Only For Now: Second Chances (3 page)

She got up and walked to the kitchen to get a bottle of water. Maybe she needed a break so she could look at her work with fresh eyes. Glancing at her watch, she saw that it was almost two. Okay, maybe not. She had seven hours to send in the best draft she could muster, and right now, it didn't cut it.

Cara poked her head back in. "We're going to head down to the water for a bit. Let me know if Jace’s groomsman gets here. He said it would be this afternoon sometime." Jace's fourth and final groomsman was coming in a day late due to some problem or other with his job.

"Gotcha," she called after her sister. Okay, time to get cracking. She was down to six hours and fifty-nine minutes. Settling back at her laptop, she reread the last portion of the piece, the segment she'd been working on Friday night. The vibe was totally different than the rest of the story, and that wasn't going to fly. The problem was, she really liked the last part, but she didn't have time to rewrite the rest of the story to carry that tone throughout.

"Ugh," she grunted, pounding her fist on the table and throwing her head back in frustration.

"Wow." A low, lilting voice broke through the recesses of her brain. "I know we parted on bad terms, but I didn't realize the depth of your disgust."

Alexa froze, eyes staring wide at the ceiling. She knew that voice. It had been haunting her dreams for a solid week. Well, more like the last four years. But it couldn't be. She must be losing her mind under the stress of her deadline.

She heard the thud of luggage hitting the floor and knew she didn't imagine that. Slowly, she raised her head and her gaze was drawn in to the dark fire of eyes burning into her. Her breathing hitched and heart stopped, only to restart with a pounding vengeance. She'd either gone over the edge and was hallucinating, or her life had just become an episode of the Twilight Zone. Because less than ten feet in front of her once again, stood Will.

CHAPTER THREE

Will tried to keep his face blank as a whirl of emotions raged through his body. He’d known he would see her again, he just didn’t realize his reaction would be so strong. Perhaps it was due to her running out on him last weekend before he could explain everything.

He'd not been able to get her out of his mind all week while he wrapped up his work in New Orleans. Yet even with her raven hair piled in a disheveled mess atop her head, glasses perched on her narrow nose, and dressed in yoga pants and a tank, the reality of her beauty far surpassed the memory.

She stood slowly and tossed her head and narrowed her eyes. The look she gave him was as icy as their blue depths. "What the hell are you doing here?" While her demeanor was confident and in charge, the shake in her voice gave away that fact that she must be completely floored.

He held up his camera bag. "Groomsman number four and wedding photographer du jour, at your service." Wedding photographer wasn't exactly the title he'd give himself, but it explained his presence. Sort of.

She gaped. "Wedding photographer? You have got to be kidding me."

"You can call me Will." He smiled in what he thought was a charming manner, but she evidently did not, as she advanced on him, hands on her hips.

"There's a whole lot more I'd like to call you. Did you plan this? Why didn’t you tell me? What, did you think you would get a head start last weekend so that I could be your fling of choice this week? This has got to be the lowest of lows I've ever seen from you."

Was she serious? That was a bit extreme, but she did have a flair for the dramatic. He held his hands up to fend off her rampage. "Whoa there, darlin', hold up just a minute. I'm just as thrown off by last weekend as you are."

She stopped a foot from him and studied him closely. He had at least eight inches on her tiny frame, but the way she was looking had him taking a step back involuntarily. Something in his face must have given something away because she dropped her guard, if only slightly. "Maybe, maybe not. But I still don't understand. Why didn’t Cara tell me? How did you end up where we were last weekend?"

He licked his lips and took a deep breath, trying to regain his balance. This woman continued to have him off kilter, and that was definitely not something he was used to. In his line of work, he had women constantly throwing themselves at him, so to be so affected by her was a bit disconcerting, even if she had been the one who got away. He cocked and eyebrow and tilted a corner of his mouth up. "The first question you can take up with your sister. I guess the second, too, as she’s the one who wanted me to come along once she knew I was in New Orleans.”

