by Jess Bryant
“Kady…”
“I was going to tell you that I was busy as soon as you stepped off the elevator but you distracted me with cheese fries.”
He chuckled at that, “It was more than the cheese fries. Admit it.”
“Maybe I wanted the cheeseburger too.” She teased and he grinned.
“You wanted…”
Voices from down the hallway distracted him and he frowned when Kady tried to move away from him. Instead of letting her go, he grabbed her hand and pulled her across the hallway. He ducked into the first door he found, knowing it was a supply closet.
“Nick!”
“Shh.” He hushed her gently, “Nobody saw us.”
“What are you doing?”
“Reminding you of something.” He motioned around, “You remember this closet? We’ve been in here before, Kady.”
“What… I…” She glanced around and he saw it the moment the memory hit her.
The two of them sneaking in here late at night during one of her night shifts. Back when they’d both been right out of college and couldn’t stand to spend the night apart. He’d taken her in this very spot while he covered her mouth to keep her quiet.
“Oh.” Her cheeks flushed the prettiest pink and he chuckled.
“Yeah. Oh.” He moved closer to her, “You remember that night, Kady? Remember how it felt to have my hands and mouth on you? Remember what it felt like when I was inside you? Like home, baby. Like coming home.”
Kady’s breathing had sped and her breasts pushed against her top. She bit her lip and lowered her chin a little. She looked up at him from beneath her lashes shyly when she spoke and her voice was so quiet it was almost a whisper.
“I remember, Nick. I remember everything.”
He groaned as his willpower broke and he stamped his mouth down on hers. She gasped but when she didn’t pull away, he took advantage. He stroked his tongue deep, tasting her for the first time in far too long.
Kady made a sweet little moan that sounded like surrender and then her arms were around him. Her breasts pressed against his chest as she tried to get closer and he obliged. He grabbed her hips and pushed himself against her, rubbing them together and creating the most delicious friction.
God, she was made for him. How had he gone without this for six years? How had he ever thought he could live without it? Without her? He’d been a damned idiot.
He kissed her just the way he knew she liked. Hard and unrelenting, he stroked her tongue into playing with his. He cupped her ass and squeezed and she responded by dragging her fingers through his hair, pulling hard.
Damn if she didn’t remember what he liked too.
He pushed her back against the wall, desperate to have more of her. This wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough. He’d spent years starving for her. He’d spent weeks teasing himself with glimpses and touches. He had her back in his arms, finally, and claiming her mouth wasn’t going to be enough.
He needed all of her.
Sliding his hand up, he found the hem of her scrub top and snuck beneath. He pushed upward until he found her full, lush breast and when he hefted the heavy mound and swiped a finger over her nipple, she broke the kiss on a moan. His name. Which only made him crazier. He tugged the cup of her bra down until her breast sat atop it and pinched the hard flesh of her nipple, catching her cry of pleasure with another hard kiss.
Her legs parted for him instinctively and he used his free hand to grip her thigh. He pulled it up around his hip, allowing his weight to notch himself between her thighs. He could feel her heat through the thin barrier of her scrub pants and his trousers.
She was so close. So close. She slid her hands down his chest and he felt it the second she brushed against the gun he’d forgotten was on his hip.
Kady recoiled as if a snake had bit her. She jerked back so hard her head banged into the wall. He tried to reach for her, to soothe the injury but she was already pulling away from him. Her leg dropped and she shoved at his chest so hard that he had no choice but to back away.
“Shit.” She muttered, straightening her clothes hastily, “Shit. I’m sorry. That shouldn’t have happened. I’m sorry.”
“Kady.” He tried to keep his voice level, “Don’t you apologize for that. It should have happened. It should have happened a long time ago.”
“No.” She shook her head, her blonde ponytail bobbing. “No. It... We… No.”
“Kady.” He caught her and cupped her cheeks gently, “Look at me, Kady. Listen to me.”
“Nick.” She said his voice like a plea and he hated it.
She wanted him to let her go. She wanted him to play along and let them continue this game of cat and mouse. She didn’t want him to catch her. She didn’t want to admit that she was already caught. She was his.
“Give me a chance. Please, baby. Please just agree to go to dinner with me. Let me take you on a date. Let me try to make this right. Please.”
She chewed on her bottom lip and he dropped his forehead to hers. She was wavering. He could see it. He could feel it and he wasn’t sure if he should press her just a little bit harder or wait for her to realize what he already had.
She was going to say yes.
Kady let out a shaky breath, “Just dinner?”
“Just dinner.” He lied.
He couldn’t help it. He wasn’t going to let her go if she agreed to one dinner and then decided to cut him off. He’d keep coming here until he was old and gray so long as she would give him the time of day.
“Okay.”
He smiled, “Yeah?”
“One dinner, Nick.” She gave him a firm stare that he was sure was supposed to douse his hopes but it didn’t.
She’d agreed to see him at the hospital. She’d accepted his lunches. She’d given him a chance already. Dinner was just phase two, the next step back into her life. She had opened the door and he didn’t intend to let it close this time, not until he was on the other side.
“Pick you up at seven?”
