“Gross. No details, please. I’m going to the dining room,” she said before any images of her mother and a man in bed ruined her appetite.
As she waited for her meal, she saw Chance enter the room. Was he stalking her? He had his hands tucked into his pockets as usual, but he seemed unaware of her. She looked at him, willing him to turn and look at her and just when she was about to give up, he looked directly at her. She thought he would smile or wave, but he turned away without doing either. And in that moment, she felt a pang of guilt and tasted rejection again.
Claire wore a dejected look on her face until Amy came down to join her.
“What’s the matter?” she asked as soon as she saw Claire’s face.
“I guess it is a little unnerving when someone has been after you for some time and then suddenly changes their mind.” She offered Amy a fake smile before sticking her fork in the pancake.
“Chance?” she asked. “He said no to you?”
Claire nodded her head. “I saw him earlier and he looked right through me.”
“Isn’t that what you want?”
“I don’t know,” Claire heaved an exasperated sigh. “It was just weird.”
“Or maybe you do like him and are afraid to admit it.”
“I don’t know anything anymore, Ames,” she told the girl. “I don’t know half the time what’s going on in my head. When I agreed to this trip I didn’t expect to find someone like Chance here, and he reminds me of Trent sometimes. Remember how it used to be in the beginning?”
“I do,” Amy said. “I also remember what it was like in the end, and that’s what’s important: there was an ending. That wasn’t even the kind of break up that leaves room for a make-up. It is over, and you need to move on and stop wasting time and energy on that loser. No offense.”
“None taken,” Claire added. “It just reminds me of something Chance said this morning,” she said sadly, her head down.
“What did he say?” Amy wanted to know.
“He told me that Trent doesn’t deserve my tears, and that I am beautiful.”
“You already know that. And any man who doesn’t appreciate you is a fool,” Amy said.
“I guess.”
“Don’t lose out on future happiness because you are too busy being sad about the past, Amy.”
“Well, Chance is the past,” Claire said.
“Are you kidding me? For all the effort he put into this, do you think he would just give up like that? I know men like Chance, and they always have a game. I’m thinking he might just be bruised from his encounter with you this morning. Trust me, he’ll watch you from afar until you show him you want him.”
“I don’t know that I want him,” Claire admitted. “Or don’t want him.”
“One day at a time,” Amy said to her.
CHAPTER 10
Chance sat at the corner table watching her. She couldn’t see him now, but he could make her out perfectly. Never in his entire existence had he been so callously cast aside by a woman, and it only made him want her more. He would play it smart, though. He realized that constantly showing her he wanted her wasn’t working, so he was experimenting with something else. When their eyes had locked before, he had pretended she meant nothing to him when all he wanted to do was run over and scoop her up in his arms and kiss the lips he had been yearning for.
He had turned away but had seen how disappointed she had looked—or was it surprise? Still, he reveled in his small victory, though at present he didn’t feel like a winner. She would be at the hotel for a few more days, according to Amy, and if she left before he got through to her, he would be forced to follow her halfway across the world. Or lose her forever.
He was still brooding when Bryan walked up to the table. “What’s so interesting over there?” he asked him as he sat down.
“Hey,” he answered, but he didn’t answer his dad’s question.
Bryan looked around and smiled. “I’ve seen you with that girl. I think she is pretty. But then, you always did know how to pick ‘em.”
“Not now, Dad,” Chance grumbled. “I’m not that into her.”
“Really? I wouldn’t have guessed that based on how fixated your eyes are on that particular table.”
“There happen to be two women over there,” he said and sipped his coffee. “Anyway, what have you been up to?”
“Me? Nothing much.” He looked absently around the room.
“That’s what you call her?” he asked. “I’ve seen you sneaking out of your room like a teenager.”
“Watch it, son,” Bryan said sternly.
Chance laughed. “Every bit the player you have always been.”
“No reason to quit the game while I’m still breathing, right?” he asked. “But I kind of like this one, you know. She is different, and there comes a time when a man must stop running.”
“You’ve been running?” Chance asked.
“When was the last time you saw me serious about a woman?”