Sara breathed out a sigh of relief as Juan Carlos sped away from where he'd dropped them at their hotel with Ned gripping the dashboard as the taxi careened around a corner. She smirked at Nick. "That poor guy."
"Yeah, can you imagine getting dumped by your fiancée for your SCUBA instructor?" Nick just shook his head in disbelief as he considered how Ned must feel.
Sara chuckled softly. "Yeah, there is that, but I was talking about getting stuck in the taxi with Juan Carlos."
Nick laughed and casually slung his arm over her shoulder as they walked across the courtyard to the stairwell that led to their room. "You're just full of compassion." His tone was decidedly sarcastic.
She didn't miss a beat. "I'm just practical. From the sound of it, she wasn't a real winner anyway if she dumped him right before they were supposed to get married."
As they reached the stairs, Nick dropped hishand to the small of her back and let her walk ahead of him up the stairs. "Well there's two sides to every story."
Sara stopped in front of the door and smirked. "And you don't like Ned."
"I didn't say that." Nick protested as he quirked an eyebrow at her. "Ned seems nice enough."
What he didn't want to say was that he hoped that they weren't going to spend everyday of their vacation with Ned. If they did that, they just might have to keep acting like a couple in case they ran into Juan Carlos again and he wasn't sure his hormones were going to be able to stay in check very much longer.
Sara unlocked the door to their hotel room. "But you don't like him."
Sara thought it might be a good idea if they spent a little time with Ned. It might mean that they would have to keep playing this little charade they'd started a bit longer, but maybe in the end it might give her some courage to let Nick know how she was feeling.
Nick chuckled and shook his head. "I don't hate Ned, Sara." He smiled at her and decided to take a little step out towards the point of no return to see what kind of reaction he might get. "I just don't want to spend the entire trip with a stranger that's all. I was kind of looking forward to hanging out with you."
Sara felt something akin to a flip in her stomach and tried in vain to keep the edges of her mouth from curving upwards.
Nick's smile seemed to get a little bigger. "We have a few hours before hurricane Juan Carlos comes back to take us to his brother's restaurant. Why don't we go out for a walk and see what's here?"
Sara laughed at the reference to their cab driver. "That sounds good." She glanced down at her attire and then back at Nick, clearing her throat. "I think I'm going to change my clothes though. I'm not sure how many more times I want to get hit on today."
Nick wisely kept the comments that were flying through his mind to himself about how he'd like to be the one hitting on her and reclined on the bed, lacing his fingers behind his head and closing his eyes. "You just let me know when you're ready."
Sara snorted. "I'm only changing into a skirt, Nick."
Nick opened one eye at her and noticed that she had her skirt in hand and she was smirking at him. He smiled and opened the other eye. "I'll still be here."
"Don't get too comfortable." Sara rolled her eyes and headed into the bathroom to change. True to her word, she was out in under a minute.
Nick had indeed made himself comfortable and he tried to pretend he was asleep although the smile on his face was a dead giveaway.
Sara pursed her lips together and crossed her arms over her chest. "Nick."
He didn't move, but his mouth twitched ever so slightly.
"Nick." Sara stepped towards the bed and put on a stern expression.
Nick tried to relax his face, but his smile was having none of that.
"Nick, get up." Sara was standing right next to the bed now and she wasn't sure if she was amused or annoyed with him.
Nick still didn't move.
"Nick." There was a distinct hint of a whine in Sara's voice as she leaned over him. She did not come on vacation to Mexico to watch Nick pretend to sleep. There were places to go and things to see and she wanted to get back out there.
A smile flashed across Nick's face a fraction of a second before he started to tickle Sara.
She let out a yelp and tried to grab for his hands without much success. She only succeeded in falling off balance onto the bed next to Nick where he continued tickling her.
Nick was grinning ear to ear as he watched Sara dissolve into a fit of giggles next to him as his assault continued.
"Nick, stop" Sara squirmed as she tried to move away from his hands, still giggling. "Please." Giggle. "Don't." Giggle. "Stop."
"Please don't stop?" Nick teased as he renewed his attack.
"Nick." Sara whined and grabbed for his hands several more times, finally getting a hold of them.
He just lay there looking guilty as hell.
She smirked at him as she tried to catch her breath. "Now, did you want to go for a walk or were you just trying to get me into bed?" She didn't realize until after the words were out exactly how that sounded. Her cheeks immediately turned pink as Nick grinned at her.
Sara sat up and cleared her throat, smoothing out her skirt. "Ok, right. Uh, so let's go then." She didn't really look at Nick, hoping that he didn't see her blush.
Nick sat up next to her with a grin still adorning his face. He let out a soft chuckle. "You're cute when you're embarrassed." He leaned over and planted a peck on her cheek before standing up.
A flustered Sara Sidle stood up, grabbed her purse and moved towards the door as she began to ramble. "So I was thinking, there are a lot of shops closer to the bigger hotels and I promised a few people that I'd bring them back something. And then I thought I could find a few things for my apartment or maybe some vanilla, I hear that Mexican vanilla is really great to bake with and I have this chocolate chip cookie recipe that I think I want to try it in. Or we could just see what's there and come back and shop another day, if you want."
They descended the steps and traversed the courtyard, coming to the street in front of their hotel. Nick took her hand as they moved to cross the street, smiling at how she was rambling nervously and thinking to himself that he was definitely going to make a move, it was just a matter of when.
"Or we could just stop and get something for lunch and sit on the beach, not that either one of us is dressed for the beach, but it might be nice to just sit and relax." She was so focused on trying to get her cheeks back to their normal color that she didn't really notice that Nick was still holding her hand after they'd crossed the street.
