by Hart, Taylor
“What?” He pulled back, a huge smile on his face. “Are you kidding me?”
Despite herself, she smiled back. His happiness was infectious. “I just got the letter today. It’s a full ride.”
He engulfed her in another hug. “I’m so happy for you.” He squeezed her tighter.
Feeling better, but still whiplashed that he was leaving, she gave in to the hug. “Thank you.”
Determination glinted in his eyes. “I think this just confirms it. I’m supposed to go in the Army. You’re supposed to go to Yale, and we’ll get married by Christmas.”
“By Christmas?” They’d always joked about it, but now it was sounding too real. Yet confusion simmered inside her. “But I’ll be at Yale.”
He took her hand and squeezed it. “Right. And you’ll come home and I’ll come home and we’ll get married by Christmas.”
“We’ll be living apart,” she protested.
“I know, but it’s really the best of everything, because I picked a two-year active commitment with a two-year reserve. So really, I’ll only be gone two years. Then I’ll be able to become a firefighter, and I can do that wherever you want to go.” His brow furrowed briefly in thought, and then he gave her a dopey grin. “I mean, I always thought we’d live here by our mothers, but I guess we can live anywhere. We’ll move them to us.”
Her heart pounded, and she felt like all of this was happening so fast. Tom was right. It might work. But everything was unraveling so quickly, all their old plans turning to dust. She laced her arms around his back and put her head against his chest. “I don’t want to lose you.” The thought of bullets flying by his head made her feel sick.
Wrapping his arms around her, he held her and whispered, “You won’t. You could never lose me, Ems.”
She blinked and wished she could pause time, pause this moment. She hadn’t worried about her future because Tom was supposed to be by her side. Now, it all felt so uncertain. “I’m scared.”
He searched her eyes, then got back on one knee again. “Emily Ann Times, will you marry me? Will you be my wife? C’mon, Ems. Just say yes.”
She burst out in a half laugh, half cry. “Yes.”
“Yes!” He punched the air, and she saw tears in his eyes. They stood, and he slipped the ring onto her finger. “I love you.”
“I love you too.”
He grinned at her. “Married by Christmas.”
Warmth flooded her, and she thought about how happy her mom and sister would be. They loved Tom. “Married by Christmas,” she agreed.
Tom kissed her, and fire coursed through her veins. She kissed him back, feeling desperate and dumbfounded that she was actually engaged to him. Usually, they had firm boundaries, but she deepened the kiss, wanting him closer, wanting everything.
A groan escaped his throat. “Ems, we better stop.”
Thinking of him leaving her, all she knew was that she couldn’t. Not tonight. “Tom, I don’t want to stop.”
Chapter 1
10 Years Later
Tom Kent sat at the wheel of his red Mustang, unable to believe he’d won the trip to Maui. He grinned at his brother, Will, who was lounging in the passenger seat. Will played quarterback for the Denver Storm, and he’d taken a good hit a couple of weeks ago and was recovering. Luckily, the league had ten days off, so he’d been able to come with Tom.
“Whoo! We’re in Maui! Doing the road to Hana!” Will called out, throwing a fist into the air like he’d just intercepted a ball for a pick-six.
They’d gotten in late last night but woke early this morning because of the four-hour time change. So it was only seven in the morning, and they were cruising across the island to do the popular historic journey to the little town Hana. Tom had been reading guidebooks about it.
Will turned down the radio. “Tell me again about this old lady and her prediction that you think led you to winning this contest?” He cocked an eyebrow. “Because I could have just bought you this trip if you wanted it so badly.”
Tom shrugged. “This old lady walked into the station and gave us fruitcake to thank us and insisted we all try some. Then she cursed us with finding true love this Christmas.” He laughed and waved a hand through the air. “I actually think she was my lucky charm to win the trip. It’s not love, but it’s good enough.”
“Wow. That’s crazy. But if you would have asked me, I would have bought you the trip.”
