A Lot Like Perfect

This marked the absolute first—and hopefully last—time in his life that a woman had told him she was fine with scraps of his attention and then given him permission to treat her like garbage after sharing something intimate and amazing. “That’s not anywhere on my radar. I’ve been dreaming of being with you like this for far too long to rush it.”

Which pretty much sealed his fate. If he planned on taking her up on the offer that was very clearly being communicated via her melting blue eyes, he had to stick around and do this right. Or leave before it went that far. Indecision—the bane of his existence. How did he get enough information to make the right decision in this case? It was impossible.

“That might be the most romantic thing I’ve ever heard,” she murmured, which just about broke his heart. And solidified that he’d be making even more concessions, at least until he figured out to navigate this unexpected detour. Aria was worth it.

“Something else that needs to be fixed, immediately,” he said with a scowl. “You deserve romance and to have someone pay a lot of attention to you. Bring you flowers and give you presents for no reason.”

Her expression was nothing short of dazed. “I would like that.”

He would like to be the man who did those things for her. If he had to postpone taking off to give them to her, that wasn’t so bad.

The bad part was how his greedy, contact-starved soul had latched on to hope that the rest of the prediction was going to come true. That Aria was every bit the healing power he’d been searching for and hadn’t found yet because he’d resisted slowing down long enough to let it happen.

“You know what else I would like?” she asked him sweetly.

“If we could just go swimming and forget all of this heavy stuff?” he suggested, only half joking. If he’d known he’d have his head spun around this many times in the course of an hour, he’d have packed better.

She hesitated long enough that it became apparent she’d rather have kept hashing out the parameters of this fledgling relationship that had somehow sprung up in a matter of minutes. He started to tell her that was fine, hash away, when she nodded. “That was first on my list, after all. Well, no. Getting to that kiss was the whole list. But after that…definitely taking the plunge.”

“I’m all in.”

And he meant that in as many ways as she wanted to take it. How he’d honor that promise remained to be seen, but his will wasn’t strong enough to deny what was happening between them. And neither did he intend to miss a minute of being with a woman who’d orchestrated this entire outing because she’d hoped he’d finally kiss her. Since he’d ached for that too, they were both winners.

After they ditched their shoes, he took her hand and led her to the edge of the rock where the crystal blue water quietly waited for them to jump. It was clear enough to see straight to the bottom and deep enough to take a body from ten feet up.

They leaped in tandem, hitting the water with a giant splash. The cold engulfed him, refreshing, shocking. He held his breath as it closed over his head and then kicked to the surface, easily compensating for his sodden clothes that weighed a lot less than the scuba gear he’d spent more than his share of time wearing while under water. Her fingers slipped from his as they broke above the water line at the same time.

“That was awesome,” he told her.

She treaded water next to him, rivulets streaming from her hair. Wet, she was even more devastating than she’d been up on the rock, post-kiss. Why she didn’t have a thousand men beating down her door, he’d never know. He just thanked his lucky stars that all those idiots had cleared the way for him.

“That’s why I suggested it,” she said, her smile becoming infectious enough to tease one out of him. “You only get one first time. I figured we should make it count.”

Oh, every bit of this had counted.

She kicked away with a splash and he followed her. They explored the basin together, laughing, kissing, touching—though the wet clothes provided both the much-needed barrier he’d intended them to be, as well as an incentive for him to figure out how to extend the magic past tonight. Which was the worst sort of selfish. Better to just enjoy the spell of the springs and forget about it tomorrow.

Eventually the sun went down and the water grew too cold to stay in it. Reluctantly, Isaiah rolled to the shore and dragged Aria into his arms to warm up her shivering body. They hadn’t eaten since lunch but he couldn’t find the energy to care about anything other than her.

“This was everything you promised it to be,” he murmured into her hair. “I don’t want it to end.”

“Then don’t end it,” she suggested softly, her tone contradicting the sudden stiffness of her body. “I get that you’re not a roots kind of guy. It’s part of what I find breathlessly attractive about you. You make me think about how big and wide the world is. I want to see it. What if—”

His heart went into a free fall as she ground to a halt, right when she’d opened up a conversation that had completely piqued his interest. What if was his favorite phrase all at once.

“Don’t stop now, sweetheart.” He tightened his arms around her for fortification. This wasn’t easy to navigate for him either, but she gave him courage. Maybe he could do the same for her. “Be bold. You talk all you want about how attractive you find me.”

She laughed, as he’d intended, but more importantly, she relaxed against him, her body losing all of its sudden tension. “I like a lot of things about you. But what I was going to say is that you make me feel bold. As if I can do things I never thought I could. Like leave Superstition Springs.”

The whisper of a suggestion floated through him as he internalized what she’d left unsaid. “You mean with me.”

“Maybe you don’t want that,” she gushed out in a rush, as if he’d been about to protest the idea. “I didn’t intend to bring it up so soon. I mean, just think about it. I’m not asking for anything to be set in stone—”

“Aria.” He laid his lips on her temple. “I’m thinking about it.”

He wasn’t. Not really. Even if she was serious, which he highly doubted, he couldn’t be responsible for tearing her away from her home, the only place she’d ever known. And for what? A broken man who was good at shirking commitment and bad at doing the only job he’d ever loved? No. She’d gotten all caught up in the magic, as had he, but that didn’t change reality. Come tomorrow, the best he could hope for was a precious, minor extension to the bliss he’d gotten lucky enough to experience for this brief flash in time.

Sixteen