Second Chance Layover — Part 6 (FREE Holiday Blog Serial)
Sandra Bunino and I have collaborated to bring you a FREE holiday blog serial that runs in 18 parts of usually less than 1000 words for each post—easy reading on your lunch break.
Catch up with parts 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
And now, PART 6 of Second Chance Layover (Click title to read a quick summary of the story.):
Charli ~
Heat traveled up my neck and settled into my cheeks. I tried to hide the flush of my cheeks by resting my elbows on the table and cradling the coffee cup in front of my face “Oh, no thanks. You know what they say. A moment on the lips a lifetime on the hips.” Crap. That just went down as one of the most stupid things I’d ever said to a man. My cheeks must’ve been a bright shade of Santa Claus red.
Cal chewed the first bite, and his eyes widened. “Mmm, so good. Here, try. One piece won’t hurt.”
He used his fork to slice a triangle of the warm bun, which he dunked into the gooey icing before offering it to me. I leaned over the table and inhaled the sugar and spice aroma. I opened and slid my lips over the fork, taking the warm morsel into my mouth. Oh, he was right. So good. I closed my eyes and groaned. When I reopened them he was staring at my mouth.
Like a shot of tequila, the influx of sugar made me brave. It helped I was about to board a flight in a few hours and might never see him again for another ten years, if ever. “You know, I had such a puppy dog crush on you back in the day.”
He chuckled. “I thought you hated me. You used to tease me like crazy.”
“Yeah, I remember. You gave it right back though. But when I got to high school you and Duncan looked out for me.”
“Duncan looked out for you; I was just there for backup.” He chuckled and began tackling the second half of the bun. He pointed with his fork. “Want to know something I never told you?”
“Okay.”
“During my senior year I was going out with–”
“Loose Lucy!” I squealed, remembering the girl I wanted to kick in the shins every time she walked by me in the hall.
Cal snorted. “Oh yeah, that’s what you used to call her.”
I rolled my eyes. “That’s what everyone used to call her.”
He nodded knowingly. “I guess there was something to that. Anyway, she broke up with me right before the senior formal and I didn’t have a date. I asked Duncan if I could take you.”
I opened my mouth. “You did? What did he say?”
“He said if I did, he’d kick my ass. So I didn’t.”
“Wow. I had no idea.” I wondered what would’ve happened if we had gone to the formal together. I glanced up into eyes that seemed to be thinking the same thing. I cleared my throat. “You did a nice job on the cinnamon bun. So what should we do now to kill time?”
He pushed away his plate and took his smart phone from his pocket. “Want to play a game?”
“A game?” I laughed. He suddenly reminded me of the Cal from ten years ago.
“Yeah. I heard of this new geo tracking app.” He put his phone in the middle of the table and swiped his finger over the on button. I glanced down and spied the Meet-And-Go.com site on the screen. No way.
“Were you on Meet-And-Go dot com too? So was I, in fact I was–” My eyes flicked to his. “Wait. You’re not BroadwayBound, are you?”
He let out a hearty chuckle and slapped a palm against the table. “I don’t believe it. This must be the weirdest thing to ever happen to me. Nice to meet you, Chartier.”
My jaw dropped even further. I slowly shook her head, my eyes pinched shut. When I opened them again, we locked gazes and our laughter slowly tapered off. To whatever deity or mystical force responsible for throwing this man in my path again, I offered a silent but heartfelt ‘thank you’. To Cal, I simply said, “I guess we were destined to meet here one way or another.”
He continued to stare at me, his smile growing wider and deeper, blooming over his face until his eyes sparkled and threw off tiny creases in the corners. The sadness I had thought I had seen before evaporated.
I couldn’t help but grin back and warmed in places other than my cheeks. I pointed to his phone. “Okay, show me what you got.”
***
Want more? Be sure to come back on MONDAY for Part 7!
Prefer to read on your e-reader? You got it. Weekly digests of the previous week’s blog posts are available Wednesdays / Thursdays at Smashwords and All Romance eBooks, respectively, in multiple formats.
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