A Dime a Dozen Read Online Free PDF

hands, we stood there and looked into each others eyes.
    “Why,” he asked softly, “is getting in that car and driving back to the airport one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do?”
    I didn’t answer right away but merely looked at him. Finally, I spoke.
    “You know why,” I said, my heart thudding with my own boldness. He squeezed my hands, nodding slowly.
    “Yeah,” he said. “I know why.”
    In the distance, I could hear the muted trill of an early morning fishing trawler. Closer by was the sound of water lapping at the dock, of Sal scuttering through the leaves at our feet.
    “What’s the second thing?” I asked.
    “What?”
    “You said there were two things you wanted to do before you go. What’s the second thing?”
    I knew what it was. I knew it as surely as I knew this man was standing here in front of me.
    “To kiss you,” he said. “May I?”
    Unable to speak, I simply nodded.
    Our lips met slowly, sweetly, and then we were joined in a deep, long kiss that seemed to go on forever. My mind was transported away to some other place, to some other time, to some point where conscious thought and reason no longer existed. Behind my closed eyes flashed colors and lights and images too unreal to find focus. Kissing Tom was like going to the very limits of a place I hadn’t ever gone before, like perching on the end of a high dive or holding to the edge of a cliff.
    When the kiss ended, I pressed myself against him, wishing the world would simply stop and we could get off together and steal away more time, more time, more time.
    “Ah, Callie,” he whispered, his lips at my ear. “I…”
    I thought he was going to say “I love you.” Maybe he wanted to, maybe he was. But instead, after a long pause, he pulled away just a few inches and said, “I…I have to go.”
    Tears filled my eyes, and though my heart still clung to him, with my arms I released him. He could see me crying, and he wiped away a tear from my cheek. When I looked up at him, I saw there were tears in his eyes as well.
    “This time will fly,” he said wistfully. “I promise.”
    I nodded, swallowing hard. Holding on to his arm, I walked with him to his car.
    “Have we caused a scandal, do you think?” he asked, pulling out the keys to his rental. “Theoretically, I did spend the night.”
    I shook my head.
    “If I lived in town, absolutely,” I said. “But out here, no one sees anything. It’s all very private.”
    He nodded.
    “Then I guess it would be okay for me to kiss you again,” he said.
    There, beside the car, he swept me into his arms and gave me another kiss that would blaze into my mind, another kiss that I would relive again and again as I thought about him and that whole magical night in the months ahead.
    As he drove away into the morning mist, I thought I could very well die right at that moment and find heaven no more perfect than what I was feeling here on earth.
    Now, as I sat at the airport on my way to the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina, I knew that in seven days he would be with me again.
    I knew this would be the longest seven days of my life.
    My cell phone rang, so startling me from my thoughts that I pressed the button to answer without first checking the screen.
    “Callie Webber,” I said.
    “Did I wake you?”
    It was Tom, his voice deep and familiar, his tone intimate despite the fact that he was thousands of miles away in Singapore. I smiled, feeling myself relax at the very thought of him on the other end of the line.
    “Nope,” I said. “I’m at the airport, waiting for my flight to North Carolina. I’m so glad you called.”
    “I’m glad I was able to reach you before you left. I tried calling this morning—well, last night where you are—but we’ve had more trouble with the line. This is the first time I’ve been able to get through all day.”
    “That’s all right,” I said. “I was gone most of the evening. Once I got back to the hotel, I went straight to