Falling into Forever (Falling into You) - By Lauren Abrams Page 0,52
going. That’s that.”
“You probably won’t even notice that I’m gone.”
“Nope. I’m planning on forgetting about you completely.”
“Well, that’s not going to work. We’ll talk every day. Twice a day. We can make plans for a summer trip around the world. Maybe we can go backpacking in Nepal.”
She scrunches her face up. “I’m not really the backpacking type. You know, the camping, the hard ground, the making your own meals, the no showers for a week, none of that sounds very appetizing. I used to camp, back in high school, and I hated it every time. If you turn the tent into a fancy hotel in Nepal, maybe I would be more easily persuadable.”
“Okay, so no backpacking. I’ll let you plan the trip.”
“I’m a very good trip planner.” She hesitates. “You’ll tell me if anything is wrong while you’re on set, right? If there’s anything that you need. I can be in LA in a matter of hours. It’s not like I have to take the Pony Express.”
I try my best Darth Vader voice in an effort to lighten the mood. “I promise. I will tell you if I think I’m crossing over to the dark side.”
It’s apparently a poor approximation, because she bursts out laughing before her face turns grave again.
“It’s only three months, right?”
“Three months, and I’ll be right back here with you. Or on a mountaintop with you. Or on a beach with you. It doesn’t matter where. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?”
“Right.”
Still, she doesn’t sound entirely convinced.
* * *
Chicago
6 Years Later
“Jinx, Hallie.”
She’s staring off into the distance and she doesn’t hear me.
So, Buster wasn’t meant to be.
When she turns to me with a wistful smile, I allow myself to hope that she and I don’t have to share that fate.
Chapter 13
Hallie
I’m only able to find my voice once the shock of seeing him wears off slightly. I smile and clutch my purse to my side.
“Buster is certainly not a good name for a Pomeranian.”
He’s wearing a ratty old hat that covers his mass of black hair, but it doesn’t manage to dim his attractiveness. I’m melting. Crap.
“Hey. To each his own. Or her own. And I think you’re ignoring the fact that I called jinx. You owe me a cup of coffee.”
I must have missed that. It’s probably because I was staring at the way his taut muscles ripple under his t-shirt. The reflection of his insanely green eyes. The way his body leans slightly to the right when he starts talking. The little quirk of his eyebrows when he’s trying not to laugh at me.
I toss my head to the side and scowl at him, which only makes him lift his eyebrows further. Ugh. I suck at life. What did he say? Something about coffee? Hell no. There’s no way I’ll make it out of that coffee shop without pouncing on him. I scramble to find an excuse.
“I don’t think that’s a very good idea. I just came down to the lobby because I forgot my jacket. I have very important things to do. Like getting ready for this dinner tonight. I mean, meeting. Dinner meeting. I have a meeting. It’s a meeting about things. Movie things. And I need my jacket. To do those movie things. It might take a long time for me to find it. My jacket. Not movie things.”
I think I just said that. I could crawl into a hole and die. Right now. Movie things?
He has to turn his head to the side and he doesn’t make any noise, but his whole body is racked with laughter. Oh no. He’s definitely laughing at me. Not with me. At me. To his credit, he manages to keep a straight face when he turns back to me. He points to the table where Eva and I had been sitting with a victorious little grin.
“So, you grab your jacket, and I’ll ask the concierge if there’s a coffee shop around here.”
I follow the direction of his finger, and he’s right about the location of my jacket. But…
“How did you know that?”
Now, he’s the one who’s caught by surprise.
“Um, isn’t that the same one that you were wearing in New York?”
“No, it certainly isn’t.” I stare at him, my eyes narrowing as I realize what happened. “You were eavesdropping. You…you…sneak!”
He rears his head back and laughs. “Really? Sneak? I know you can do better than that.”
“Now, you’re making fun of me. A sneak and a…a laugher.”