Hope Falls_Cookies & Kismet Read online

  Kissing her lips again, stealing a couple of pecks of her soft mouth, he let his lips explore slightly toward her cheek and then down to her neck.

  “Nate—“ she whispered, slanting her head, giving him more access to her silky flesh. Need coursed through him like a freight train and he couldn’t help the way his hands tightened on her hips. He breathed in her scent. Her skin and her body wash filtered through him, but he needed so much more. “Time… Nate… we don’t have time, baby,” she whispered breathily. He sighed. She was right.

  “Friday,” he whispered his promise against her neck and lifted his head, settling his forehead on hers.

  “Friday,” she whispered back, kissing him quickly. “Friday,” she repeated. Her eyes sparkled as she looked up at him. He felt it in his chest when she gifted him with the smile he had been hoping to get from the moment she’d opened her door. Nathan ran his fingers through her dark tresses.

  “When is that winter festival your friends mentioned?”

  “Mmm… in two weeks, I think.”

  “Good. I’ll take you.”

  “Okay.”

  “The week will go by fast.” He hoped.

  “It will.” Her lips wobbled a bit. He knew if she cried, he wouldn’t be able to leave. Not after finally having her in his arms.

  Taking her mouth, he kissed her hard and demanding, hoping to seal his taste to her the way hers was to him. All the while somehow having to find the strength to step away. But somehow, he did. Then he looked at her, the sight of her swollen lips and flushed cheeks engrained in his memory.

  “I’ll be back before you know it,” he told her and waved before stepping back and walking toward his rental.

  Even though he now knew how to get his ass back here for longer amounts of time, Nathan’s heart felt heavier with every step, every mile he put between them.

  Lindsay was going to think he was insane when he shared his plans. He had only known Angie a week while on an island, plus the last two days, but he was sure.

  Angie Lopez was the girl he was going to marry.

  Chapter Five

  Angie - December 7th

  “You look ten times better,” Cat said, and I smiled, playfully rolling my eyes as she slid into the bench seat across from me.

  “I feel better.” I shrugged, feeling my cheeks warming over. I felt ten times better and almost back to normal from whatever cold bug I had caught.

  “Hey, girls!” Our pretty, curvy waitress grinned. “What can I get you guys?”

  “Iced tea and a double cheeseburger, grilled onions, no tomatoes, extra lettuce, and very well-done fries,” I chimed, setting my menu down only to stare at two very wide eyes. “What?”

  “Nothing.” Cat giggled, while Kelly, our waitress, pressed her lips together. “Glad your appetite’s back. I’ll have the same. I skipped breakfast.” Cat smiled at our beautiful waitress.

  “Sounds good. I’ll be right back.”

  “So?” Cat asked the second Kelly was out of hearing distance. I peered up at my best friend innocently.

  “So, what?”

  “Do not give me that shit!” Cat giggled. “You canceled lunch because the guy you have been moping around about showed up out of nowhere.”

  “I apologized for that.”

  “And, girl, I was okay with it! Trust me. Mystery island man shows up at my doorstep, I’d be like, ‘My best friend Angie who?’” she replied. and I couldn’t keep from laughing. “But then I get a call from Lily and Amy asking me who tall, dark, and bearded having breakfast with you was.”

  “Those girls.” I shook my head grinning, enjoying the way they had described Nate. He needed a shirt that said that.

  “I don’t hear from you other than a couple of texts till last night,” she reminded me, and I groaned.

  “I had work I needed to catch up on, Cat. It’s almost the end of the school year. You know how busy it gets at work.”

  “And I get that, but hello! Catch me up here. I have been utterly patient.”

  “Fine… what do you want to know?”

  “Umm… everything,” she answered a little exasperated, and we both chuckled.

  “He showed up just, you know, out of nowhere.”

  “No call, nothing?” she asked, her eyes wide.

  “Nope. Nothing.”

  “What did he say?” I told her how he had lost the slip of paper I had given him with my information. I also shared about what a small world it was and how he was Lindsay’s boss and that was how he had ended up finding me.

