One True Thing Read Online Free PDF Page A

to
    give me a tour and thought I should probably take
    her up on it soon. I hadn’t spent more than five
    minutes in her company, but I’d liked her, and
    lately I’d been feeling the need for a new friend. I
    didn’t think Lane and I could ever really be that, at
    least not until he got the hint I wasn’t interested in
    anything more.
    “Want to just eat here?” Lane asked as we
    walked in.
    I nodded and inhaled. God, I loved the scent
    of baking bread. The Banana Leaf made everything
    fresh on-site, one of the many things I liked about
    the place. “Yeah, sounds good.”
    I followed him to the back of the line, already
    knowing what I wanted. It was a casual place, the
    kind where you ordered, seated yourself, and had
    to clean up your own mess, but that was okay by
    me. All I cared about was that their food was
    good.
    I’d just finished paying and had turned to look
    around for an empty table when I saw him. Him.
    The gorgeous guy I hadn’t been able to get out of
    my head for more than a month. He was sitting at a
    table alone, his eyes fixated on his phone, fingers
    moving quickly, as if he might be typing a text
    message.
    Oh, my God.
    A flutter of excitement burst to life in my
    belly. I’d thought I might never see him again. I
    mean, even in a city as small as Wilmington it was
    possible to live without ever running into the same
    person twice. In a place like California, who knew
    what the odds were?
    The sight of him filled me with nerves, made
    my body flash hot. I rubbed sweaty palms on the
    thighs of my tight black jeans and adjusted my T-
    shirt with trembling fingers. Nervous or not, there
    was no way, no way , I could let such a prime
    opportunity slip by.
    Go over there. Just do it. Talk to him.
    “Hey, Dusty,” Lane said from beside me.
    “I’m gonna go grab that table.”
    “Sure, thanks, hon.” I didn’t even bother to
    look where he was pointing. I couldn’t tear my
    eyes away from my dream man. And that’s what he
    was. I’d been dreaming about him almost
    constantly since that one intense, speech-robbing
    moment all those weeks ago. This was my chance
    to make a move, and I’d be a moron to waste it,
    even if it meant risking a rejection. At least I
    would know I’d tried.
    I started toward his table. He didn’t look up
    until I was standing right next to him. Those brown
    eyes locked onto mine, and for a moment I froze.
    Then, somehow, I managed to shove out one word:
    “Hi.”
    He gave me a once-over, those eyes tracing a
    thorough, unhurried path from my face to my feet.
    By the time he was done, I could feel heat
    crawling up the back of my neck, and my breathing
    had gotten all jittery.
    “Well, hello to you too,” he finally said. His
    voice was playful, smooth, kind of sexy… and for
    some inexplicable reason, not what I’d been
    expecting. I couldn’t say why—he’d only said a
    handful of words to me that one day, and on a
    noisy, crowded street no less—but the voice I
    remembered was different.
    Of course, it was entirely possible it had
    morphed in my head during all my obsessing, but
    that wasn’t the only thing that seemed off. That
    feeling, that shock of lust and rightness and
    yearning, the thing that had stolen my breath and
    left me speechless… it was missing. Puzzled, I
    held out a hand, hoping his touch would bring it
    back. “Hi,” I said again, dumbly. He smiled
    slightly, and I plowed ahead before I could wuss
    out. “I’m Dusty. I wanted to apologize for not
    saying thank you that day. You totally saved me
    from making a fool of myself. I tried to find you
    after, but I lost you in the crowd.”
    All I got in response was a blank look, which
    was there and gone in a flash, and then his smile
    was back. He took my hand in his and shook it
    briefly. “Well, you can thank me now,” he
    murmured, his thumb brushing over one of my
    knuckles. “I’d love a phone number to go along
    with that name, and I’d love to take you out to
    dinner