Page 36 of Me and Mr. Just Right

He wanted to feel her lips against his again, and never, ever let go. And that scared him.

So, for now, he would just focus on being in the moment. A summer fling, apart from the real world. A happy for now, instead of a happily ever after. Rosie hated happy-for-now storylines, where the characters wouldn’t end up together forever. But he understood the appeal. And if that’s all he could have with Lia—and it was—it would have to be enough.

Chapter 16

Liasataloneonthe porch and strummed a new song on her guitar as the sun lowered in the sky. She looked out over the water that gently lapped against shore and let her fingers go where they wanted on the strings.

Meanwhile, her mind also went where it wanted to go—and in this case, it wanted to go straight to kissing Haydn Forrester.

What would it take for that to happen again? Whatever it was, she’d do it. Knowing Haydn, it wouldn’t be much. Probably a smile from her, a lean in his direction, and he’d lean right back toward her.

Instead of give and take with Haydn, it felt like give and give. Both of them reaching for the other at the same time without any expectation for what was in it for them.

Could being with someone be so simple? No drama. No using or abusing or lying or cheating. Just bubbles of happiness floating through every sense.

He doesn’t know who you are, Inner Gwen reminded, her taunting tone like a sharp needle poking all those bubbles. When Haydn had asked her straight-out, she’d debating lying. Pretending she could really be Lia Hall, a teacher—or a rideshare driver or a sound engineer—from Tennessee. But she’d had too many people lie to her to ever want to lie to someone she cared about.

And she cared about Haydn. A lot. A growing lot.

She wished she had someone she could talk to about this.Who do you have?Haydn’s question ran through her mind once again, as it had since he’d asked. On the surface, she had countless people who adored her: her fans, who were pretty incredible, and her staff, who made sure she put out a good product. But none of them really knew her on a deep level. They didn’t know that she longed to have a close relationship with her half-siblings, but also worried about accidentally dragging them into the limelight. They didn’t know that she’d been thinking of ending things with Bo for almost six months before he’d broken up with her. Had she noticed he was distant, and that was why she’d wanted to break things off? She hadn’t even told Gwen any of that.

Gwen. The one person she would have sworn she could trust, and who now liberally shared private details about her life to the media. It wasn’t like she had any deep and dark secrets, but in a life so public, it had been nice to have some things that were just her own.

And the only way to ensure things stayed that way was to remain alone. It had seemed like the only sensible solution before she’d met Haydn, but now …

Her fingers had mindlessly started to play the Proclaimers’ “I’m Gonna Be.” She shook her head and forced herself into another song, dismayed when she realized it was “Hey, Delilah.”

Okay, subconscious, I get it. Long-distance relationships are a thing. That doesn’t solve my trust issues.

She set her guitar back in the case before her subconscious delivered her songs about trust. It was too soon to be thinking any of this anyway. They’d just met. And he didn’t know the most important thing about her. She hadn’t lied outright, but wasn’t a lie of omission the same thing? He lived a quiet life, and her life was anything but quiet.

The men were out on the beach, throwing a Frisbee back and forth. Haydn’s now-familiar laugh sounded deeply through the trees, and she realized she didn’t care that it hadn’t been very long since they’d met, and even if it made no sense at all … she’d completely fallen for him.

She sang songs about this kind of thing happening—love at first sight. Relationships being meant to be. Feelings and emotions that were bigger than words.

Did she really believe any of that was real? Even after everything that had happened to her?

Yes, she did. Despite everything, she really did.

Haydn’s brothers were a lot of things, but subtle was not one of them. They must have noticed a different vibe between Lia and Haydn after their kiss in the dinghy—or perhaps one of them caught the two holding hands under the table during breakfast—but suddenly they were too busy to go out and explore.

And they were full of ideas for romantic-sounding excursions.

A picnic in the trees.

Kayaking through the bay.

Tonight? Stargazing at midnight on the beach.

Haydn brought his camera, as always, though he’d set it beside him on the blanket. They lay side by side, staring up into the endless sea of stars above them.

“Sometimes the fog is too thick to see the stars, but Bennett and Jules must have pulled some strings to get a clear night.”

He turned his head to look at her, and she looked at him, and they both laughed.

“Do they think they’re being sneaky?” she asked.

“Probably, but they lack the finesse Rosie would have added to their matchmaking schemes.”

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