  “Wow,” she sighed as she sat back in her seat.

  “Yeah.” I sighed as well just as Kelly brought us our drinks and meal. When she walked away, we kept talking.

  “So… what now?” Cat asked, and I didn’t blame her. Cat was a realist, like me, and I had been thinking the same thing Sunday after Nathan left.

  “He’s coming back tomorrow,” I shared, a small smile playing over my lips. I couldn’t help it. I was giddy and excited to see him.

  “Again?”

  “Yeah. He had a meeting this week, something important, but before he left Sunday afternoon, he had already made plans to come back.”

  “That’s good, right? Means he’s being real.” I worried my lower lip before answering.

  “Yeah. I think so at least.” I shrugged, picking up a fry and popping it into my mouth.

  “Have you guys talked or emailed this week? I mean, since he left,” she asked, and I met her eyes head on.

  “Cat, there hasn’t been a night I haven’t fallen asleep on the phone with him on the other line.”

  “You hate talking on the phone,” she pointed out, and I laughed.

  “Not with him. He’s…” My cheeks hurt from smiling. “I don’t know. I know this is going to sound crazy or like a cliché but… Cat, he’s different.”

  “I can see that,” she said softly. I could feel her observing me and frowned.

  “It’s crazy, though, right?” I questioned, and she tilted her head.

  “Why?”

  “We live across the nation, for one. Literally on opposite sides of the continent,” I pointed out.

  “That’s true. But it’s not like when we were in high school, Ang, sending handwritten letters via snail mail. With technology, you can literally see one another any time you want.”

  “I know that…” I lifted and dropped a shoulder. “But it’s not the same.”

  “That’s true,” she agreed. “There is nothing like having the person right next to you,” she shared, and I knew she would understand, having had a military boyfriend in the past.

  “Exactly! And we have a three-hour time difference.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And he’s…” I couldn’t get myself to say it. Knowing the moment I did, I’d feel like an idiot.

  “He’s what?”

  “A man,” I blurted and winced. I wasn’t making sense. But it was okay because if there was anyone not to make sense around, it would be Cat. She knew better than most.

  “I gathered he was of the male persuasion with the whole bearded thing, unless it was a hormone imbalance, which hey, who am I to judge?” she joked, and we laughed.

  “Shut up. I mean, he’s a man. Men need more than words to keep them satisfied.”

  “So, we’re talking sex?”

  “Yes. I mean, Cat, in Hawaii, he…. he had this incredible stamina. And a sex drive that was off the charts. We couldn’t keep our hands off one another.”

  “What about this last weekend?” She wiggled her eyebrows, and I shook my head.

  “We didn’t.”

  “You didn’t what?”

  “Do it,” I confessed quietly.

  “Nothing?”

  “Nope. Not once. I mean, we made out and kissed till we were breathless, but… he didn’t push for more.”

  “Huh.”

  “Weird, right? And this week talking, he hasn’t tried to talk dirty or anything. He’s a perfect gentleman.”


  “And you want him to be a dirty one?” She smirked. I groaned.

  “I sound like a horn dog.”

  “No. Come on. You know I’m teasing. I get what you’re saying, I think.” She shrugged, taking a bite of her burger. I took one, too, and chewed, lost in my own thoughts. Taking a sip of my unsweetened tea, I looked at her.

  “What if he has someone out there who’s taking care of those… needs?” I finally asked, showing my vulnerability. Cat’s eyes softened.

  “You can’t paint him with someone else’s paintbrush,” she gently and wisely advised. I sighed, looking away, knowing she was right.

  “I know he isn’t Keith.”

  “He’s not. Keith isn’t even Keith anymore.” I scoffed at her observation and knew she was right.

  My high school sweetheart, the guy I had been so sure was my one, had cheated and ended up marrying the girl. He was now a father of four, a doting husband and minivan-driving man who lived two towns over.

  “If you think about it and are honest about it, Ang, this is the first guy who you have really let yourself feel for since Keith.”

