Day Three

“My feet are killing me,” I whine as we walk for what feels like two hours, but is more like twenty minutes. I wish I would have worn my running shoes instead of my Gucci sandals. For sandals that cost four hundred and fifty dollars, you’d think they’d be a little more comfortable.

“I’m starving! Where the hell does this road go to anyway?” I ask as I crush a mosquito on my arm. “I’m beginning to think it just goes around in a big circle.”

“It goes to a road called Helio,” Tucker says, looking frustrated. He’s been walking so fast that I’m having a hard time keeping up with him.

“What’s on Helio?”

“Helio street leads to Anders street, which leads to a dock.”

“We were going to have dinner on a dock?”

“No,” he says, looking straight ahead as he charges up the road. “We were going to have dinner on a—you know what? It doesn’t matter.”

“It sounds nice.” Anything other than this sounds nice. Sitting in a prison cell sounds nice compared to walking down this road in the sticky heat.

“It would have been nice,” he answers. “But it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“Why doesn’t it matter? It sounds like you put a lot of effort into it.”

He looks so agitated as he runs his hand through his hair, and squeezes it into a fist. “It’s just… nevermind.”

“Can you slow down?” I snap. It’s like he’s trying to get rid of me.

He keeps walking at the same speed, maybe even a little faster.

“Hey!” I shout as I abruptly stop, planting my feet on the dirt road. “Why do you always have to be such a dick?”

He stops at once and drops his head, breathing heavily as he gives me his back. The anger seems to have left his body, but it’s in mine now.

“You’re the one that was a total asshole to me all through my childhood and teenage years. You’re the one who insisted on this date. You’re the one who rented a shitty car that blew up. And you’re mad at me?!? What the hell is wrong with you? I don’t even know why I’m trying to have a relationship with you, Tucker. You’re as shitty as I always thought.” I turn and start walking back to the car. I’d rather have mosquitoes sucking out my blood than an asshole sucking out my soul. “Just go back to staying out of my life.”

My body is tense and my heart is pounding as I storm away from him, regretting ever having agreed to this date in the first place. Why did I ever think that it would end with anything but heartache, disappointment, and anger? With Tucker, those are the only three possible outcomes.

“Julia,” he calls out after a few seconds. I don’t turn. I don’t acknowledge him. I don’t care.

I can’t get away fast enough. This is officially the worst date I’ve ever had, and that’s saying a lot. Mitch Follett set a high bar when he got drunk and lit my limited-edition Carolina Herrera dress on fire, but that’s a story for another time.

“Julia,” he calls out, running to catch up. “Please, just stop.”

I don’t stop.

He circles around in front of me and faces me, walking backward so he can look at my furious face.

“I was hoping you were going to be different this time,” I say as anger surges through my veins. “I was hoping you would be nice and cool and fun like you are with everyone else, but you’re just the same old Mother Tucker. You told me on the hike that you were in love with me.”

“I am,” he says, and then shakes his head when he realized what he said. “I was.”

“You’re not,” I say, stopping. He stops as I cross my arms over my pounding heart and glare at him. “This between us is not love. This is attraction gone horribly wrong. This is something that has to stop.” I sigh as I stare at him. He looks so sad and disappointed. It breaks my heart, but I have to remember that all of this is his fault. We didn’t have to be like this. This was all his doing.

“I think we have to face the fact that we’re toxic together, Tucker. This is never going to work. We can try and be civil for Cynthia’s sake, but beyond that, I don’t think there’s a relationship to be had.”

He looks at me for a full minute before responding. “I think you’re wrong.”

He’s so wrong that it makes me laugh. “Trust me, I’m right.”

“I can make it all up to you,” he says.

I throw my hands up in the air and look around with a laugh. “How are you possibly going to make it all up to me? Are you going to build me a treehouse to live in or hunt me a wild boar to eat?”

“No,” he says, rubbing the back of his neck, “but I can get you to a street cart that sells soggy tacos.”

I grab his shirt and yank him toward me. I’m so hungry that I’m about to start turning over rocks and eating disgusting grubs, Timon and Pumbaa style. “If you get me soggy tacos in the next ten minutes, I’ll marry you and have your babies.”

He grins as he drops to a knee. “I’m going to hold you to that. Hop on.”

“Are you serious?” I ask.

He smiles as he looks over his shoulder, and I hate myself for smiling back. As much as I want to hate him, and as much as I want to push him out of my life for good, every time he smiles, my priorities change. Every time he smiles, I want to make him mine.

“I have ten minutes,” he says with a grin. “Start your watch and hop on.”

