The Do-Over Read online

  “Tash?” My eyes met his, and it was obvious he had caught me checking him out. “You okay?”

  “I’m fine,” I clipped, hating how bitchy I sounded, and tried to clear the air. “Thank you again.” I reached for the bag, but he didn’t let it go. “Vince?”

  “Where to?”

  “I can take my own—“

  “I didn’t say you couldn’t.” He sighed, and it was then, in a crowded airport, people walking past us, that I noted how tired he looked.

  Still handsome. I didn’t think it was possible for Vince Cruz not to be handsome—it was against the rules of physics—but he was tired. Dark circles under his eyes made me want to pull him in and kiss him. Soothe him. Urge him to rest.

  “I was going to take a taxi.” My voice slightly gentler, I tried to not be such a brat.

  “Taxi it is.” Without exchanging another word, we walked together.

  He stood in line with me, and when my turn came up next, I was trying to search for the perfect parting words, but my mind was completely blank.

  No. That wasn’t true. My mind was filled with what the hell he was doing here. He’d come out here with hopes of what, I wasn’t sure. Even though I didn’t press for more and he didn’t bring it up again, I was curious. Vince was a lot of things.

  Impulsive wasn’t one of them.

  “Adonde?” The driver asked where I was going, meaning I had officially run out of time. The questions were on the tip of my tongue. Why are you here? What do you want from me?

  “Natasha, where are you going?”

  “Right,” I mumbled, “Bambu Gran Palas, por favor.” I politely said the name the hostel I was planning on staying at and turned to look at Vince. “Thanks again. Umm, I hope…”

  “Senorita apurese, por favor.” The taxi driver urged for me to hurry, and I licked my lips.

  “You gotta get in, babe.”

  “Right. Okay, then.” I slid into the back seat and looked at my hands on my lap. Right. Okay, then. What? That’s what I said?

  “Listos?” I looked up and felt his heat, his scent filling the back seat. I stared at him. Vince was in the back seat with me.

  “Si, gracias,” Vince thanked the driver, and off the man drove.

  “What are you doing, Vince?”

  “We need to talk.”

  “I’m pretty sure we don’t have anything—”

  “I’m positive you’re wrong.” His hand covered mine, and the heat that seeped into me, made me shut my mouth.

  I couldn’t help it. I liked this side of him. Who didn’t like being pursued? He’d never chased after me. When we started dating, it had been like two pieces melding together. We had just known when our stars had aligned.

  “What about work?” I asked because work had been a huge thing that had stood between us. Vince was a great man, an amazing partner, but his job and business had always taken priority.

  “You’re more important,” he said with a squeeze of his hand, and my nose flared. “We’re more important than work, Natasha.”

  “Since when?” I asked, meeting his dark gaze. I didn’t say it to be catty or snippy. I asked because I really wanted to know. His business and work had always felt like a mistress between us. There was something about the way he was looking at me that made me look away. “Fine. Whatever,” I muttered, staring out the window.

  Thankfully, the taxi driver kept the conversation light, and I smiled and asked questions about where to eat, excited about a vegan smoothie bowl place he recommended called Raw Love. I wasn’t vegan or vegetarian, but I loved a great smoothie bowl. He also showed us the best place to rent bikes, which I would need. We arrived, and Vince paid the man before we waved goodbye to him.

  “Okay, talk,” I said, trying to take my luggage from him, not that he was going to let it go.

  “Here?”

  “Why not?”

  “Tasha.” His eyes silently pleaded with me, and I exhaled loudly. “I need to check in and want to go to the beach and get some food.”

  “Fine, let’s do that.”

  “Let’s?”

  “Let’s go to a hotel.”

  “This is where I’m staying.”

  “Natasha, this is a hostel.”

  “Good job, Mr. Observant!” I put my thumbs up.

  “You are not staying here.”

  “Yes, I am.”

  “Baby, this isn’t safe.”

