Page 49 of Forbidden Hawaiian Nights
Had he been unable to locate Nat? She assumed he needed to know something about her end of things.
All of this raced through her head in seconds, overriding the simple question: couldn’t he just have emailed her if he had something to ask?
In her head, she frantically joined the dots… Max, here, work. She should smile. She shouldn’t let him see that the memories were just so intense that she was on the edge of breaking up. She hadn’t cried since they’d parted company. It was as if all her tears had collected in a pool somewhere deep inside her and had refused to come out.
She cracked a smile. He still had his hand on her arm, but now he released her, raking his fingers through his hair, edgy and awkward.
‘What a surprise!’ she chirped. ‘What brings you back across the ocean?’ Before he could see the glimmer of dampness in her eyes, she spun round and began heading to her bike. If he wanted to ask about the landscaping, then he could jolly well do so while they walked.
The silence that greeted her question forced Mia into speech, but her voice was simmering with hostility, even though she was trying so hard to keep a grip on her emotions.
‘Has Nat contacted you about my designs for the outside space? You could have emailed me if you had any questions.’ They were at her bike now and she circled round it so that they were standing on either side, staring at one another, while she pointedly clutched the handlebars. Let him be in no doubt that she was tired and on her way home, and if he had something to say then he’d better just come right out and say it.
‘I haven’t come here to ask you about the landscaping.’
‘Then what are you doing here?’ The smile dropped from her face.
‘I came to…talk to you…’
‘What about?’
‘About us.’
Mia laughed shortly. ‘Really? What about us? It’s an awfully long way to come to have a conversation about nothing.’
‘Is that what you think we are?’
‘Yes.’ She tilted her chin at a defiant angle. Her eyes stung. ‘We said goodbye, Max. What else is there to say?’ She began unlocking her bicycle.
‘I’ve had two weeks to think…to miss you…to realise that saying goodbye was the wrong thing for me to do.’
Mia’s head shot up and she glared at him with sudden fury. All those little hints and warnings he had dished out rushed at her and she saw red. Talk? He wanted to talk about them? Because he’d had a couple of weeks to think, and to miss her, and to realise that saying goodbye had been the wrong thing for him to do…?
Could he be any more arrogant? To assume that he could remind her that he wasn’t in it for the long haul because holidays always came to an end, but then, having decided that he might want a bit more of a holiday, maybe a mini-break, assume he was entitled to hop back on a plane, chat her up and…what? She’d fall into his arms and take whatever was on offer?
All the pain and heartbreak she had felt when things had ended between them now surfaced with crippling speed.
‘Tough.’ She gritted her teeth.
She began cycling off and he began jogging alongside her. She wasn’t looking at him, but she was aware of heads turning in their direction. A blistering argument in full throttle was always a captivating sight for curious bystanders.
Annoyingly, he wouldn’t give a damn, while she could only wonder if anyone looking at them might know her.
‘Go away,’ she puffed, gathering pace, while he did likewise.
‘Not until we talk.’
He’d dictated the pace and the direction of their intense, short-lived relationship. She’d been so determined not to let that happen, but happen it had, because she’d fallen madly in love with him until bit by bit she’d become the puppet manoeuvred by his all-empowering hand. The only blessing was that she hadn’t been idiot enough to show him how she felt. She was sure that, if she had, he wouldn’t be running alongside her now telling her that he wanted to pick up where they’d left off.
She’d had plenty of time to make sense of this guy. He was a sensualist who enjoyed a casual acceptance that whatever woman he wanted would dance to his tune. She was sure that, when it came to the relationships he had had in the past, he would always have been the one to end them because he would have become bored. Circumstances had dictated that he make a decision about them. He couldn’t have remained in Hawaii for ever, so he had walked away. But she thought now, pedalling furiously, he hadn’t quite had time to become bored, so he had returned to continue what they had until he did become bored. At which point, she would see the dust kicked up by his rapidly departing feet.
Thanks, she thought, but no thanks.
‘Okay!’ She braked so suddenly that he was still running but he swivelled round, slowed his pace and stood looking at her. He didn’t even have the decency to be out of breath. ‘Talk! No, let me say what you’re about to say! All this stuff about your two-week thinking period? I know where you’re going, Max.’
‘Please let’s not have this conversation here, Mia,’ was all he said, but there was something about the tone of his voice, the way he was looking at her…
She hesitated, annoyed with herself. There was a café several paces along which looked reasonably quiet, probably because it looked reasonably pricey. She gave a curt nod towards it and headed there.
