“Well, did you happen to notice that I was always looking at you, too?”
“A few times. Though I thought it was simply bad timing on my part, that you’d caught me staring.”
She leaned forward and grabbed his arm. “I thought you caughtmestaring! Oh my God, like at your mom and dad’s anniversary party? I thoughtfor sureyou knew.”
“Oh, I knew,” he said, lifting his hand to her face and brushing her cheek. “When you know, you know, right?”
She put her hand on his and brought it to her mouth, kissing his palm before holding it in place against her face with her eyes closed.
He may not have been aware of how she’d felt at the time, but by then, at twenty-seven years old at his parents’ thirtieth wedding anniversary, he’d recognized that he was in love with Dani.
“So we knew we knew ten years ago, and now, here we are,” she said, opening her eyes and burying her face in his hand.
“Yeah.” He hated the pain that he felt for all those lost years, especially this last one. She was too far away. “Come here,” he said, pulling her across his lap so she was straddling him.
He stared up at her as she stared into his eyes, brushing his hair from his forehead and studying every feature of his face. She planted her soft lips upon him, so tender and caring.
“Do you think this will work? I’m not a Triple G,” she said.
“Sure you are. You’re a Good Guiterrez Girl,” he said, smiling.
“Uh-uh. I’m a muchacha mala, remember?”
He pulled her closer and whispered in her ear. “You were a good girl earlier.”
“You’re naughty,” she said, leaning back and waggling herbrow. “But seriously, Theo. Your mom called me ‘reckless.’ Can this work?”
“I think we already know that it can. And you know my mom loves you. Even if youdoget me into trouble sometimes,” he said, winking at her.
“Right, but I just want to remind you one more time of Giorgina, and Daphne, and Evangeline, and—”
He put his finger on her lips to stop her.
“Look, Juicy, we could talk about all the reasons it took this long for us to admit our feelings, or we can stop making excuses and allow ourselves to be with each other now. I’m done doing things because it’s what I think my parents want.Iwant this. I wantyou.”
“And I’m done being scared. As my dad would say, it’s time to get busy living my life. And I want to do it with you.”
He smiled and then kissed her again. He’d never get tired of kissing her.
“I can’t wait to get home so we can start living that life together,” he said, unable to stop smiling. “Too bad we can’t go back having made a really fucking awesome discovery, though. I would have loved to show my parents that it wasn’t for nothing. That I’m actually good at what I do.”
But instead of smiling back, Dani pulled her bottom lip into her mouth. She looked sheepish. Like she had some secret she’d been keeping.
“So, about that,” she said. “How badly do you really want to go home?”
Chapter
Twenty-Four
Dani
Dani watched as all thecolor drained from Theo’s face.
“Juicy, no.”
“Wait, hear me out,” she said, putting her hands on his shoulders.
“Whatever it is you’re going to say isn’t going to change things,” he said, putting his hand up to stop her from proceeding. “I convinced you to check out Poseidon’s temple, but then we made a deal. And now I want to go home. Badly. Preferably alive.”