She fell silent, mulling that fact over, then pursed her lips and looked him over again as if she was trying to figure out what game he was playing. Just as she opened her mouth to speak, the door to what he assumed was the pool deck swung open.

"Will! Good to see you man," Jace's voice boomed out. He walked over and clapped Will on the back. "Why didn't you tell me he was here?" he asked, looking at Alexa. “Cara, Will’s here,” he called over his shoulder.

He noticed that Alexa's eyes had gone wide and she was struggling to find the words to say. Will cut in smoothly. "I just arrived." As Jace's gaze shifted to Will and Cara came inside, he noticed from the corner of his eye that Alexa shook her head almost imperceptibly, giving him a pleading look. She obviously hadn’t told anyone about last weekend.

Cara gave Will a huge bear hug. “It’s been far too long. I’m so glad you could make it for the wedding.”

“That makes one of us,” Alexa mumbled. Cara frowned slightly. "You'll have to excuse her. She's on deadline and hasn't quite been able to enjoy the festivities yet." Deadline? She was a writer? That was news to him.

"Yes, and I need to get back to it. Nice to see you." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Cara met Will’s eyes and shrugged sympathetically. Neither of them had known how this would go, but only Will know why it was playing out so poorly.

"Hey, I have a great idea," Cara exclaimed suddenly. Both Will and Alexa snapped their heads toward her. "Will is a journalist, too, you know, Lex. He could help you out with your story so that you can finish up sooner and join us outside." His face was eager as he slung an arm around her shoulders. "What do you say?"

"I really don't think so," she stammered. "I really want to do this on my own. You know how important it is to me." Will noticed her clenching her jaw.

"And you know how important it is to me that you spend some time with us," Cara returned. This appeared to be a conversation they'd had several times already. "Come on, do it for me and Jace," she wheedled. "Will is a pro, and he can help you get it done in no time."

Alexa caved. "Fine." She stomped off and threw herself back into her chair, clicking away at her laptop.

Cara leaned in closer to Will and spoke so that Alexa couldn't hear. "I hope you don't mind. This is all she's done since she arrived, and I just really want to spend some quality time with my baby sis this week."

Will almost laughed. He wouldn't mind some quality time with her as well. He didn't think she was too keen on the idea though. "No problem. We'll knock this out and be on the beach in no time."

"Perfect. And hey, it's good to have you here. It wouldn't be the same without you. Give her time, I think she’ll come around," she added so only he could hear, then hugged him again and went back to the beach with Jace in tow.

Will brought his attention back to Alexa who was staring daggers at him. Putting things back on an even keel was definitely going to take a little finesse. He approached her and pulled out the chair to her left, settling in and gesturing toward her laptop. "May I?"

She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. "So now you're asking permission?"

Ouch. What must she think of him? He was going to have to set the record straight, and soon, but first he needed to know how much time they had. "Okay, obviously we have a lot to talk about." She bit out a sarcastic laugh and he held his hands up. "And obviously you don't want to share your work with me. I get that. But since you've agreed to do this for your sister's sake, let's call a temporary truce, and we can hash out the rest later. When is your deadline?"

She sighed and he could see her internal debate. "In a little over six hours."

He rubbed his palms together as if he were warming his hands. "Then let's get started."

* * *

Alexa tried to focus as she summarized her assignment for Will. It was a really difficult task, seeing as how she was so out of her element on so many levels. For one, just being in such close proximity to him had every nerve standing on edge. Then there was the fact that she never, ever, shared her work with anyone until it was in what she considered near perfect condition. Add to the mix that she couldn't believe the one man she had simultaneously hoped to see and never see again was going to be with her for the rest of the week, and she couldn't pull herself together.

She met his eyes for a brief second, then realized he was staring at her expectantly. Oh God, when had she stopped speaking? She had been so lost in thought about him that she must have trailed off. She shook her head to clear it.

"I'm sorry. This is really hard for me."