  “That’s not true. I dated Jay.”

  “Jay? Really?” she teased, and I knew she was right again. Jay had been a friends-with-benefits deals that had been comfortable and accommodating for each of us.

  “Okay, fine… Brad?”

  “Brad?” Cat rolled her eyes, and I smiled.

  Brad had been a guy I had met. He was freshly out of a relationship and temporarily new in town. And totally on the rebound. I had known it. All too happy to be the girl in the meantime, not wanting any kind of strings.

  How could I be twenty-nine without ever realizing how hesitant I had been to relationships?

  “You always are,” Cat gently said, making me realize I had spoken my thoughts out loud.

  “Not with Nate,” I confessed, and my best friend smiled.

  “Maybe that alone should tell you whatever is going on between you two, it could be something worth, I don’t know, exploring?”

  “Yeah.” I picked up a fry but couldn’t get myself to eat it, looking at Cat as she was watching me, her eyes soft.

  “But?”

  “With Keith… it was, you know… kid love… but what I feel with Nathan—“ The words lodged in my throat. Her hand covered me.

  “What does he make you feel?” she asked, and I let my heart talk for me.

  “He’s… from the moment I met him, he was, like… this is going to sound crazy and I told you, but I felt like being home.”

  “Right.”

  “And for a month, without a word from him, I tried to convince myself whatever I had felt had been enhanced. The backdrop of the island and the beaches making it all, you know, like I was looking at everything through rose-colored glasses.”

  “But?”

  “But I couldn’t get myself to convince myself of it, and when I saw him again…. or when I hear his voice or we Facetime or text…”

  “It feels like that again?” she guessed, and I nodded.

  “Yeah.” I cleared my throat and popped the fry into my mouth. “But feeling that… Cat, he could obliterate me. Crush me into dust.”

  “True.”

  “Not hearing from him for a month… that was tough.”

  “I noticed.”

  “And I’m not that kind of woman. you know? The kind who waits around for a phone call, lovesick over a man.”

  “You’re not… have you thought of the alternative?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Babe, life is too short to live on the sidelines like you have.”

  “I don’t—“

  “You do. This guy has obviously brought you out something in you you’re not used to. And it being you, you are going to question it.”

  “I—”

  “Which is fine, perfectly normal, Angie. But think about the other side of your what if.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Instead of him crushing and breaking your heart, you could find something so beautiful that many have a hard time putting into words.” She squeezed my hand before pulling it away and taking a drink of her own tea.

  Not for the first time, I had a feeling my best friend was right.

  And it scared the hell out of me.

  ***

  Nathan Calling… The screen on my phone said as it started to ring. I couldn’t help but pick up before it could ring a third time.

  “Hey.”

  “Hey, yourself,” his deep voice sounded on the other line, and just like that, breathing was easier. What the hell is my problem? “How’s your day, beautiful?”

  “Well, you know. Same ole same ole. Worked and then went to town, did a little Christmas shopping after having lunch with my best friend.”

  “Cat, right?” My lips twitched at the fact he remembered. I liked that he did.

  “Yeah. How was your day?”

  “Mmm, good. A little long.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. It was good. So, tell me, have you had dinner?”

  “No.” My stomach growled right then, and I frowned. I didn’t feel like cooking.

  “Good. How does Thai sound?”

  “Thai? I wish.”

  “Pad Thai.”

  “Mmm…” My stomach rumbled.

  “Pad sea ew?” The mention of my favorite noddle dishes made my mouth water.

  “Keep talking,” I teased.

  “Coconut curry?”

  “Mmm, God, that sounds amazing,” I moaned.

  “Fuck,” he cursed.

  “What?”

  “That little purr of yours is going to kill me.” His voice deepened, and I felt my cheeks warm up.

  “Shut up.”

  “Open the door, baby.” His voice went even lower, and just like that, a zing of electric heat rushed through my spine, pooling heat between my thighs.

  “What?” I looked at the door from my cozy couch.

