First Comes Like (Modern Love #3) - Alisha Rai Page 0,66
her. They were real freckles, he realized, charmed. Just a couple, over her nose.
He wanted to kiss them, trace every single one.
And it was that realization, coupled with the fact that they were sitting like lovers, that made him stiffen and lean away from her. “Should we . . . ?” His voice was hoarse to the point of unintelligible. “Shall we head out?”
“You want to see the rest of the place?”
Sure. Or at least, move out of temptation’s way. He would love very much to kiss her freckles, but that wasn’t possible. Not only because of gentlemanly courtesy, but because this was no normal courtship. Or a courtship at all, as far as she was concerned. “Absolutely. You wanted me to play photographer, yes?” Casually, Dev separated himself from Jia and came to his feet. She shaded her eyes.
“Sure. I think the place is easy to explore by foot, but let’s take the car.”
“Don’t want to be without transportation in case we come across those pitchfork-waving locals,” he teased, eager to get them back into their previous relationship.
“It’s quiet here! Freaks me out.” She came to her feet and shook out the blanket.
It was quiet. Dead silent, to be exact, with barely a breeze to make a sound. “City girl.”
She made a face. “I’m sorry, are you not a Mumbaikar who was raised in Dubai?”
He chuckled. It was rusty, but it felt good. “Checkmate.”
The first problem came when he tried to back up the car. The second came when he tried to go forward.
He attempted it again, but the tires met resistance.
“What’s wrong?”
“The car’s stuck.” He tried again.
“Oh no.”
He got out of the SUV and bent down to look at the tires. They were sunk in the loamy sand. He muttered a curse and straightened.
“We’ll need someone with a winch,” she observed, standing right next to him.
Dev placed his hands on his hips and glanced around. He squinted at a sign tacked on a beam nearby. “We probably should have read that before parking here.”
STUCK? CALL KIM.
“We must not be the first influencers who got stuck out here,” Jia remarked. She pulled out her phone and then sighed. “Do you have reception?”
He hadn’t even taken his phone out of the car. He reached in and grabbed it out of the cupholder. “No.”
“What now?”
His tone instantly went to the same soothing tone he occasionally used with Luna. He was far more comfortable being the soother than the sooth-ee, that was for sure. “It’s not a big deal. This place might not have a lot of residents, but it has a motel, and a grocery store. Someone will have a phone we can use to call Kim.” Dev watched as Jia went to the trunk. “What are you doing?”
“Putting my camera away.”
“Why would you do that?”
“Well, we have this to deal with now.”
“So?” He shut his car door and hit the lock. “Doesn’t mean you can’t still do your work. Take photos as we walk through town. Your job doesn’t need to suffer because my rental isn’t as hardy as I thought it was.”
She stared at him for so long he grew worried. Had he said something wrong? “Are you okay?”
“Yes. I’m not used to someone who treats my work like . . .” She shook her head and slung her camera bag across her body. “Nothing. Let’s go.”
It wasn’t nothing. She’d become uncharacteristically subdued, and he wasn’t sure why. He tried not to take it too personally. Perhaps she was worried about the car, but he’d do his best to take her mind off that. It was the least he could do for how she’d had to literally hold his hand on the beach.
Another thing to stuff into his box of feelings.
Dev had never been in a ghost town before. Hearing and seeing no one as they walked past dilapidated homes and businesses was creepy, but it was also fascinating. They met no other tourists as they sauntered down the empty street, but they did pass a “drive-in” that consisted of junked classic cars and old repurposed roller-coaster seats.
Jia looked interested when he pointed out the installment, but she didn’t slow down to take photos, which surprised him. Was she feeling hesitant to work in front of him?
In case that was the issue, he stopped when they walked past an old house that had been painted with a fresh coat of bright blue paint with the word OPERA painted in elegant cursive above. Here, too, the artists had left their