The Spanish Love Deception

“You know what, Aaron?” I shrugged my shoulders, fighting the smile that wanted to break across my expression. “I truly am disappointed.”

“You are?” That smug look fell off his face.

“Oh, so much. And you know what I do when that happens?” I turned to Sally. “Sally, I’ll have one of everything you have on display. And I changed my mind. I’ll get everything to go, please.” My lips broke on what I hoped wasn’t an evil grin. “He insists on paying.” I pointed at Aaron with my thumb. “So, please, let him do that before he runs away all your customers with I don’t know what antics about him getting on his knees.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t want that,” Sally said with a wink. “You do like our lemon bars. Should I put two instead of one?” she asked as she grabbed one of the biggest containers.

I nodded. “What a lovely idea. I do love them, and why not two blueberry muffins too? They look fantastic from here.”

Aaron remained by my side as he witnessed my little display. “If you think I’m not elated to see you eat, then you don’t understand how serious I was yesterday.”

I ignored the way that made me feel.

“But I still hope you are going to share.”

“I thought you were treating me, not the other way around.” I turned in his direction again, leaning my hip on the counter and placing a hand on my waist.

If I hadn’t known him any better, it would have been easy to overlook the unfiltered amusement shining in his eyes. But it was right there.

And as I peered into that handsome face I had despised—perhaps unfairly, okay, fine—so often in the past, it hit me. I was just as amused, if not a little more. And we did not have only that in common. Both of us were doing an awful job at hiding it too.

But somehow, for the first time in history, neither of us seemed to care. We simply continued looking at each other as we stood there. Gazes locked. Both of us fighting what I knew were petty smiles. Hiding our amusement like a pair of stubborn idiots, waiting for the other to break and grin first.

“All right.” Sally’s voice broke through the spell, making me turn abruptly. She was smiling. Brightly. “Order packed and ready.”

“Okay, thanks,” I muttered. With a little bit of a struggle, I managed to gently hug everything to my chest. “All right, Blackford. Thank you too. Always a pleasure doing business with you.”

“You really are not going to share, are you?”

“Nope.”

We stared at each other for a long moment.

“I …” He trailed off, looking like he was changing his mind about something. My heart raced. “I don’t like running through the terminal. So, try not to be late tomorrow. It’s not—”

“Cute. I know, Blackford. Bye.” Then, I turned on my heels and walked away.

First, he’d persecuted my sweets, and now, this.

One day, I was going to throw something at that ridiculously symmetrical face of his. I truly was, but it was never going to be a brownie.

Chapter Thirteen

Aaron was never late. He wasn’t programmed for that kind of careless behavior.

I knew because I had been trying to be painfully earlier than him to every single appointment our calendars had in common for a little more than one year and eight months. Which could only mean one thing. He wasn’t coming.

He had seen reason and realized how ludicrous our plan was.

My plan, which he had agreed to.

Or was it the other way around? At this point, I didn’t know anymore.

Not that it mattered if he wasn’t coming.

Because that was the only reasonable explanation as to why I found myself in the middle of the Departures terminal, under the huge panel that displayed the status and times of all the outgoing flights, cold sweat running down my back and no one by my side. At least, not the surly blue-eyed man who should have been here right about now.

Gaze roaming around, I let that sink in.