Can You Forget?

This assignment would be the hardest of her life—in many more ways than one.

“Where are we heading?” she yelled over the noise of the engine, frowning straight ahead.

He shrugged and handed her a headset similar to his own so that they could speak normally. “Your place would be the most logical place to hide out. We’ll tell Anson to meet us there with our kit. I assume you brought backup to the island to bring our stuff to us, and contact that journo?”

He wasn’t just with her on the mission, he was light-years ahead of her. She nodded and waited for the rest.

“Good. Then we might as well get going straightaway, and gain some ground on selling the romance of the year. Today’s as good as any other day to start. No point in mucking around.”

After a moment’s stunned silence, she blinked and started laughing—laughing so hard her body jerked and tears streamed down her cheeks.

He turned to her, frowning. “What?”

“You sure know how to shatter a twenty-year dream, Tal.” She wiped her face with her hands. “I used to imagine you asking me on a date, or romancing me, or proposing to me almost every day—and my fantasies never included ‘no point in mucking around.’”

He gave a slow, reluctant grin. “Sorry about that.” He turned back to his controls. “But then, your romantic proposal probably didn’t include a few other things it’s got, like a banged-up face and leg. I bet I wasn’t a has-been, washed-out beach bum, either. I seem to be good at destroying your dreams, Mary-Anne.”