He took another step and erased the small distance between them. “Don’t you know to never say never?”
“Lyfe, I’m engaged.”
“Engagements can be broken. You taught me that.”
She opened her mouth, but no words came out. What could she say to that?
“Tell you what. I’m going to cut you a break,” Lyfe said, folding his arms. “You want me to leave? Go back to Atlanta and permanently stay out of your life? There’s only one way that I’ll agree to do it.”
Corona also folded her arms. “I’m listening.”
“One date.”
“No.” She shook her head, seeing the trap for what it was.
“Then I guess I’ll be sticking around. You do remember that your fiancé invited me to be one of his groomsmen.”
“That was when he thought you were marrying my sister.”
“I still might. If she buys me the right ring.”
“You’re not funny.”
He cocked his head the other way. “Actually, I’m hilarious. I used to make you laugh until milk squirted out of your nose.”
She didn’t mean to, but she smiled.
“Ah. There’s my Corona Mae.” Without warning, he reached out and pulled her into his arms. “God. How I’ve missed you.”
There was one solitary voice in the back of her head that told her to push her way out of his arms, but damn if she could get herself to do it.
“What’s with this whole Chloe thing, anyway?”
“It’s—just more professional sounding. It’s not … “
“Country?”
Another smile. “Something like that.”
“Well, I love Corona Mae.” He reached up and brushed her hair away from her face. “Always have—always will.”
She should have seen the kiss coming. But, then again, maybe she did and chose to do nothing about it. The next thing she knew, she was being swept away in a kiss that made her feel seventeen again. In her head, visions of them laughing on a baseball field, posing for junior prom and even sneaking away to go skinny dipping at old Robin Lake flashed in her head. This man had been more than just her first lover, he’d been her best friend.
When the kiss ended, he pulled back and smiled tenderly at her. “One date.”
She swallowed.
Lyfe continued, “If by the end of it, you still want me out of your life forever, I’ll go.” He cupped her face. “But if it goes the way I think it will, you’ll break your engagement and marry me.”
Chapter 20
Lyfe couldn’t believe that Corona Mae hadn’t tried to cancel on him. Either she meant to try to outfox him so she could get rid of him, or she was privately hoping that the night would go according to his plans.
He was taking her to the exclusive Per Se restaurant at the Time Warner Center complex. From everything he’d heard about the place it had the perfect balance of intimacy and understated luxury. But he wished that she would’ve allowed him to pick her up instead of just meeting him at the restaurant. Then again, it was understood that as hard as he was going to try to seduce her, she was likely going to do all she could to prevent it from happening.
When he arrived at the restaurant, he couldn’t believe that he actually had butterflies—just like he had when he’d arrived at her house to take her to junior prom. He must’ve waited twenty minutes downstairs, watching her father while he cleaned his gun. He had sweated so much that her father ended up asking him whether he had a sweat gland problem.
Now, here he was; waiting with those same butterflies. But after twenty minutes of waiting, he started to wonder whether he’d been stood up. Lyfe pulled out his cell phone at least a dozen times, imagining he heard it ring or double checking the number of bars showing.
Just when he was about to give up hope, Corona Mae breezed into the restaurant, a striking figure in a snow-white coat.
“There you are,” he said, sounding and feeling relieved. “I was beginning to think that you’d changed your mind.”
“No. A deal is a deal.”
“Well. Let’s see about our table, shall we?” he asked, helping her slip out of her coat. Beneath it was a matching white wrap-dress that hugged her curves as much as he wanted to tonight. “You look gorgeous.”
“Thank you,” she said, smiling. “You clean up rather well yourself.”
Lyfe offered her his arm and then led her to the hostess. Within seconds they were escorted to a table that gave them a breathtaking, wintry view of Central Park. After their drink orders were taken a surprising awkward silence enveloped them.
“It’s kind of strange, huh?” he said. “Our first official date as grown-ups.” When she smiled, he relaxed.
“Yeah. It is sort of strange.” She reached for her glass of water and they both spotted how badly her hand was trembling.
“Wow. I can’t remember a time when I made you nervous.”
“You’re joking, right? How about the time when you convinced me to egg and toilet paper Mr. Henderson’s house because of a silly bet you made with your brother Dorian? Or the first time we went skinny dipping at Robin Lake and your brothers Ace and Hennessey came and stole our clothes?”
Ly fe laughed.
“And then there was that first time that we … “ Corona Mae caught herself.
“The first time we made love?” he asked.
Their waiter appeared and asked for their drink orders.
Despite hating the guy’s timing, Lyfe quickly selected them a cabernet sauvignon and tried to return to their discussion. “Does that night hold fond memories for you?” he asked.
Corona’s cheeks darkened. “You know it does.”
He smiled. “Well, it’s not like we had much discussion about it. The next day, we were engaged and then—”
“Yes. Yes. I remember,” she said, reaching for her water glass again.
“Why did you leave?” he asked, before he could stop himself. He’d prepped himself not to ask that question, and even told himself in the mirror that he no longer cared and that he just wanted to leave it in the past and start anew. But, at the heart of it, he still needed and wanted an answer.
