“Come on, just one night? We can go see a movie,” he urges.
“I have a lot of work to do,” I answer flatly.
“Okay, what about Saturday?” I’m surprised. Charlie has never been so persistent about anything except surfing before. If Meghan were here, she’d urge me to say “yes” to a date with Charlie. “What’s the harm?” she would say, not understanding what a bad idea that is. Plus, I’m still not over Fletcher. I can’t accept a date with Charlie the day after I hook up with Fletcher, in his storage room no less. I throw a furtive look at the backroom and the metal table where Fletcher held me. My face grows red and my legs get a little weak at the memory.
Before I can answer with another excuse, Charlie turns his head and stares at the newcomer. “What the—” falls out of his lips.
I think I smelled Fletcher before I saw him.
He is standing in front of me, drenched from head to toe with bits of seaweed still wrapped around the trouser leg of his Italian suit. His dark hair is plastered over his head and bits of seawater drip from his squared jaw. He smells like the pier at low tide and I have never seen him so disheveled.
Yet my gaze can’t help but linger over the silhouette formed by his chiseled ab muscles against the damp cotton fabric of his dress shirt. Drops of water trickle over his broad forehead and down over his stubbled jaw. His wet, exposed skin gleam like bronze and his hazel eyes shine like diamonds from a dark cave.
A drop of water trickles slowly over the side of his face, traces the outline of his chiseled jaw, and glides over his neck and down to his chest. I lick my lips and want to follow that path with my tongue. I try to snap myself out of it. He always has this effect on me.
“What happened to you?” I ask. He looks like he just got spit out by a whale.
Instead, he gives me a smile that lights up the room. I remember the first time he smiled at me. It was also in this room and he was standing in that exact spot. The effect he has on me is still the same. My head spins and my mind goes blank.
“Oh, Fletcher!” Penelope comes to the rescue with a wad of napkins she stole from the counter. “Here, let me help you.” She blots off his wet clothes, but her effort is laughable. He is completely drenched. A couple of paper napkins aren’t going to help. Of course, I notice her kneeling down in front of his legs and looking up at him with a coy smile as she attempts to wipe off his mid-section. The girl is good at taking every opportunity. He deftly avoids her with a frown and she wobbles on her five-inch heels and tumbles down.
He walks up to Charlie and me.
“Dude, what happened to you?” Charlie echoes my question. “Did you fall off a boat or something?”
Fletcher spots him and instinctively pulls himself up to his full height. “No,” he answers quietly. There is a dangerous hint of territorial defiance in his tone that I don’t miss. “I went diving.”
“Well, I think you’re wearing the wrong suit for that,” Charlie jokes and stands up straight as well.
The two men are about the same height. Fletcher’s wet suit clings to him and shows off his muscular frame. Charlie’s casual surfer t-shirt and shorts ensemble does not hide the fact he spends most of his time working out and swimming in the ocean. Fletcher is taller and more intimidating, but Charlie is stocky and more powerfully built. The two men would be pretty evenly matched in a fight.
They stare at each other, silently reading each other and secretly sizing each other up. It is as if they instantly recognize each other as romantic competition, even though they have never met. I gulp nervously as I watch the two of them draw closer.
“Who the hell are you?” Fletcher’s scathing tongue is immediately at work. What can I say, no matter where he is, the man struts around like he owns the place.
“This is my cafe. I own this place,” the rightful owner responds with equal acidity in his tone.
Their outright male hostility is too much for me. I squeeze myself in front of Charlie and press up against Fletcher to break the two men up.
“What are you doing here?” I tug his arm and ask.
“Today, I thought I lost the most precious thing in my life.” A hard lump forms in my throat as I listen to Fletcher. “I was blinded by my own stupidity, I was only trying to force upon you what I want to give, rather than trying to understand what you really want. I’ve been stupid, and I made every mistake in the book. I’ve been an idiot and a coward. I thought I lost you, but then I realize that I have to stay and fight for what I think is most worth fighting for.” His eyes meet mine and his dark gaze makes my body tremble.
“Amelia, I love you and I will do anything for you. I will do anything to fight for us. I am going all-in for us. I will dive into the deep end for us.” His words shake me to my core. Warmth spreads from my chest into the rest of my body. I don’t
