Page 15 of Changed Plan
“We definitely should’ve stayed on the train.”
It feels as though he’s staring at my lips when he says it. We didn’t kiss long enough for them to go numb, but they’re tingling right now as if the nerve endings are all excited by the mere memory.
“Thank you,” he says, his voice low and a little husky. It’s a particular timbre that excites much lower nerve endings for me and mutes all the chaos around us.
“For what?”
“Giving me a chance to make you smile.”
I am definitely smiling, but it’s not the first time he’s made it happen.
This isn’t Rome. This is my deserted island, and I now know the one thing I would bring with me. Zane Jacoby.
If a genie materialized and granted me three wishes, I’d only need one: make everyone else in this airport vanish so I can be truly alone with this man. I think I might want to be teen Darby with him. I definitely want to be early twenties Darby with him.
I haven’t missed that version of myself since I signed my first apartment lease with no roommates and made my first 401k contribution. Fuck, I didn’t miss her at all until he just nearly reawakened her like some mysterious, witty, sexy necromancer—with his rockstar hair and his weird vegan shoes.
And his magic kiss.
The truth is I don’t want to have a mature, adult, casual fling with this guy.
I want to be reckless with him, to act with no regard for consequences, to let my guard all the way down and not fear that our paths might cross professionally someday . . . to put uptight, constantly worried Darby into a fucking coma and let wild and free Darby take the reins again. For just one night.
But I sedated that version too well. She’s been knocked out for far too long to come back now.
6
Zane
Delayed not Denied
Aswewalkthroughthe terminal, it starts to feel as familiar as walking through my neighborhood. The stores are all closed, and I wonder how long the restaurants and bars will stay open. Even though they can’t get home tonight, the workers have to sleep at some point.
“Do you think the employees in the stores are still inside, hiding out in a back room?” I ask, feeling envious of the possibility for that kind of quiet privacy right now.
“If they are, I hope there’s a secret back passageway that connects them so they can all hang out together.”
“You’re kind, Darby Bartlett. You care about people.”
“I just don’t want anyone to be stuck all alone in a stockroom. I’m not sure that makes me overly kind. Damn. How bad of a first impression do I make?”
“Today’s first impressions shouldn’t be counted against any of us. But while we’re on the topic, what was your first impression of me?”
“Human-shaped golden retriever. The world was on fire all around you, but you were just happy to be there.”
“First of all, a golden retriever is a loyal and noble dog. And they’re incredibly smart. What you just described is a bumbling idiot.”
She laughs, muffling the din of distress rumbling from every corner. “Your first impression of me couldn’t have been great, either.”
“But it was. I thought you were strong-willed and beautiful. If not for your clumsiness, I might’ve been too awestruck to ever talk to you.”
“Please. You had no problem talking to me. And I don’t buy that you’re afraid of women.”
“Okay, I didn’t say I was afraid of you. But if you hadn’t dumped coffee all over me, I might not have ever gotten up the nerve to talk to you. Not even after I’d made my way through the crowd to stand next to you, nervously rocking on my heels, trying desperately to come up with something to say other than a dumb joke about the weather.”
She laughs again, but stops abruptly, both her laughing and walking. “Wait. Were you really standing next to me on purpose? You weren’t just randomly there?”
“There was nothing random about it.”
