Page 51 of Just Another Meet Cute

RYAN: So I thought of something.

NINA: Of what?

RYAN: Of something that I need. In order for me to forgive you.

NINA: I thought you already forgave me. We hugged and everything …

RYAN: Yeah, I changed my mind. That was too easy for you.

RYAN: If you REALLY want me to forgive you, then you have to meet me on the hiking path at Flint Rock Loop at 10:00. Close to where you met Ian the first time.

NINA: But why?

RYAN: I’m curious about the place. It’s been a while since I’ve been there.

RYAN: It’s the least you can do after you fell in love with my twin WHILE we were still dating. You owe me this much.

NINA: …

NINA: I’ll be there at ten.

Squinting against the beaming sunlight, I glanced around the now familiar hiking trail and wondered why Ryan wanted me to come here. At the exact spot where I met Ian just weeks ago. Maybe this was some kind of weird punishment, although I knew that Ryan was too nice to do something like that.

Not too nice to coerce me to come here, though.

Moving over to the rock overlooking the stream, I glanced down at the seat. A smile crossed my face as I remembered how gently Ian took care of my cut. And how horrified we both were when I stood up and he saw the wet spot on the rock.

Then he left and I thought I would never see him again. Like now.

I rubbed my eyes and straightened up. No, no more tears. I promised Linh that I wouldn’t cry anymore and damn it, I was going to keep that promise at least for today. And hopefully the day after that, until it didn’t ache to think of Ian anymore.

One day at a time. I could do that.

As a branch snapped, I looked up and saw him. Like my mind had conjured him up. Again.

Ian.

Standing there in the sunlight with the giant book bag like the first time I saw him. And judging by his wrinkled forehead, he was just as confused and surprised to see me as I was.

I should be mad at him for leaving. Should turn away and ignore him like he did to me the other night. It was my turn to leave him behind for once. But I couldn’t move. All I could do was stare at him as though I hadn’t seen him in months rather than just a few days.

He looked tired and there were bags under his eyes. His dark hair was even messier than usual and some strands were plastered to his forehead. But he was still so handsome.

Damn it.

Wanting to run over to his side, I forced myself to stand still and scowled at him. “Why are you here?”

With wide eyes, Ian glanced around like he was looking for help or a way to escape from me. Again. “I—what are you doing here?”

“I don’t need to answer your questions anymore,” I announced with crossed arms. “I already told Ryan everything, and unlike you, he’s understanding. And he didn’t give me a guilt trip for having the courage to admit my real feelings. In fact, he even asked me to meet him here as a truce.”

Ian was already starting to turn away during my rant when he suddenly jerked back to stare at me. “Wait, Ryan told you to come here? My Ryan?”

“No, Ryan Reynolds.” The sarcasm made my voice bitter.

A flash of a boyish smile crossed his face, and I automatically smiled back for a split second before remembering that I was still pissed at him. I was determined to stand my ground, but man, it was super hard when he flashed that dimple at me.

“Seriously, my brother asked you to come here?”

I let out a heavy sigh. “Yes, that’s what I just said. Why?”

Tugging on the strap of his book bag with one hand, Ian finally took a step toward me. “Because Ryan called me last night and told me to come here this morning. He said that our family was hiking today and it was crucial that I meet them on this path.”

My mouth flopped open and closed again. “He Parent Trapped us? But why?”

Ian chewed on his lower lip. “I think—I think he wanted us to meet up. That this is his way of letting us know that he’s okay with this. With us .”

I know what he was saying made sense, but I couldn’t wrap my brain around the fact that Ryan did all this. Although it did kind of feel like Kathy had a hand in this, too. Probably a lot.

But what now?

My heart squeezed painfully. The biggest obstacle to us being together was Ryan, and he was basically giving us his blessing on a silver platter.

Metaphorically speaking. But if that was the case, then why didn’t Ian look any happier?

His face was blank as he studied his phone.

It was hard to tell how he was feeling, if he was feeling anything.

Maybe this still didn’t change anything.

Even as my heart sunk, I forced myself to turn away. My phone buzzed in my pocket, but I refused to look. It was probably Kathy or Ryan checking to see if their plan worked. They apparently forgot what a colossal idiot their brother was. Gigantic. Monstrous. Astronomical.

Whatever. I was done taking the first step. If he wanted to just forget everything, then I could—

“Yo, Nina.” His voice was such a perfect imitation of Rocky’s lazy drawl that I stopped in my tracks. “I think you have a text.”

I jerked around to look at him, but he just gave me a half smile and nodded. Plus, the look in his eyes were so warm that my whole body tingled. With my breath caught in my throat, I dug for my phone.

IAN: Yes, I believe in love at first sight. It happened right here in this very spot. As soon as I saw you standing there on the path, with your head turned away, trying to look nonchalant while blood was dripping down your knee, I was lost. And I haven’t been able to find my way back since.

IAN: My heart broke once. When you asked me if I was in love with anyone now. It took every ounce of willpower for me to not instantly grab you into my arms and kiss you again after you got out of the car. To tell you how much you meant to me and how much it tore me apart to walk away.

IAN: My favorite place in the world used to be on this hiking path. Still is. For a lot of reasons. But the most important one is because of you. Because I’m right here with you. This is where we met and this is where I’m about to kiss you in ten seconds and never let go.

