earlier in the day.
I love you.
I waited with bated breath for a response. One arrived almost instantly, causing a brilliant grin to spread across my face.
I know. I loved you even before I truly knew what love was. Love is you. Your smile. Your heart. Your patience. Sleep well. Te queiro, mi cariño.
Mackenzie
WITH A RESTORED SENSE of belonging, I drove through the streets of South Padre Friday evening to meet Jenna and Brayden for girls’ night. The island again held the promise and magic it did months ago, and I knew it was because Tyler was back. As I went about my routine throughout the day, I did so with him on my mind. I had hoped he would stop by the restaurant, but he didn’t. Instead, we sent text after text to each other. With each message that popped up on my phone, my grin grew wider and wider. The butterflies were back after their long absence. His words were sweet, passionate, and even a little hot, reminding me of why I had lowered my walls and allowed him in after years of remaining distant with people.
Pulling up to the tapas bar, I threw the valet the keys to my brand new Audi and entered the restaurant. As I walked through the glass doors, I grew breathless, the scene that greeted me reminding me of that fateful Friday night when I first met Tyler. He sat in the corner, on the same barstool, a dark liquid in a tumbler in front of him, five cherry stems on his napkin. He wore the same green shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, exposing his muscled forearms.
As I stood admiring him, I noticed his physique had become more pronounced. His shoulders appeared broader, his leg muscles incredibly defined. His skin was a tad darker than I recalled, and the ends of his dark hair were lighter. I could only assume all that time in the African desert had an effect on his appearance…in a good way. He was more rugged, the slight stubble on his jaw causing a burning need inside me to feel it on my skin.
I approached the bar and sat next to him. He looked at me, an excited smile on his face before his expression flattened. “Mackenzie, you can’t sit there.”
Straightening my spine, I asked, “Why?”
“I want to go back to the start, where it all began. You say you want to trust me, and I really, really want you to trust me, but we need to start over. I need to show you how that first night would have gone if I wasn’t on a job. So, please, sit in your normal seat and pretend you don’t know me, okay?”
Slowly lowering my legs back to the ground, I slid off the barstool. “Well, you better hurry up. Brayden and Jenna will be here any minute.”
“Since when are they on time?” he commented sarcastically, and I shrugged my shoulders in agreement. I loved my friends dearly, but punctuality was not their strong suit. “I have some time to work with.” A mischievous grin spread across his face.
A flurry of jitters rushing through me, I retreated from him and took a seat at my usual barstool.
The bartender approached, beaming, asking me what I wanted to drink. I glanced at Tyler, seeing he had ordered the same exact thing he did all those months ago, right down to the number of cherry stems. But I couldn’t exactly order a bottle of wine, as I had that night.
“A bottle of sparkling water, please,” I said with a smirk on my face.
She retreated from me momentarily to get my drink. Within seconds, she reappeared with a tall green bottle and a wine glass. Opening the bottle, she poured a bit into the glass and garnished it with a lime.
When she left me alone once more, I took a sip, my body alive with anticipation.
“You gonna drink that whole bottle by yourself?”
Glancing to the far corner of the bar, I couldn’t help but laugh. “So what if I am?” I shot back, trying to revert to the cold-hearted, detached woman I was that night. However, that wasn’t who I was anymore. I was no longer the girl who would live her life in accordance with her schedule. I was a woman who finally learned to live again, who took risks, who loved, who jumped…who was all in.
“Didn’t mean anything by it,” he said, toying with the cherry in his drink.