiful Ms. Laura Lopez.

He’d already been plotting a way to pop back into the curvy beauty’s life, and it looked like the universe, God, or fate had gifted him a way served up on a silver platter.

For the next three months, he was going to be living above her shop. He wasn’t going to have to come up with excuses to bump into her; it was going to happen naturally.

He was on time, which for him meant fifteen minutes early. Anything after that was late in his book. He got out of his SUV and headed up to the Snack Shack with an extra pep in his step. His step lost a little pep when he walked up to the glass door and saw that there was a teen behind the counter; the lovely Ms. Lopez was nowhere in sight.

For a moment, he was discouraged, thinking that he might not have just hit the meet-cute jackpot. What if she wasn’t a hands-on owner and was barely in her shop? Then he remembered that it was Sunday. Which meant she was with her family. She drove five hours, round trip, every week.

He loved that he knew that about her.

Knox may have only met Laura twenty-four hours ago, but she’d imprinted on him. He couldn’t stop thinking about her. The intel he’d gotten from Chrissy had only supported his initial attraction to her. She’d said that Laura was driven, successful, passionate, and smart.

Everything he learned about her just intrigued him more.

Source: www.allfreenovel.com