And suddenly, I felt bad for making him feel bad. How messed up is that?
About as messed up as my reaching up to grasp the back of his head to pull his mouth down onto mine.
But I’d sensed something else about him tonight that went beyond him being so darn nice and showing interest. Maybe it was time I put the past in the past. After all, it had been so long since that crummy night. I’d forgotten for awhile, now it was time to forgive.
He was surprised by my actions. I glimpsed it in his eyes before I closed mine and threw myself into the kiss I’d waited eleven and a half years for. Seconds later, he got over his surprise and kissed me back ten times better than I’d ever imagined. Chocolate and marshmallow tasted even better on his lips and tongue.
I’m not sure how long we lay on the floor, kissing like we couldn’t get enough of each other, but I was pretty hot and bothered by the time he pulled his hand from under my sweatshirt, pushed up with those spectacular biceps and helped me off the floor that was only slightly firmer than his body. I’d lost my ponytail holder at some point, and he brushed my long hair back to rest his hands on my shoulders.
“I honestly didn’t intend for this to happen when I offered you a place to stay,” he said softly.
Regret filled his words and expression. My heart plummeted to my stomach, a sensation I was all too familiar with from that other long ago night. I stared at the third button on his shirt and tried to step back, but his fingers tightened. He shifted one hand to raise my chin with a crooked knuckle.
“I’m not sorry it did.”
“But…?”
He sighed, averted his gaze, and let his arms fall to his sides. “But…it’s not such a good idea. Asking you over was selfish on my part—a way to ease my guilt. Jenna was right, you should stay away.”
So he had read that text message. I made a split second decision, threw caution to the wind and put my hands on my hips to challenge, “What if I don’t want to?”
His startled gaze flew back to mine. Clearly, he still thought he was dealing with the old Summer. The shy girl who’d never held him accountable for deserting her without a word. While that girl hadn’t been able to work up the courage to demand an explanation, the woman I’d become was strong enough to go after what I wanted.
A confused frown had taken over Josh’s expression. “Why wouldn’t you run the other way? I mean, after what I did…”
“What’d you do?” I knew what he was talking about, but after all this time, I wanted to hear him admit it. Guess it wasn’t quite so easy to forgive and forget.
“I ditched you at the Snowball dance,” he stated, holding my gaze without flinching. “Never explained. Never apologized.”
A lump formed in my throat as all the old hurt resurfaced and threatened to make me cry. But I refused to shed any more tears over that night. Most especially not in front of him all these years later. Crossing my arms over my chest, I jutted out my chin. “Did you have a reason for ditching me beyond Lyssa’s shoes, or were you really just that much of an ass?”
His Adam’s apple bobbed. “In addition to being that much of an ass, I had a reason,” he said softly.
I raised my eyebrows and waited. My heart began a slow, deep thud as I watched the pain I’d glimpsed earlier return and sink into the depths of his dark brown eyes...
JOSH NELSEN
I drove down the two lane state highway away from Silver Falls wishing I’d never replied to my ten year class reunion invitation. What the hell was I thinking?
It’d been a long, cold day at work unloading trucks, I was already running late, and now that the day was here, I really didn’t feel like sitting around with the people I went to school with reminiscing about the good ol’ days. My last two years of high school weren’t all that good and there was certainly nothing worth talking about. In fact, there were definitely a few subjects I much preferred to avoid.
And by subjects, I meant Summer Clark.
And her cousin, Jenna, who hated me as much as Summer had a right to.
My cell phone rang on the seat beside me and I debated answering. Huge, wet snowflakes slapped onto my truck’s windshield, cutting visibility to less than a quarter mile. I turned my wipers on high to keep up, and figured probably not a good idea to mess with the phone. Especially if it was my mom, who’d only aggravate me with questions like, “Are you dating anyone special?”, or “When are you going to meet a nice girl and give Zach a cousin to play with?”
