Third? Brina had only had two serious relationships since high school, and neither had lasted more than a few years. “Who’d you marry?”
“Which time?” Karen laughed.
Brina didn’t know how to respond to that. She didn’t think “Holy shit” would be appropriate, so she asked instead, “Have you seen Thomas Mack? I heard he’s here tonight.”
Karen looked around, then pointed directly at the underwear model. “There he is.”
Thomas Mack knew the precise second Brina McConnell realized who he was. Her eyes rounded and her mouth fell open right before he watched her lips form the words, “Oh my God, you’re kidding.” Before that moment, she hadn’t had a clue. He’d changed since high school and so had she. She’d filled out and grown more beautiful than the girl he’d known.
He recalled the first time he’d seen her on the first day of first grade, and he remembered her big hazel eyes and enormous ponytail. She’d always had such thick hair, it made her head look too big for her neck.
He also remembered the first time he’d bought her a present. It had been in the third grade, after she’d had her tonsils out. He’d bought her a blue Popsicle that had cost him a quarter and had melted on the way to her house.
He remembered the day his dog, Scooter, had died, the funeral they’d given the old black Lab, and the way he’d held Brina while she’d cried like she was never going to stop. Thomas had been thirteen and hadn’t cried, but he’d wanted to. That had also been the day he’d noticed the changes in her body for the first time. He’d been holding her, trying to act like a man and trying not to cry over the loss of his dog. And as he’d stood there, battling himself, her soft hands clutching him through his tank top and her little breasts poking his chest and driving him crazy, he’d tried not to think of her naked. He remembered pushing her away and telling her to go home because her blubbering was making him feel worse. She’d left angry and never knew that it hadn’t been her crying that had made him send her away. It had been the sudden aching thud in his chest, and the pounding in his groin. From that day forward, Brina McConnell had tortured him and hadn’t even known it.
It wasn’t until the summer going into their senior year of high school that Thomas had decided it was time to do something about his feelings for Brina. They’d been with a group of friends at The Reel To Reel Theater, when he’d leaned over and kissed her for the first time, right in the middle of Rain Man. She hadn’t been his first girlfriend, but when she’d ended their relationship, she’d been the first girl to knock him flat. It had taken him a year or two and several more girlfriends to get over Brina McConnell.
Since leaving Galliton Pass ten years ago, Thomas had seen and done a lot. He’d earned a full scholarship to Berkeley and had graduated high school with enough advanced placement credits to enter as a sophomore. Three years later, he’d graduated with a double major in finance and computer science. Right out of college, he’d been hired by Microsoft, but he’d quickly discovered that working for someone else wasn’t what he wanted. After a short time, he and two of his friends had quit to start their own software company, BizTech. They’d developed programs to predict business and market trends, and in the beginning he’d loved his work. But the bigger the growth, the less he’d enjoyed himself.
The day BizTech went public was the day the company made the Fortune 500. It was also the day he remembered why he’d quit working for Microsoft. The company no longer belonged to him, and worrying about market shares and shareholders wasn’t what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Five months ago he’d sold his interest in the company and gotten out completely.
Thomas was twenty-eight, had enough money to last several lifetimes, and for the first time was without direction or goals. He understood completely the stories he read about doctors and lawyers who closed successful practices to become cowboys and race car drivers. While herding cattle and racing cars didn’t appeal to him, he had given some thought to doing consultant work. He wasn’t certain what he wanted to do now, but he had time to figure it out.
George Allen, surgical supply salesman and former first-seat trombonist and class comedian, cracked a joke and everyone around him laughed.
All of his life Thomas had worked hard to succeed, and he’d never looked back. Not until he’d opened the notice to his high school reunion. When he’d first read Brina’s name on the list of attendees, he’d been a little curious about her. He’d wondered if she’d gone to fat or had five kids. The more he’d wondered, the more his curiosity had gotten the better of him.