My vision was blurry now, but I could still see that Ian had turned around.

That he moved forward until he was right in front of me.

He lifted my face with his hands. His palms cupped the sides of my cheeks, and he wiped away a few tears that escaped with his thumbs.

And then he did exactly what he promised in the text.

He kissed me.

His arms wrapped around my shoulders, looping down my waist, as he pulled me closer.

This time he was the one who couldn’t stop moving as he stroked my face, my hair, the length of my arms. Tracing a burning path all around my body.

And all I could do was hold on to his arms and kiss him back with all the love and longing that I felt.

When we finally stopped to breath, Ian kissed the top of my forehead and hugged me. “Can we start over?”

My face was squished against his shoulder, but I didn’t mind. He smelled so good. “Like completely over? A new meet cute and everything?”

“I don’t know. I kind of like the way we met.” He leaned back and grinned down at me. “Being the hero makes me seem really good.”

Raising an eyebrow, I scoffed. “And that’s exactly why we need a redo.”

He used the tip of his index finger to push my eyebrow back down again. “But if you really want to redo the meet cute, this is kind of the perfect place to do that.”

Forcing myself to take a step back even though all I wanted to do was go back into his arms, I held out my hand.

“Hi, I’m Nina. Still short for Nina. First, I’m allergic to dogs and don’t know anything about superheroes.

Especially not Spider-Man. And I used to have some unresolved daddy issues until an awesome guy helped me resolve them recently. ”

Ian snickered but reached out to grasp my hand like we were at a job interview.

“My name’s Ian. I have a twin brother, although I’m the more handsome twin.

I’m horrible at playing piano and I like to save cute damsels in distress who help me figure out how much of an ass I am. And yet somehow she loves me anyway.”

“This cute damsel of yours sounds pretty smart.”

His eyes twinkled at me. “Not nearly as much as your awesome guy.”

I shrugged innocently. “He’s not too bad. He sucks at laser tag though.”

“Ouch, that really hurts.” He tugged me toward the big rock by the tree and sat down. With his arm anchored around my shoulders, I leaned my head against him and let out a soft sigh of happiness.

His fingers played with a couple strands of my hair. “Now I kind of wish I didn’t live so far away. It’ll suck not being able to see each other every day when school starts.”

Hearing him make plans for us made my stomach flutter. I shrugged and tried to play it cool as I reached out to hold his other hand. “We still have another month and a half until that happens. And we could just see how it goes.”

“Yeah, and I’ll come back each weekend.” He nudged the tip of my nose with his.

“Maybe I’ll even visit in the middle of the week if you’re nice.

For you, I’ll brave the shitty Austin traffic any day of the week.

” He hesitated and frowned. “Okay, maybe not game day traffic, but I swear, any other day and time. So now that we got the introductions out of the way, can we go back to the kissing part?”

Letting out a deep breath, I shrugged. “I guess we could. There’s no point in putting it off.”

His eyebrow rose. “Don’t force yourself if it’s too much trouble.”

By now my cheeks were hurting from smiling so hard. “Eh, I think I can suffer a bit. Since I’m such a nice person.”

“Suffer, my ass.”

He started to tug me in for another kiss, but I pulled away. With a serious expression, I chewed on my lower lip. “But first, can you do me a favor?”

“Anything.”

This time I couldn’t keep the grin off my face. “Can you say ‘Yo, Nina,’ again?”

His laughter seemed to echo through the trees. “Out of everything I just said, all the promises and declarations, you just want to hear the Rocky quote again?”

“Of course. You know, Rocky only calls Adrian that.”

His smile was as slow as his words. “Because she’s the love of his life.”

My heart soared when he said the word love , and I couldn’t help tugging his head down for another deep kiss.

This time when our lips touched though, it was different.

It wasn’t explosive or desperate like the first time.

It wasn’t even sweet and melting like the other ones.

This kiss was long and lingering. Full of promises and relief.

And the minty freshness on Ian’s breath was addicting. I couldn’t get enough.

As though he read my mind, his hand drifted up toward the back of my neck.

His fingers sunk into my hair as he pulled me even closer.

Not that he needed to. His touch made me want to sink even more into him.

Like butter on toast. A snowball on a hot day.

All I wanted to do was wrap my hands into his hair and stroke his shoulders and neck and never let go.

And what made the kiss even more delicious was the fact that we didn’t have to. We could stay like this forever if we wanted to.

Well, maybe not forever, but pretty close to it.

Finally, Ian let out a deep, shuddering breath as his arms tightened around my waist. “You know what? I’ll be here for game day. Hell, I’ll come running back anytime you want as long as you kiss me like that every time.”

“Deal.” I happily wrapped my arms around his neck. “I told you I don’t play fair.”

His hand lifted to my face and slowly stroked the side, from the top curve of my cheek down to my chin. And then back up my neck to my earlobe. Like he couldn’t stop touching me. “Oh, I’ve noticed. Guess it’s a good thing, then.”

“What is?”

Ian bent down until his lips were covering mine again. Just barely. I could feel his smile curve against my mouth, teasing me. My eyes fluttered closed and I shivered. “That I’m not going to play fair either. I’m in this to win.”

“Me too.” I tilted my head back so I could give him a slow wink. “It’s a good thing that we’re such an awesome team.”

“Oh, definitely. We’re the best.”