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Not only was I chock full of pent-up frustrations after the amazing kiss with Kelly last night, but I also felt terrible about how I’d pushed him away. He’d been nothing but kind to me—taking me out on an ATV tour, nursing me when I was sick, and then last night he’d given me a gorgeous, expensive necklace. And what had I done in return? Let’s see… I’d refused to share my beautiful suite that he’d rightfully won, bought him cockroaches as a gift, and to top it off, I’d dragged him under the mistletoe for a kiss and promptly ran away like he’d given me something contagious.
This morning, I also felt panicky that our trip was coming to an end. I decided I needed to pull up my big-girl panties and lay my cards on the table—tell Kelly I liked him and thought maybe there was something there, but that I was nervous about jumping into something so soon after my breakup. I hoped maybe he’d be okay taking things slow. But when I called to ask if he wanted to meet for breakfast so we could talk, he didn’t answer. By lunchtime, I still hadn’t heard from him, even though I’d left a message. Finally at two in the afternoon, my phone buzzed. Seeing Kelly’s name flash on my screen, I breathed a sigh of relief.
“Hey. I was starting to get worried,” I said. “It’s not like you to skip a meal.”
“I grabbed a muffin at my hotel before I went to find a place to stay tomorrow night.”
I’d forgotten the hotel where he was staying didn’t have a room available for the last night of our trip. “Did you have any luck?”
“Not anywhere around here. Every hotel on this side of the island is sold out. I found something about a half hour away, though. Before I booked it, I called the hotel you’re staying at and asked if anything opened up. They said they might have a room for me, but they won’t know until tomorrow morning. Apparently, a guest had a family emergency of some type and is trying to get a flight out, which would leave a vacancy. So I figured I’d wait on booking a place on the other side of town, since they seemed to have plenty of rooms there.”
“Oh, wow. It would be great if you could get a room here.”
“Yeah. Tell me about it. The walk to a hotel with blue balls kind of sucks.” Kelly laughed. “Less chafing if I can move closer.”
“About that…”
“It’s fine. I’m just teasing you.”
“It’s not fine. I was actually looking for you earlier, hoping we could talk about last night—about the kiss, I mean. What are you doing right now?”
“I was thinking about going for a swim. It’s hot as hell today.”
“Would you want to do that over here at my hotel? We could have piña coladas poolside, my treat?”
“Will you wear the white bikini you had hanging in your bathroom when you weren’t feeling well the other day?”
“The white thong?”
“That’s the one.”
“Sure, if you want.”
“You can’t see me, but I just fist pumped.”
I laughed. I could totally visualize the fist pumping. “Meet you in the lobby in a half hour?”
“Sounds good.”
Even though I was going to the pool, I put on a full face of makeup. I also heated up my curling iron and made some loose waves in my hair before slipping into the white bikini. I tied a sheer white sarong around my waist and added a big straw hat and sunglasses to complete my ensemble. Checking myself out in the mirror, I thought I looked pretty good. That gave me the confidence I needed as I made my way down to the lobby to meet Kelly. But my outfit wasn’t powerful enough to stop the nervous jitters that swarmed in my belly when the doors slid open at the lobby level. I was anxious and excited and…
What the…
I froze midstep getting off the elevator.
What the actual hell?
I blinked a few times, certain I had to be imagining my ex standing at the front desk. But no such luck. That man was definitely Trent.
The elevator car doors tried to close, but I was still standing halfway in and halfway out. So when they hit me, they bounced back open. The woman working behind the desk heard the sound and looked up. Noticing the shocked look on my face, her brows drew together, and Trent turned to follow her line of sight.
A smile spread across his annoyingly handsome face. “There she is…”
“What—what are you doing here?” I shook my head.
“I came to grovel and get my girl back.”
A few feet behind him, the lobby door swung open and Kelly strolled in. He took one look at me and whistled. “Wow. My girl lookssmokin’hot today.”
