Mia's Heart (The Paradise Diaries) (17 page)

He
looks at me in amusement.  “Well, don’t get too excited.  But I think
a walk would do you some good, out here in the fresh air.  And of course,
there’s me.  I would do you good, too.”

I
suck in my breath and he laughs.  

My
hormones do jazz hands. 

And
then Quinn pulls me to my feet.

We
walk through the gardens and I can’t help but notice that he hasn’t let go of
my hand.  His is huge and strong and has callouses on the fingers. My
heart speeds up; fast, faster, faster until I can hear it roaring in my ears.
 As he guides me over a loose stone tile, I am pressed against him and I
stare up at him, his eyes frozen on mine.

Time
seems to stop.

I
can count my heart beats.

Everything
is a blur. 

He
bends his head.

His
lips meet mine.

My
mind gets blown. 

For
real.

He
pulls away and stares down at me, his gaze intense and dark and smoldering.

Yes,
smoldering.

I
urge myself to remember to breathe.

He
grins.  And my knees weaken.

“So,
you don’t feel the need to meow now?  I’m not a pussy…cat now?”

“No. 
You’re more like a lion,” I tell him.

Then
I grin and kiss him again.  We kiss for quite a while, actually, until my
hands are clutching his back and I am gasping for breath. 

When
Quinn finally pulls away, he looks satisfied.

“Ready
to walk?” he asks casually, as though he hasn’t just addled every wit that I
have by playing tongue twister in my mouth.  I nod silently, not really
trusting my voice. 

Quinn
is a fantastic kisser.

That
much is true. 

We
walk in the moonlight for a half hour or so.  Quinn tells me everything
that he’s learned about the estate since he’s been here, things that I should
know but don’t.  He shows me the building where I normally work.  He
shows me the factory buildings where the gourmet olive oils are made.  And
then we make the long walk back to the house. 

I
walk slowly because I don’t want the evening to end. 

He
walks me to my room and kisses me yet again. 

And
I definitely don’t want him to leave, but obviously he has to. 

After
I go inside my bedroom, I have to lean against the door for quite a while
before my shaking knees feel strong enough to walk to my bed.

I
meow at myself.

Because
I totally deserve it.

Chapter
Fifteen

I
dream about Quinn. 

And
then I dream about Gavin. 

Why
do they both have to be such amazingly awesome kissers?

Why
do I have to be so freaking indecisive?

Why
is my heart so clueless?

Oh
My Word.

When
I wake in the morning, the sunshine is cheerful, but I’m not.  Because I
feel like an utter loser.  I kissed two sexy guys in one day.  And I
honestly don’t know which kiss I enjoyed more.  There’s clearly something
wrong with me.

I
jump in the shower and then get dressed. 

And
then I text Reece. 

Want
to go into town with me?

She
answers back immediately. 
Sure.  Where are we going?

To
fix my hair
,
I text her. 

She
answers with a smiley face and
I’ll be there in five.

Reece
is literally in my room in five minutes.   She looks at me and
smiles.  She looks fresh and cute in a pair of cut-off jean shorts,
pony-tail, snug t-shirt and a pair of cowboy boots. 

Yep. 
Cowboot boots.

With
shorts. And she totally pulls it off.

“What
color are you thinking?” she asks as we wind our way downstairs. 

“I
don’t know,” I muse. “Pink?”

She
grins again.  “Pink has always suited you.”

My
mother is in the dining room having breakfast and I bend and kiss her
cheek.  I ignore the startled look on her face and tell her that I’m going
to town.

“We’ll
be back in a bit!” I tell her over my shoulder. She’s still too surprised by my
display of affection to say anything. 

Reece
has Dante’s keys to his fancy Maserati.  I decide he must love her a
lot
to let her drive this car.  It has so many bells and whistles that I
can’t even figure all of the buttons out.  I settle into the passenger
seat as Reece drives the curvy roads into Valese. I also commend her on
figuring out all of the buttons on this dashboard.

“I
grew up driving farm trucks,” she tells me conversationally.  “It took a
while to get used to driving Dante’s car because it’s just so nice.  But
that’s not a problem that you have.  Your little car is really nice,
too.  And it’s what you learned to drive on.  You never had to learn
on a three-on-the-tree old truck.”

“Three-on-the-tree?”
I ask.  She nods.

“It’s
an old fashioned stick shift.  You shift the gears on a shifter on the
steering column, instead of on the floor.  But once you learn on something
like that, you can pretty much drive anything,” she tells me cheerfully. 
“So it was probably a good thing.”

“I
don’t know if I’ll remember how to drive,” I tell her.  “I haven’t tried
since the accident.”

“That’s
okay,” she answers.  “We’ll go get your car later and give it a
try.” 

I
smile at her because she really is trying to make my life normal.  She
doesn’t even act afraid to be the one with me when I try to drive.  She’s
brave.  So I tell her that.  She laughs. 

“No,
brave is waking you up before 10:00 a.m.  Driving with you was always a
little terror-inducing, so I’m used to it already.”

I
roll my eyes and laugh and we’re in town before I know it.

I
stare out my window, watching the buildings that pass by.  I keep thinking
that if I look at things that I should know hard enough, I’ll recognize
them.  It hasn’t happened yet, though.  Reece parks and we stroll
down the main strip. Cute boutiques line each side of the cobblestone street.
People swarm in loosely woven crowds on the walk.  I feel like some of
them stare at me. 

“Do
you think they know me?” I ask Reece.  She shrugs. 

“Probably. 
I’m sure they know who you are.”

It’s
hard to ignore the stares, but I give it my best shot.