“Dinner. It’s just dinner.”
He smiled and gave her a quick peck of a kiss. It was their first dinner. The first in what he hoped would be a lifetime of many, many more.
8
Kady was going to back out. She was. She’d been thinking about it all day. From the moment Nick had walked out of that supply closet and her brain had kicked back on, she’d known that she was making a mistake. She had to cancel on him, nip this in the bud, and she had to do it before he managed to sway her back to his side and into his arms. It felt too good there, too right and comfortable and natural. She didn’t think straight when he was so close and she’d softened at the hospital when she should have stood her ground. She had to back out of the date.
Only, every single time that she’d picked up her phone to do just that over the last few hours, something had stopped her.
She was scared to put a name to what it was. Scared to admit that the part of her that wanted this was big enough to overpower her fear. That her heart actually ached for more time with Nick, for everything with Nick, everything that she’d though she lost so long ago. She wanted her happily ever after with the man she’d loved her whole life and even if she was scared of being hurt again, she knew that she had to take this chance with him. She had to or she’d always wonder. She’d end up an old, gray haired woman, living alone with her cats for company and telling them about how she once came so close to forever with the gorgeous boy from across town. She didn’t want to be that lady. She didn’t want to be bitter.
She put the phone back down for the hundredth time and then jumped a foot in the air when her doorbell sounded.
Her heart raced and her palms turned sweaty. It was too late to back out. He was here.
Kady gave herself one last glance in the mirror but even if she hadn’t liked the way she looked there was no time to change now. She’d tried to downgrade the importance of tonight. She’d tried not to think of it as a date, their first date, or their hundredth
depending on how she looked at it. She’d insisted on dressing just as she would have if she was going out with friends. She hadn’t curled her hair. Instead she’d simply plated it into a single braid down her back. She hadn’t put on a dress. Instead she’d chosen her favorite pair of skinny jeans, pair it with a comfy cute camisole and thrown a breezy, lightweight shrug over it. Strappy flip flops completed her, I care but not too much look and so she grabbed her purse and headed down the hallway towards the door.
“Coming.” She called as she hit the foyer and pulled the door open, “Hey, I…”
The words dried up in her throat when she got a glimpse of Nick standing on the front porch. He hadn’t gotten her memo about this not being a special night. He’d gone all out. He was freshly showered, as evidenced by the still slightly damp strands of his hair, and he’d changed out of his uniform into casual clothes. The blue-jeans he wore clung to his long legs and thick thighs and she just knew if he turned around that his ass was going to look fantastic in them too. He was wearing a white and navy-blue pearl snap shirt with the sleeves rolled up over his strong, tan forearms and the top button undone to give just a peek at his equally strong tan chest. He looked as handsome as he had the first time, she realized she was in love with him and just like he had that night on her parent’s front porch, he held out a bouquet of flowers to her.
“Evening, Kady.”
“Nick.” His name came out a breathy sigh and his grin hitched up at one corner.
“I brought you these.” He offered the flowers again when she made no move to take them and she physically shook herself to break the spell he held over her.
“Oh, thank you.” She took the flowers from him, ignoring the flare of heat that sparked in her belly when their fingers brushed. “Just let me put them in a vase real quick and then we can go.”
She turned, leaving him standing in the doorway and all but fled back to the kitchen. Once she was certain he couldn’t see her she took deep, calming breaths and shook herself again. She had to get ahold of herself. Nick was handsome. Sure. He’d always been handsome. But she would not spend their entire date drooling over the man. She had more cool than that for God’s sake. With some of her resolve back in place, she found a vase under the sink, filled it with water and jammed the gorgeous bouquet of wildflowers, her favorite, inside. She took an extra moment to arrange them neatly and then washed her hands and headed back to the door.
Nick was still standing exactly where she’d left him and he smiled, “Good?”
“Great.” She echoed his smile, wondering if he could still read her so easily that he’d known she was flustered before.
“Ready?”
“Yep.”
“Let’s go then.” He slid his hand into hers and she let him lead her down the steps toward his truck where it was sitting by the curve.
She only realized halfway there that they were holding hands. It had seemed like the most natural thing in the world. Their fingers twined together automatically. They fit. Just as they had when they were young. His big hand engulfed her and she’d always loved the way his rough skin felt against her softer palm. His hand was warm and she wondered if he’d noticed hers her sweaty. She thought about pulling away but since they were already, almost to the truck, she didn’t bother. Besides, it wasn’t a big deal. Not really. It was just hand holding. Kids did that. Surely she could manage it without falling completely apart.
Nick opened the door for her with his free hand, “Up you go.”
She snorted as she climbed inside, “I will never understand men and their need to lift their trucks to heaven.”
“The higher we are, the closer to God.” He joked and she laughed.
“See and here I thought it was all about compensating for being small in other areas.”
Nick barked out a laugh and she grinned at the sound. It was the first time she’d really heard him laugh since he came back. He’d chuckled a few times when they were eating lunch but this was different. This was Nick’s real laugh, the sound he made when something funny took him by surprise, when he couldn’t hold it back. It was a deep, rumbling sound and it curled around her like a familiar blanket.