Tom’s amusement faded, and he shot a dirty look at Will. The last thing he wanted was to hear about his bigwig brother throwing money around. “I. Won. It. Now, that’s when you know the universe is on your side—you win!” He grimaced. “I don’t want a trip that my brother paid for. And you’re my guest, so quit complaining.”
Will frowned. “I’m not complaining. You got me out of a bunch of PR stuff back in Denver. I could honestly tell them I couldn’t go to some charity event.”
Tom didn’t want to talk about how his brother was angry about not playing the last two games because of a shoulder injury, so he put his foot on the gas and drove faster, loving the fact that there was no traffic right now. Most likely, Will wouldn’t play the rest of the season. That wasn’t good when you were a professional player.
Will let out a long sigh. “Let’s have fun. Maybe your fruitcake curse will rub off on me and I’ll find true love too.”
Tom smirked. “Doubt it.”
Will scowled. “I hate you.” When Tom laughed at that, Will pointed at him. “It’s gonna work. We’re going to meet some nice ladies. I can feel it.”
“Not the way you date prima donnas.”
“Do not,” Will protested.
“That woman you dated last month dropped you like a sack of hot rocks after you got hurt because … she’s a prima donna. Only wants the guy at the very top.”
Defensively, Will grunted. “Hey, like you can talk. You asked me to come with you to Hawaii. You don’t have anyone, either. That’s pretty pathetic.”
The comment bugged Tom. “I’m not like you with a different flavor every month.”
Will shook his head, not talking for a few minutes. Then he turned to him. “Do you ever think about Emily?”
The mention of her name made Tom want to punch something. Her face flashed into his mind, and he thought of their last night together. The night he’d thought would be the beginning of everything, until she’d left the next day. Gripping the wheel tighter, he forced a lid onto his temper. “Nope.”
Will let out a disbelieving laugh. “Sure. Whatever. Check your grip, bro.”
Tom took a few moments to cool off. Then he said, “Do you think about Tara? She was your first love, right?”
Will snorted. “Nope.”
Tom thought about the letter Emily had left for him. The one he’d torn up and burned before grinding the ashes to fine black dust and heading to boot camp.
“Emily Times,” Will said, all breathily.
“I know her last name, idiot,” Tom growled. Will might be the brother closest to him, but he was also the most annoying because he knew exactly how to needle him. “Why would I think about Emily Times?”
Will tapped his hand on the side of the Mustang and pointed ahead. “Because she messed you up.”
The cars ahead of him gave him an opening, and Tom stepped on the gas. “She didn’t mess me up,” he argued.
“You loved her, stupid.”
“That was ten years ago. I haven’t seen her since she left for Yale.”
Will glanced around, inspecting the lush Maui rainforest on this side of the island. “I actually saw her and her sister after a game a couple of months ago.” His tone was light, like he was testing Tom’s reaction.
This took Tom off guard. “When?”
Will shrugged, still inspecting the scenery around them. He pointed above their heads. “Dude, look at those vines just hanging down. I feel like I could be Tarzan or something.”
“When?” Tom said again, trying to keep his voice nonchalant.
/> Will glanced at him. “What?”
“When did you see Emily?”
“Hmm, let’s see.” Will put a finger to his chin.
Tom grumbled to himself. This was Will, always getting under his skin. “Never mind.”
Will laughed. “We played the Miami Surf in Florida, so that was the end of October. Emily’s law firm had a client in Florida who invited her to go to the game. I guess Trina was visiting. Somehow, they convinced security they were old friends of mine. I was shocked to see them.” He winced. “That was the game right before I hurt my shoulder.”
Adrenaline shot through Tom. The thing he wouldn’t admit to his brother—or to anyone, really—was that he thought about Emily at least once or twice a week. Sometimes he would dream about her, and it messed with his head. She’d been his first … everything. She was the woman he’d known he would marry. He’d been so blindsided by her breaking things off the day after he’d proposed. Maybe Will was right. Maybe she had messed him up.