If he was completely honest with himself, part of the reason he was here tonight was that he wanted to stand back and see if Brina still made his chest get tight when he looked at her. If the sight of her brought a lump to his throat.
She didn’t.
He raised his drink and watched Brina over the rim of his glass. She leaned to the left and looked around Karen Johnson’s hair. Then she smiled, a purely feminine tilt of her mouth that had tortured him from grade eight clear through twelve. A female mystery of softly parted lips that used to make him suck in his breath and left his hands aching to touch her. He remembered the times in her room or his house or sitting in his grandmother’s old Reliant, when he’d been so hard he’d wondered what she’d do if she knew. If he took her hand and let her feel what she did to him. She’d driven him bleary eyed with lust, and he’d never done much more than kiss her.
Thomas polished off his drink as George told another joke, this one concerning women and fish, and again Thomas was the only person who didn’t laugh. He didn’t need to beat his chest or degrade anyone to feel like a man. He might not have lost his virginity until his first year of college, but he’d made up for lost time, and he could honestly say he’d never been with a woman who smelled like a fish. Laughing would imply that he had, and frankly, it made him wonder about the caliber of women George knew.
“Talk to you later,” he said, and made his way to the bar. Some people might think he didn’t have a sense of humor. He did, but growing up, he’d been the butt of too many belittling jokes to laugh at them now.
He ordered a scotch and water, then turned, and his gaze landed on Brina, who’d moved to stand right in front of him. The top of her head reached his mouth, and he looked down into the greenish gray eyes he remembered so well.
“Hey there, Thomas,” she said.
Her voice didn’t sound the same. It was lower, feminine. More like a woman than a girl. “Hello, Brina.”
“Are you here alone tonight?”
“Tonight and the whole weekend.” He’d thought about bringing a woman. His last girlfriend had modeled lingerie for Victoria’s Secret. They were still on friendly terms, and she probably would have come with him if he’d asked.
“Thank God,” she sighed on a breathless little laugh. “I thought I was going to be the only single person here.”
“George Allen is here alone.”
“Unless he’s changed a lot, I’m not surprised.” She shook her head. “You look good, Thomas. I didn’t recognize you right away.”
He’d recognized her the second she’d walked in the room. “I changed after high school.”
“Me too. I grew two inches.”
That wasn’t all she’d grown, and Thomas purposely kept his eyes pinned to her face rather than run them up and down her body again. Which was exactly what he wanted to do. Not that he felt lust for her anymore, but he was still curious. That growing streak she’d mentioned had popped out a nice set of breasts, and out of curiosity, he wouldn’t mind stripping off her dress and taking a really close look. His brows lowered and he tried to think of something else. The weather. World politics. Who would win the Stanley Cup this season? Anything besides undressing the only woman who’d ripped his heart out.
Two
BRINA STUDIED THOMAS’S serious blue eyes and tilted her head. Except for the color of his hair and eyes, this man standing in front of her didn’t much resemble the skinn
y boy from her past. “I don’t know if you know this,” she said in an effort at conversation, “but everyone is talking about you tonight.”
He lifted a brow. “Really? What are they saying?”
“You don’t know?”
He shook his head and took a drink.
“Well,” she began, “it’s going around that you’re richer than Donald Trump, and you’re dating Elle Macpherson and Kathy Ireland at the same time.”
“I must be better than I thought.” For the first time since Brina had seen him that night, the corners of his deep blue eyes hinted that he might be amused. “But I’m sorry to disappoint everyone,” he said. “None of that is true.”
“Hmm.” She took a drink. “That means the other rumor probably isn’t true either.”
“Which is?”
“The worse thing you can be in this town.”
A corner of his mouth lifted. “Someone said I’m gay?”
“No, worse. They say you’ve turned Democrat.”
He smiled then. It started with the slow curving of his lips and slid into full-fledged pleasure. “God forbid.” He laughed, at first hesitant, then a rich masculine sound deep from in his chest that stirred the butterflies in her stomach and fluttered across her skin like the slightest touch. “I wouldn’t want the local NRA to come gunning for me.”
