“Terra?”
I flipped my hair over my shoulder and turned toward him. “Oh, wow. Michael, right?”
“Yeah. Any more problems with your ex?”
He seemed taller than before. I stood from my seat and grinned. “No, I haven’t heard from him since.”
He tossed his head toward the register. “Can I get you a drink?”
Another cup of coffee would surely be the death of me, but I didn’t dare refuse. “Sure. A double latte.”
He nodded, grinned and turned toward the register. I sat down and tried not to stare. A few over-the-shoulder glances while he ordered and waited for the coffee went unnoticed, but provided all of the reassurance I needed to convince me he was well worth waiting for.
He handed me the latte and sat down beside me. “I’ve looked for you in here since the day we met.”
You what?
Instinctively, I raised the cup to my lips. “Oh really?”
The smell almost made me vomit.
He took a sip of his coffee. “I thought I might catch you here.”
“I come in here from time to time.” I forced myself to take a drink. “If you want, I can give you my phone number, and the next time you’re coming up, maybe I can meet you.”
“Sounds good.”
I did an imaginary fist pump. Yes!
“What’s your number,” I asked. “I’ll just send you a text.”
He gave me his number and I sent him a text with my first name as the message. When his phone beeped, he pulled it from his inner jacket pocket and peered down at the screen. “Terra what? It just says Terra. What’s your last name?”
“Wilson,” I lied.
When people found out my last name, things ended before they ever got started. An odd glare, an oh really, or, the inevitable are you related to Anthony Agrioli question seemed to always follow. With Michael, I wanted him to give me a chance to show him who I really was, and not categorize me for what my family was involved in.
“Terra Wilson,” he said. “Got it.”
“And yours is Tripp. You said that was a long story. So, have you got time to tell it?”
He chuckled as he considered his response. “I went in to get plates for the car, and the lady gave me the next tag in the drawer. It said USN 666. I’m a former marine, and although we’re technically under the Department of the Navy, we look at the navy as being beneath us. The letters USN stand for the US Navy, and I didn’t want them on my car. I knew I didn’t want 666 on it either, so I asked if I could get a different plate. She said ‘not unless you get back in line and go to a different station.’ It took me three hours to get to where I was, so I just ordered a personalized plate. I tossed USN 666 in the trunk, and drove on the expired dealer plate until the new one showed up.”
His fighting skills had led me to believe he was something, but a marine wouldn’t have been my first guess. “So, you were a marine?”
“Ten years.”
“Oh wow. Well, that explains the, uhhm. Yeah.” I stared back at him in admiration. “But not anymore?”
“Not for a year.”
“So what do you do now?”
“Investor,” he said flatly.
“What do you invest in?”
“Opportunities. I invest in opportunities.” He seemed to convince himself of it as he spoke.
I waved my open hand toward him. “Well, it looks like a rewarding career.”
“So far, it’s been pretty lucrative. With any luck, it’ll continue. I plan on retiring in a few years and moving to Belize.”
“Really?”
“Hopefully. I mean, if everything continues. It’s beautiful down there.”
I buried my fingers in my hair and tossed it frantically. Not to be cute, or to bring attention to myself, but because I felt like I had bugs in my hair. My evening’s diet of almost seven double lattes and no food was wreaking havoc on me. I shook my hair and let it drape down over my shoulders.
He leaned back and watched observantly.
I lowered my hands into my lap and grinned, satisfied my little fit was over. “I’ve never been down there, but I’d sure like to one day.”
“You are...” His mouth twisted into a smirk and he shook his head lightly. “Fucking gorgeous.”
Excuse me?
I wasn’t sure if he actually said what I thought I heard, or if the caffeine-induced state of delirium I was slipping into had my mind playing tricks on me. “Excuse me?”
“Sorry, but I’m blunt.”
I really wanted to hear him say it again. “What did you say?”
“Sorry, but I’m blunt?”
“No, before that.”
“Before that? I said you were gorgeous.”