Page 36 of That Time in Venice
She glared at him. “Fine. Proceed,” she said, waving her hand with aflourish.
“As I was saying, you whipped out a brochure about moped rentals and said we should get one to explore the city. I asked if you’d ever ridden on a moped, and you said no. To which I said, it might not be a good idea for us to do, since neither one of us has ever ridden on one of those things. Any of this ringingabell?”
She stopped at her car in the crowded lot. “Vaguely.”
“Uh-huh.” He side-eyed her but continued. “The next day, you brought up the same topic about mopeds after breakfast and badgered meaboutit.”
Her mouth fell open and she propped her hands on her hips. “Wait a minute, now you’re being completely ridiculous.Badgeredyou?”
“Badgered me,” Reed confirmed. “I think you even hit me once to get me to fall in line with yourdemands.”
She tossed her head back in laughter then. This was the Anika he remembered. Carefree. Spirited. “Unbelievable. You’re making all ofthisup.”
“I still have the scars,” he muttered, rubbing an arm as if that’s where she’dhithim.
“You need to take a polygraph,”shesaid.
“So, after the physical and verbalabuse—”
“Oh my goodness.” She hid her laughter behindherhand.
“—I finally agreed to rent the moped. You hopped on the back, and we spent the day exploringthecity.”
“Now that partistrue.”
“All of itistrue.”
“In an alternateuniverse.”
He shrugged, absurdly pleased he could make her laugh andsmile.
Her face partially in shadow, Anika tucked her hair behindanear.
“We had fun that day,”shesaid.
“Justthatday?”
She fell silent, and he could hear the cars whizzing by on thestreet.
“Every day,” she saidquietly.
Emotion constricted his throat. Loss. Regret. Sweet memories. “You everbeenback?”
She shook her head, gaze shifting away, as if she didn’t want him to see the truth in her eyes. “I wanted to. Never took the time.” She looked up at him from beneath her lashes, a look that made his chest clench withemotion. “You?”
“No, but I wouldn’t mindgoingback.”
Pressure built in his torso. He wanted to tell her how much he regretted not sharing his feelings in Venice. He regretted not following his heart and thinking neither of them was ready. But they were both older and still single, and the attraction was obviously still there. He experienced the tug every time she looked at him. Their chemistry hadn’t dissipatedonebit.
“You know what’s crazy?” He ran his fingers through a few of the blonde strands that brushed her shoulders. Finally. As soft as he remembered. He saw it as a good sign that she didn’t slap away his hand or move from histouch.
“What?”
“I didn’t want to go back because I didn’t think I could possibly enjoy myself as much as I did when I was therewithyou.”
“Reed…” His name fell softly from her lips, whispered in the same tone as an urgent prayer. “It was a longtimeago.”
Spending time with her had been the perfect escape from the reality of his life and the tragedy of losing his mother at thirteen, which still managed to pummel him at random times. They’d been close, the way mothers and sons often are, and there were times when he missed her with a fierceness that made him weak. Three graduations—middle school, high school, and college—came and went without her there, and so did the birth of his child. Brielle would never know her paternalgrandmother.