The humor crinkling the corners of his eyes transformed his face from merely handsome to check-for-drool devastating. “No,” Brina uttered as she ran her gaze down his straight nose to the deep furrow molding the bow in his top lip. “You wouldn’t want that.”
“How’s your family?” he asked.
“Good,” she managed, and looked into his eyes once again. She’d dumped this guy for Mark Harris. What in the hell had she been thinking? “None of us live around here anymore. How are your grandparents?”
“Getting older. I moved them to Palm Springs for their health. They didn’t like it at first, but now they love it.” He raised his glass and took a drink. “Where do you live these days?”
“Portland,” she answered, and while she told him about her work, she searched his face and couldn’t help but look for any trace of the boy she’d known. Physically there was very little resemblance. His eyes were still dark blue and his lashes thick. His cheeks were no longer hollow and his dark hair was cut short to the tops of his ears, the unruly waves tamed.
When her gaze returned to his, he asked, “What are you looking for, Brina?”
“You,” she answered. “I’m wondering if I know you anymore.”
“I doubt it.”
“That’s too bad. Do you remember the summer we spent hunting witches and vampires in the forest?”
“No.”
“We made spears and wooden crosses.”
“That’s right. I remember,” he said as the chandeliers in the ballroom dimmed, and they turned their attention to the stage. When the spotlight hit the white bunting and silver glitter, it suddenly looked like the first winter snow.
“Hi everyone, I’m Mindy Franklin Burton,” Mindy announced from behind the podium. “Welcome to the Galliton Pass class of 1990 high school reunion.” Everyone clapped except Brina. She couldn’t. She had a glass in her hand. She looked to her left. Thomas didn’t applaud either. And suddenly she wondered why Thomas was here. For as long as she could remember, he’d always said that when he left Galliton, he was never coming back. The one time she’d asked if he would come back and see her, he’d told her she could come with him.
“In 1990, we listened to Robert Palmer, New Kids on the Block, and U2,” Mindy continued.
Not Thomas, Brina remembered. He’d listened to Bob Dylan and Eric Clapton.
“George Bush was sworn in as the forty-first president and Lucille Ball died at the age of seventy-seven. On television we watched ‘Cheers’ and ‘L.A. Law,’ and when we went to the theater, we saw Arachnaphobia and Ghost. And in our own…”
Brina’s thoughts returned to the tall man wearing the impeccably tailored suit standing beside her, and she again wondered why he’d returned after vowing so often that he would not. Perhaps, like her, he’d come here to show everyone that he wasn’t insignificant, that he’d made a success of his life, but Thomas had never cared what any of them thought. In fact, she’d never known a person who cared so little about impressing anyone, but it had been ten years. People changed. She certainly had, and he had to have changed too.
“In 1990,” Mindy continued, “our football team took state, and our ski team took first place in the all-around events.”
The cell phone in the inside pocket of Thomas’s jacket chirped, and he reached his hand in and pulled it out. In a low hushed voice, he spoke into the phone. “How are you feeling?…What did he say?…Oh…” There was a pause, then his brows pulled together. “Did you hook it into the serial port like I told you to?…Yeah, that one…Grandmother spilled her Postum in the keyboard? Of course that’s a problem…What? Hold on a minute.” He looked at Brina. “I’m sure I’ll see you before the weekend is over,” he said, and then with his drink in one hand, phone in the other, he walked from the ballroom.
Brina returned her gaze to the stage. The last time she’d been in the ballroom of the Timber Creek Lodge had been the night of the Christmas prom. She’d worn red that night, too. A red satin dress her mother had made for her from material they’d bought from Judy’s Fabric Land. She’d worn roses in her hair, and her date, Mark Harris, had worn a black tuxedo.