I’ll try anything for food at this point. “All right Mother Tucker,” I say as I set my watch and climb onto his hard, muscular back. Heat starts swirling through me as I grab his round shoulders, and he grabs a hold of my thighs with a strong grip. His palms gripping my bare skin is making me breathless.

“You have ten minutes. Starting now.”

He smiles at me one last time and then starts running.

* * *

This is simultaneously the best and worst taco I’ve ever had. Tucker smiles as I lick my greasy fingers, looking like I’m making love to it. If there was a minister here, I’d marry it.

“Are you a minister?” I ask the kid behind the food cart.

“Huh?” he responds, looking at me with confusion in his brown eyes.

“Nevermind,” I mutter before taking another glorious bite.

The tortilla is stale, the sauce is watery, and the chicken has probably been sitting in the hot Caribbean sun all day, but I can’t stop eating it. I’m so hungry. I was nervous for our date and barely had anything to eat for lunch.

Tucker laughs as he hands me another napkin. “Don’t accidentally eat your hand,” he says as sauce runs through my fingers. “We need that finger to hold your wedding ring.”

“My wedding ring?” I say with a raised eyebrow.

“You promised, remember?” he says, looking at his watch. “You said ten minutes, and I got you here in eight.”

“I lied,” I say, tossing the foil paper into the garbage. “I don’t marry assholes.”

“I’m not an asshole,” he says with a grin. “I’m just a bit of a prick.”

“I don’t marry those either.”

I take a deep breath and look around now that I have some food in me. We’re in the middle of a quiet street with nothing but thick rainforest vegetation around us. It’s a dirt road with hardly any traffic on it. We haven’t seen one car pass since we arrived. I know this because I would have tried to hitchhike out of here if I saw one.

“Wouldn’t you sell more tacos if you set up on a busy road?” I ask Johm, the twenty-something-year-old kid behind the cart. He has a nice smile, and he shows it to me as he wipes up the chopped onions on his cart.

“There’s no busy roads on this side of the island,” he says, with a shrug. “I get some workers from the aloe factory on their lunch break and on their way home, but not many people at this hour. I was about to close up when you two came running.”

“Thanks for staying open,” I say, wiping my sticky hands with another napkin. “It was delicious.”

He looks proud that I enjoyed it.

“Do you live around here?” I ask him.

He nods. “At my uncle’s house. We live behind his inn.” His face perks up when a thought strikes him. “Do you need a place to stay for the night?”

“Does he have a car?” I ask.

“Or a bar?” Tucker says.

“Come,” he says, stuffing the last of the food into his refrigerated cart. “It’s just up the road. I’ll show you.”

“What do you think?” Tucker asks me as Johm starts pushing the street cart down the dirt road.

“I think you better start helping him push, because I don’t want to sleep out here.”

He flashes me those sexy teeth, rolls up his sleeves, and helps Johm push the cart. I smile as I watch him push, wishing that I was on his back again feeling those hard muscles against my clenched thighs.

A few minutes later, we arrive at the cutest little waterfront inn that I’ve ever seen. It would fit about two dozen guests comfortably, but it seems to be empty at the moment. The lights in the rooms are off and the beautiful tables set up outside are deserted.

“Wow,” I gasp as I walk around back and look out at the ocean. There’s no beach, just a large area of flat rocks that eventually sink into the calm turquoise water. Tucker helps Johm push the cart into the shed as I take off my uncomfortable sandals and explore the area. The rocks are warm and smooth under my feet, and I can’t help but smile as I walk around, staring out at the gorgeous ocean. The sun is starting to set, turning the sky a subtle pink. Sailboats are drifting by in the distance, probably on their way back to the ports after a fun day at sea.

I’m so taken with the gorgeous view that I don’t even hear Tucker walking up next to me.

“This place is spectacular,” I whisper, enjoying it even better now that I have someone to share it with.

“I wonder why it’s empty,” he says, turning around.

I glance back over my shoulder at the cute little inn. Each room has a private balcony overlooking the water, with beautiful tropical flowers growing in pots. A place like this should be packed year round. It’s the perfect little romantic getaway for an overworked, undersexed couple.

“Welcome, welcome,” a large man calls out to us as he walks over with a huge smile on his face. He has a big bushy mustache and a big round belly. There’s an equally round woman beside him with an even bigger smile.

“Welcome,” he says again in a deep booming voice as he arrives, “to the Sunnyside Resort.”

“It’s beautiful,” I say, smiling at the older couple. The air is so crisp and clean, smelling like the ocean.

“We’re the owners here,” the man says, waving his arm at the adorable inn. “My name is Irving and this is my wife, Yanina.”

