Page 98 of Just Another Meet Cute
“Seriously, my brother asked you to come here?”
I let out a heavy sigh. “Yes, that’s what I just said. Why?”
Tugging on the strap of his book bag with one hand, Ian finally took a step toward me. “BecauseRyancalled me last night and told me to come here this morning. He said that our family was hiking today and it was crucial that I meet them on this path.”
My mouth flopped open and closed again. “HeParent Trappedus? But why?”
Ian chewed on his lower lip. “I think—I think he wanted us to meet up. That this is his way of letting us know that he’s okay with this. Withus.”
I know what he was saying made sense, but I couldn’t wrap my brain around the fact that Ryan did all this. Although it did kind of feel like Kathy had a hand in this, too. Probably a lot.
But what now?
My heart squeezed painfully. The biggest obstacle to us being together was Ryan, and he was basically giving us his blessing on a silver platter. Metaphorically speaking. But if that was the case, then why didn’t Ian look any happier? His face was blank as he studied his phone. It was hard to tell how he was feeling, if he was feeling anything.
Maybe this still didn’t change anything.
Even as my heart sunk, I forced myself to turn away. My phone buzzed in my pocket, but I refused to look. It was probably Kathy or Ryan checking to see if their plan worked. They apparently forgot what a colossal idiot their brother was. Gigantic. Monstrous. Astronomical.
Whatever. I was done taking the first step. If he wanted to just forget everything, then I could—
“Yo, Nina.” His voice was such a perfect imitation of Rocky’s lazy drawl that I stopped in my tracks. “I think you have a text.”
I jerked around to look at him, but he just gave me a half smile and nodded. Plus, the look in his eyes were so warm that my whole body tingled. With my breath caught in my throat, I dug for my phone.
IAN:Yes, I believe in love at first sight. It happened right here in this very spot. As soon as I saw you standing there on the path, with your head turned away, trying to look nonchalant while blood was dripping down your knee, I was lost. And I haven’t been able to find my way back since.
IAN:My heart broke once. When you asked me if I was in love with anyone now. It took every ounce of willpower for me to not instantly grab you into my arms and kiss you again after you got out of the car. To tell you how much you meant to me and how much it tore me apart to walk away.
IAN:My favorite place in the world used to be on this hiking path. Still is. For a lot of reasons. But the most important one is because of you. Because I’m right here with you. This is where we met and this is where I’m about to kiss you in ten seconds and never let go.
My vision was blurry now, but I could still see that Ian had turned around. That he moved forward until he was right in front of me. He lifted my face with his hands. His palms cupped the sides of my cheeks, and he wiped away a few tears that escaped with his thumbs. And then he did exactly what he promised in the text.
He kissed me.
His arms wrapped around my shoulders, looping down my waist, as he pulled me closer. This time he was the one who couldn’t stop moving as he stroked my face, my hair, the length of my arms. Tracing a burning path all around my body. And all I could do was hold on to his arms and kiss him back with all the love and longing that I felt.
When we finally stopped to breath, Ian kissed the top of my forehead and hugged me. “Can we start over?”
My face was squished against his shoulder, but I didn’t mind. He smelled so good. “Like completely over? A new meet cute and everything?”
“I don’t know. I kind of like the way we met.” He leaned back and grinned down at me. “Being the hero makes me seem really good.”
Raising an eyebrow, I scoffed. “And that’s exactly why we need a redo.”
He used the tip of his index finger to push my eyebrow back down again. “But if you really want to redo the meet cute, this is kind of the perfect place to do that.”
Forcing myself to take a step back even though all I wanted to do was go back into his arms, I held out my hand. “Hi, I’m Nina. Still short for Nina. First, I’m allergic to dogs and don’t know anything about superheroes. Especially not Spider-Man. And I used to have some unresolved daddy issues until an awesome guy helped me resolve them recently.”
Ian snickered but reached out to grasp my hand like we were at a job interview. “My name’s Ian. I have a twin brother, although I’m the more handsome twin. I’m horrible at playing piano and I like to save cute damsels in distress who help me figure out how much of an ass I am. And yet somehow she loves me anyway.”
“This cute damsel of yours sounds pretty smart.”
His eyes twinkled at me. “Not nearly as much as your awesome guy.”
I shrugged innocently. “He’s not too bad. He sucks at laser tag though.”
“Ouch, that really hurts.” He tugged me toward the big rock by the tree andsat down. With his arm anchored around my shoulders, I leaned my head against him and let out a soft sigh of happiness.