Brina had had a crush on Mark for years, but it hadn’t been until his girlfriend, prom queen and pep club president Holly Buchanan, had dumped him—two weeks before the dance—that he’d taken notice of her and asked her to the prom. They’d dated for a few weeks more, then Holly had snapped her fingers and Mark had gone running back. Brina had been crushed.
As if thinking about him made him appear, Mark Harris stepped in front of her. He looked at her name badge, then smiled. “Munchkin?”
She frowned and he tilted his head back and laughed. He’d always had the straightest white teeth she’d ever seen, and in the past ten years, he hadn’t changed much. His blonde hair had turned light brown and he had a few creases at the corners of his green eyes, and if anything, he’d grown more handsome with age. The green of his tie matched his shirt, tucked into a pair of khaki-colored pants. He wasn’t as muscular as she remembered, but he still looked fairly buff.
Mindy continued to speak, the room applauded something she said, and Mark Harris grabbed Brina’s shoulders and looked deep into her eyes. “God, you look great,” he said through his perfect smile. “I can’t believe I dumped you for Holly. I must have been a moron.”
It was so close to what she’d been thinking about Thomas that she laughed. “You were, but don’t be too hard on yourself. Holly was a walking, talking Malibu Barbie doll.” She shook her head. “I always thought the two of you would get married.”
“We did. Then we got divorced.” He said it as if it were no big deal, and Brina wondered how many other classmates had married and divorced.
“Are you here alone?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“What luck. Me too.” His smile spread to his eyes. “Come on, let’s go talk to some of the guys. Everyone’s dying to know who you are, but no one guessed right.” He placed a hand in the small of her back and explained. “No one recognized you when you walked in. Then we saw you talking to Thomas Mack and thought you might be his date. You’re not, are you?”
“No.” Brina glanced around the room and spied Thomas in the entrance, talking to a tall blonde woman in a tight black dress. There was no mistaking Holly Buchanan, prom queen. From as far back as Brina could remember, Holly had been blonde and beautiful. She’d never gone through an awkward or ugly stage, and if there was an unwritten rule somewhere that stated beautiful rich girls had to be gracious and kind, Holly had never read it. Or perhaps she had and just didn’t care.
Thomas and Holly stood in profile to the room, and she
placed her hand on the arm of his jacket and smiled up at him. Brina wondered what he’d said to make Holly smile. He hadn’t made any effort to make her smile. Not even a little. In fact, he’d seemed a bit stiff and uptight. Not at all like the Thomas she remembered.
“I think we’re all supposed to be listening to Mindy,” she said as Mark directed her to a small group of people to her right. There had been a time when the touch of his hand would have given her heart palpitations. Now he was just someone she used to know, and one of those guys she was eternally grateful she’d never slept with.
“No one listens to Mindy. Not even Brett,” he said as he led her to a group of his friends. In school, they’d been the group of kids with money. The group who’d worn their season ski passes on their ski jackets like status symbols because they could. Brina recognized a few of them; others she hadn’t a clue about until she was reintroduced. Living in such a small town, she’d grown up with them, but they’d never been her friends.
Listening to them now, she discovered that most of the people she’d graduated with still lived in the area. Many of them had married right out of high school or college but had quickly divorced and were now on their second and even third relationships. And as they talked about 1990 as if it were the best year of their lives, Brina glanced beyond them to Thomas.
High school hadn’t been the high point of her life so far, and it hadn’t been the high point of his either. As if he read her thoughts, he looked over the top of Holly’s head and his gaze met hers. He stared at her for several long seconds, his expression unreadable, then a furrow wrinkled his brow and he looked away.
The lights dimmed even further as Mindy finished with her speech, and Brina could no longer see Thomas’s face. He became just an outline in the darkening room.
The band took the stage, thumped and tuned for a moment or two, then started the evening out with a fairly decent rendering of “Turn You Inside Out.” Mark grasped Brina’s hand and led her onto the dance floor. As he took her in his arms and folded her against his chest, he asked, “What are you doing later?”
Secrets of a Perfect Night Page 23