  “Again, not your concern.” I rested my hand on my cocked hips and watched as he took a deep breath and knew I’d won.

  “Fine. We’re staying here.”

  “Thank you.” I stepped forward, rolling my luggage next to me, and stopped to turn to look at him. “Wait! What do you mean, we?”

  “We,” he repeated, walking past me, taking my luggage and his as he headed toward the lobby, leaving me standing there like a fish out of water.

  Vince

  I checked us in, and when she joined me, I bit away the triumphant smile I was feeling. It was a minuscule win, but it was something.

  “Ready?” I asked her. She nodded her silent agreement, and we stepped out toward our beds. The sight stopped me completely.

  “Isn’t it beautiful?” she asked right behind me, and I nodded. The hostel was nestled into lush green jungle and mangroves, built on bamboo and coconut husks, creating its own secluded island feel. If that weren’t enough, at the very center was a natural deposit of spring water that was called a cenote in Mexico. The water was a gorgeous blend of turquoise and teal.

  “This is why you picked this place,” I said. It wasn’t a question. Jesus, I was an idiot for being such a jerk after the taxi dropped us off here. I turned to catch her shrug and didn’t miss the way the apples of her cheeks turned a shade of pink I hadn’t seen in years.

  “It’s also totally solar powered,” she shared, and she had me falling in love with her all over again. Not that I had ever stopped. “It’s environmentally friendly.” She half smiled at me, and my eyes fixated on her mouth. God, her mouth was a thing of perfection. I had to shake my head to push away the road of dirty thoughts and sexy-as-hell memories of everything those lips were capable of my mind was going down.

  “I grabbed us a double room.”

  “Why?” she squeaked, and I tried to bite away my reaction to her.

  “Babe—“

  “I was planning on just getting a shared room.” A shared room? Was she crazy? There was no way it was safe for her to sleep in a dorm-like room with a bunch of strangers!

  “I don’t think so,” I scoffed and didn’t miss the way her eye twitched. She was pissed, but this would be for her own good.

  “Vince, it’s what’s in my budget,” she stood her ground, “and again, you and I are not together. We are not sharing a bed.”

  “Fine. I’ll treat you to the private room. I’ll get a bed in the shared space,” I offered, trying to placate her, but the woman was too damn stubborn for her own good. I knew by the look on her face that she wasn’t going to let me do shit for her. Did I blame her? It was my fault we were where we were to begin with.

  “No thanks. I don’t need a favor from you or for you to treat me to anything.” She turned and went back into the lobby.

  Her hips swayed back and forth. Her perfect ass made my hands ache to grip and massage. Her head turned, but I didn’t stop checking her out. The surprise in her eyes was clear, and then she tossed attitude by rolling her eyes, making me laugh out loud. The woman would be the death of me. But she was the only woman I wanted.

  She came back and grabbed her bag, and I followed her as she set her things at her bed and locked her luggage in the flimsy closet. She was going to play it like that, huh? I went back to the lobby, returned to the room, and grabbed the bed right above hers.

  If she thought I was going to be that easy to get rid of, she had another thing coming.

  _______________

  She was eating ceviche and drinking a beer by the time I settled my shit down, and I gr
abbed the seat next to her at the tables overlooking the cenote.

  “Good?” I asked, grabbing a chip and a bite from her plate. She shook her head. “Damn, this is delicious,” I moaned, grabbing a napkin to clean my mouth.

  “Please help yourself to my food, Vince.”

  “Thanks, baby.” I winked, taking another bite.

  “Okay, so is this when we talk? Because I have a lot of plans on this trip,” she said bluntly, not hiding how annoyed she was with me.

  “You ready to actually listen?” I asked seriously, and she sighed.

  “What is this all about, Vince?”

  “I told Royce not to file the paperwork,” I admitted, probably playing my cards a little too early.

  “What?” she whispered, dropping her fork onto her plate, her soft blue eyes on me. “Why?”