“I assure you, I have no need to compensate, baby, as you well know.” He winked and before she could respond to his innuendo, he shut the door on her and jogged around the front of the truck to the driver’s side.
Kady smiled, enjoying the way the truck smelled like Nick. It was a new truck. Not the same beat up old Ford he’d picked her up in when they were teenagers. It was sleek and shiny and had all the fancy accessories that came with the newer models, but one thing remained the same. The small space smelled like Nick, like the Nick she remembered, like leather and pine and a dash of sweat. That was the smell she’d always associated with Nick. From the times he’d come straight to her house to pick her up after football practice to the nights they’d spent sprawled across the single cab bench seat, limbs tangled and hearts racing. It was a smell that she hadn’t even known that she remembered but here, surrounded by his essence in the cab of his truck, she remembered how her skin would smell like him after they made love, just as she remembered that after she left she’d had to throw away all of their bedding because she couldn’t get the scent of him out of it and every night she’d curled up in bed without him, that scent had made her cry.
“Kady?” Nick’s voice pulled her out of her thoughts and she blinked, finding him strapped in and staring at her from behind the wheel.
“Sorry, what?”
“Seatbelt.” He reminded with a soft, wary smile. “Some things might’ve changed but not that. I’d not moving this truck until you buckle up.”
She rolled her eyes but did as he said. Nick had always been a stickler for the seatbelt rule, long before he became a cop. When they’d been teenagers he would lean over and sweetly whisper that he liked to keep her safe as he buckled it for her.
“Good girl.” He winked and then eased the truck into drive and pulled away from the curb.
Kady let him get them on the road without commenting that the U-turn he pulled was as illegal as driving without a seatbelt. George Strait was playing on the radio, another reminder of the past, and she listened as Nick hummed along and smiled. The tires on asphalt were the only other noise until he turned onto the main road that went through the middle of town and she realized he’d never told her where he was taking her for their date.
She frowned, “Where are we going?”
“It’s a surprise.” Nick grinned and shot her a quick look out of the corner of his eye.
“You know I hate surprises.”
“You won’t hate this one.”
“Nick.” She used her warning voice but he only chuckled.
“Kady.” He mocked back teasingly.
She sighed, knowing it was pointless to press him. Nick had always loved a good surprise. She thought he’d even loved them more because he knew how much she didn’t like them. He’d taken great pleasure in surprising her with flowers and gifts and getaways over the years. She could admit that minus that whole calling off the wedding thing Nick had never surprised her with something that had scared or hurt her. She figured it was safe to assume since he was trying to get back in her good graces that she same could be said of whatever he had planned for them tonight.
He chuckled again, “Giving up so easy?”
“Like you said, some things might’ve changed but I doubt your willingness to ruin a surprise is one of them. I can wait to see where we end up. I trust you.”
Nick’s grin was so bright it was like looking at the sun. Kady only figured out what she’d said to make him smile like that a moment later. I trust you. She swallowed hard, waiting for Nick to comment on the slip that said way more than she’d meant to but he didn’t. Instead he only reached out and squeezed her knee gently and then returned his hands to the steering wheel. Reassurance, she realized as he continued to drive them through town. He’d been reassuring her that she was righ
t to trust him. Without saying a word, without making a move on her, he’d proved why she had always trusted him so easily with nothing but that one gentle squeeze of reassurance.
After a couple more minutes of riding in silence, Nick broke the ice with small talk. Kady was glad for the distraction. Sitting so close to him, his scent wrapped around her, she was far too aware of the man on her left and just how much she’d always loved him. She listened as he talked about a BBQ that his parents wanted to hold in a couple of weeks and agreed that she’d attend if they invited her. She asked him what, if anything, Connor had said to him about his class reunion and they compared notes and stories about how he was dealing with his unrequited love for the girl that loved his best friend. Kady was just opening her mouth to tell him that since she couldn’t seem to broach the subject with her brother, maybe he should try, when he made a turn onto a long, dusty road that she recognized.
“Oh my God.” She whispered as she jerked her eyes to him.
Nick grinned, “Surprise.”
“You’re not serious.”
“Of course I’m serious.” He laughed. “What place could be better for our first official date than the place I took you on our original first date?”
Kady’s heart formed a lump in her throat and she looked out the window so that he wouldn’t see the tears clouding her vision. Their original first date had happened a lifetime ago and yet, Nick remembered. He’d picked her up at her parents with a bouquet of wildflowers. He’d driven them out here to the middle of nowhere just as the sun was setting. They’d paid their ten dollars and found a spot on the back row to watch a movie on the even then ancient drive-in theater screen. They’d shared a vanilla ice cream cone and when she’d ended up with some on her chin, he’d wiped it away with his thumb. And then he’d kissed her. He’d kissed her and he’d changed both of their worlds forever. She couldn’t remember what movie had been playing that night. After that first kiss, they’d had their second and then third and fourth and she’d lost count of those too. All she knew for certain was that by the time he dropped her off at home, kissing her on the dark of the front porch, she’d been head over heels in love with him.
