Once and Again: Petal, Georgia, Book 1

by Lauren Dane

  “Mmm-hmm. So what’s this advice then?”

  “It’s that you never tried to talk to her. After she caught you with your floozie. Her freaking cousin!”

  “She wasn’t my anything.” He glared but she was a Murphy and therefore made of sterner stuff. Her response was a bland, bored look. “Thank you for telling me that,” he amended.

  “Don’t wear that shirt.” She headed to the closet and tossed him the one he’d been wearing first. “This one is nice on you. Makes you look handsome in that non-threatening way.”

  “If I wear it will you stop pestering me?”

  “Hell no. But I will for now.”

  He snorted and took the shirt. “Now go or you might see something you’ll have to tell a therapist about.”

  She sniffed with mock indignance. “Your scrawny chest is nothing to write home about. If you mess this up, I will be so mad at you.”

  He pulled the shirt on quickly and then hugged her. “I’ll try not to be a dumbass.”

  “Big challenge but you do have that big-city diploma and all.” She looked him over. “Nice. Handsome. You have all your teeth. Also a plus. I’m all about these little glass-half-full moments, Nathan.”

  They walked out to his car, and she gave him a look and another warning before he drove away.

  It wasn’t his first date, for God’s sake. He’d had unlawful carnal knowledge of this woman. More than once.

  Heat flashed through him at the memory of what they were like together. Of what she’d been like, all curves and valleys. So pretty naked. The kind of woman who liked to laugh when she had sex.

  He really needed to stop thinking of that. He walked in the diner’s front door and waved at a few people in that way you do when you don’t want to be interrupted. Thank heaven none of his students were in the place.

  He grabbed a booth fronting Main and waited, totally not thinking about how he’d been the first to teach her all sorts of things.

  When she came in, his heart sped and he sat up, caught in her pull. She looked like a freaking movie star off the set of an old movie. A fitted skirt to just past her knees, a blouse and then a belted coat to match the skirt. Pumps that made her a good four inches higher. That sway as she moved toward him was like magic.

  Bam, bam, bam, her hips switched. Her hair was done in those big forties-style waves. Deep-red lipstick. Holy shit.

  But her look was apologetic as he stood while she slid into the booth.

  “I’m sorry. I meant to go back home to change but things ran late.”

  “Wow. What is it you’re apologizing for? Sugar, you look amazing.”

  She paused, surprised pleasure washing over her face. “Thank you.” She slipped from the jacket and folded it carefully. “A friend of mine, also a photographer, did some shots of me in some of the clothes I make.”

  “Do you need a menu? Oh, hey there, Mr. Murphy.” Their server, clearly a third-generation Sands, was in his first-period AP English-lit class.

  “Hello there, Derek.” Nathan looked back to Lily. “Do you need a menu?”

  Lily turned her smile on the kid. Nathan nearly swallowed his tongue at how pretty she was when she smiled. “Heck no. I’d like the pot roast with greens and scalloped potatoes. Tea and what’s the pie situation? Do I need to stake out some lemon meringue?” She was teasing, not inappropriate at all, but Derek there seemed struck dumb.

  The boy was simply ensorcelled by all that abundance of feminine beauty. He sputtered and gulped.

  Nathan interrupted to give the kid a break. “I see you still consider pie a food group.” He grinned at Lily, who blushed. “I’ll have the chicken. Sweet potatoes and some corn bread. Tea and a slice of the pecan for me. With ice cream.”

  Once the boy was out of range, Nathan turned back to Lily, laughing. “That boy might hurt himself you got him so twisted up.”

  “I was going to go home but then I’d have been late and you might have thought I wasn’t coming, and I didn’t want to hurt your feelings.” She looked less than pleased at the last bit. But he liked it just fine.

  “You make clothes?” He steered her back to the conversation they’d been having earlier.

  “Oh, yes. I do. I made what I’m wearing. Anyway,” she continued as if it wasn’t an amazing thing that she’d made the clothing she wore, “two years ago I started making a limited number of outfits and separates every year. I have a consignment place in Macon that I work with. They sell my stuff there and I’ve got word-of-mouth clients.”

  She sipped her freshly delivered tea before continuing.

  “But Beth suggested I set up a little website. Nothing too fancy, just pictures of the items I had in stock and also some of the other pieces I’ve made in the past to be special ordered. There are different places online—crafting communities and the like—and I can have my store listed there as well.” She shrugged. “So a friend of mine, another photographer I know, owed me a big favor and today he paid up by taking pictures of me for the website. I’ll need a way to make a living here. The extra money will be helpful.”

  “I guess I was wrong.” About so many things.

  “About what?”

  “I was just wondering if you’d be back to Macon again once the situation with Chris evened out. I figured you would.”

  “I told you I was back for good.”

  “You did. I misjudged you.” He paused when their food arrived.

  “I missed this place.” She looked around, avoiding the subject. He let her. For the moment.

  “I lived in Atlanta for school and liked it. I’ve traveled around the country and even went to Italy three years ago, but Petal is home. How’s your mom holding up?”

