Must Be Magic (Spellbound) (7 page)

She could do that. No problem.

Pasting on a bright grin, she walked toward him. “Morning.” Apparently not sounding so damn cheerful was a bigger problem.

Almost as big as realizing that maybe the alcohol hadn’t emphasized the fierce pull between them as much as she’d thought. In the halls of the courthouse she hadn’t felt so much of a flicker, but here it was like a live wire that hummed and crackled under her skin.

Bryce pushed away from the building, managing to look both laid back and just a bit wild in his plain white T-shirt and dark shorts. His hair was still damp. From the shower? Or had he already hit the beach?

She’d never met anyone who looked equally comfortable with a surfboard tucked under his arm as he did delivering an opening statement in a crowded courtroom during a big case.

“How’s your head?”

“Fine. Yours?” She looked around, but didn’t spot anyone else. Damn.

“Still attached to my shoulders. But it was touch and go for a while there when I ran into your brother.”

“Which one?”

He tipped his head the same way she’d seen him do when he clearly doubted a witness’s testimony. “Dante.”

She strolled past him to look at the large map of the resort’s trail system posted on the wall Bryce had been leaning against. Music played inside the small booth and through the window she glimpsed a stand-up cooler with bottles of water, shelves of snacks, some disposable cameras and other odds and ends people might want for their hike.

“Did you two play nice?”

“We’re not exactly kids fighting over the same dump truck in the sandbox.”

She shrugged. “The toys may change but men rarely do.”

It was as much a reminder for herself as it was something to say. Like Bryce had implied last night, they were long past having any kind of conversation about their past, and she didn’t want to talk about Dante or anything else—especially last night—that would make it seem like they had any unfinished business between them.

Whatever questions she’d thought she needed answers to after all this time, had definitely been the alcohol talking. In the light of day it was obvious that going there would only stir up their past even more, and if nothing else, last night proved it was best to leave it alone.

She grabbed one of the maps from a stack on the counter. A pen with the resort’s logo lay on another stack. Taking that as a good sign despite the fact that Bryce was staring at her so hard he had to be giving himself a migraine, she snagged the pen and shoved it in her back pocket.

Bryce crossed his arms.

Darby looked at her watch. “Shouldn’t some of the others be here by now?” Ten thirty, Bree had said. It was now ten twenty-nine and no one else was around.

He nodded to the back pocket of her shorts. “Don’t tell me you still believe finding a pen is lucky?”

Ignoring how childish he made it sound, she unfolded the map.

He sighed. “Sorry. I’m still getting used to not firing off the first stupid thing that comes to mind when you’re around.” He leaned against the wall once more, and they fell into an awkward silence.

Silence, she decided about thirty seconds in, was worse than being on guard all the time where Bryce was concerned.

“How’s your book?” he asked another minute later. “The one you’re reading.”

A fuzzy memory of him being amused by her choice of reading material came drifting back, but she managed to give him a confused look. She hadn’t forgotten how slick he could be. Bringing up the book could be his way of figuring out how much of last night she remembered.

Since it didn’t look like anyone was about to show up and save her from Bryce’s cross examination, she approached the counter. It took her a second to get the resort employee’s attention.

“Have any groups come through here in the last while?”

“The only group to come through this morning was a couple getting married today and some family members, I think. That was about twenty minutes ago.”

Damn.
Darby let out a breath. “Did they mention which trail they were taking?”

The guy had already turned away but motioned toward the trail on the far right.

“Thanks.” Choosing the trail over waiting around for the others to return—she’d never live down hiding out in her bungalow when she knew Riley would be on the hike—she started up the base of the path.

It wasn’t a surprise when Bryce followed her.

How had she gotten the time for the hike messed up? Maybe she had been drinking, but Bryce hadn’t. What were the odds they’d both made the same mistake?

“Bryce?” She shook her head, changing her mind about voicing the ridiculous thought that crossed her mind.

“What?”

“Never mind.”

He stopped in front of her, using that solid frame of his to slow her down. He’d done the same years ago when she’d tried avoiding him after she’d knocked him off his surfboard.

It had been bad enough to steal his wave when she had no business being on a surfboard with her unreliable reflexes, but admitting that to a complete stranger—an incredibly sexy stranger—had sent her self-conscious twenty-one-year-old self running for the hills.

Good to know that she’d outgrown all the awkward self-consciousness when it came to Bryce Lancaster.

“What were you going to say?”

“Not important.”

Crossing his arms, he mulled that over for a whopping two-point-five seconds. “What’s going on in that head of yours?”

Certainly nothing that involved noticing he was using the same boyish grin on her as he had back then. “Really, it’s nothing.”

“Kind of like what happened last night?”

“Last night?” Somehow she managed not to squeak. She ducked around him. “I was just wondering why Bree might have told us the wrong time?”

Bryce frowned. “Maybe some wedding plans came up and she ended up changing the time of the hike and forgot to tell us.” He actually sounded half-convinced, considering they both knew the resort was looking after all the wedding plans for a hefty price.

“Then she forgot to tell Dante too.” Her brother had reminded her of the hike, but hadn’t shown up. After their talk this morning she would have expected him to make sure Bryce was keeping his distance. Or maybe avoiding the hike was his way of preserving the peace.

“So you
did
talk to Dante today.” Bryce all but pounced on that point.

“In passing.”

“And he didn’t mention me?”

She slanted him a curious look, unsure if he sounded relieved or disappointed. “Did you have a note you wanted me to pass him in study hall?”

