Lone Star Reunion

“You’ve said that before, numerous times,” Alex told him testily. “Look, you might as well accept that we are stranded here until that plane returns.” She gestured to the awesome view of a flat turquoise-colored sea. Below them, nestled against the cliff and partially covered by the natural vegetation, they could see the tiled roof of what she assumed to be Matt’s beach house. She gestured to the well-used track in front of them. “The sun is shining. The sea looks amazing. So, on the bright side—”

“There is no bright side,” Daniel muttered, and Alex gripped the frame of the cart as he accelerated forward.

“I can’t think of anything better than lying on the beach for a week. I’m exhausted and it will give me time to think. We don’t even have to talk to each other. Actually, it would be better if we didn’t.”

Clenching his jaw, Daniel steered the car along the track, and Alex heard the cry of a seagull and the sound of a rushing creek above the cart’s rumble. Daniel kept moving his head from the path to look at her and back again. Annoyed, she half turned in her seat and glared at him. “What? Why do you keep looking at me like that?”

“What about sex?”

“Where did that out-of-left-field question come from?” Alex lifted her hands in confusion.

Daniel’s dry look suggested she get with the program. “We’re together. Alone. On an island. We might be as frustrated as hell with each other and the situation, but you cannot be that naive to think that, with our sexual chemistry, we’re not going to end up in bed.”

She wanted to deny his words, but she knew she would come across as being disingenuous if she brushed off his comment. Alex lifted her thigh up onto the bench seat, her knee brushing his hard thigh. After marshaling her thoughts, she picked out her words. “Daniel, we’ve known each other for a long time but we don’t know each other.”

“What do you mean?”

She’d been thinking about this a lot lately. She and Daniel communicated with their bodies, not with their minds. They were both guarded people and they both struggled to let people in. They knew each other’s bodies intimately, knew exactly how to behave naked. But fully clothed? They were like drunken cowboys stumbling around in the dark. As her baby’s father, Daniel was going to be in her life for a long time, so didn’t she owe it to herself and their child to get to know his mind a fraction as well as she knew his body?

“Let’s be honest here, we’ve always been sexually attracted to one another, and even as teenagers, we far preferred to make out than to talk—”

“And it’s still my first choice.”

Although tempted, Alex ignored his interruption. “That trend continued when we hooked up. I don’t know you—not really—and you certainly don’t know me.”

Daniel sent her an exasperated look. “Of course I do.”

Alex snorted. “Rubbish. Let’s test that theory, shall we?”

Daniel released a frustrated sigh. “If you’re going to ask me a dumb-ass question like what is your favorite color, then I won’t know.”

Alex thought for a minute. “No, let me start with an easy one. Do I prefer to shower in the morning or at night?”

Daniel hesitated before guessing. “At night.”

It was a good guess. “What do I like on my pizza?”

He hesitated and she pounced. “You don’t know. Neither do you know whether I have allergies and I don’t know if you vote.”

“Of course I vote!” Daniel retorted.

Alex ignored him. “Do you believe in God? What are you currently reading? What is your favorite season? Are you on social media? What is your favorite meal? Who is your closest friend?”

“Yes, sort of. A Corben novel. Fall. Hell, no, I don’t have time to post crap no one cares about on Facebook. Beef stew. And yes, I have friends... Matt. Ryan. I talk to James Harris pretty often, too.”

She’d said closest friend, not friends in general, but she’d still found out more about him in thirty seconds than she had in ten years. How much more would she find out about him if they actually conversed instead of kissed?