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“Whoa there!” he exclaims, stumbling back against the library stack with my unexpected weight. For a moment, our bodies are pressed together; my arms wrapped around his neck. Our eyes lock, our faces just inches apart …
And then I see it. Recognition, finally dawning in his cloudy blue eyes.
“Holy shit,” Reeve gapes, his jaw dropping in stunned disbelief. “It’syou.”
6
REEVE
I can’t believe it.
I stare at the woman in my arms in dumbstruck disbelief. Yesterday, she was buried under that ugly knit cap and a bulky jacket, and I was too busy trying to remember if I’d downloaded the security code to the house to put the pieces together. But now, crushed up against me with my arms around her body, and her big brown eyes just inches away, there’s no mistaking it.
It’s really her.
Lola—I mean,Ivy, gazes up at me, looking just as poleaxed as I feel. Instead of the sleek bobbed wig, her brunette hair falls in tousled curls, and she’s traded the skin-tight spandex for jeans and a red sweater, but my God, she’s just as beautiful under the glare of the museum lights as she was in the moonlight last night.
Moaning. Clutching at me. Almost making me lose my mind.
My gaze goes to her mouth.Damn, that mouth. Her plush lips are parted, and I lean closer, hungry for another taste. For a moment, she seems to mirror me: her eyes drifting closed, and her face lifting towards mine—
Then a door slams, somewhere in the museum, and she jolts away like she’s been burned.
“I … you …” she gestures, and I realize, I’m still holding her tightly.
“Right, sure.” I set her down on her feet again, but I can’t keep the massive smile off my face. “I can’t believe it, it really is you! What are the odds?” I marvel. “Out of all the small-town history museums in all the world,” I add, quoting. “I had to walk into yours.”
Ivy doesn’t smile back. “The odds are slim,” she agrees coolly.
Then she grabs a stack of books, and walks away.
Shit.
I hurry after her, my excitement fading. She’s mad at me. “I wanted to call, but I didn’t know how to find you again,” I explain. “You took off before I woke, and you didn’t leave a number.”
“I remember. I was there.” She shoves a book onto the shelf with surprising force.
“And I’m sorry about yesterday,” I say with a wince. “Not recognizing you, back at the house before. But in my defense, I was running on very little sleep and way too much caffeine,” I add, with what I hope is a charming smile. “You see, this amazing woman had kept me up all night on a wild adventure. I wasn’t seeing straight.”
“Sure,” Ivy says flatly. She isn’t charmed.
“It’s an understandable mistake, right?” I blurt.
She keeps shelving, so I keep following.
“It’s almost funny!” I continue. “Not, haha funny, but you have to admit, the situation has a certain wry irony. Your costume was … effective.”
I get a sudden flash of her in that maroon lingerie, and almost walk into a bookcase.
Get it together!
“I mean, you were the last person I’d expect to see here,” I continue, “so I wasn’t even looking for it. Context!”
“Your father-in-law shirtless at the community pool,” she mutters—at least, that’s what it sounds like.
“Who?” I frown.
She shakes her head. “Never mind.”
