When she returned, pulling her rolling carry-on behind her, I stood up from the table and our eyes locked. She gave me the tiniest of smiles.
"I'll walk you out," I said, motioning with my hand for her to precede me down the hallway to the front lobby.
When we stepped outside into the hot, Carolina afternoon, I immediately reached into the breast pocket of my dress shirt and pulled my sunglasses out. Affixing them to my face, I turned toward her even as I saw Mike pulling up in the car.
"So, are you heading back to Nags Head this evening?" Andrea asked with a warm, interested smile on her face. Clearly, she had no hurt feelings over my refusal to come to her room last night.
A move which may go down as one of the stupidest things I've ever done in my life.
"Yeah … I guess so."
She gave a warm chuckle. "Well, relax. Sit on that beach and drink a few cold beers. You deserve it."
"I will," I said lamely. "Nothing like the Outer Banks in the summertime."
"It sounds lovely."
"It's a great place to visit," I muttered … even more lamely.
"I'm sure it is," she responded quietly … distantly. Then … because Mike was waiting, she said, "Well, good luck to you, Wyatt. It was an honor to work with you on this case."
Her eyes were cool, and she fucking stuck her hand out for me to shake.
She couldn't see the movement of my eyes behind my dark shades, but they glanced down and narrowed at her proffered hand. Fuck no, I wasn't shaking her hand.
Couldn't kiss her either … not the deep and personally invading way I wanted to.
Instead, I ignored her hand and bent down to kiss her on the cheek.
"Take care of yourself," I murmured.
She gasped slightly and gave a small sigh. When I pulled away, her eyes were closed but they immediately fluttered open.
Her face was awash with confused sadness, but she put on a firm smile. "You take care, too."
And that was that.
She left Raleigh and so did I, and here I sit now with Hunter in my kitchen, baring my soul about this woman that I can't get out of my mind.
"So, that's how it ended, and now it's driving me crazy," I mutter. "I feel like there's unfinished business or something. It's hard to describe."
"So get on a plane and go see her," Hunter says with a proud smile on his face, like he just solved the problem of world peace or something.
Oh, poor schmuck. If it were only that easy.
"And do what?" I exclaim as I slam my bottle down on the table. A splash of beer and foam shoots out the top. "What exactly would I be going there for? To fuck her? To start a relationship? Christ, Hunter … you know a long-distance relationship couldn't work. She's not leaving the FBI to move here, and I'm sure as hell not leaving my home. So why would I go see her?"
Hunter looks amused over my outburst. He merely tilts his beer back and takes four long swallows to finish it off. Standing from my table, he stares down at me. "You go and see her because you can't stop thinking about her. What other reason do you need?"
I snort in frustration. "But we could never have-"
"Oh, stop with the fucking excuses," Hunter says as he leans over me and pokes me in the chest. "Just go see her … fuck her. Start there and decide where to go after that. Maybe that's all you need … a closure fuck."
Yeah … I so don't need a closure fuck. I know, without a doubt, that if I fuck Andrea, things are going to get way more complicated and sticky. She and I were intimately acquainted orally, and the things that we did to each other usually come later in a relationship. The mere fact that she had no problem latching onto my dick with that mouth, and I was starved to eat her out, tells me that we had forged some type of connection prior to that all occurring. That meant to me that fucking her was not going to cure the problem-it was going to increase it.
"Sound like a plan?" Hunter asks as he turns away from me and sets the empty bottle down in my recycle bin.
"Yeah, maybe," I say distractedly, but deep down in my heart, I know I'm not going to pursue her. Just like time healed the wounds of her parents' death, and just as I told her that time was the wisest counselor of all, I decided to let things be and hoped that as the days wore on, her memory would just fade away from me, and I could move on with my life in peace.
Chapter 14
Andrea
Two days later …