She asked him over and over again to repeat his words, and she felt as if she could try to focus just a little more, she would be able to hear what it was that he was saying to her. She opened her eyes and saw his looking back at her. She wondered at the strange dream and blinked and tried to rub her eyes to wake up fully, because she could still see him before her.
“Mia…” his voice was soft and she looked at him and rubbed her face.
“I’ve got to wake up!” she said quietly to herself.
“Mia… I’m here,” he said, reaching for her hand, and it wasn’t until his fingers closed around hers that she realized that he was really there, sitting on the edge of her lounge chair, holding her hand, looking into her eyes.
She sat bolt upright in the chair and yanked her hand away from his, staring at him with wide eyes as she gasped. “What? What… What are you doing here? How did you get here? How did you even know where I was?” she fumbled through a few of the thousand questions ricocheting around in her mind.
He bit his lip and looked at her patiently for a moment as she tried to breathe again and calm down.
“It’s not too complicated, actually. Liam called me and told me that you and I needed to talk. He said that you had come to Italy and that you had fallen in love with me and were trying to get over me while you were here. So I got on a plane and came over, and luckily, Liam knew where you were staying.” He looked at her with a half-smile and his eyes searched hers intently.
She gasped again, horrified that her friend, her best friend, had betrayed her so completely and gone behind her back to tell Alexander where she was and how she felt about him. She was appalled and stunned.
Mia hurriedly pushed herself up from the chair she was in and took a few steps back. “You can’t be here! How are you even here? This… this isn’t happening. Damn Liam! I can’t believe he told you that. He never should have told you that! He never should have told you anything!”
Her heart felt like it would break all over again as she gazed at him and a huge tidal wave of pain washed over her. She had told Liam about Emily. Liam knew that Alexander had moved on and that he had a new girlfriend. She was horrified that Liam would tell Alexander anything, knowing even just that. She had promised him that she would talk to Alexander when she got back to the states, not while she was still trying to nurse her aching heart and find herself while she was in Italy.
He stood up and tried to take a few steps toward her. She backed away a little more and shook her head. “I can’t believe you’re here! What on earth are you doing here? Why did you come all of the way over here?” she asked in confusion and frustration. How was she ever going to get over him if he was standing right in front of her in the one place in the world she had come to recover from him?
Alexander walked to her swiftly and clamped his hands on her shoulders and suddenly memories of him in the restaurant came flooding back to her and she felt heat rise up in her. She couldn’t let him get close to her again. He was with another woman, and he was only going to hurt her again if she stayed anywhere near him.
Her heart ached horribly and she looked up at him with utter sadness in her eyes as tears fell and she shook her head. “No! No… Alexander, I can’t do this with you! I just can’t! This hurts too much! I was going to talk with you when I get back to New York, but I just don’t have the strength for this now!”
She pulled away from him and began to walk quickly down the beach toward the gate for the bed and breakfast. She had to get away from him. She couldn’t believe that he was there at all. She was nothing short of confounded that he had ever flown all the way to Italy, let alone gone to all of the trouble to find her. She couldn’t begin to wrap her mind around the fact that he was there. She couldn’t understand why he was there and she didn’t know if she even really wanted to know why he was there. She was certain that she couldn’t take it.
She knew she needed more time, she needed more space away from him to recover and heal. She was almost at the gate, tears streaming down her face and blinding her, when she felt two strong hands on her shoulders again. Her body was stopped in mid-step and he turned her around to face him.
Mia looked up into his intense eyes and the firm set of his face, and she felt her stomach tangle in confusion and uncertainty. She tried to breathe, but everything in her locked up.
“I did not fly all the way over here just to have you walk away from me,” he told her seriously.
She shook her head as more tears cascaded down her cheeks. “What are you doing here? What did you come here for?” she whispered miserably.