“Hello,” she says with a smile that’s missing a tooth. She looks up at Tucker’s face and her smile gets even bigger.

“We have rooms and food available,” Irving says. “We can provide you with anything you like.”

“What we really need is a ride,” Tucker says. He glances down at his watch and cringes. “We were supposed to be at the dock about an hour ago.”

Both of their faces drop in disappointment. It seems that they haven’t had any clients in a while.

“We can stay here for a bit,” I say with a shrug.

Tucker turns to me with a skeptical look.

“It’s so pretty,” I say, turning back to the ocean. The sky is turning pinker by the second, only now there are streaks of purple and orange as well. It’s the perfect place for a first date.

I gave Irving an opening and he lunges onto it like a hungry dog in the back of a meat truck. “We have fresh lobster,” he says with a grin. “I just pulled them out of the water an hour ago.”

“We already ate,” Tucker says.

“Lobster sounds wonderful,” I say, smiling up at my date.

He grins and then turns to the excited couple. “We’ll take two of your biggest ones. And a couple of bottles of your finest wine.”

“Excellent!” Irving says as he claps his hands.

Yanina looks thrilled as she tightens the string on her apron. “We’ll make you a feast that you’ll never forget.”

The two of them hurry off before we can change our minds.

“You know I booked a catamaran for us,” Tucker says with a sigh. “Although they probably left thinking that we weren’t going to show up.”

The warm breeze takes my hair along for a ride, and I tuck it behind my ear as it tickles my face. “I like it here,” I say, turning back to the gorgeous view of the ocean. “And they looked so excited to have us. Do you mind?”

He smiles as he turns to face the ocean. “As long as you’re happy, I’m happy.”

“Lobster always makes me happy.”

We stand on the smooth rocks, enjoying the spectacular sunset, not saying a word. It’s strangely comfortable standing next to him, and I have to stop myself from inching toward his body.

A few minutes later, Yanina comes over with two glasses of white wine on a tray. My mouth waters at the sight.

“Thank you,” I say as she hands me a glass. “Your place is beautiful. How come there aren’t any guests?”

She sighs as she hands Tucker a glass. “The people want soft sand and big resorts. We have hard rocks and a small inn. Sometimes we get people, but they never come back. We don’t know why.”

“Well, it’s beautiful,” I say, smiling at her. And it really is. There are palm trees off to the sides, swaying in the wind above the colorful tropical flowers. It’s a quiet place, and there are no other buildings or villas to spoil the breathtaking view.

“Enjoy it,” she says with one last smile. “The lobsters will be ready soon.”

“There’s no hurry,” Tucker says to her as she walks away.

I swallow a smile as we walk to the water and sit down on a large rock. Every few minutes, I steal a quick look at Tucker’s face. The setting sun is making his honey-colored eyes look even brighter than normal. His skin is tanned and looking very kissable with a short layer of stubble coating his strong jaw.

My head is swirling with competing thoughts as I sip on the cold wine and stare out at the calm ocean. Should I give Tucker a chance? Should I throw the wine in his face and storm out of here? Should I lunge on him and kiss him on the lips?

I have no answers.

“Do you really think we’re toxic together?” he asks after a while.

I look up at him, and my heart skips when I see the sadness in his beautiful eyes. He really does seem sorry for all that he put me through.

I sigh as I turn back to the water, not knowing what to do. Do some people not deserve forgiveness? Or should everyone get a second chance?

“I think we are,” I whisper after a few beats of my pounding heart. “But that doesn’t mean we can’t change. People change, right?”

He takes a breath of relief. “From time to time.”

We look into each other’s eyes, and I see hope there. Potential. Promise.

“Well, there’s no time like the present,” I say, raising my glass.

He smiles as he clinks his glass to mine and then takes a sip. I linger for a second, watching his sexy lips touch the glass, before taking a sip of the delicious wine myself.

I decide to give him a second chance. A real second chance.

But just one. If he fucks it up, I’m out for good.

“Look!” he says, perking up as he points to the ocean. I turn to where he’s pointing and gasp when I see a dolphin leap out of the water.

“I’ve never seen dolphins in the wild before,” I say, feeling my heart swell up as more and more leap out of the water, playing together.

I get goosebumps as I watch them, curving in the air before diving back down below the ocean. Tucker shifts closer and puts his arm around me, smiling as he enjoys the show.

So maybe we were toxic. All great love stories have a rocky beginning. Right?

I inch a little closer to him, enjoying the feel of his muscular arm holding me tight.

I just hope our rocky part is over and we can get to the good stuff now.