He snorted, but didn’t say anything more as the trail narrowed, keeping him behind her.

She picked up the pace. The sooner they caught up with everyone else, the sooner she could relax and stop wondering if Bree had intentionally set them up.

Bree had never mentioned knowing anything about their past. And if she did, it couldn’t be the whole story. Darby had a hard time imagining her soon-to-be sister-in-law would play matchmaker if she knew Bryce had turned his back on Darby when she’d needed him the most.

Not for the first time she thought about forgetting the whole damn hike and heading back to the main resort, maybe sit by the pool for a while. Except she didn’t want Bree jumping to conclusions if Bryce left too, making it look like they’d gone off together somewhere.

If this was Bree playing matchmaker then the last thing Darby wanted to do was encourage more of it.

“About last night,” Bryce began. He caught her hand when she continued on like he hadn’t said a thing, and tugged her around to face him.

“Monkey,” she blurted out, pointing over his shoulder to where the furry little creature dangled from a tree limb over the trail.

The monkey had greenish-gold fur and golden whiskers under his chin. The tip of his tail was the same unusual shade. He held something to his mouth, nibbling on it when he wasn’t rubbing it on his head.

“Is this the part where you wait for me to look and then run in the opposite direction?”

She turned him around, ignoring the way he stiffened under her palms. Clearly she didn’t need to be intoxicated or hung up on old memories to invade his personal space. She let her arms fall back to her sides, waiting for him to spot the monkey.

“So you weren’t just trying to distract me.” His expression said he knew damn well that was her intention, and he wasn’t going to let it slide.

Together, they ventured closer without scaring the monkey off. They were almost directly beneath it when it moved its hand like he was waving at them.

“He’s cute, isn’t he?”

“In a funny-looking kind of way, sure.” He grinned at her, and she felt herself smiling back.

A smile that widened when something bounced off Bryce’s head.

The monkey screeched, sounding like it was laughing at them. Bryce probed his head and scowled at the culprit. “Did he just throw something at me?”

She laughed. “You probably hurt his feelings.”

“Is it bleeding?” He gently probed the small welt on his forehead.

“Suck it up, Councilor.” She laughed and continued along the trail.

He jogged to catch up with her. “Think we’ll cross paths with any other furry mammals you can use to avoid talking about last night?”

“There’s nothing to talk about.” Nothing she
wanted
to talk about anyway.

“I just want to know if I should be prepared for another wild night of s—”

She spun around so fast they collided. “We did not have sex.”

He looked down at the hand she’d planted against his chest. “I was going to say, should I be prepared for another wild night of
socializing
with you and Riley.” He ducked his head and whispered in her ear. “Although your suggestion sounds much more interesting.”

“It was not a suggestion.”

His eyes darkened with a familiar heat. “It certainly felt that way last night.”

“You’re impossible.” It would be so much easier to be annoyed by the direction their conversation had taken if he was being even a little bit egotistical about the whole thing.

What she wouldn’t give for a glimpse of the Bryce Lancaster who could set her teeth on edge with nothing more than a cold smile.

That Bryce she knew how to handle, how to protect herself against. But this one, the curve of his lips the complete opposite of chilly, slipped beneath her defenses. How was she supposed to fight back against slow, sexy grins and an irresistible charm that she felt all the way down to her toes?

“And you’re in denial.”

She scoffed and gave up on pretending nothing happened. “At least I was drunk. What’s your excuse? Because I know I didn’t imagine the way you were looking at me last night.”

“And what way was that?” he challenged, his voice low and laced with sinful intent.

Smart enough to take a step back, Darby shook her head. “If you’re looking for an apology—”

In one stride he filled the space she had tried to put between them. “The only thing I want you to be sorry for is going to bed alone.”

If shock hadn’t locked Darby’s feet to the ground she would have ended up in the ditch that ran parallel to the trail. She could have imagined a lot of things coming out of Bryce’s mouth, but nothing prepared her for that.

Worse, though, nothing prepared her for the wave of heat that streaked through her despite every sensible reason that she shouldn’t feel a damn thing.

Looking annoyed—with himself or her?—Bryce brushed past her and continued up the path.

She stared after him, glancing away when something bounced off her knee.

What the…

Above her, the monkey screeched again, waving madly. Whatever direction she was headed in, he clearly wanted her to hurry the hell up. She trailed after Bryce before she’d consciously decided it would be better to set the record straight with him than leave his comment hanging between them.

Easier said than done when he set a brutal pace. Exercise—unless she counted how often she planted herself between Finn and Dante when they bickered over cases like two senile old women—was one of those things she kept promising herself she’d make time for, but hadn’t quite managed to work into her schedule.

Between her hangover and struggling to keep up with Bryce—the latter of which she’d never admit to—she was too distracted to think about anything else. She didn’t notice that he’d stopped until the trail opened up, offering a breathtaking view of the resort below and the beach and ocean beyond. Pale-blue sky met sun-kissed waves that glittered far into the horizon.

“Wow.” She stepped up to the rail at the edge of the drop-off, forgetting everything but the small slice of paradise spread out before her. The view alone was worth the trip up.

Bryce rested his forearms on the rail. “This isn’t so bad, is it?”

“Are you talking about the view or the company?”

That slow, devastating grin was back. “Both.”

He glanced over, seeming to realize how close they stood. She never noticed him moving, only felt him edge into her space a little more. His eyes were far too distracting, his blue-gray gaze sliding under her skin.