He smiled gently. "It's okay. I don't like to share my work either. How about I just read what you've got so far, and we go from there?"

She nodded wordlessly and pushed the laptop toward him. Sitting back, she pulled her knees to her chest and chewed on the inside of her lip while she watched him read. What would he think of it? If he was a professional journalist then he knew what he was doing. What if he thought it was utter crap? Then his opinion of her would be even lower. And why was she so concerned about his opinion of her in the first place? She reminded herself that she was angry with him. That he was a complete bastard. But her body didn't want to listen to her mind.

She felt all warm and fuzzy as she watched him become absorbed in her story. He was undeniably sexy with his dark hair falling over his brow and his warm eyes squinting in concentration. He must have felt her watching him, because he glanced up and gave her a quick smile before turning back to the screen. Her heart did a little somersault.

It didn't add up. She and Will had known each other too long. And while she knew how he was, he’d never been that way with her. How was it possible that what she thought went down in New Orleans actually did? And here he was helping her out with her work after he had just come in from his flight. Surely he was exhausted. Yet he hadn't complained. He had happily agreed to help her out. Maybe she was mistaken. After all, she’d been the one who’d left because she was hopelessly in love with him with no chance of it ever being returned.

How did she end up in such a mess?
Ugh.

Will leaned back and rubbed his eyes, but didn't say anything. The nerves in her stomach redoubled their efforts, and she felt slightly nauseous. After another minute of silence, she couldn't stand it any longer.

"Well?"

Instead of answering her, he followed up her question with one of his own. "How long have you been at this magazine?"

Her heart sank. He thought it was terrible. Her shoulders slumped. "This is my first major assignment there. I’m a copy editor. If they like this, it will be the first time I'm published. At least since my college publications."

"Really?" He sounded surprised. "This is really good work."

She must have heard him wrong. "You think it's good?"

"Yeah, it's great." He nodded enthusiastically. "The only problem is--"

"The tone. I know. That's what I've been struggling with. I like the second half much better than the first, but it's too late to rewrite. I don't know how I can change so much in just a few hours."

"I think we can do it." He proceeded to give her his thoughts about how she could make just enough additions and edits to turn in a cohesive piece.

"How do you know this? What do you do? I thought you were a photographer." She couldn't keep her curiosity at bay any longer. While they’d lived in the same town all their lives, up until Alexa took off for New York, they had gone to different colleges and he hadn’t known at that point what he was going to do with his fine arts degree in photography.

"Well, yes, I am, primarily. I'm a travel journalist. My first love is photography, but I make my bread and butter writing about the things I photograph."

How could she not know that? Had she seen his work and not known? She followed travel publications and blogs like a fanatic. It was her secret dream to be able to travel the world and write, but she'd never shared that with anyone. She’d been too focused on gaining traction with a respectable career at a major publication and didn’t want to seem fanciful.

"Hmm," was all she said instead.

Will laughed. "I can see I've impressed you. So what do you think?"

"I think it sounds great, and will take a lot less time than I'd anticipated. I may make it out to the beach before sunset after all." She grinned at him and he smiled back. Maybe they'd be able to get along for the duration of the week. She sure hoped so. The last thing she needed to do was let her mixed feelings for Will cause drama at her sister’s wedding.

"Alexa," Will said softly, reaching out for her hand. "We need to talk."

She jerked her hand back, ignoring the tingle that raced up her arm. "Not now. I need to keep a clear head to finish this." She forced her voice to be distant and professional again. "I think I can take it from here."

She saw the wariness creep back into his eyes as he regarded her, but he didn't say anything else as he pushed back from the table. He grabbed his bags that were still on the floor from when he'd arrived and started toward the stairs to find his room. She felt a wave of guilt that he hadn't even had a chance to shower or change.

"Will."

He stopped and turned toward her.

"Thank you," she said softly.

He nodded briskly then took the stairs two at a time. Alexa turned back to her work and tried not to think about him as she heard the shower come on a few minutes later. This was going to be a long week.