Chapter 10
After a breathtaking walk down the beach, I’m trying to sneak inside my back door quickly, completely undetected, when I hear Rex’s door slide open a few feet away. I quickly jerk the door handle on my side of the lanai, but it doesn’t budge.
“What the—” I yank at it two more times without luck.
Why is every door in this place so finicky?
The thick, glass door bucks up instead of sliding easily across its track like it did when I first stepped out. I’m about to duck and run for the front door when Rex’s voice cuts through the air between us. My heart nearly cracks in two at the sound of it. I was so close to getting inside without being seen.
“Hey there, neighbor!” He’s too cheerful for this early in the day. He was always better at mornings than me.
I turn my body away, tilting my head down, hoping the wide brim of this ridiculous hat is enough to hide my profile. I attempt to shimmy my door open again but it’s definitely stuck. I awkwardly twist my face down so it stays hidden, contemplating a quick sprint to the front door.
“Sand gets dragged up here from the beach and jams these sliders pretty easily. But there’s a trick to it,” Rex says casually.
I can feel his body heat sweep past me when he reaches for the handle, but he’s focused on getting the door open, not on me. While I nearly pass out from lack of oxygen, I vaguely wonder if he can hear my heart beating as loud as it is. It’s like a drum circle inside my chest.
“Here, let me show you.”
Leave it to Rex to mansplain how to open a door.
I allow myself to exhale, followed by a deep inhale. Immediately wishing I hadn’t. He smells just like he always does first thing in the morning after rolling out of bed, right before he takes a shower. Sandalwood and clean linens. This time with a bit of musky bonfire mixed in from last night’s party. I try not to focus on his familiar scent but it’s impossible. Memories of a thousand mornings spent cuddled up in bed spring back to life. My face buried in his neck, his chest, his lips. A slideshow of sweet moments I don’t want to remember right now. Not after what he did to me.
I step aside to put more distance between us.
Rex lifts the door up an inch off its track, then jerks it back. Of course, it slides open for him right away. He steps aside triumphantly, holding out his arm for me to enter, as if I’m a guest walking into his place, not mine. I shrink an inch and curse under my breath.
Stupid bastard .
He turns to face me fully for the first time.
There’s nothing to hide behind. No dark shadows to lean into.
I nod at him from under the rim of my hat, saying a silent thank you.
He takes a step closer, studying me up and down. Too close for comfort, and definitely closer than you’d stand to someone you don’t know.
But instead of running into my side of the townhouse before it finally sinks into Rex’s thick skull that his ex is standing right in front of him, I pause for one more millisecond. Horrified that my feet won’t move.
Maybe I want him to know it’s me.
Blood pounds sharply against my eardrums.
Just one more heartbeat before I go.
One more breath, before I figure out how to have this conversation with him.
Hello, it’s me. I’m here.
I wring my hands behind my back, unsure of what to say.
The irony of this whole scenario is too much, too perfectly aligned for there not to be some alternate reason why we both ended up here. Maybe, if I hadn’t proposed to him, we’d still be back home, watching Toby stalk birds on the fire escape while we drank coffee.
I take another shaky breath, lifting my face half an inch.
“Listen, I—”
“Wait . . .” Rex takes a step back from me. “What the hell?”
My stomach churns as he recoils, pushing his chin into his neck like he can’t back away fast enough. Shock visibly washes over him. The fact that it’s been me all along, with this terrible disguise. Hiding behind the door. Pretending to be British. Watching him last night while he fawned all over another girl.
A satisfying sense of joy seeps through me when I realize that he’s experiencing what I felt only yesterday, the moment Abby and I saw that he was my neighbor.
I squint up at him from under the rim of my hat and say the only word that comes to mind.
“Surprise?”