  She sighed and forked up some potatoes. “Some days she’s close to the woman she was when I was growing up. Those are the days I think she’ll pull her head out of her behind and get her life in order. Some days she’s stuck in a bottle with a handful of pills. Christ. I don’t know what to do with her.”

  “I take it your dad isn’t any help.”

  “If only I happened to be a twenty-year-old looking to cash in.” Her laugh was laced in irony. “He told me to take out a loan to send Chris to military school.”

  He had his own crazy, selfish, abusive parents, but hers were worse to his mind. There was no reason for a good kid like Chris to have fallen behind the way he had. No reason for it to have gone on for so long before Pamela admitted she needed some help. And for any man to turn his back on his own child so he could keep on getting some young thing in his bed? Nathan wanted to punch the guy right in the face.

  “You’re making a difference with him. He’s much calmer. His work is better. Consistent. He’s not so sullen and angry all the time.”

  “It’s that program you recommended, actually.”

  Nathan had told Lily about an afterschool tutoring and mentoring program. It was therapeutic, the adults were experts in one field or another, and the other kids were often facing troubles at home like Chris, or worse. The older ones, the tutors, were kids who’d overcome those troubles. It was a great option. One that would have been cut had it not been for a fundraising drive Tate’s mother-in-law held last fall. Polly Chase had been able to raise enough to keep the program for two days a week—once in the middle school and once in the high school—for the next two academic years.

  “Glad to hear it. Tim does some volunteer work, takes on some of the older kids who may be interested in filling journeyman positions with local businesses like his.”

  She smiled at him. A real smile, like the one she’d given Derek, and it made him miss what they’d had, that easiness between them.

  “Really? I’m not surprised. He’s hanging out with some kids I think will be better for him in the long run. It’s been a month or so, but I’m cautiously hopeful. I’ve been very grateful for all the support he’s received from the school.”

  “Is your sister not helping at all?”

  “Is that a rhetorical question?
She’s still telling our mother to hold on, that our father will finish up with his little friend and come back. The worst part is, I think my mother believes it. He’s so mean to her, it would be the worst thing possible for her to go back. But…” She shook her head and ate for a while. “It’s none of my business if she does. But I think it would be bad for Chris to have our father in and out of his life. Parenthood isn’t a place you visit when you get bored.”

  “You’re right. He’s lucky to have you.” And he was.

  “He’s my family.”

  “Yes, he is. But a lot of people don’t put the same meaning into it that you do.”

  “Or you.”

  Really she was irresistible.

  “I was wrong not to at least try to explain what happened.”

  She began to speak, but he held a hand up.

  “Please let me say this.”

  “It’s too late.”

  “Even so. Look, I was stupid. Egotistical. The kiss was nothing to me. It was a moment, not even a moment, and I was pushing her back when you came in. I was dumb and she was dumb and she kissed me and I kissed her back. I told you while we were on a break that I’d not see anyone else and but for that moment, I didn’t break my promise. But I did break it and then I didn’t own it. And then you left and I told myself I didn’t need you because it was just a stupid thing and you didn’t even want to hear what I had to say. When really it was that I was an ass and felt guilty and resented that.

  “And the longer it went unspoken, the harder it got until I just didn’t do it, and then you finished school and left Atlanta and I finished school and came back to Petal. I should have gone to you. I should have explained. I should have told you then that I was being a dick and that I was sorry. I should have begged you to take me back. But I didn’t and here you sit and I miss you, Lil. I miss you so much that every time I see you it takes all my strength not to touch you like I once did.”

  She watched him, her emotions clear in her expression. He wanted to make her laugh again. Wanted her to watch him hungrily, the way she once did. Wanted her to trust him.

  “I made a lot of mistakes. I was careless with your heart when I should have cherished it. I’m sorry. I’m sorry because I was wrong. I’m sorry because I didn’t respect you. I’m sorry because I lost you and not just as my girlfriend, but as a friend.”

  She ate for a time after he finished his apology. An apology she’d have given anything to hear those years before. Never in her life had she hurt as much as she had when she saw him around after that night and he never said a word to her.

  “You made me feel like what we had, like what I felt was a lie. It took me a long time to get over you. But we were broken up already. You were clearly not happy enough and we’ve both moved on.”

  Ha.

  “I’d like to try again. I’d like to see you, date you. We’re older now. I’m different than the jerk I was then, and you’re older and wiser too. I think we could take it slow and make it work this time. What do you say? We could start with a real date this Saturday. We could go dancing at the Tonk.”

  There they sat and she liked him. Still. He was funny and charming and sweet even. He’d helped her with Chris, and his apology, though late, was genuine. She knew him enough to understand it in his words.

  People made mistakes. She made them too. And she was so tired of avoiding him. But it wasn’t wise to let him back into her heart. He had too much power over her, and she hadn’t been lying when she told him it took her a long time to get over it. She never wanted to feel that kind of misery again. Ever.

  “I accept your apology. But we can’t date.”

  His gorgeous features darkened.

  He was as alpha as they came. Used to getting his own way. It was gloriously sexy, but she had enough to manage. He was a man now, not even a young man in graduate school. He’d be even worse. Which would mean he was way hotter in bed, but she wasn’t going to think about that. Much. At all. Ever in the next ten minutes.