Corona tugged in a deep breath and then met his steady gaze. “I thought … to prevent us from making a big mistake.”
Lyfe blinked. Her answer hurt more than he thought it would. “A mistake?”
She nodded. “We were just kids. Too young to be strapped down by some archaic ideology that dictated that what we had done—what we had shared—had somehow brought shame to the family name. You get married because you’re in love.”
“We were in love,” he said. “At least I was in love.”
Her smile returned. “So was I … but at seventeen it’s just not enough. We hadn’t finished high school, or gone to college, or even discovered who we really were. I couldn’t get my father to listen, and my mother didn’t seem like she wanted to intercede so … “
“You just left. Without even a note?” Lyfe tried to keep the hurt out of his voice, but he was failing miserably.
Tears glistened in Corona’s eyes. “If I left a note at that time, you would’ve come after me. You would’ve tried to convince me that life with you working on the farm and me in my mother’s hair salon would’ve been just fine.”
“It would’ve been.”
“For a while, yes. But that wasn’t who we were or even what we wanted to be—and it wasn’t up to my father to make that decision for us. I love him and we still have a ways to go to heal that hurt, but … he was wrong.”
Lyfe nodded while he let her words sink in. So far, he couldn’t disagree with anything she’d said. He would’ve settled for the life of a farmer instead of trying his luck and making it as an architect; and she would’ve never had an opportunity to become a hotshot agent in New York.
“I see your point,” he finally said. “Don’t mean that it doesn’t still hurt like hell.”
“I’m sorry,” she whispered and again reached for her
water. Tell him now! She almost choked when the voice in the back of her head screamed for her to act. It was a great opening for her bring up his daughter, but she hadn’t decided on the right wording to tell him that he had a thirteen-year-old daughter. It wasn’t something that you just blurted out before you even had a chance to order dinner.
The waiter returned with their wine. While he and Lyfe went through the whole ritual of showing the label and taste testing, she was mentally having a minor heart attack.
“Are you ready to place your order?”
“May I?” Lyfe asked.
“Sure. Go ahead.”
“I think we’d like to start off with your signature Pearls and Oysters … “
Corona tuned out the ordering and returned to strategizing how to drop the incredible bombshell on him. And when was the right moment for that sort of thing, during dinner or dessert? Or maybe it was when they took a leisurely stroll around Rockefeller Center? Would he yell, scream, tell her how much he hated her?
“Corona, are you all right?”
She jerked herself out of her private thoughts again. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
He thanked the waiter and sent him away. “I still can’t get over the fact that we’re actually doing this. I think our first date when we were kids was at the Hollywood Roller Rink. You remember that?”
“Do I remember? You spent half the night making me fall because you didn’t know how to balance yourself on wheels. I had more bruises that night than if I’d played in a yearlong dodge ball competition.”
Lyfe rocked back with a hearty laugh. “You? I broke my tailbone that night. I had to sit on a rubber donut for six months. You have no idea the kind of hell my brothers put me through for that one. They’d bring me rubber duckies and pacifiers, as if I was some kind of baby.”
“Your brothers are a riot.”
“They’re something.”
“Any of them married?”
“Can’t think of a woman crazy enough to take one of them.”
“Do they still have that same three-month rule?”
“I plead the fifth,” he said, shaking his head.
“You didn’t take up that rule, did you?”
“Who me? Nah. I could never find another woman who could … “
Take your place.
He didn’t say it, but they both heard it nonetheless.
By the time their meal arrived, they had relaxed and were chitchatting about old times. After a while, it even started to feel like old times.
Corona melted each time his dimple winked at her or his intense gaze turned up the heat in the restaurant by several degrees. Before they knew it, their meals were finished and they had agreed to share a dessert. It felt wonderful to have her best friend back and to hear about his days in college and his years building a solid career.
“I have to tell you that I think the boys at the office are getting nervous. I’ve been in New York for a while. They’re not believing that I’m not being poached by one the big firms here.”
“You could probably do well here,” she said.
“Would you like having me here in New York?”
The question caught her off guard. “I’d want you to do whatever would make you happy.”
“And what if I told you that you would make me very happy?”
“Lyfe—”
“Corona, I’m serious.” He reached across the table and claimed her hand. “Why are we playing games here? I can look at you and tell that we’re both feeling the same thing. It’s in your eyes and your body language. You want me as much as I want you. I don’t know how long you’ve been dating this … actor—but I know that it can’t possibly have the same depth and fire that has always existed between the two of us.”
It was true, but as she fixed her mouth to deny it, he gave her a look that said “don’t even try it.”
“Corona Mae, look me in my eyes and tell me that we don’t belong together.”
She tried, she honestly did; but she couldn’t get the words out.
“I knew it.”
“It’s just not about us anymore.”
“Your fiancé,” he said.
“There’s him and—”
“You just told me not too long ago that you only get married because you love someone.”
“I know, but—”
“Well, do you love him?” He squeezed her hand. “As much as you love me?”
