CHAPTER FIFTEEN
MARCUS
December 18
After last night’s exchange, Marcus didn’t expect Katy to want to speak to him again. Yet, she greeted him with a hello when he showed up to board the bus to Flores. That would be their first stop before Tikal, and finally Conchilla.
He took off his sunglasses and tried to communicate an apology by using a softer voice. “Good morning.”
She nodded and then averted her eyes.
Last night, he’d replayed their last exchange over and over in his mind, and he could hardly sleep. She had circles under her eyes too. What a wretched creature he was. Like a volcano, spewing lava, he had done that to her.
“Katy,” he said.
She glanced at him warily.
“Listen.” He cleared his throat. “I’m sorry about last night. Sometimes, I get so protective about Amanda’s memory.”
Her expression softened. “Of course.”
“Anyway, thanks for arranging all these activities. I’ve had fun so far.”
She smiled. “You’re welcome.”
Then it was time to get ready for the trip as a bus rumbled into view. It was the size of a small school bus, painted in crazy colors and patterns.
“This…thing,” Marcus said when he found words. “That’’s our ride?”
Passengers started forming a line. Some held cages of chickens. The driver helped a couple tie some cages on the roof.
“It’s called a chicken bus,” Katy commented, the shadow lifting from her face.
“I can see why,” he said dryly.
“Are you wishing for that helicopter now?” Her eyes danced.
“Definitely.” He shook his head. “Only because I’m over here taking my sweet time with this adventure while my business falls apart at my absence.”
“Oh dear,” she said.
“I’m teasing. I learned from my dad that the biggest gift I can give myself as CEO is to train people to take over in my absence. For when I go on vacation or if I croak.”
“Sounds like a smart philosophy.”
He studied her profile. He felt a funny little flutter in his heart, despite the cutting words he’d thrown the night before. Such a weird emotion.
He cleared his throat and pretended to be engrossed in the landscape beyond the forest, where a smoke plume rose above a volcano.
The passengers were allowed on, and he and Katy ended up on a middle bench, surrounded by chickens. It also sounded like there was a goat somewhere on the bus. Marcus was almost afraid to look.
“Watch out behind you,” he joked. “There’s a donkey.”
She didn’t fall for his bait and just smiled.
Gladness tugged at his heart. In recent years, he’d become such a stuffed shirt. It felt good to banter again. To flirt.
The bus didn’t leave for several minutes, allowing the livestock on the bus to impress their distinct “perfume” on the passengers.
Katy squealed beside him. At least he thought it was Katy. It very well could have been some other farm animal stashed under the seat.
No, it wasn’t an animal. Katy was looking out the window, and there, at ten o’clock in the sky, was a rainbow. It formed such a contrasting picture, such a startling color against the clouds, that Marcus sucked his breath in too.
Katy turned toward him so quickly that he didn’t have time to pull back. Her face stopped an inch or two from his.
It was as though time stopped.
He could smell her perfume. A sweet floral number that wasn’t overpowering. Just like her personality. Sweet and gentle.
Her lips were so close to his. He only had to lean, just as she was leaning toward him, and press his lips against hers…
He pulled back and turned away, his heart beating fast. What in the world possessed him to want to kiss Katy on this chicken bus?
No. It was too disloyal to Amanda’s memory.