Page 22 of Dream a Little Dream

I knocked and placed my hands on my hips, ordering myself to relax and embrace the opportunity to get to know MJ. She was beautiful, funny, and actually my type in a lot of ways.

The door swung open and I stared at who I presumed to be Alexandra, the guest for the weekend. Only it wasn’t. Kyle stared back at me, her eyes big, luminous and searching mine before she broke into a tentative smile. “Hey.” She held up a hand. “I realize you’re probably surprised to see me. Also, maybe not thrilled.”

Silence hung in the air, untouched and still. I stared. I blinked. I tried to catch up, but my heart had stopped beating, or maybe it hammered so forcefully that I couldn’t decipher the individual beats. “Hey?” I said back. It sounded like a question because it was. My skin prickled uncomfortably.

“Sorry. That feels informal. It’s good to see you, Potter.”

“Please don’t call me that.” The name jolted me back to a different time, a different me. I held up a finger. “You also don’t get to smile at me, okay?” There was a hushed quality to my tone that I didn’t have full control over. At least I didn’t sound welcoming. It would be just like me to allow my duties as host to supersede my own damn feelings.

She nodded and stood at full height, removing her hand from the doorjamb. This time I was less impressed with the two inches she had on me. “I understand, and you have every right to be unhappy with me.” She placed a hand back on the doorframe. Apparently, we were both uncomfortable. I refused to allow my brain to absorb the details of her appearance. I was already aware that she looked just as attractive as I’d remembered, if not more, so I abstained from analyzing the details. I needed to remain on course. “I was unhappy with me, too.”

Every part of me wanted to ask why she’d left me alone on that bridge and why, if she had a good reason, she hadn’t contacted me to explain. I wasn’t hard to track down. I’d made sure of that. I was also a good listener and generally a compassionate human being. She hadn’t taken advantage of either. And offering her a platform to explainnow,all these months later, would hijack my brain just when I’d started to get it back. “It’s all good,” I said coolly. Go, me, not backing down.

“It’s not all good. It wasn’t okay. That’s part of the reason I’m here.”

“What’s the other part?” I placed a hand on my hip and waited.

“I wanted to see this place. I’ve thought about it a lot since…that weekend.” She brightened. “The town is honestly every bit as beautiful as you’d described.”

“I can’t argue with that. And you just happened to bookmyAirbnb?”

“That part was definitely on purpose. But I did need a place to stay.”

The anger I’d kept tamped down began to bubble. “You can’t just waltz in like this and expect me to be happy to see you.”

“No. I don’t.”

“Great. And wait a second. My notes said Alexandra.” I peered behind Kyle. “Where is she?”

“Alexandra is my legal first name.”

I remembered that now.

“It’s also my mother’s name and my grandmother’s.” She swallowed. She was nervous. “Family tradition. We all go by our middle names.”

“Very convenient.” There was no reason to poke at her family, but I was grasping at any pebble I could throw.

“Do you want to come in?” Kyle asked. The sunlight slanted onto the porch and made her eyes shine bright blue. I hated the sun. And nature. I even loathed this porch all of a sudden, and it was an innocent porch! “I have your charger all ready for you.”

“Yep. I’ll just grab it and go.” I barreled my way forward, forcing her to flatten against the side of the door to give me room to pass.

“Oh,” she said in surprise at the clumsy shuffle I’d forced us into, chest-to-chest. The second problem with that little maneuver was that it put us in extra close proximity, and the instant smell of her watermelon shampoo, lotion, or whatever the hell it was sent me spiraling back in time to the hours we’d spent in bed, talking, laughing, and well, everything else. My face buried in her hair, my hands at her waist, moving upward. And now here she was, smelling…like her, which nearly brought me to my knees. Damn Dr. Alexandra Kyle.

“Sorry,” I mumbled and moved away from her as fast as I could,heading down the hall, making a left into the kitchen, snatching up my charger, and stalking right back to the door. She met me in the hall and followed me.

“Savanna.”

“What?”

“Do you think we could find some time to talk?”

“Today? No. I have a date,” I called over my shoulder. “Lots of potential, too.”

“Okay,” she said, drawing the word out. “Maybe tomorrow, then. I’m here for a bit.”

“You’re only booked through Monday at ten a.m. I’m a stickler for a prompt checkout.”

“Right. But I saw the house was open next week. I’d love to extend now that I’m here.”

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