A million times, Tom had analyzed that relationship and all the reasons why she’d broken it off with him. It was why, after he’d come home from the Army, he’d jumped at the opportunity to leave Colorado and go to Utah to be a firefighter. He’d been running. Not just from the small town they’d grown up in, but from all the things he couldn’t be for her. From how badly her rejection had hurt him.
“Tom.”
Ripped out of his thoughts, Tom turned to face his brother.
“Dude, you went all pensive face there.”
Tom lifted a shoulder. He tried to shrug off thoughts of Emily, but wasn’t quite able to.
“Sorry I brought it up.” Will patted his shoulder. “Look, don’t worry about it, bro. You’ve just been working out your demons since—what was her name, Sarah? Didn’t she dump you pretty hard last summer?”
“She didn’t dump me,” Tom countered, sounding a bit defensive. She hadn’t. He’d finally had to tell her he couldn’t commit. They’d been together for less than six months before it’d fallen flat.
Will shrugged. “Sorry, man.”
“Just focus on the guidebook. Where do we stop next?”
Shifting to open the book, Will searched for a bit. “Dude, there’s a black-sand beach about two miles up.” He laughed, then let out a holler. “And a red-sand beach a couple miles after that.” He lifted a hand in the air for Tom to slap. “Black and red sand, man!”
Letting go of any memory of Emily and the past, Tom laughed too. He was determined to enjoy this vacation and not think of how he and Emily were supposed to go to Hawaii for the first time together on their honeymoon. “Black and red sand!”
Chapter 2
Emily Times stared down at her toes curled around the red sand and wished she could really enjoy being in Maui. Flicking her gaze up, she studied the unbelievable shoreline. The waves crashed into red, dried lava. It was gorgeous scenery.
Too bad all she could think about was her boyfriend of six months, Brett. The jerkface who had ditched her at the last second. She cringed and thought of the text she’d gotten from Brett as she waited for him at the airport yesterday. Sorry, babe. Can’t come. Gotta work.
He was supposed to accompany her to Maui for the wedding of Mr. Owens, her mentor and a partner at the firm. It was a big deal. Granted, it was Mr. Owens’s third marriage, but he’d made it pretty clear she had better come. Heck, she’d had to help plan it with the bimbo he was marrying, spending precious hours at work with said bimbo going through the designs.
Blinking hard, Emily bit back on the emotion clustering in her throat. Typical. Brett liked to promise something and then claim he couldn’t get away from a trial. News flash: she was an attorney too. She also had important stuff to juggle, but she didn’t leave him high and dry for important events. Problem was, he didn’t consider this wedding an important event.
Dang. It was important for her career. She was up for junior partner, and she had a gut feeling that if she didn’t attend this wedding, Mr. Owens wouldn’t give her the recommendation she needed. And the bonus. She thought of her mother in that care facility; she needed the money.
Resentment simmered within her. Brett was a jerk. She’d put up with his lack of attention for far too long. The truth was that she’d been wanting to break things off with him for a few weeks, but strategically, she hadn’t wanted to show up without a date. Dang it!
Raking a hand through her hair as if banishing her whirlwind of thoughts, she took her cell phone out of her pocket and called her younger sister, Trina.
Trina answered on the first ring. “How’s Maui?” she asked in an excited voice.
“Sucks.”
Trina tsked her tongue. “Of course, you’re missing out on ‘billables.’ How tragic.” She said it without mirth and with her voice slightly raised. There was noise in the background, like she was outside somewhere.
“Where are you?” Emily asked, wishing she’d just had Trina come with her.
“In between Advanced Chem and Advanced Psych.” Trina sighed. “It’s rough to be a nontraditional student. All these young kids are staying up all night to finish classes, and I’m trying to take care of a toddler and work a part-time job.”
Emily thought about how her sister had recently gotten divorced and was rediscovering her life. “How’s little Elliot?”
Her sister sighed again. “Busy.”
Emily wished she lived closer so she could help her sister. “You’re doing good, sis.”