  “Because I fucked up asking for a divorce.”

  “You never took it back, you never—”

  “Why would I have?” I cut her off, frustration at myself and the situation I had created bubbling over. “You gave it to me right off the bat!”

  “Jesus, Vince,” she whispered, looking away from me and towards the teal water of the spring. “I thought…” Her voice cracked, and she pulled her lower lip in, and I knew it was so she wouldn’t cry. I covered her hand with mine.

  “I messed up. I know that.” I swallowed, my Adam’s apple bobbing up and down, her gaze unwavering on mine now. She was watching me to see if I was being honest with her, and I was an open book for the first time in what felt like too long. “I should have swallowed my pride, and I swear to you, Tasha, I won’t ever make that mistake again. Shit just got out of hand.”

  “Got out of hand?” she whispered and shook her head, looking away from me. The pain reflecting in her eyes when she turned back to look at me killed me. “Was there someone else?” she asked outright for the first time since I had stupidly asked for a divorce. To me, it was crazy for her to even think that, but that was what she had suspected the entire time.

  I was a bastard for putting her through this, but I wasn’t a fucking cheater. I shook my head.

  “No,” I answered sincerely, hating she’d even think that was possible. No one else existed in my eyes but her. “The only woman I have eyes for is you.”

  “I used to believe that.” She moved her hand away from mine, and I felt the loss of her in my gut. “But in a middle of a fight, you asked for—”

  “I know. But that’s what it was. A fight. An argument. I mean, can you even remember what it was about?” We sat there, and I searched my mind like I had countless times before trying to figure out what the hell we had been fighting about that day. We sat in silence as she tried to think back.

  “No,” she sighed, giving me a sad smile. “Even so, what do you want now, Vince? You want me to just pretend we didn’t go through the whole process? I mean, we sold our house!”

  “We hated that place,” I cut her off, and her cheeks bloomed with pink. “You and I both know that house was holding us back.”

  “I just… when we bought that place…” Her voice drifted, and I swallowed down the dull pain from all the dreams we’d had when we had bought the house.

  It had been two years after the miscarriage, and we had started talking about trying again. I had just gone into business with my brother-in-law. Tasha and I had driven past the place and had looked at one another. I had made a U-turn. The place had been perfect. Everything we could have ever wanted. Space with a huge yard and amazing natural light. Multiple rooms and bathrooms that one day, we would fill with a big family.

  It had also been way out of our price range.

  But we didn’t let that stop us.

  We had been ready to move forward from the loss we had endured and were ready to get started on creating a huge family, so we had gone after it anyhow. Tasha went from working a couple of hours here and there to full time at my sister’s bakery, eventually quitting school with the promise she’d return one day.

  The house represented so much.

  Huge hopes and dreams were wrapped in that house, and it was all we could see in each square foot of the place. A house that never really felt like a home.

  Especially as the years trickled by and nothing happened. I’d blamed myself. Resented the house and the ridiculous mortgage in the process.

  “We sold our house, and now you want to what?” she asked. This was where I would bare it all.

  “I want us.”

  “Us?”

  “Yes.” I grabbed her hand with confidence.

  “You do know why I am here, right, Vince? I flew here with a one-way ticket.”

  “So did I.” Her eyes grew wide to this, but I could see the determination in her gaze.

  “I’m not going back. At least not without trying to open my own B&B.”

  “I know. I wanna help.”

  “You wanna help?” she repeated, and fuck if I didn’t think she was fucking adorable. A combination of sexy and cute, Tasha was everything in one.

  “Consider me your first employee, boss.”

  “What about the company and your place and—“

  “I have that all taken care of.” I shrugged, and I wasn’t lying. I had no idea how the hell I had managed it in less than twenty-four hours, but then stars had fucking aligned for me to try and win my woman back. There were a couple of loose ends that needed to be tied up, but for the most part, it was all taken care of.

