Your Planet or Mine? by Susan Grant Read Free Book Online Page A

wearing jeans and a cashmere sweater, not a wrinkled, water-stained butter-yellow suit and low-cut silk print blouse that had seemed so appropriate for a sunny morning’s appearance at a fish farm.
    Jana aimed for the frozen food aisle. Number five. She knew it by heart, having made this stop routinely.
    A towering, military action figure stood stock-still in front of a display of Easter candy. Clad in dark green and black body armor and a helmet with a gold-toned visor, the figure looked like a character out of her nephew John’s futuristic Halo2 Xbox game. And it was at least seven-feet tall in thick-soled Buzz Lightyear boots. She was no marketing guru, but why on earth put something like that next to the chocolate bunnies, plastic grass and Peeps?
    The soldier must have cost big bucks to make, though. She admired the wealth of detail put into the construction as she sidestepped around the figure. A slight movement of his head made her jump back.
    “Omigosh, you’re real!” Her hand went to her heart. “I thought you were a giant action figure.” In a way, he was. The boots added six or more inches, but even without them, he’d be above average in height. The armor hugged his body and emphasized broad shoulders, narrow hips and strong legs. Nice, she thought. But he was blocking the path to heaven, aka aisle five and ice cream. “Excuse me.” She stepped around him.
    “I’ve come a long way to find you,” he said. His voice was deep, mellowed by a slight accent she didn’t recognize.
    She smiled. “Let me guess—from a galaxy far, far away?”
    “No, this one.”
    She laughed and tried again to squeeze past him.
    “Jana. Wait.”
    She stopped in her tracks, lifting her gaze seven long stories to where his face would be if his visor wasn’t hiding it. “Do I know you?”
    He raised his visor. Short brown hair framed a handsome, hard-featured face: cut cheekbones, a strong nose and a classic cleft chin that needed a shave. His mouth was the only friendly thing on his face. Actually, he had a great mouth. It was easy to imagine his lips curving into a smile, something he clearly was not willing to do while stuck with display duty in Safeway on a Tuesday night. For a guy decked out in such an outrageous outfit, he appeared awfully serious.
    She turned to go for the third time.
    “Jana.”
    She sighed.
    “Do you not remember me?”
    She turned around. “No. Sorry.”
    “I had hoped you would…but it has been a very long time.”
    She watched his lips form the words. Something about that mouth, his face, did tug at her memory. Had she seen him before? Where? A fund-raiser? If he was an actor, maybe it was at the B Street Theater downtown.
    He watched her puzzle out how they knew each other, and seemed pleased by it somehow. “Do you remember now, Jana?” His eyes were intense, piercing green. It made her heart skip a few beats in response. She’d heard the expression wearing your heart on your sleeve many times, but this man wore his heart in his eyes.
    No! She’d made a promise to her grandfather. It meant no flirting with strange men dressed like alien commandos in supermarkets. No flirting with men period. She needed to be good. To stay out of trouble. “No, I don’t remember you. I’m really sorry. Usually I’m good with faces, but I’m tired tonight. I’ve had a heck of—no, a helluva day. Nice seeing you again, though.”
    With a cheery wave, she left as quickly as she could and aimed for aisle five. Dinners…snacks…bingo! She paced in front of the ice-cream freezer, looking for her target. But reflected in the glass doors, she saw something loom over her, looking at her as if she were the target.
    Startled, she spun around. It was the Halo2 guy, looking so adorably abandoned and earnest that she nearly lunged at that delicious mouth of his with the intent of kissing it into a smile. The fantasy was so sudden, so vivid and overpowering, that she likened it to the sturgeon at the fish