[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

familiar. It was one of those deja-vu sorts of things. I felt
like I had met Jack before& maybe seen him somewhere
before. I shrugged this off as misplaced romanticism
(perhaps out of guilt for undressing him with my eyes)
 Want to head home or stay here on the beach for a
while? he asked me.  I can rig up a volleyball net and
promptly destroy you if you d like.
 Maybe some other time, I said with a laugh.
He nodded and hopped out. He dashed through the
water, back to the beach and untethered us. When he
came back to the plane, he assisted me inside. As he
helped me up the float and into the door, I was far too
aware of his hands on my hip as he helped me climb. I
climbed over his seat and into the passenger space. I
looked out to the little stretch of beach, once again taken
by how surreal this was.
 Ready to head back home? he asked, settling down
behind the controls.
 Absolutely, I said, smiling.
But the hell of it was, it was only a half truth. Part of
me wanted to be alone with him, not really for nay
lustful reasons, but simply to have someone to talk to.
You can do that at home, you know?
It was a great thought. And as Jack steered us back
out to deeper water and started accelerating to get to a
good flying speed, that thought stayed in the center of
my mind. Maybe he and I could do dinner again.
And maybe if I wasn t such a bitch this time, I could
get that time alone with him I'd been thinking of.
18 Devlin
I had never had issues with an ego. For the three or
four years in the spotlight when women were screaming
for me, when B-list actresses were stumbling over one
another to get me into bed, it somehow never went to my
head. Sure, it had felt amazing but it had never seemed
real to me; it always felt like I was watching a biography
on someone else s life.
Because of the lack of ego and the ability to remain
nailed to reality, I d never been nervous around women,
no matter how famous or beautiful. I never pretended to
be someone I was not and always stuck to the plain and
simple truth: I was a lucky man that did not deserve the
fame, success, and attention that I had gotten.
But all of this went out of the window as I checked
myself over in the mirror one hour before heading out
to meet Mac.
As I combed my hair, I thought back over the past
twelve hours and wondered how things had come to this.
Sure, spending time together on a deserted island was a
surefire way to bring people closer together. But neither
of us had actually said anything in regards to going out
on a date.
Well, actually, I guess that was my fault. One of the
few good things about having all of those women
throwing themselves at my feet was that it honed your
radar. Knowing when a woman was interested in you
started to become very easy to determine. And on the
way home, flying from our little island back to Sitka,
Mac had been giving me all of the signs.
Or so I had thought. When we landed and started up
the dock towards the street that would lead to the Pine
Way and the other businesses in the downtown district,
the words had come right out of my mouth, spilling out
as if they had been there all along and were tired of
waiting.
 Let s get together for dinner tonight.
It hadn t been a question and was, in fact, a bit more
than a simple suggestion. She had nodded and smiled
warmly. I saw in that smile that she wasn t shy, per se,
but wasn t quite sure how to gauge me just yet.
It was that smile, that uncertain glimmer of hope that
things could be okay between us, that I was thinking of
as I readied myself for our date. I d napped for part of
the day and spent the other part down at Red s Garage
the one place in Sitka that worked on plane engines
trying to figure out what the hell had happened to my
plane. I had left there with Red telling me it would be
another day or so before he had any real answers. For
now, though, everything seemed to be in working order.
But the plane was the last thing on my mind. I stared
at myself in the mirror and thought about shaving my
goatee. Without it, and a nice haircut and grooming
thrown in, my identity would be given away easily. I
wasn t quite ready for that. If anything was going to
happen with Mac, I supposed I needed to come clean at
some point. But now was simply not the time.
I checked my watch and saw that I had only twenty [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]