Picking up my cell phone, I hastily typed a text to Tyler, punching in the new number he had given me earlier in the day.

I love you.

I waited with bated breath for a response. One arrived almost instantly, causing a brilliant grin to spread across my face.

 I know. I loved you even before I truly knew what love was. Love is you. Your smile. Your heart. Your patience. Sleep well. Te queiro, mi cariño.

Mackenzie

WITH A RESTORED SENSE of belonging, I drove through the streets of South Padre Friday evening to meet Jenna and Brayden for girls’ night. The island again held the promise and magic it did months ago, and I knew it was because Tyler was back. As I went about my routine throughout the day, I did so with him on my mind. I had hoped he would stop by the restaurant, but he didn’t. Instead, we sent text after text to each other. With each message that popped up on my phone, my grin grew wider and wider. The butterflies were back after their long absence. His words were sweet, passionate, and even a little hot, reminding me of why I had lowered my walls and allowed him in after years of remaining distant with people.

Pulling up to the tapas bar, I threw the valet the keys to my brand new Audi and entered the restaurant. As I walked through the glass doors, I grew breathless, the scene that greeted me reminding me of that fateful Friday night when I first met Tyler. He sat in the corner, on the same barstool, a dark liquid in a tumbler in front of him, five cherry stems on his napkin. He wore the same green shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, exposing his muscled forearms.

As I stood admiring him, I noticed his physique had become more pronounced. His shoulders appeared broader, his leg muscles incredibly defined. His skin was a tad darker than I recalled, and the ends of his dark hair were lighter. I could only assume all that time in the African desert had an effect on his appearance…in a good way. He was more rugged, the slight stubble on his jaw causing a burning need inside me to feel it on my skin.

I approached the bar and sat next to him. He looked at me, an excited smile on his face before his expression flattened. “Mackenzie, you can’t sit there.”

Straightening my spine, I asked, “Why?”

“I want to go back to the start, where it all began. You say you want to trust me, and I really, really want you to trust me, but we need to start over. I need to show you how that first night would have gone if I wasn’t on a job. So, please, sit in your normal seat and pretend you don’t know me, okay?”

Slowly lowering my legs back to the ground, I slid off the barstool. “Well, you better hurry up. Brayden and Jenna will be here any minute.”

“Since when are they on time?” he commented sarcastically, and I shrugged my shoulders in agreement. I loved my friends dearly, but punctuality was not their strong suit. “I have some time to work with.” A mischievous grin spread across his face.

A flurry of jitters rushing through me, I retreated from him and took a seat at my usual barstool.

The bartender approached, beaming, asking me what I wanted to drink. I glanced at Tyler, seeing he had ordered the same exact thing he did all those months ago, right down to the number of cherry stems. But I couldn’t exactly order a bottle of wine, as I had that night.

“A bottle of sparkling water, please,” I said with a smirk on my face.

She retreated from me momentarily to get my drink. Within seconds, she reappeared with a tall green bottle and a wine glass. Opening the bottle, she poured a bit into the glass and garnished it with a lime.

When she left me alone once more, I took a sip, my body alive with anticipation.

“You gonna drink that whole bottle by yourself?”

Glancing to the far corner of the bar, I couldn’t help but laugh. “So what if I am?” I shot back, trying to revert to the cold-hearted, detached woman I was that night. However, that wasn’t who I was anymore. I was no longer the girl who would live her life in accordance with her schedule. I was a woman who finally learned to live again, who took risks, who loved, who jumped…who was all in.

“Didn’t mean anything by it,” he said, toying with the cherry in his drink. “My apologies.”

My eyes remained glued to him, waiting for his next move. Looking up from his drink, a brilliant smile crossed his face. “My name’s Tyler,” he said, scooting down several seats and holding his hand out to me.

I surveyed it skeptically, a nervous tingling spreading through me. I didn’t know if I was supposed to shake it or not.

“It’s just a hand. See, what happens is–”

“Serafina,” I interrupted, allowing him to take my hand in his. “My name is Serafina.” My chin began to quiver as the name left my lips. It wasn’t until this moment that I realized not only did Tyler cover up his true identity from me, but I did, as well. He wanted me to fall in love with the real Tyler. I wanted him to fall in love with Serafina, even if I wasn’t sure who that was anymore. Still, I wanted to find out, and maybe Tyler would help me discover exactly who that was.

“Serafina,” he crooned, his voice barely audible. Closing his eyes, his fingers lingered over my hand and traced a delicate pattern on my skin. “That’s a beautiful name.”

“Thank you,” I murmured, lost in the moment. All too soon, he withdrew his hand from mine, leaving me with an empty feeling.

“So…,” he began, nervously playing with the ice in his drink. “What do you do?”

“Ummm…,” I started, feeling my face flush red with nerves. For some reason, regardless that Tyler already knew all my secrets, I wanted to make a good “first impression”. Something about being there with him, getting to know him all over again, made it feel like the first time. “I own a restaurant.”

His eyes widened. “Really? You look too young.”

I shrugged. “I guess you can say I’m your classic overachiever. When I put my mind to something, nothing will get in my way. So when I said I wanted to open my dream restaurant before I turned thirty, it would have taken a disaster for it not to happen.”

He nodded, remaining silent. I took a sip of my sparkling water, my eyes never straying from his for too long. “So what about you?” I finally asked. “What do you do?”

“Oh, a little bit of this, a little bit of that.”

I frowned playfully.

He smirked. “Actually, I own a multi-billion dollar private security firm.”

“Are you, like, a spy?” I joked.

“No. My brother’s the spy.”

“Your brother?”

“Yeah,” he said. “He runs the company. Up until a few years ago, I was just an owner on paper, then I thought I could help make a difference.”

“And did you?”

He tore his gaze from mine, an unsettled expression on his face. “The opposite, actually. I realized that no matter if it’s for what you’re led to believe is a noble cause or not, there are always some casualties. Not everyone gets out unscathed.” He was silent for a moment as I tried to adjust to his sudden change in demeanor. He was troubled, a tortured soul.

“You see, I hurt someone during the last job I was on, and I’ll never forgive myself for what I did.” He raised his eyes and I saw the torment he had been living with since the day he began the mission. I had seen that look on his face during our time together, and I knew he was struggling early on with his assignment. I had seen it on that first night at this precise restaurant. That knowledge made me relinquish yet another piece of my heart to Tyler.