Anyone But Rich (Anyone But..., #1)(27)

“Yes. And you said it yourself. It’s not a date, right?”

“Yes. I said something like that.”





Chapter 10





RICH


We landed at a small private airport a few minutes from the restaurant. After a short drive, we arrived at the seaside restaurant with time to spare.

It was an older building on a rocky stretch of the coast. We were taken upstairs to an open rooftop full of seating. A live band played quiet jazz, and a few other couples were already drinking wine when we arrived. The view was incredible. To our right, the ocean stretched out wide, giving us a perfect shot of the waves and the miles of beachfront mansions. To our left, we could see the charming little historic city where people on beach cruiser bikes were almost more common than cars.

“This wasn’t the kind of place I expected,” Kira said after the waiter set down two glasses for us and a pitcher of cold water.

Kira looked incredible. I could tell she’d made a point of not dressing too fancy. She didn’t want me to think she’d been anticipating our evening together, and she definitely didn’t want me to think she was trying to impress me. But Kira probably could have rolled out of bed with her hair plastered to her cheek by drool and I’d still be impressed.

She was real, more real than the women I’d wasted my time with since leaving West Valley seven years ago. The fact that she was making such an effort to push me away told me as much. If she cared about my money or my fame more than who I was, she would’ve given in that first day outside her classroom. And if she’d given in, I think I would’ve lost interest immediately. I wondered how that would infuriate her—if she knew the fastest way to shake me off would’ve been for her to act like she wanted to date me. But that ship had sailed. I didn’t know if there was anything she could do to make me lose interest now.

“I’m glad it’s not what you expected,” I said. “What were you thinking? A dingy, dark room with a guy in a cheap suit telling jokes?”

“Something like that.” She looked around the patio, turning in her chair to look behind us. “I don’t see a magician.”

“Voilà,” I said, spreading my hands. “He’s very talented.”

Kira smirked. “Funny. Seriously, though. Where is he?”

“He circulates around the tables. It’s a casual kind of thing. Sometimes he barely does anything with you and your group. Other times he’ll practically be glued to your table.”

“Wait. You’ve been here before? This is only, what, an hour drive from West Valley?”

“Hour and a half, depending on traffic.”

“Why come all the way out here before now?”

I shrugged. I had an answer, but it wasn’t one I was about to share with her. “A man isn’t allowed to get homesick?”

She narrowed her eyes. “This is an hour and a half from home.”

“Maybe I didn’t want to cause a stir.”

“For some reason, I find that surprising.”

“Oh? Do I strike you as an attention seeker?”

She leaned back in her chair and sipped her water, giving me a few moments of quiet to drink her in even more. She had matured, and she’d done it in all the right ways, and not only above the neck. Letting my eyes wander would be a recipe for disappointment, but I couldn’t quite contain them. She looked good. Damn good. I wasn’t sure if it was just knowing that she’d sooner knee me in the balls than let me put my hands on her, but the mere thought of stealing a kiss had me feeling like a hormonal teenager again.

“You strike me as someone who thinks the world is a competition,” she said finally.

I felt my eyebrows pull together at that. In a few quick words, she’d managed to pluck something from the depths of my own personality that I immediately recognized as true, even though I’d never seen it in myself. “Damn.” I laughed. “Let’s say you’re right. Is that a bad thing?”

“I am right, first of all.” The shadow of a smile was pulling at her mouth, and the effect was mesmerizing. “Second of all, that depends. Can you turn it off?”

“Maybe not,” I admitted. “I don’t know. If you want the truth, I—”

“What else would I want?”

I laughed again. Damn. It had been so long since I’d spoken to someone who wasn’t trying to kiss my ass. Trying to keep up with her made me feel like I was using a long-neglected corner of my brain. “Fair point. The answer is I don’t know. Maybe it’s the way I’m wired.”

“Then maybe you can understand why I have no interest in accepting your half-assed apology. It’s just a game to you. One more contest you want to win.”

“No,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s not true. Maybe at first. Yes. I’ll admit that much. I think I initially wanted to check a box off. The way things ended with you felt like a mistake, and fixing it would’ve been like housecleaning. Once I saw you again, it changed. Apologizing to you isn’t just an item on my to-do list, Kira. It’s—”

As if he were the magician of shitty timing, a man with his black sleeves rolled up his arms appeared at our table. He was in his thirties and had long hair pulled into a ponytail. “I dreamed about the two of you. Look,” he said, pulling out an index card covered in writing. “I woke up last night and wrote all this down. I wasn’t sure who it was about until I saw you two.”