With my sister Meg happily settled into marriage and parenthood, and since the last of my cousins got married before this past Christmas, mom had made it her mission to stick her nose into my love-life every chance she got.
Not that I had a love life. Hell, I didn’t even have a sex life, but no way in hell I was telling my mom that. And I avoided the subject of myself and kids whenever possible.
The incessant ring of the phone made me glance over and I caught Meg’s number. Meg I could deal with.
I tightened my grip on the wheel with my left hand and grabbed the phone with my right. “Hey, brat, what’s up?”
“Little brothers are brats, not older sisters,” she retorted.
I laughed. “I like the older part of that.”
“Oh, shut up.”
“Well, what do you want? I’m on Highway 32, and in case you hadn’t noticed, it’s snowing.”
“That’s why I called. I mopped today, and you have a mudroom for a reason. Use it.”
“It’s my house.”
“You have three options, brat. Clean it yourself. Pay more. Or take off your boots.”
“Mudroom it is.”
“That’s what I thought.”
I ignored her smug tone, especially when she added, “I left a couple servings of lasagna in your freezer, and Zach sent over some new pictures—they’re on your fridge.”
“Mmm, thanks. And tell Zach his favorite Uncle says hi.” I loved my little three-year-old nephew more than anything. In fact, I needed to head over to Meg’s soon so I could get my fix of the little tyke.
“I will,” Meg promised. “Bye.”
“Bye.”
I set the phone down on the seat, only to have it ring about ten seconds later. Meg. “Now what?”
“Isn’t your class reunion tonight?”
She would remember that, wouldn’t she? “Yeah,” I confirmed cautiously.
“Any old flames going to be there?”
I immediately pictured the one person I didn’t want to think about, wearing an emerald green dress the night of the Snowball Winter Formal. Thanks, Meg. “I don’t know.”
“Ah-ha! So you do have someone from high school besides crazy Lyssa.”
“Everyone’s got old crushes from high school, Meg.”
“Check out their ring fingers, okay? I’d like to be an aunt before I hit thirty-five.”
“Oh, God, you’re as bad as Mom,” I grumbled.
“Well, you’re not getting any younger, and it wouldn’t kill you to actually try and go on a date every so often. Or for that matter, just have sex once in awhile.”
“God, Meg, shut up. My sex life is fine, thank you.”
“That’s not what Tony says.”
“Your husband doesn’t know shit,” I retorted.
She snorted. “Then how come you haven’t bought any new condoms in over a year?”
I nearly choked. “Wh--! How the hell do you know that? Quit snooping in my drawers!”
“Oh, relax, it was last spring. Tony stopped by for lunch when I was cleaning one day, and we didn’t want any ‘oops’ so close to Zach.”
My jaw tightened, along with my fingers on both the steering wheel and my phone. Two years between kids was not that close, but I focused on the other issue at hand. “You better have used the guest bed.”
“Who said we used a bed?” my sister said in a low voice she should only ever use with her husband.
“Gross. I’m hanging up.”
“Hey!”
> “What?” I growled.
“You shouldn’t talk on your phone while you’re driving.”
I hung up on her chuckle and shook my head as I slid the phone in the chest pocket of my flannel jacket. Should’ve let the damn thing go to voicemail. Bad enough our mom hounded me, now my sister knew I had no sex life, and I wouldn’t be able to walk through my house without wondering where she and her husband had done the nasty.
My truck wheel got caught in a rut and I hauled the wheel to the right. Maybe with this weather I could just avoid the whole reunion. Thinking of Summer put a rock in my stomach heavy enough that I’d rather deal with sister issues at home.
Besides, the weather man had said six to ten inches and at five-thirty there was already at least three on the ground, maybe four. Just a couple more miles to my house and then I could take a hot shower before watching the action movie I bought last week. A couple beers and Meg’s lasagna might relax me enough to forget about the x-rated things other people were doing in my house that I wasn’t.