“I
wonder how much money I have?” I muse curiously.  “I mean, I have a credit
card in my purse, but I don’t know how much I can spend on it.”

Reece
giggles.  “I don’t think it’s something you have to worry about,” she
answers.  “You used to go on crazy shopping sprees and never even
blinked.  I’m pretty sure you just use your credit card and then your dad
pays the bill.”

I
nod.  “Okay.”  That seems awfully nice of my father.  I’ll have
to remember to thank him.

Reece
pulls me into a trendy little shop and I find several cute outfits. 
Leggings and mini-skirts, flowing shirts, chunky jewelry.  I can’t decide
which one to get, so I get them all.  I need clothes anyway.  Most of
mine were destroyed in the quake and I don’t like what my mom bought for
me.  I never knew there were so many shades of beige in the world. 

Reece
looks over my haul in amazement. 

“What?”
I raise an eyebrow.  She shakes her head.

“Nothing.
There’s just not one black thing in the bunch.”

That
is
interesting.  “I guess maybe I didn’t like wearing black so much as
I liked the reaction I got from it,” I muse.  “I don’t know.  But I
don’t feel the urge to buy it now.”

“That’s
fine,” Reece assures me. “You should buy what you want.  And apparently,
your gut is telling you to buy a lot of hot pink.”

I
smile.  “I want to accessorize with my hair.  Which reminds me, we
need to go have that done.”  I keep one of my new outfits on, complete
with a cute pair of canvas sneakers and fingerless gloves.  I feel trendy
and sort of skater-chic. 

Reece
leads me out and down the street to a little spa. I don’t have an appointment,
but once I tell them my name, they fit me right in.  Apparently, Dante’s
not the only one around here that gets special treatment.  Hmm. 
Perhaps being the daughter of the Minister of Defense comes in handy. Except
for when people stare at me in public, that is.

Within
a couple of hours, my hair is two shades darker with hot pink streaks threaded
through it.  I stare in satisfaction in the mirror. 

“I
love it,” I assure my stylist.  “It seems so cheerful and happy.”

Reece
smiles at me.  “You look like yourself again—but with different
clothes.  I love the new look, Mia.”

“So
do I,” I tell her happily.  “I feel like I’m on the way to figuring out
who I am.  Whoever said retail therapy doesn’t work is insane.”

“I
agree.  It works like a charm for me every time.  Are you
hungry?  There’s a bunch of little bistros and cafes down the street.”

I
nod.  “I’m famished.  Spending money apparently works up an
appetite.”

She
links her arm through mine and we make our way to a little area on the other
end of the street that is surrounded by restaurants.  There is an open air
seating area in the middle, apparently shared by all of the bistros.  We
grab a sandwich and then head for a table. 

And
as we walk, I hear a tinkling, familiar laugh. 

I
turn my head and find Elena. 

And
she is sitting on Gavin’s lap.

I
freeze, my feet unable to continue walking. 

Elena
is perched delicately against Gavin’s chest and she is giggling into his
ear.  He is laughing too, because Gavin is almost always laughing. 
He seems perfectly happy to have her on his lap, pressed against him.  He
is definitely not making any move to get her off.  He seems to be enjoying
himself, actually. 

Reece
is staring too.

“Um…”
she stutters.  She has no idea what to say.

“It’s
okay,” I tell her.  “Seriously.  I don’t own him.”

But
it feels like someone has impaled my heart.  And I don’t even know why. I
truly don’t own him.  He owes me no explanations. But it feels like he
just yanked my heart out and drop-kicked it.

I
head over in their direction.

“Mia,
you have to keep in mind, Gavin is different than us.  He’s so
easy-going.  He pretty much goes with the flow in any situation. I’m sure
he’s thinking nothing of this.”

Reece
has found her tongue now.  I nod, but I’m not really listening. 
Instead, I march up to the table next to them and set my tray down.  Gavin
is startled and then surprised and I can tell that he is really wishing now
that Elena wasn’t on his lap.

Tough
crunch. 

She
is, so he needs to answer for it.

Okay. 
Maybe I’ve changed my mind. I guess I do want an answer. 

But
I don’t ask for it.  Instead, I smile cheerfully at them.

“Hey,
guys.  What’s up?”

Gavin
doesn’t push Elena off, but instead, he leans around her to talk to me.

“I
like the hair,” he tells me with a grin.  “I just bumped into Elena and
she decided to sit with me.”

“You
mean,
on
you?” I correct him.  His smile falters.  He can see
that I’m annoyed. 

Elena
chooses to move now and she smiles at me.  I can’t see anything malicious
in her smile, although I might be wrong.

“Hi,
Mia,” she tells me.  She completely ignores Reece. 

“Hi,”
I answer. 

But
honestly, I’m not really interested in anything she has to say.  She looks
gorgeous today, as usual.  She’s got a revealing tank top on that plunges
to a low V in the front and in the back.  I love the shirt. I just wish
that she didn’t look so perfect in it while she was on Gavin’s lap.  Her
hair and make-up is perfect, as always, and truly, you can barely see the scar
on her cheek now. 

Gavin
hands me a little boutique bag. 

“I
got you a gift.  I hope you like it,” he says. 

And
his voice
is
hopeful.  I’m not sure if he’s hopeful that I’m not
mad for finding Elena on his lap or if he’s hopeful that I’ll simply like his
gift.  And Reece might actually be right.  He doesn’t seem unsettled
at all that I found them like this.  Maybe he really didn’t think anything
of it.

But
that’s a little unsettling to me. 

Because
I don’t like it.  It’s okay to be friends with members of the opposite
sex. But if you like someone else, you really shouldn’t have other girls
sitting on your lap.