I wasn’t just chasing down my girl.
I was running toward the enemy.
20
Jess: Stowaway
So wrapped up was I in my commentary that I didn’t see the figure of a man sprinting down the long, fancily paved driveway. I didn’t see the side door to the security gate swing open. I didn’t see him race toward the bus.
But my passengers sure did. Every single one of them. I looked up from my monologue only to find thirty-five stunned expressions staring out the open windows.
“Jess!” he yelled, causing my head to whip around at record speed.
Quinn?
And then he was there at the door to my bus—his palms flat against the glass panes, wearing the same shocked expression as me. We stood there staring, me rocking in place, him panting.
He knocked. “Open the door, Jess.”
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. Keeping him away was manageable when he’d actually been away, but now, standing so near with that impossibly handsome face… it was unfair. Inhumane.
“You want me to open it?” Delene, my driver and friend, asked with that cynical expression on her face never breaking. She’d just as soon run him down than facilitate the first inklings of love.
I wanted to say yes, but if Delene opened that door, she’d unseal the last barrier to the make-believe world I’d been living in since the two of us parted. A world where Quinn McKallister didn’t rule my heart. If she let him in, I’d never be able to kick him back out. I scanned the interior of the bus, trying to determine if I could use my passengers for cover, but I could tell by their eager and excited faces that they would be of no help. They wanted Quinn on the bus as much as he wanted an invitation.
“Jess,” Delene said. “He’s staring at me. If you want me to open the door, show me a sign.”
Quinn popped his head into the first open window. “Jess, just show her a sign.”
“Yeah, show her a sign!” multiple passengers agreed, the mantra repeating itself over and over.
I looked to him, that irresistible smile laying siege upon my heart.
“Come on, Jess. I’ve been looking everywhere for you. Just give me five minutes of your time. Please.”
That started a new chant. “Just five minutes.”
I turned to Delene and exhaled. “Go ahead.”
She opened the bus door, and Quinn took a step in. But I was there, pushing him back out.
“Not here.”
“Then where?”
I placed my palm against his chest and walked him away from my bus, back toward the gigantic security gate he’d just exited from.
“Uh, Jess, what are you doing?” he asked, amused, as he allowed me to control the backward direction of our reunion.
“Getting you out of earshot of our audience, Quinn. Everyone is staring.”
“That’s because you made a scene.”
“Me? I wasn’t the one standing there with those big ol’ Puss in Boots sad eyes.”
He laughed. “God, you’ve got a way of stripping away my self-esteem, don’t you?”
When we hit his fence, he grabbed for my face, drawing me in, his lips against mine. An instant heat swept through me, my body already responding to his kiss. His touch. No. I disengaged from his hold on me and backed away.