Chicken shit.
I gripped the steering wheel in protest, powering my truck through the slushy mess obscuring the road to the point where I couldn’t even see the center line. I didn’t know if Summer would even be at the reunion, so I was not chickening out. A major winter storm on the fifth of May was more than reason enough to stay home.
Besides, last time I saw Jenna she’d taken extreme pleasure rubbing in the fact that Summer had moved on. Summer now lived in Florida and was engaged to be married. She was happy and completely over my asshole mistake the night of the Snowball dance.
I’d always liked Summer in school, and though we were friends, she intimidated the hell out of me. Pretty, smart, funny…and just shy enough to be mysterious. On the other hand, my girlfriend at the time was anything but mysterious. Not to mention, Lyssa knew exactly how to play a typical teenage guy who was easily led around by the fly of his pants. Every time we broke up and I considered asking Summer out, Lyssa would unzip me back in.
The Snowball dance couldn’t have been timed more perfectly. Lyssa and I had been broken up for almost a month and I was voted the Junior representative for the court. I had to choose a girl from my class to stand up with me, so I took the opportunity to ask Summer. She said yes, and then spent the next couple weeks blushing every time I said “hi” in the hall.
The night of the dance, I waited on her porch with my stomach flipping like crazy, fingering the petals of a pink corsage. Summer opened the door and nearly took my breath away. Her green dress brought out the color in her hazel eyes, and she’d curled her dark hair. I couldn’t tell you what else she’d done, but pretty was out the window and beautiful had taken its place.
“Wow,” I managed. “You look great, Summer.”
“Thanks.” She smiled and blushed before dropping her gaze. “So do you.”
I relaxed with the realization she was as nervous as me. After sliding the corsage onto her wrist, I held out my arm so she wouldn’t slip on the snow covered walkway. The night flew by, and before I knew it the Grand March was over. I was off to the side with a couple friends discussing where to go after the dance when Lyssa walked into the gym wearing a barely-there dress and fuck-me heels. I recognized them because she’d worn them before and told me exactly what they were for.
From all the way across the gym I saw Summer’s smile disappear. Shit. I was going to need some help getting through this one. I headed straight to the punch bowl and downed two full glasses, thankful a couple of seniors had spiked it earlier. Then I found Lyssa and dragged her out into the hall before she could ruin the rest of my night.
She dropped a bomb and ruined it anyway.
Just thinking about that night and what followed pissed me off and shamed me at the same time. I usually dealt with the memories by blocking them out and continuing my life as if it’d never happened.
And I would do that again by skipping the reunion. I wasn’t a coward; I just didn’t need another in-my-face round of reminders.
My front tires hit a dip in the road and threw slush in all directions just as a low pair of headlights cut through the falling snow. I realized the car was half in my lane only seconds before the other vehicle jerked to the right and avoided a head-on collision.
“Sonofabitch.”
Talk about a reality check. Attention on the road, man.
Heart thumping, I applied the brakes, because no way that vehicle had avoided the ditch. Even if the driver had managed to correct his steering, the shoulders of the roads were still soft and mucky from the endless April showers we’d received.
I pulled over as far as I dared on my own side of the road and flipped on my hazards. Hunching my shoulders against the wet, blowing snow, I hurried across the road to where the other car’s tires had left a muddy trail through the snow. I slipped a bit on my way to the driver’s door and bent down, but it was hard to see clearly through the fogged glass.
I could tell the driver was a woman, and she’d leaned her head back on the seat, so I rapped a knuckle on the window. She jumped, but powered down the window.
“Are you okay?” I asked while scoping out the situation.
“Um…I think so,” she replied.
“I don’t think you’re getting out of here without a tow truck.”
“Great,” I heard the woman say.
I took a closer look at the front of her car. Oh, yeah, nothing was getting that baby out except a tow truck with a cable and a winch. Not to mention, I’d happened to catch the rental plate, so it was best to leave it to the professionals for insurance reasons. I pulled my cell from my pocket and dialed my friend, Dave Bensen—the professional with insurance.