  “You still don’t like being told no, I see.”

  That broke his sour expression. “Why can’t we date?”

  She was totally going to have to make up for the whopper she was about to tell. “First because I’m over you. Second, and far more importantly, because my brother is in your class. He’s got enough to deal with right now. The last thing he needs is to have anyone think he’s getting special treatment because you’re dating his sister. Or for him to worry you’ll retaliate if we broke things off.”

  He growled a sigh, and her insides got all warm and gooey. She really needed to date nice men who didn’t growl.

  “Do you really think I’d do that?”

  “If I did, I wouldn’t have accepted your apology. But this is Petal. Gossip is as common as marshmallows in Jell-O salad. He’s had enough, don’t you think? My lands, the boy can’t even go out for a burger without people knowing his dad left his mom for a girl barely older than him. I can’t be part of anything that would harm him even more.”

  “You said you were over me.”

  “I am. Don’t smirk. What if your face freezes that way?”

  He laughed and she did too. It felt so good to laugh with him after so long.

  “I want you back, Lil. I’m telling you that up front. Just so you won’t be surprised when I get you back.”

  It wouldn’t do to smile at him and encourage this silly behavior, but she did anyway because she’d clearly been dropped on her head as a child.

  Pie arrived and she was glad for the interruption. And the pie of course.

  “I need to get back home. I’m glad we cleared the air and all.”

  She tried to pay half but he pushed the cash back her way. “I invited you, I’ll pay. I’ll walk you to your car too.”

  Plenty of female attention landed on him as they made their way toward the door. That much hadn’t changed. It used to leave her feeling a little smug. That he was hers and they could look all day long but he wanted Lily Travis, not any of those other bimbos. And then she was wrong.

  “I can get it from here,” she said once they’d arrived outside. The evening air was cool, and without even asking, he helped her into the coat.

  “I’m sure you can. Where are you parked?” Bold as you please, as if she’d never spoken.

  “Around the corner. On Ash.”

  “Why you parking back there?” He held his arm out and she took it automatically. Once she’d done it, it would have been silly to let go. “It’s dark back there.”

  “It was daylight when I parked. This is Petal. Main was packed.”

  “You have a cell phone. Next time, text me and I’ll come get you.”

  It was dark but quiet, and the moon overhead was beginning to rise. “I’ll do no such thing. And there won’t be any next time, Nathan.”

  He took her keys and unlocked the door for her. “Just keep telling yourself that if it gets you through the day. But we both know that’s a bald-faced lie.” He stepped closer and her back hit the car.

  She was looking for some stern words when he leaned that last distance between them and brushed his lips across hers.

  All her stern internal reminders swept away when he pressed his body against hers and she found her fingers in his shirt, holding him to her. His hands slid up her sides, coming to rest at her back, just above her ass.

  Her mouth opened on a sigh, and he swallowed the sound, his tongue slipping between her lips like a thief and then he owned her as if they’d never been apart.

  She gave in and ran her fingers through his hair as he slid his tongue along hers. He tasted of tea and pie and man. She was lost in the sweet sensation of that kiss until he sucked on her tongue and her nipples hardened to the point of pain, throbbing in time with her clit.

  Up the block, someone shut a door, and it was enough to reclaim her senses and put her hand on his chest to push him back a bit.

  He broke the kiss and stared at her lips for long moments, his chest heaving as h
e struggled to breathe.

  “I want more of that mouth,” he murmured, bending to kiss the side of her jaw.

  “I have to go home. I promised Chris I’d watch a movie with him.” Her voice was rusty. She licked her lips and he groaned again, putting some distance between them.

  “Go on then. I’ll see you soon, Lily. We’re going to be friends once more, if I can’t have friends and then some.”

  He’d have to be satisfied with that, she told herself as she drove home, because that’s all she had to give.

  Chapter Six

  Lily heard whispered talking and sat up in bed, listening hard.

  Quickly, under cover of darkness she got some shoes on and pulled a robe over her pajamas.

  It was Chris, on his phone.

  She crept closer, not wanting to intrude, but damn it all, the boy had lied to her so often she wanted to be sure it wasn’t something she should worry about. And it was after midnight anyway.

  “I can’t.” He paused. “No. Dude, she will totally hunt me down. No, not my mom. She’s so doped up half the time she wouldn’t even notice. Lily, my sister. Yes, yes the one who jumped the fence.”

  Lily cringed at his words about their mother. Pamela had her good days, but she struggled through some bad ones too. It wasn’t right that Chris saw it enough to know what was happening.

  “Are you fucking kidding me? No way. She’d hunt me down!”

  One of her brows rose of its own accord as she listened to Chris arguing and wondered what it was over. Also, the F word? No. She wasn’t going to get worked up over a shit or damn here and there, but nuh uh no way.

  “I gotta go. I’ll see you tomorrow. No, I have to go. The school calls Lily and she’ll find me.”

  What he didn’t know was that she’d hooked him into her family phone network and could locate him that way. A friend in Macon kept track of her teenage daughter that way. If he cut school again she’d totally not only track him down, but drag him back to school by the scruff of his neck and not feel a damn bit bad.