“I—I—”
“Look. Don’t answer that right now. I have something else planned for us.”
“I’m not going back to your hotel.”
Lyfe twisted up his face. “I don’t recall inviting you.”
Corona jerked back and blinked in surprise. “Oh. Well. I thought—”
“Please. Get your mind out of the gutter.” He shook his head and signaled the waiter for the check while Corona’s face blazed with embarrassment. Thirty minutes later, Lyfe was shelling out for two tickets at the Rockefeller Center Ice Rink.
“You really want to try your hand at skating again?” Corona laughed.
“Hey, a few things have changed over the years,” he said, puffing up his chest. “I can do this.”
“Uhm, no. Mountains don’t skate and that’s exactly what you’re going to look like if you put those damn things on.”
“Aw. Is this concern for my well-being? Does that mean that you still have feelings for your old boyfriend after all?”
“I’m concerned about all these innocent bystanders who have no idea what’s coming.”
He waved off her comments. “You’ll see.”
“All right. A hard head makes a soft ass,” she warned. A half second later, he stepped out on the ice and hit the ice hard.
“Oooh.” Corona winced, shaking her head. “That looks like it hurt.”
“Oh, damn. I think I broke my tailbone again.”
Corona roared with laughter.
“Hey, Melody. Isn’t that your mother over there?” Amanda asked, pointing across the ice rink.
Melody turned her head and saw her mother standing over some mountain of a guy, laughing her head off. “Yeah. I think so.”
“I thought you said that she had some all-night business thing she had to do?” Carrie added, folding her arms. “Doesn’t that guy look familiar?”
Melody took a second look at the man who was struggling to get back onto his feet, only to slam back down onto the ice. The three of them jumped and winced at the hard fall.
“Ouch.”
“Damn,” Amanda said, shaking her head again. “I don’t think I’ve seen anybody that awful out here. Either he’s going to need a doctor in a few minutes or he’s going to crack the entire ice rink. Ooooh.”
He fell again.
Her mother’s laughter rang out so clear that it was infectious. “I wonder who that guy is,” Melody said to herself more than her friends.
“I don’t know, but he definitely doesn’t look like your future stepfather. Heck, I don’t think I’ve ever seen your mother look that happy around Rowan.”
“Me either,” Melody said.
“Hey, we better go if we’re going to catch that show,” Carrie reminded them.
“All right. I’m coming,” Melody said, but didn’t move.
“C’mon,” Amanda grabbed her best friend by the arm. “I’m sure your mother doesn’t need a chaperone.”
“I’m not too sure about that,” Melody said, but allowed herself to be dragged along.
After forty minutes of strenuous work, Corona had finally achieved the singular goal of getting Lyfe to stand perfectly balanced on the ice. Standing, not skating. And to be honest about her handiwork, it still looked like a good stiff wind would blow him back over.
“I got it. I got it,” Lyfe boasted as if he was four years old.
“Now just think of your skates like a pair of skis. You want to keep them parallel.”
“Skis. All right. Got it.”
Corona took a deep breath while weighin
g whether he was really ready for the next step. “All right. Now I want you to use your dominant foot and gently push yourself forward.”
“Just … push,” he repeated several times before he actually attempted it. The next thing she knew, he was wobbling, his hands were doing the whole helicopter thing, and he was going down.
And she was going down with him.
“Oooof!” Lyfe’s eyes bulged as she landed on top of him, knocking what little air he had left out of his body.
Once they were able to catch their breath again, they were laughing. When they stopped, their faces and lips were just inches apart. From there, gravity took care of the rest.
Corona’s head spun until she was dizzy with desire. His touch. His taste. She simply couldn’t get enough. He tasted like hope and promise and a destiny unfulfilled. When their lips pulled apart, Lyfe stared lovingly into her eyes.
“Come back to my hotel.”
Chapter 21
This is wrong.
But despite that realization, Corona couldn’t stop herself from touching and kissing Lyfe as they stumbled into the elevator of the Four Seasons. On one hand, she was being completely driven by an unquenchable lust and, on the other, she felt more love radiating from this man than she had known in her entire lifetime. His spirit and essence infused her own and had her feeling like she was floating on clouds of ecstasy.
Stop. It’s not too late to stop.
But it was too late. She wouldn’t have been able to pull herself away from this man even if her soul was on the line. She heard a bell and they tumbled out onto his floor, still caressing and clawing at each other’s clothes. There could’ve been other people in the hallway, but neither of them cared. Their concentration was only on each other, except for the two seconds it took for Lyfe to inject his card key into the lock.
They spilled into the room, where the only light came from the winter’s moon cascading through the sheer curtains. Shoes were kicked off and sent flying into the air as hands tried to re-familiarize themselves with each other’s body.
With one quick pull to the ties on her wrap dress, Lyfe was treated to the sight of her dangerous curves encased in black lace. One look at her in the silvery moonlight and Lyfe’s heart went into overdrive. He was certain that there was no more beautiful sight on earth.
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