  “Open the door,” he repeated just as a soft knock broke the silence. I stood up. Glancing down, I winced.

  “Is that you?” I whispered, my eyes on the door.

  “How about you open the door and find out?” his voice rumbled lowly in a way I knew he was smiling.

  My heart went into triple time and I glanced at my reflection in the mirror by the door. I was in an oversized gray hoodie that hit mid-thigh, barefoot in black leggings, the hot mess look topped off with my hair thrown up in a messy bun at the tippy top of my head, without a speck of makeup. I looked incredibly ordinary and contemplated asking him what the hell he was doing with me. Perusing me the way he was.

  “Babe?” his voice called out on the other end of the line on the phone. If I’m wasn’t mistaken, his voice vibrated through the door.

  “Shit. That sounds like you’re outside, Nathan.” I quickly scrambled, my hand on the knob.

  “Open the door, babe,” he ordered softly but so damn hoarsely I clenched my thighs together.

  “I look like a mess,” I whispered my warning, gripping the doorknob tighter.

  “You’re never less than beautiful in my eyes. Now open. I need to kiss my girl. I’m fucking starving for your mouth.”

  Holy ducks in a pond.

  I swung the door open, only able to catch a small glimpse of him before he was in front of me, his lips on mine, his hands in my hair, and I gripped the front of his jacket. The front of my body molded to his, my hand trapped tightly between us, as his mouth invaded mine, claiming me, devouring, and I let him.

  "You're here," I breathed, pulling away almost breathlessly from his passionate kiss.

  “You mad I'm early?” he asked, his gruff voice making goose bumps appear on my skin.

  “I'm a lot of things; mad isn't one of them,” I answered softly.

  “Good.” He rested his forehead against mine and breathed in deeply, his exhale warm and minty on my lips. “I missed you.”

  "Ditto," I whispered, ste
aling a tiny peck.

  “You’re okay with surprises,” he noted, and I smiled.

  “These kinds of surprises? Definitely!” I beamed, pulling my head away from his. I watched as he shut and locked the front door, a black duffle bag and plastic food bag in his hand.

  “Come in.” I grabbed his free hand in mine and pulled him deeper into the house, but before I could get us to the living room, he pulled me back and in his arms, his back against the back of my couch.

  “Wait.”

  “Yeah?” I searched his eyes.

  “We need to talk.” That was never good.

  “About?” I asked. His silence worried me. I cupped his face.

  “What’s the matter?” I asked, trying to figure out what was going on. Was this where he would tell me this was our second and last weekend? Where he would break my heart?

  “I need to ask you something.” I watched him swallow hard, and my stomach dipped lower.

  “Okay,” I said slowly, never taking my eyes off him.

  “I know we didn’t really talk about this but…“

  “What is it?” I asked, searching in his eyes for an answer. If he was going to end it, I needed to know.

  “Last weekend, we kinda knocked out and fell asleep on your couch. I don’t wanna assume—“

  “Nate, spit it out.” I tried to tease but knew I came out sounding impatient.

  “I can get a place to stay if…“

  “What?” My head tilted, slightly relieved he wasn’t ending things.

  He ran his fingers through his hair and shook his head, his face slightly nervous. “I’m making a mess out of this.”

  “I have a feeling you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. What’s up?” I held his hand, and he tangled his fingers with mine.

  “Do you want me to stay here?” he asked. My eyes widened at his question. “I can get a place in town. A room or something. I found a B&B online.“ I blinked, unable to believe what he was saying. God, he was cute when he was all flustered, and then it hit me. He was nervous. I made this drop-dead gorgeous man nervous. “If it was up to me, I would stay here. I wanna stay here. Or if you want, stay with me at the B&B? I know we had Hawaii, but I don’t want to presume. I can freaking sleep on the floor.”

  “Nathan—“ I tried to interrupt.

  “I just want to spend every moment possible with you,” he blurted, and I stilled. “I know this is crazy. I know it’s going to sound like I’m coming off strong—“ He fell silent as my finger covered his lip. The soft touch made the base of my spine tingle.