Page 5 of Single Mom's Secret Diary
He takes me to the sights I planned to see on my own, holding my hand, tucking me back against his chest to block the wind, kissing the side of my neck or shoulder as though he can’t stop touching me. I can’t seem to stop either.
I don’t want the week to end.
Even though this all started with the presumption that we’d just have fun and leave this as the perfect Spring Break fling, part of me wonders what this could turn into if we let it.
Sometimes, I swear he looks at me with the same question filling his own thoughts.
The last night of break, we go back to his hotel room early, magic in the air between us from the moment the door closes to the time we fall asleep wrapped up in each other. I finally resolve to ask him if we can stay in contact after this.
When I slip from him in the middle of the early morning to pee, I stumble back to one of our phones lit up on the nightstand. I don’t want to miss an SOS call from Sophia, so I check.
And my heart sinks.
Hey, babe. Can’t wait to do dirty things to you when you get back tomorrow. I miss you.
From someone named Maddison.
Breath going haywire, I work to be as quiet as possible as I slip my clothes on and scoop up my shoes, sneaking out before the first tears fall.
This whole thinghadbeen a ploy to get laid.
And I fell for it.
Stupid.
3
Ezra
The woman standing in the middle of my office has to be an apparition, a matured version of the face that’s haunted my dreams for the last ten years. And she’s my new food tech—the taster for my new chocolate.
What a small fucking world.
Pain and nerves churn in my middle, like someone’s sucker punched me in the gut. I let out a soft wheeze before I shake myself back to the present and stand to offer her my hand and hear the name I’ve been searching for over the last decade. “Avery Caruso.”
Her long blinking tells me that she recognizes me, and I don’t know what to do with the overload when her slender hand slides into mine. I offer her a smile. “Ezra Nguyen. Welcome to Nguyen Candy Company.”
She nods, and I never imagined rendering her speechless. But it seems that I have.
“Let me give you the tour.” I gesture her back out the door, and she spins in place, her stomp still as sexy as it was back then.I watch the sway of her hips the same way I did whenever she walked in front of me that week of Spring Break when we’d been inseparable.
She waits outside my office door, hands clasped tightly in front of her. Avery is more beautiful than she was then—sharper, stronger, and more striking. Those hazel eyes glow with an emotion I can’t decipher, but the rest of her face remains a carefully blank mask.
“This way, please.” I lead her past the two offices to the right of mine and to the elevator that will take us down to the factory floor.
When the doors close on us, I hand her a hairnet. She takes it without touching me and slips her long, beautiful hair into a bun before covering it. I slip mine on absently.
On this side of the factory, we have more people working hands-on. Chocolates need more human attention to come out with the quality I want. Although we have been able to expand with more machinery to help.
Our stretching and pulling machines are on the far end where workers hand-shape hard candies.
I can hardly read Avery’s reaction as she takes it all in, but the way she takes her time looking at the tables showcases her patent curiosity. My proximity doesn’t seem to affect her. Does she remember me?
The stony silence she gives me as she turns back says that she must. Not an inch of her confidence has wavered since I saw her last. I just wish I knew why she vanished in the middle of the night.
Poof. Gone.
Like I dreamed her up in my drunken haze. Until Ryder asked me where she went.
