Read Cruise to Destiny (Contemporary Romance Novella) Page 6
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“Melanie! Melanie!”
Oh, God. Melanie halted in her tracks. Her heart raced at the sound of his voice. After an hour of trying to get it back to normal, he had it pumping hard again. It was like a full-on cardio workout. With intervals.
But why was he chasing her down?
She turned slowly to see him approach, out of breath.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, panting. “I just, um…is this yours?”
Melanie looked down at the tiny hair clip he held in his hands. It was clearly made for a little girl with very fine hair, not a grown woman with thick, curly hair.
“Ah, no,” she said, a little disappointed that that was the only reason he had chased her down. “Sorry to make you run after me like that, but that probably belongs to some toddler girl.”
“Oh. Right.” He looked at the clip, then looked back up at her. “Okay, I lied. I knew this clip didn’t belong to you, I just…I wanted a reason to ask you out.”
Melanie must have heard him wrong. “You what?”
Devon laughed. “I wanted to ask you out. Will you go out on a date with me?”
“Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure.” He laughed even harder now. “Is it so hard to believe that I want to take you to dinner?”
Melanie shrugged. She hadn’t been asked out in a long time. It was kind of unbelievable. Not to mention really surreal. Here she was on the deck of a ship, staring out at the vast expanse of ocean with the wind in her hair and the calypso music floating up from the deck below. She felt like she was in a Kate Hudson movie. “No,” she finally said.
“‘No, it’s not hard to believe?’ or ‘No, I won’t go out with you?’” Devon asked, clearly confused.
It was Melanie’s turn to laugh. “No, it’s not so hard to believe. Actually, dinner would be really nice.”
Devon’s face lit up. “Really?”
She nodded. “Really.”
“Great! Tonight? I’ll come by your room at seven?”