While the phone rang, I turned back to check out the woman in the car. Her back was to me as she leaned toward the passenger seat, and all I saw was long, dark hair. When she pulled a cell phone from her purse, I said, “Don’t bother. My buddy Dave owns the local towing service.”
She settled back into her seat as Dave answered. “What’s up, Nelsen?”
I cupped my hand around the phone and turned my back to the wind so I could hear better. “Hey, how’s it going?” I asked.
“Busy,” Dave said.
“Any chance you got a free truck?”
“Are you kidding? With this storm all my drivers are booked for at least the next three hours. Everyone forgets how to drive in snow after just a couple weeks of spring. Why?”
“There’s a woman in the ditch on Highway 32 right before my road. Can you schedule her in and tow her car to the diner?”
“Sure, I’ll add it to the list,” Dave said.
“Thanks.” I gave him the make and model before hanging up and turning back to the woman. The snow blew between us and I had to raise my voice to be heard over the wind. “His guys are booked up on calls until at least eight. I can give you a ride to town, if you’d like to wait at the Silver Falls Diner, or until you can call someone to come get you?”
“Aren’t you going to the reunion?”
The question took me totally by surprise and I answered without thinking as I bent closer to the open window. “Yeah, how did you—”
And that’s when I got my first good look at her face. Whoa. Conscious effort kept my jaw from dropping. “Summer?”
She smiled like I remembered in high school. Then it disappeared and she said, “You remembered.”
Those two pointed words said she remembered. Guilt socked me right in the gut. “Of course…how could I not?”
Up on the road, my neighbor’s maroon car crept by, giving me the perfect reason to avert my eyes from her unwavering gaze. I lifted a hand to Mike, but felt the weight of Summer’s silence. Pressure makes me say stupid things.
“What’s it been, like…?”
“Ten years,” she supplied with just the slightest hint of sarcasm.
“Yeah. Wow.” I forced my gaze back to hers. “You look great.”
“Thanks.”
I wasn’t
lying to be nice. Summer had always been pretty and she’d improved over the past ten years. She wasn’t supermodel gorgeous, but truthfully, that was her appeal. Hazel eyes framed by thick, dark lashes. Light makeup enhanced her features and shiny gloss highlighted her lips. Beautiful yet approachable…if one didn’t have a huge, stupid mistake hanging over his idiot head.
Not sure how long I stared before I noticed her shiver. I wore a flannel jacket, but she sat there in a sleeveless dress, in her ditched rental car, with wet snowflakes whirling through the open window.
I gave myself a mental shake and wondered…could this be my one shot at redemption?
“I was just on my way home to change,” I told her before doubt could set in. “If you don’t mind waiting at my house for a few minutes, we can go to the reunion together and Dave can have your car towed right to the supper club. You remember Dave Bensen, right?”
She nodded and leaned closer to the window. Her muddy tire tracks were turning white again, a good incentive to get moving. Though I figured her agreement was for the question about Dave, I grabbed the handle of her door and pulled it open as if she’d said yes to coming home with me.
I held my breath when she hesitated. Finally, she lifted her purse from the passenger seat and extended one leg out of the rental. The long expanse of bare skin distracted me enough that I almost messed up again. Luckily I caught sight of her little black sandals just before she planted her painted toes in the mud.
“Whoa, hold up.”
Only a jerk would let a woman walk through muck in shoes like that—and I was done being a jerk. I leaned down into the car to scoop her up. She drew back with a sharp breath, but I went all in.
“Hang on.”
With one arm under her knees and the other behind her back, I shifted my balance to lift with my knees. She made a grab for my shoulders, nearly throwing me backwards onto my ass.
“What are you doing?” she demanded in a high-pitched voice.
Stacey Joy Netzel Boxed Set Page 8