  My brother-in-law was going to buy me out. A gym buddy of mine who had been looking to move out of his parents’ place was going to sublet the small house I’d picked up as an investment property on the beach. It would supplement our income as we got whatever damn business she wanted to try her hand at off the ground. Bed and breakfast, coffee shop, hell, if she wanted to open an ice-cream shop, I would be the best scooper out there.

  “Just like that?”

  “Do you remember the first time we talked about a bed and breakfast?”

  “Of course.”

  “We were going to retire and move somewhere tropical. Our kids and grandkids would come and visit.” That had been the plan. But what was the saying? We made plans and God laughs?

  “That was a long time ago, Vince.”

  “But you still wanna open a B&B?”

  “Maybe.” She shrugged, but there was no hiding the sparkle in her eyes that the thought brought to her. She was excited about this. “I have to check out the market here,” she tried to play it off, and I was glad I knew her the way I did.

  “You really telling me you moved here on a whim without having done your research?”

  “Sorta.” She shifted in her seat. Oh yeah, she’d done her research, and I had a feeling it wasn’t whether she wanted to open a B&B, but a potential opportunity she hadn’t thought of before. “I mean, we all change.”

  “In a couple of months?”

  “Yes.” She sat straighter. “I’m going to say this, and I’m not doing it to be an asshole. I have things I want to pursue.”

  “Your own business is one of the things you want to pursue?” She nodded, and my stare went to our hands. She was holding mine back. I wondered if she even noticed that.

  “Yes. And…”

  “And?”

  “Adoption.” She exhaled, and I straightened in my seat. “I want to be a mom, Vince. I know…” She shook her head and frowned. “Anytime I brought up fostering or adoption, you shut it down. So much I stopped bringing it up. I tried to understand why you didn’t want to, but I’m sorry, you changed the game here. You asked for this stupid divorce, and as crappy as it sounds, it made me open my eyes.”

  “And what did you see?” I asked, squeezing her hand hoping to keep her talking.

  Sharing.

  “That all the things we wanted, that I wanted… they’re still possible, Vince.” She pressed her lips together in hesitation, and I saw when she decided to drop the bomb on me. “They are all possible with… or without you.”

 
“With or without me, huh?” I said, enjoying the interaction with her. It’d been a while since we had spoken this bluntly with one another.

  “Yeah. I know my body couldn’t keep our baby safe that first time, and then … well, you know, the treatments didn’t work, but… life is too short not to go after what you want.” She laid it all on me. Fuck if she wasn’t right. It was too damn short.

  “And you want this?” I asked because I would give her anything I possibly could. “Tulum and a risky business venture in a whole other country, all alone?”

  “Well…” She hesitated and looked into my eyes. “I thought I wanted it alone because I didn’t have a choice.” Hope bloomed in my heart, and I felt her thumb stroke over my knuckles. “I’m not saying I’m ready to jump back into things with you. If I did, it couldn’t be like it was before, but…”

  “But do I have a chance?” I rasped. I was prepared to give her anything as long as she was happy. If she didn’t want me, I would leave once I knew she was all settled with her business venture. I had rolled the dice by being too damn proud and stupid and pigheaded to stop the shit I had put in motion.

  “Don’t you get it, Vince?” she asked full of vulnerability. “When it comes to you, as long as I have breath in my lungs, you always have a chance with me. It’s stupid—”I didn’t let her finish speaking because I got up and pulled her from her seat to put my mouth on hers.

  Kissing her hard and desperately.

  It had been months. Six, to be exact.

  Too fucking long without her taste on my lips, without the feel of her body close and flush up against mine. She didn’t fight it. She kissed me back like she always did. Passionately, she bent as I demanded access to more, delving my tongue into her mouth.

  Mimicking what I hoped our bodies would soon do.

  Chapter Four

  Tasha

  KISSING VINCE HAD probably been stupid.

  Admitting he would always own my heart had been even stupider, but I couldn’t help it.