There was more noise, and Emily pictured her sister milling through other students on CSU’s campus. “So what’s up?” Trina asked.
“Brett ditched me.” She blurted it out, meandering up to her knees in the ocean, unable to enjoy the soothing waves.
“Ouch. Can’t say you didn’t see it coming, though, can you?”
“Yeah.” Emily winced. Honestly, between seeing it coming and learning that her sister had picked up on it too, the whole thing just felt worse.
“So what are you going to do?”
“Do?” Emily took a couple of paces out of the water as a bigger wave came in. She had worn her red halter swimsuit with a swim skirt, thinking she might get in the water. Now, she wasn’t in the mood to be wet.
Trina laughed. “Hey, you’re on freaking Maui. Why don’t you find another date to Mr. Bigwig’s wedding?”
Emily smiled at the way Trina called Mr. Owens Mr. Bigwig. “Stop.”
“Find a date, Em. You’re gorgeous. And don’t pretend you don’t know it.” Trina sputtered. “You know you could have been the next Mrs. Owens if you wanted it.”
“He’s like my father! Stop.” This wasn’t what Emily wanted to talk about.
Her sister laughed. “I’m sure he would have changed that status if you would have wanted to.”
“Trina …”
“All I’m saying is I’m sure there’s some local you can convince to go to the wedding with you.”
Emily rolled her eyes. She could be charming when she wanted, but she hated playing the dating game. There was no way she would ask some random local guy. “What—I just go up to a random guy and ask him to join me for a wedding? That wouldn’t be desperate or weird.”
“Em, you’re the last person I would even associate with words like desperate or weird. No, you’re more along the lines of gorgeous and breathtaking. Also, overly cautious and serious. Do something fun!”
Emily’s chest filled with warmth. This was why she called her sister. “Stop,” she said again, but she was smiling this time.
“What? It’s true, and you know it. Emily Times, attorney at one of the largest law offices in New York, is always put together and often wins the case because counsel gets lost in her pools of green eyes.”
Reflexively, she laughed. “You’re silly and dramatic.” While it did make Emily feel better to hear her sister say nice, funny things, she still hadn’t recovered from being ditched. “Yeah, I think I’m condemned to attending the wedding stag.” Dang. It was soaki
ng in. She would have to face all the people at the firm and be the loser. “I’m so breaking things off with Brett for good. He’s always pulling this crap.”
Her sister had the gall to laugh. “Maybe you picked him because he’s this way.”
“What, pray tell, is so funny?” It annoyed her when her sister laughed at her pain. Which she did often.
“Calm yourself, Captain Crunch Queen.”
The side of Emily’s lip curved up. Her sister also had a knack for cracking her up. She was referring to the night they’d had a contest to see who could eat the most Captain Crunch, and Emily had won. Eight bowls, measured out. Needless to say, she had barfed that night. But she had still won.
“Okay, I recently read this book on how to have a meaningful relationship.”
Emily hesitated, thinking of how the paperwork had just gone through on the divorce.
“If you laugh, I’ll punch you through the phone.”
Emily smiled fully now, her heart easing and the desire to laugh bubbling inside of her. Her sister was a wreck in relationships and was always trying to psychoanalyze them. “O-kay.”
Her sister paused. “Anyway, one of the things it talks about is the fact that the very things that attract us to a certain person are usually the same things that drive us crazy later on.”
“What do you mean?” Emily’s mind whirled in confusion. “You think I like to have Brett stand me up on trips?”
“No.” Trina grunted. “Think of the reason he stands you up.”
Emily was at a loss. “Because of work?”
“Em, he defends people on death row.”
She winced. “I know.” Of course his job was important, but wasn’t she important too? Shame washed through her. “I guess it’s always important because it’s someone’s life.”
Trina laughed again. “Like the guy in jail might end up electrocuted, right?”
Emily sighed. “It’s always how it goes.”
“Right. And you picked Brett knowing what his work would mean.”
